The 25 Must-Eat Places in Chicago, Ranked

Chicago does not do subtle, and neither does this list. This is a city that built its food identity on working-class rooms that never left: the hot dog stand with the snappy natural-casing dog, the Italian beef counter where “dipped” is a way of life, the tavern pizza cut in squares so nobody fights over corners. But Chicago also holds three-Michelin-star tasting menus, a handmade-pasta room that cooks like Emilia-Romagna, and a Filipino bakery-deli that redefined what a neighborhood spot can be. These are the twenty-five places we would send you to first, the unmissable first-visit experiences up top and the deep cuts worth your fourth or fifth trip further down. Every room below earned its place on the plate.

25. Manny’s Cafeteria & Delicatessen

The corned beef is still hand-carved to order, still stacked a mile high, and still worth the line after eighty-four years. Official site · +1 (312) 939-2855 · 1141 S Jefferson St, Chicago, IL 60607, South Loop Photo: previously sourced (the Since 1942 parking sign); original credit unconfirmed The corned beef on rye is the order, full stop. Warm brisket pickled with garlic and other seasonings, shaved thin and piled nine ounces high, on fresh rye with horseradish mustard and a pickle spear. The Chazzer stacks corned beef and pastrami with coleslaw and Muenster on rye with thousand island on the side, the Reuben grills the corned beef with Swiss and sauerkraut, and the matzo ball soup is the kind people write home about. Sides are old school and proud of it: potato pancakes, kishke, kreplach soup, and a knish that shatters when you bite it.

Manny’s opened in 1942 and is still run by the Raskin family four generations later, calling itself the oldest cafeteria-style Jewish deli in the country. The room works the way it always has: grab a tray, move down the line while the carvers stack your sandwich, then sit down wherever there is room. Presidents have eaten here. Regulars have eaten here for decades. Nobody is in a hurry and nobody needs to be, because the sandwich is the whole point and it has not changed.

Photo: likely Manny’s Deli (branded sandwich flag); original credit unconfirmed Order: corned beef sandwich on rye; The Chazzer (corned beef, pastrami, coleslaw, Muenster); Reuben; matzo ball soup; potato pancakes. When to go: Mon 8 AM to 3:30 PM, Tue to Sat 8 AM to 8 PM, Sun 8 AM to 3:30 PM. Lunch is the crush; go before noon on weekdays for the shortest line. Price: $$. The corned beef sandwich runs $16.95, signature stacks $19.95, the four-meat Four Kinder $22.95 (menu prices via PriceListo, Aug 2026). Pro tip: add a potato pancake on the side and use the Manny’s mustard on the tables; it is the right condiment for the whole tray.

24. The Purple Pig

Cheese, swine, and wine on the Mag Mile, served with the volume turned all the way up. Official site · +1 (312) 464-1744 · 444 N Michigan Ave (Upper Level), Chicago, IL 60611, Magnificent Mile Photo: 360chicago.com; photographer unconfirmed The crispy pig’s ears are the signature for a reason: braised, slivered, fried, laced with pickled peppers, and crowned with a fried egg. The roasted bone marrow arrives with an herb salad and demands good bread, the milk-braised Berkshire pork shoulder surrenders at the touch of a fork, and the roasted beets with whipped goat cheese and pistachio butter are the sleeper hit of the table. Then there is the JLT, an open-faced sandwich of pork jowl, tomato, frisee, and fried duck egg that explains the whole restaurant in one bite. Everything is built to share, and the portions reward a full table.

The Purple Pig opened in 2009 under fourth-generation restaurateur Jimmy Bannos Jr., took a Bon Appetit nod as one of America’s 10 best new restaurants in 2010, and held a Michelin Bib Gourmand from 2011 to 2014. It moved from its original Mag Mile address to the upper level at 444 N Michigan in June 2019 and never lost a step; the tiles, the barrels, and the noise all came along. A second location now runs in Oak Brook, but the Michigan Avenue room is the original and the energy.

Photo: previously sourced; original credit unconfirmed Order: crispy pig’s ears with kale and fried egg; roasted bone marrow with herb salad; roasted beets with whipped goat cheese and pistachio butter; milk-braised Berkshire pork shoulder; the JLT. When to go: Mon to Sun 11 AM to 10 PM. Happy hour runs Sun to Wed 2 to 5 PM. Walk-ins are welcome, but weekend nights pack out, so arrive early or take a bar seat. Price: $$. Travelers report $35 to $106 per person for a full share-plates dinner (Tripadvisor). Pro tip: happy hour Sunday to Wednesday is the move, and the 1,000-bottle wine list rewards the curious.

23. HaiSous

A Saigon love letter from Pilsen, loud, fragrant, and built for the middle of the table. Official site · Book a table · +1 (312) 702-1303 · 1800 S Carpenter St, Chicago, IL 60608, Pilsen Photo: previously sourced (HaiSous storefront); original credit unconfirmed The caramelized fish-sauce wings are the dish Chicago knows this place for: crisp, lacquered in fish-sauce caramel, sweet and hot at once. The whole fried fluke arrives as a shattering tile of fish you wrap with lettuce and herbs and drag through sauce, the crab fried rice is rich and smoky, and the papaya salad with housemade beef jerky and the Thai chili butter prawns round out a table that should never be small. Sunday brunch brings rice noodle soup and shrimp and pork belly crepes, and the Grand Tasting Menu runs three courses and nine dishes family style.

Chef Thai Dang and his wife Danielle opened HaiSous in Pilsen in 2017, and the room has held a Michelin Bib Gourmand every year from 2017 to 2025 while stacking four James Beard nominations. Next door, the family’s Ca Phe Da cafe pours phin coffee and sells banh mi. This is Vietnamese cooking with total confidence in its identity, served in a room that wants you to stay.

Photo: likely Chicago Magazine (Jeff Marini photographed the dish for the magazine’s 50-best coverage); original credit unconfirmed Order: caramelized fish-sauce wings; whole fried fluke; crab fried rice; papaya salad with housemade beef jerky; Thai chili butter prawns. When to go: dinner Wed to Sat 4 to 9 PM; Sunday brunch 10 AM to 2 PM with dinner 4 to 9 PM. Happy hour runs Wed to Sun 4 to 5:30 PM. Price: $$. Happy hour is $10 cocktails and $10 small plates; the Grand Tasting Menu is $68 per person with an optional $42 beverage pairing (official site). Pro tip: happy hour at the bar is one of the best value plays in the city; parties over ten should email [email protected].

22. Boka

Lincoln Park’s Michelin-starred anchor, doing seasonal American cooking that never misses. Official site · Book a table · +1 (312) 337-6070 · 1729 N Halsted St, Chicago, IL 60614, Lincoln Park Photo: previously sourced (the black-brick Boka facade); original credit unconfirmed The Rohan Duck is the dish people plan trips around: dry-aged duck breast, roasted, the kind of plate that turns a dinner into a story. The brown butter-roasted Hokkaido scallops come with green garlic puree and an aerated sabayon, the porcini ricotta gnudi and the black-truffle roasted chicken are the OpenTable editors’ standouts, and the dry-aged beef tartare opens the meal with intent. The tasting menu changes with the seasons, and the a la carte menu is just as sharp. This is fine dining with the pretension removed and the precision intact.

Boka opened in 2003, named for founders Kevin Boehm and Rob Katz, and has held a Michelin star since 2010. Chef Lee Wolen joined as executive chef and partner in 2014 and made it his own, earning Chicago Tribune Chef of the Year nods and a Jean Banchet Restaurant of the Year. The room is all banquettes and greenery, with a tree-lined back patio in warm weather, and the service is the quiet, exact kind that never interrupts.

Photo: previously sourced (believed to be Boka’s brown butter-roasted Hokkaido scallops); original credit unconfirmed Order: Rohan Duck (dry-aged duck breast); brown butter-roasted Hokkaido scallops; porcini ricotta gnudi; black-truffle roasted chicken; dry-aged beef tartare. When to go: dinner Mon to Thu and Sun 5 to 9 PM, Fri to Sat 5 to 10 PM. Book ahead for prime weekend slots; the patio is the summer move. Price: $$$$. A special-occasion check, full stop. (OpenTable’s $31 to $50 band reads stale against the Michelin fine-dining reality; see appendix.) Pro tip: reviewers say to order the duck without hesitation, and the bar seats put you closest to the kitchen.

21. Kyōten

Eight seats, one seating a night, and the most serious nigiri in Chicago. Official site · Book a table · +1 (312) 880-9402 · 2507 W Armitage Ave, Chicago, IL 60647, Logan Square Photo: previously sourced (the eight-seat counter interior; no verified storefront exterior available, see appendix) The nigiri is the whole argument. Tuna on the chef’s signature Inochi no Ichi rice, seasoned with aged red vinegar, with fish flown in from Japan and changing by the day, sometimes by the moment. Monkfish liver in ginger teriyaki, buttery and bold. Wagyu nigiri, otoro, uni, fugu. Lobster in French butter ponzu, and a tamago like sweet-corn custard for dessert. Eighteen courses over two hours, every piece formed and explained by the chef himself, grounded in the Edomae disciplines of purity, harmony, and balance. The Chicago Tribune gave it four stars and called it outstanding.

Chef Otto Phan runs one of the hardest reservations in the city: eight seats at a single counter, one seating per night, Wednesday through Sunday. His next-door sibling, Kyoten Next Door, runs the same ethos in a more casual room at a fraction of the price, but this counter is the flagship and it eats like it. Fish are sourced predominantly from Japan, the room is minimalist, and the meal unfolds like a ritual.

Photo: previously sourced; original credit unconfirmed Order: monkfish liver in ginger teriyaki; Wagyu nigiri; tuna nigiri; otoro; uni. When to go: Wednesday to Sunday, one seating nightly. Slots open Saturdays at 10 PM, four weeks out, and they go fast (Tasting Table). Price: $440 per person ($490 Friday and Saturday), service included, with a $100 per person prepaid deposit (OpenTable). Pro tip: book through the OpenTable omakase experience for the deposit flow; parties over six email [email protected].

20. La Chaparrita

A counter inside a Little Village grocery store, turning out some of the most honest tacos in Chicago. Official site · +1 (773) 254-0975 · 2500 S Whipple St #4138, Chicago, IL 60623, Little Village Photo: previously sourced; original credit unconfirmed The al pastor is the move. Thin-shaved pork, crisped at the edges the way real al pastor demands, folded into warm corn tortillas with nothing between you and the flavor. The asada comes juicy and deeply seasoned, the tripas arrive shattering crisp when you order them that way, and the lengua is tender without apology. Everything lands in handfuls of onion and cilantro, with a lineup of sauces and a cup of tepache, the fermented pineapple drink that cuts the fat perfectly, if you know what is good for you.

La Chaparrita is a taqueria counter tucked inside La Chaparrita Grocery on Whipple Street, the kind of place that does not need a website or a reservation book. The menu reads like Mexico City: suadero, lengua, al pastor, longaniza, tacos de canasta, huaraches, and aguas frescas. It earned a spot on Netflix’s Taco Chronicles conversation, and the line of regulars tells you the rest. This is street food with zero pretense and absolute conviction, the taco counter against which you measure every other taco counter in the city.

Photo: previously sourced editorial spread; original publication credit unconfirmed Order: tacos al pastor, tacos de asada, tacos de tripas (crispy), tacos de lengua, and a tepache to drink. When to go: open Mon–Wed 11–9, Thu closed, Fri–Sun 11–8. Go at lunch for the shortest wait. Price: a few dollars per taco; an enormous lunch for very little money. Pro tip: order the tripas crispy, and do not skip the tepache.

19. Birrieria Zaragoza

Oven-roasted goat, handmade tortillas, and a consommé worth crossing the city for. Official site · +1 (773) 523-3700 · 4852 S Pulaski Rd, Chicago, IL 60632, Archer Heights (temporarily closed; Uptown location open at 4800 N Broadway, (773) 334-5650) Photo: previously sourced photo of the Pulaski Rd storefront; original credit unconfirmed The goat birria is the whole story. Birria tatemada, oven-roasted until the meat surrenders, served bone-in (surtido) or bone-out (carnaza), in a plate or a bowl, small or large, with a cup of consommé that tastes like someone cared deeply about it. The corn tortillas are pressed and cooked to order right in front of you, and the salsa de molcajete is hot, smoky, and not playing around. A bowl of the large with the bone-in meat, torn into tortillas with onion, cilantro, and a hard squeeze of lime, is one of the great cheap eats in American dining.

Birrieria Zaragoza is a family business in Archer Heights that built its entire reputation on one thing: goat. The menu is deliberately short because the focus is absolute. The Michelin Guide took notice, and Netflix’s Taco Chronicles put it in front of a national audience. One honest note: the original Pulaski Road location is listed as temporarily closed on the restaurant’s own site, so the Uptown outpost at 4800 N Broadway is where you go right now. Go early regardless. Supply is finite, and when the goat is gone, it is gone.

Photo: Chicago Magazine Order: goat birria, bone-in or bone-out; consommé (chico, mediano, or grande); quesabirria; cabeza tacos; handmade corn tortillas with salsa de molcajete. When to go: Sun 8–4; Tue–Fri 10–7; Sat 8–7 (Monday unlisted on the official site; Uptown hours can shift with theatre schedules, so call ahead). Price: roughly $15–25 per person, an absurd value. Pro tip: go early on weekends; they cook a finite amount and it sells out.

18. Kasama

A bakery by day, a Michelin-starred tasting menu by night, and the best Filipino food in America in between. Official site · +1 (773) 697-3790 · 1001 N Winchester Ave, Chicago, IL 60622, East Ukrainian Village Photo: previously sourced photo of the Kasama brass sign; original credit unconfirmed The mushroom adobo tells you everything. Dark, glossy, and deeply savory over fragrant garlic rice with a fried egg on top, it is the rare dish that works at 10 in the morning and would hold its own on any tasting menu in the city. By day, Kasama runs a first-come counter slinging the longanisa breakfast sandwich, the one from The Bear, a black truffle croissant with a genuine cult following, and an ube huckleberry Basque cake that sells out. By night, the same room flips to a 13-course Filipino tasting menu, reserved weeks out.

Chefs Tim Flores and Genie Kwon opened Kasama in 2020 and made it the first Filipino restaurant in America to earn a Michelin star, plus a James Beard Award for good measure. The dinner menu moves with the seasons, but the signatures hold: kinilaw bright with coconut and caviar, mushroom adobo with mussel foam, lamb belly kare-kare. Day or night, this is cooking with total confidence in its identity, and it has never once diluted itself to be more approachable. That is exactly why it matters.

Photo: Kasama, via Toast online ordering Order: longanisa breakfast sandwich; mushroom adobo with garlic rice; black truffle croissant; ube huckleberry Basque cake; lumpia Shanghai. When to go: daytime counter Wed–Sun 9–3 (kitchen closes at 2; arrive early, the line starts before opening). Dinner Thu–Sun, reservation only. Price: daytime is a steal (the famous breakfast sandwich runs a few dollars); dinner is a $325 tasting menu, $195 with wine pairing, $95 nonalcoholic. Pro tip: dinner reservations are Resy-only and release on a rolling 45-day calendar at midnight; set an alarm. For daytime, order ahead online for pickup and skip the line.

17. Maple & Ash

The loudest, most theatrical steakhouse in the Gold Coast, cooking everything over live wood fire. Official site · Book a table · +1 (312) 944-8888 · 8 W Maple St, Chicago, IL 60610, Gold Coast Photo: previously sourced; original credit unconfirmed The fire-roasted seafood tower is the thesis statement. Alaskan king crab, littleneck clams, and oysters roasted in the hearth and finished with garlic butter and chili oil, arriving at the table like it owns the room. The 28-day dry-aged bone-in ribeye, 22 ounces and $92, comes sliced and glistening with roasted garlic and rosemary. The wagyu beef carpaccio piles king crab, truffle, and kaluga caviar onto warm butter brioche like it is daring you to complain about excess. This is a steakhouse that understands the assignment: fire, fat, theater, and zero restraint.

Chef Danny Grant built Maple & Ash into Chicago’s buzziest steakhouse on that formula, with a wine list Wine Spectator calls one of the most outstanding in the world and a dining room that feels like a very expensive party you are lucky to be at. The I Don’t Give a F*@K tasting menu ($225 a head, wine pairing $160 more) is the full send. It is not subtle, it is not quiet, and it is not trying to be. Bring an appetite and a second credit card.

Photo: previously sourced; original credit unconfirmed Order: fire-roasted seafood tower; 28-day dry-aged bone-in ribeye; wagyu beef carpaccio with king crab, truffle, and kaluga caviar; wood-grilled Spanish octopus; 45-day dry-aged tomahawk. When to go: dinner Mon–Thu and Sun 5–10, Fri–Sat 4:30–11; Sunday brunch 10:30–1:45. Book well ahead for prime weekend slots. Price: four figures of fun; steaks run $68 to $220, the seafood tower $140 to $300. Pro tip: Tower Hour, the bar and lounge happy hour from 5–6, is the only value play in the building.

16. Avec

Twenty-plus years in, still the small-plates room that taught Chicago how to share. Official site · Book a table · +1 (312) 377-2002 · 615 W Randolph St, Chicago, IL 60661, West Loop Photo: previously sourced; original credit unconfirmed The chorizo-stuffed dates are the legend, and legends usually disappoint. These do not. Medjool dates stuffed with chorizo, wrapped in bacon, set in a piquillo pepper and tomato sauce that you will drag bread through until the plate is clean. The short rib hummus takes the classic dip and makes it indulgent, the deluxe focaccia comes loaded with taleggio, ricotta, and truffle oil, and the rotisserie chicken shawarma, with pickled peppers, charred lemon, fermented chili sauce, and garlic toum, is the large plate that anchors the table. The wood-fired calamari, with burnt eggplant, sungold tomatoes, shishito peppers, and za’atar, proves the hearth is not decorative.

Avec is One Off Hospitality’s second concept, open since 2003, and the OpenTable editors credit it with sparking Chicago’s small-plates craze. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand and still runs the same playbook: communal tables, an open kitchen, a wine list built on boutique southern European producers, and a menu of Midwestern riffs on Mediterranean classics. Twenty years on, the room is still loud, still packed, and still the easiest reservation in the West Loop to justify. A second location now runs in River North, but Randolph Street is the original and it shows in the best way.

Photo: previously sourced; original credit unconfirmed Order: chorizo-stuffed medjool dates with bacon and piquillo pepper-tomato sauce; short rib hummus; deluxe focaccia with taleggio, ricotta, and truffle oil; rotisserie chicken shawarma; wood-fired calamari. When to go: Sun 10–2 and 3:30–10; Mon–Thu 11–2 and 3:30–10; Fri 11–2 and 3:30–11; Sat 10–2 and 3:30–11. Weekday lunch is the calm window; Friday and Saturday nights are the scene. Price: $50–100 per person with a drink; Tuesday nights run half-off bottles of wine. Pro tip: sit at the bar in front of the open kitchen if the communal tables are full; the show is half the meal.

15. Frontera Grill

Thirty-nine years in, the godfather of regional Mexican cooking in America still sets the standard. Official site · +1 (312) 661-1434 · 445 N Clark St, River North Photo: photographer unverified The duck carnitas are the order that explains everything: slow-cooked duck, crisped at the edges, the spice rub dark and fragrant, the meat pulling apart in ribbons. It arrives with black beans under a snowfall of queso fresco, guacamole that tastes like it was mashed ten minutes ago, lime, warm tortillas, and a green salsa with real heat. This is the Bayless thesis on one plate: regional Mexican cooking treated with the seriousness of a cuisine, not the shorthand of a theme restaurant. Rick Bayless and Deann Groen Bayless opened Frontera Grill in 1987 after an extended stay in Mexico researching their first book, and the room still carries that trip with it: folk art on the walls, mariachi in the air, a wood-fired grill doing the loud work in the open kitchen. The menu changes with the seasons and the Midwestern farmers they buy from, but the throughline never moves: tortilla soup with a dark pasilla broth, ceviches that snap with lime, moles with actual depth, and a chocolate pecan pie that has been on the menu long enough to earn tenure. Photo: Frontera Grill Order: Duck carnitas enchiladas ($13.75); Topolobampo tortilla soup ($9.00); carne asada brava ($29.00); ceviche trio ($19.00); Frontera’s chocolate pecan pie ($8.50). When to go: Lunch Tuesday through Friday, 11:30am to 2:30pm, is the easy play. Dinner runs Tuesday through Sunday from late afternoon; brunch lands Saturday and Sunday, 10:30am to 2pm. Closed Monday. Call ahead for reservations. Price: Live-fire entrees run $23.50 to $29.50; street-food plates $8 to $20; desserts around $8.50. Pro tip: Lunch is the same kitchen with a shorter wait and a friendlier check. Get the duck, a Topolo margarita, and save room for the pie.

14. Carnitas Uruapan

Pork, salt, fire, and fifty years of practice: the carnitas counter that turned Pilsen into a pilgrimage. Official site · Takeout only · +1 (312) 226-2654 · 1725 W 18th St, Pilsen Photo: photographer unverified The pork cooks low and slow for more than two hours until the outside turns golden and crisp and the inside surrenders completely. You order it by the pound, the way it has been done since 1975, and a pound feeds two people who are not shy. Build the tacos yourself: warm tortillas, chopped onion, cilantro, lime, the red salsa and the green one, and pieces that range from shattering-crisp skin to fat that melts on contact. This is Michoacán technique with zero shortcuts, from a family that has been doing exactly this for half a century. The Carbajal family opened the 18th Street counter in 1975, and the Pilsen original is still takeout only: a red building, a counter, the smell of rendering pork hitting you half a block away. There are two more locations with dining rooms now, but the flagship is the one that matters. Everything else on the menu exists to support the pork: tacos dorados fried to order, fresh chicharrones, guacamole, nopales. Photo: photographer unverified Order: Carnitas by the pound ($16.99); carnitas especial with chicharrón, refried beans, and a taco dorado ($11.99); tacos dorados ($1.25 each); chicharrones ($7.99); guacamole ($7.99). When to go: Monday through Thursday 10am to 4pm, Friday 9am to 4pm, Saturday and Sunday 7am to 5pm. Weekend mornings are the move: they open at 7am and the best cuts sell down by afternoon. Price: $16.99 a pound, and a pound feeds two. Most people eat like royalty for under $20. Pro tip: Get the pound, not a plate, and ask for a mix of the crisp-edged pieces and the melting ones. Add tacos dorados and chicharrones while you are there.

13. Lula Cafe

Logan Square’s farm-to-table original, and a bowl of pasta that tastes like somebody’s grandmother meant it. Official site · Book a table · +1 (773) 489-9554 · 2537 N Kedzie Blvd, Logan Square Photo: photographer unverified The Pasta Yiayia is bucatini glossed in brown butter, buried under salty feta, scattered with fried garlic chips, and dusted with cinnamon. It sounds wrong until you taste it: the nuttiness of the butter, the crunch of the garlic, the warm spice sitting underneath the salt. It is the kind of dish that only exists because a kitchen cooks the way a family cooks, by instinct and memory, and it has anchored this menu for years. Lula is the Logan Square cafe that helped invent the neighborhood’s food identity: inventive, market-driven, mostly organic, an especially popular brunch and a dinner menu that actually changes with the seasons. The room is funky and unpretentious, the cooking is serious without announcing itself, and the industry noticed: a James Beard Award for Outstanding Hospitality in 2024 and a Michelin Bib Gourmand in 2025. Photo: photographer unverified Order: Pasta Yia Yia ($21); baked French feta ($18); chickpea and fennel tagine ($18); spaghetti with pancetta, queso fresco, and salsa rosa ($21); bavette steak ($49). When to go: Brunch 9am to 3pm or dinner 4:30 to 10pm, Wednesday through Monday. Closed Tuesdays. Book on OpenTable; weekends fill. Price: Pastas and small plates $18 to $21; larger plates up to $49. Figure $31 to $50 a person. Pro tip: The monthly farm dinner, held the first Monday of each month, is the best seat in the house that night. Book it the moment it posts.

12. Burt’s Place

The caramelized crust that made Anthony Bourdain call it the only deep dish pizza he ever loved. Official site · +1 (847) 965-7997 · 8541 Ferris Ave, Morton Grove Photo: photographer unverified The cheese goes all the way to the edge of the pan, and where it meets the metal it blackens into a lace of pure crunch. That is the whole argument: a caramelized crust, a thinner profile than the Pequod’s style Burt Katz helped create, sauce with actual brightness, and a sausage blend the current owners still make to the original recipe. Order it with sausage and giardiniera and you get the full Chicago argument in one pan: rich, tangy, crisp, and gone faster than you planned. Katz opened Burt’s Place in 1971 in Morton Grove, and after his death in 2016 the new owners rebuilt it on his recipes, pledging to make the pizza only the way Burt made it. The room is tiny, about 30 seats, the patio is heated year-round, and the operation runs on an old-school rhythm: call ahead, even for dine-in, and your pie hits the table on time, every time. Bourdain’s verdict hangs on the wall, and the pizza backs it up. Photo: Sandy Noto for The Infatuation Order: Caramelized-crust pan pizza with sausage and giardiniera; cheese curds; 10-inch thin pizza; mac and cheese bites; cannoli made to order. When to go: Dinner only: Thursday through Saturday 4:30 to 10pm, Sunday through Wednesday 4:30 to 9:30pm. Closed Monday. Call your order in ahead, even for dine-in; reservations by phone are strongly recommended Friday and Saturday. Price: A 12-inch pan is listed around $23.50; figure $20 to $30 a person. Pro tip: Pre-order by phone before you arrive. The pies take real time, the dining room is small, and the regulars all call ahead.

11. Au Cheval

The burger that got named the best in America, served with a steak knife through it and zero apologies. Official site · Walk-ins first come, first served · +1 (312) 929-4580 · 800 W Randolph St, West Loop Photo: photographer unverified The “single” is a double: two four-ounce patties, sharp American cheddar melted into every crevice, pickles, onions, and dijonnaise on a toasted bun. Add the fried egg and the thick-cut bacon, because that is the order that won the argument. The cheese drips, the yolk runs, the bacon shatters, and the knife standing through the middle is not theater, it is structural engineering. The Daily Meal once named this the best burger in the country, and a decade of lines out the door suggests nobody has successfully argued otherwise. Au Cheval is the Hogsalt diner that turned a West Loop corner into a pilgrimage site: dark leather booths, a zinc bar wrapped around the open kitchen, a menu that runs from chopped chicken liver to roasted marrow bones with beef cheek marmalade. It is a diner with a passion for eggs and a bar program that takes itself seriously. It runs on walk-ins, first come first served, with only limited reservations: you walk in, you put your name down, you wait. Photo: photographer unverified Order: Cheeseburger ($25.99, add the egg and bacon); roasted marrow bones with beef cheek marmalade ($25.99); chopped chicken liver ($14.99); General Jane’s honey-fried chicken ($24.99); fries with mornay and garlic aioli. When to go: Daily from 10am; Sunday to 10:15pm, Monday through Saturday to 11:15pm. The wait is real at peak hours; go off-peak or settle in with a drink. Price: The burger is $25.99; most of the menu lands between $15 and $26. Pro tip: Always add the egg. And remember the naming: the single is a double, the double is a triple, so order accordingly.

10. Girl & the Goat

The loud, joyful West Loop room that turned Randolph Street into Restaurant Row. Official site · Book a table · +1 (312) 492-6262 · 809 W Randolph St, West Loop Photo: Candace Nelson / Candace Lately The goat empanadas come blistered and golden, three to an order, stuffed with smoked goat rillette that eats like the best pulled meat you have ever had. Funky, rich, and cut straight through by tomatillo romesco, queso fresco, and pickled shallots. They have anchored the menu since the day this place opened, and they are the dish that proves a Top Chef winner can still cook like she has something to prove.

Stephanie Izard won the fourth season of Top Chef and opened this room in 2010, back when Randolph Street was a gamble instead of a destination. It paid off beyond anyone’s forecast. Girl & the Goat made Randolph Street restaurant row, Izard took the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Great Lakes, and fifteen years later the room still runs loud, packed, and joyful behind an open kitchen. The menu keeps turning with the seasons, but the hits never leave.

Dinner runs nightly from 4:30, with Sunday brunch from 10 to 2. The dining room books out weeks ahead, so reserve early on OpenTable or plan on the bar, which takes walk-ins and serves the full menu. Photo: Cathy Chaplin / Gastronomy Blog Order: Smoked Goat Rillette Empanadas (tomatillo romesco, queso fresco, pickled shallots), Roasted Pig Face (red wine maple marinade, potato stix, tamarind, sunny side up egg), Sautéed Green Beans (fish sauce vinaigrette, cashews), Crispy Short Rib, Confit Goat Belly. When to go: Dinner nightly from 4:30pm, Sunday brunch 10am to 2pm. Book the dining room weeks out; weekends are the hardest tables. Price: OpenTable lists it at $30 and under. Small plates run from the mid-teens into the $30s, and a full share-style spread for two lands around $150 to $200. Pro tip: Order everything family-style and let the table fight over the last empanada. Nobody ever regrets the second order.

9. Virtue

Black Southern cooking with its full history intact, in warm Hyde Park. Official site · Book a table · +1 (773) 947-8831 · 1462 E 53rd St, Hyde Park Photo: Resy blog / Virtue Restaurant The short rib tells you everything about this kitchen. A slab of meat cooked until it gives up completely, sitting on creamed spinach and crushed potatoes under a winey caramelized onion gravy, finished with crisp onion rings for crunch. It is rich without being heavy, the kind of plate that lands like a hug on a cold Chicago night. Beside it, the blackened catfish over Carolina Gold rice with barbecue carrots shows the same hand: bold seasoning, precise cooking, ingredients with their dignity intact.

Erick Williams opened Virtue on 53rd Street in November 2018, a long-shot neighborhood bet that became one of the most beloved rooms in the city. He took the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Great Lakes in 2022, his chef de cuisine Damarr Brown won Emerging Chef in 2023, and the room holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand. Food & Wine named it one of America’s top 15 restaurants in its 2025 Global Tastemakers Awards, for soulful dirty rice and gizzards, stoneground grits with blackened fish, and salads scattered with crispy pig ears. The dining room is warm wood and low light, and the cooking is serious without ever being stiff.

Dinner runs Tuesday through Sunday from 4pm, with Fridays and Saturdays stretching to 10. Book ahead for weekends, which fill fast, and save room for dessert. Photo: The Hungry Black Man Order: Short Rib (creamed spinach, crushed potatoes, caramelized onion gravy), Blackened Catfish (Carolina Gold rice, barbecue carrots), Cornbread with Honey Butter, Fried Chicken Gizzards with Dirty Rice, Butcher’s Snack (southern ham, cheese, pickles, mustard, turkey rillette, pepper jelly, house crackers). When to go: Tuesday through Sunday from 4pm (closed Monday); Friday and Saturday to 10pm. Weekends are busiest, so book ahead. Price: OpenTable lists $31 to $50. Entrées sit in the high 20s to low 40s, and dinner for two with drinks lands around $120 to $160. Pro tip: They do not take cash, so leave the bills at home. Parking is street-only on 53rd, so give yourself ten minutes to circle.

8. Sepia

A chandelier-lit West Loop dining room where the steak tartare hits like your first drive-thru bite, re-engineered by a fine-dining kitchen. Official site · Book a table · +1 (312) 441-1920 · 123 N Jefferson St, West Loop Photo: Understanding Hospitality The steak tartare is the reason to come. It arrives crowned with a griddled toast round, a molten egg yolk, pickled onions, and herbs, and it tastes like your first ever bite of a McDonald’s cheeseburger, like smoking weed for the first time. It is something you chase your whole life. He calls it one of the best steak tartares in the country, and after one bite you understand why: the seasoning hits with the comfort of a drive-thru and the precision of a fine-dining kitchen, all at once.

Sepia has been humming in the West Loop since 2007, inside a restored 1890s print shop with original wood walls, exposed brick, and vintage stemware on every table. It has held a Michelin star since 2011, and the kitchen under Executive Chef Kyle Cottle cooks ingredient-driven contemporary American with French technique and a deep respect for Midwestern seasonality. It is the rare anniversary-night room that still feels alive: a sharp bar, a doorstop of a wine list, and a pastry team that closes the night properly.

Dinner runs nightly, with seatings Monday through Thursday from 5 to 9 and Friday and Saturday from 5 to 10. Book on OpenTable and give yourself the full evening. Photo: Sepia / @sepiachicago Order: Steak Tartare, Steak Oscar (grilled short rib, fried morel mushrooms, smoked béarnaise, crispy nori), Rohan Duck Breast, BBQ’d Sablefish, the Bowl of Fire cocktail. When to go: Dinner nightly. Seatings run 5 to 9pm Monday through Thursday and 5 to 10pm Friday and Saturday; prime-time tables go first. Price: The chef’s tasting menu on OpenTable runs $195 per person. The older $95 prix fixe figure floating around is stale, so budget for the current menu. Pro tip: Start at the bar before your table is ready. The Bowl of Fire, from head bartender Keith Meicher, is the drink this room is known for.

7. Smyth

Three Michelin stars, a farm-first tasting menu that changes daily, and sixteen courses of quiet ambition. Official site · Book a table · +1 (773) 913-3773 · 177 N Ada St, West Loop Photo: kyocharoworld.com The tasting menu changes every single day, so nobody eats the same Smyth twice, but the signatures recur for a reason. The smoked quail tart with white truffle is the bite diners talk about for weeks: the quail egg eats like a caramelized container of everything good, all technique hiding in plain sight. Around it, the menu runs to hot and cold caviar, lobster in double cream sauce, and a new potato and pecan ice cream with caviar that one diner called her dream ice cream. Sixteen courses, three and a half to four hours, every plate built around North American farmers, fishermen, and makers at the peak of their season.

John and Karen Urie Shields are Charlie Trotter alums who opened Smyth in 2016 and now hold the guide’s highest honor: three Michelin stars. The room is rustic and chic at once, warm and relaxing without a hint of stuffiness, and the service runs on genuine joy for the craft. It is fine dining that puts flavor before theater, which is exactly why it keeps winning.

Seatings run Tuesday through Saturday from 5 to 9pm, and reservations release on a rolling 90-day basis at noon Central on Tock. They go fast. Dietary requests have to go in at booking, and starting November 5, 2026, every reservation requires full prepayment. Photo: Elite Traveler (elitetraveler.com) Order: There is no fixed menu, so order the whole tasting and trust the kitchen. The recurring signatures to hope for: Smoked Quail Tart with White Truffle, Hot & Cold Caviar, Lobster in Double Cream Sauce, New Potato & Pecan Ice Cream with Caviar. When to go: Tuesday through Saturday, 5 to 9pm seatings. Book the instant your 90-day window opens at noon Central; off-peak weeknights are the calmest rooms. Price: Plan on roughly $900 per person after tax and tip with a drink pairing, per a March 2026 diner report. This is a once-in-a-lifetime dinner, and it prices like one. Pro tip: From November 5, 2026, Smyth moves to a single extended Chef’s Menu with full prepayment at booking. Get dietary notes in at reservation time, because the kitchen cannot accommodate changes later.

6. Johnnie’s Beef

The cash-only North Avenue stand that has run the same Italian beef since 1961. Official site · Walk-in only, no reservations · +1 (708) 452-6000 · 7500 W North Ave, Elmwood Park Photo: Choose Chicago (choosechicago.com) Order it the way the regulars do: beef, dipped, hot. The Italian beef comes sliced thin and loaded onto a sturdy roll, and the whole sandwich takes a bath in its own gravy before the coarse-chopped hot giardiniera goes on top. It lands messy, juicy, and spicy in the exact proportions Chicago invented this sandwich for. The beef is tender, the juice is salty and rich, and the hot peppers cut through it all with bright heat. Eat it over the wrapper, because the first bite will run to your elbow, and that is the point.

Johnnie’s has been selling Italian beef out of the same brick building on North Avenue in Elmwood Park since 1961, and the operation has barely changed in all that time. You order at a window, you pay in cash, and five or six people behind the counter each work a single job, moving a sandwich, fries, and an Italian ice across the counter in under a minute. Anthony Bourdain once told Thrillist that Johnnie’s was a fixed stop on his Chicago trips, either on the way in or the way out. It is twenty minutes west of downtown and open until midnight, seven days a week.

Go before the lunch rush or late at night. The line looks intimidating and moves in minutes, the parking lot is free, and the lemon Italian ice is the only proper finish. Photo: Roadfood (roadfood.com) Order: Italian Beef, dipped, with hot giardiniera; the Beef + Char-grilled Italian Sausage Combo; Lemon Italian Ice; Fries; Italian Sausage with Sweet Peppers. When to go: Monday through Saturday 11am to midnight, Sunday noon to midnight. Before the lunch rush or late night is the sweet spot; the line moves fast either way. Price: $10 to $20 per person. This is one of the great cheap eats in America. Pro tip: Cash only at the window, so bring bills. And do not leave without the lemon Italian ice: hand-scooped, silky, and the perfect tart finish to all that beef.

5. Pizz’Amici

The tavern-style pie, perfected.

Official site · Book a table · +1 (312) 285-2382 · 1215 W Grand Ave, West Town

Photo: Kim Kovacik / The Infatuation

The pie comes out cracker thin with a charred, dalmatian-spotted bottom, sauce that leans sweet, and cheese oozed to the edge of every square. The order that matters is the sausage, giardiniera, and onion: fennel-forward sausage, J.P. Graziano’s giardiniera bringing heat and acid, and sweet onion pulling it together. It is the golden trio, and it is the best argument we have seen that the oldest Chicago style still has new things to say.

Pizz’Amici is the West Town room from Billy and Cecily Federighi, built around a sourdough tavern-style crust and old-school toppings done with new-school discipline. The space is tiny, thirty seats and eight at the bar, and it runs loud and warm like a neighborhood spot that happens to make a genuinely great pie. Esquire named it to its Best New Restaurants in America list in 2025, which tells you how hard a table is to get.

Photo: Kim Kovacik / The Infatuation

Order: The sausage, giardiniera, and onion pizza. The pepperoni pizza, loaded with salty red cups. Carol’s meatballs, beef and pork in a sausage ragu. Sausage and peppers with charred sweet peppers, lemon, and potatoes. Caponata with the housemade focaccia. When to go: Wednesday through Friday, 5pm to 10pm; Saturday, 4pm to 10pm; Sunday, 4pm to 9pm. Closed Monday and Tuesday. Reservations go fast; walk-ins at the 4pm opening are the backup plan. Price: OpenTable lists $31 to $50 per person; plan on ordering a couple of pizzas to share. Pro tip: Reservations are released a month out and get snatched up. If you strike out, show up right at opening, when a few tables are held for walk-ins.

4. Alinea

The room where dinner became theater.

Official site · Book a table · +1 (312) 867-0110 · 1723 N Halsted St, Lincoln Park

Photo: team photo archive

There is no menu in the traditional sense and no à la carte safety net. There are courses, around twenty of them, that arrive as scented vapors, hidden ingredients, and tableside sleight of hand. The edible helium balloon is still the party trick that defines a certain kind of Chicago night: a taffy bubble filled with green apple and helium, inhaled straight off the string, that turns a grown table into children. Then the dessert lands as a Pollock painting, sauced and shattered directly on the table, and you remember this is Grant Achatz’s flagship.

Achatz and Nick Kokonas opened Alinea on May 4, 2005, and it has been the most decorated room in the city ever since: best restaurant in North America on the World’s 50 Best list, James Beard Outstanding Restaurant, Michelin-starred. Three experiences run nightly: the Gallery, the Salon, and the Kitchen Table. It is the one dinner on this list that is genuinely a once-a-year occasion, and it earns that billing.

Photo: team photo archive

Order: It is a tasting menu, so you order the experience and the signatures arrive on their own terms: hot potato/cold potato, black truffle explosion, the edible helium balloon, painted dessert, and the wagyu-centric Rossini. When to go: Reservations release on the 15th of each month at 11am Central Time, roughly two months out. Dinner is nightly; December and holiday weekends vanish first. Price: Wine pairings run $145, $235, or $395 per person, and a 20 percent service charge applies automatically. The base tasting menu price is not published on their site. Pro tip: Through October 31, reservations run on Tock; November and beyond move to OpenTable, per the restaurant’s own notice. Be on the booking page at release time or do not bother.

3. Duck Duck Goat

Dumplings, noodles, and duck, turned up loud.

Official site · Book a table · +1 (312) 902-3825 · 857 W Fulton Market, West Loop

Photo: aroundus.com

The Xiao Long Bao arrive in a bamboo steamer, four pleated purses of duck and goat broth that demand care and a spoon. Bite the top, drink the soup, and do not rush it. From there the table goes loud: Xi’an goat slap noodles with cumin-spiced shoulder and Sichuan peppercorn heat, Hongshao Rou’s red-braised pork belly folded into mandarin pancakes with pickles, and duck fried rice studded with peking duck meat and a soft boiled duck egg.

This is Stephanie Izard’s Chinese-American play with the Boka Restaurant Group, and it is exactly what a Fulton Market night should feel like: ornate tea-parlor dining rooms, a dim sum brunch on weekends, cocktails with a sense of humor, and food that never stops coming. The whole Peking duck is the move if you plan ahead, and it sells out because only a few are made each evening.

Photo: Anthony Losanno / The Bulkhead Seat

Order: Xiao Long Bao, duck and goat soup dumplings with black vinegar and ginger, $18. Xi’an Goat Slap Noodles, $25. Duck Fried Rice, $29. Hongshao Rou, red braised pork belly, $29. The whole Peking Duck, $110, by phone reservation only. When to go: Dinner Sunday through Thursday, 4:30pm to 10pm; Friday and Saturday, 4:30pm to 11pm. Dim sum brunch Saturday and Sunday, 11am to 3pm. Book ahead; the room is slammed most nights. Price: OpenTable lists $31 to $50 per person. Most plates land between $11 and $33; a 4 percent surcharge is added to checks. Pro tip: Call in advance to reserve the whole Peking duck. It is limited to a few per evening and the waitlist is real.

2. Monteverde

Handmade pasta at its most joyful.

Official site · Book a table · +1 (312) 888-3041 · 1020 W Madison St, West Loop

Photo: myrsvp.com

Sit at the right table and you watch the pasta get rolled behind the bar in a raised pastificio, hands shaping dough while an overhead mirror shows the work. That is the whole thesis of Monteverde: flour is power, and you can taste it. The gnocchetti con pesto is the bite that made the reputation, housemade lemon ricotta folded through basil with Tuscan pine nut and Sardinian pecorino, bright and properly chewy. The tortelli verdi, ricotta and farm spinach in brown butter under a parmigiano reggiano fonduta, is the quieter masterpiece.

Chef Sarah Grueneberg, a James Beard winner, built Monteverde as Italian tradition filtered through her travels, which is why a Chicago Italian beef inspired ravioli can sit on the same menu as a proper cacio whey pepe. The room is loud in the best way, full of glasses clinking and people reaching across for each other’s plates. It has been one of the hardest tables in the city for the better part of a decade, and nothing about eating there suggests that changes.

Photo: Resy (blog.resy.com)

Order: Burrata e Ham on rosemary tigelle with prosciutto di San Daniele, $36. Gnocchetti con Pesto, $29. Tortelli Verdi, $26. Fusilli con Ragù alla Napoletana, braised pork neck bone tomato sauce with Italian sausage, $28. Whole Bird Chicken Parm, $34, the cutlet she built to beat Bobby Flay. When to go: Tuesday through Thursday, 11am to 10pm; Friday and Saturday, 11am to 10:30pm. Closed Sunday and Monday. Aperitivo hour runs Tuesday through Saturday, 2:30pm to 4:30pm. Dinner reservations are brutal; lunch slots go fast but are far more gettable. Price: Pastas run $25 to $34, piattini from $10 a piece up to $36, shared plates up to $95. A 4 percent surcharge is added to checks. Pro tip: Resy drops tables 30 days out at midnight, and the dinner notify list runs into the thousands. Book lunch if you want in this month, and sit near the pastificio.

1. Dave’s Red Hots

The Chicago-style hot dog, at its most Chicago.

Vienna Beef Hall of Fame · +1 (773) 722-9935 · 3422 W Roosevelt Rd, Lawndale · Walk-up only, no reservations

Photo: SinglePlatform menu listing

The dog snaps. That is the whole review, and it is enough. A Vienna Beef natural casing with real pop, dragged through the garden in the proper Chicago order: yellow mustard, neon relish, chopped onion, tomato wedges, pickle spear, sport peppers, celery salt, all in a steamed poppy seed bun. The fries come free with your food, cut fresh and fried to a proper golden crunch, and you will eat them standing up.

Dave’s has held down Roosevelt Road in Lawndale since 1938. Eugene Gaines bought the stand back when it was just a neighborhood hot dog counter and handed it down to his daughter Gina Fountain and her mother Shirley, who have kept the dogs cooking and the trash talk singing for decades. A fire forced a rebuild across the street nearly forty years ago, and Vienna Beef inducted the stand into its Hot Dog Hall of Fame in 2010. It may not be the Taj Mahal, in Gina’s own telling, but it is a vital part of the community six days a week.

Photo: Chicago Magazine

Order: The Chicago-style hot dog. The Red Hot combo with a drink. Italian beef with fresh-cut fries. The Vienna Polish sausage. The triple dog, three dogs on one order, for the committed. When to go: Monday through Friday, 10:30am to 5:30pm. Closed Saturday and Sunday. Go for lunch; this is a daytime stand. Price: The cheapest lunch on this list. Directories mark it inexpensive across the board. Pro tip: Bring cash, they do not take cards. And do not skip the fries: they are free with your food, and that is not a marketing line, it is policy.