Food & Drink

Restaurants

From a freight-alley tasting menu to a goat-birria counter on the Southwest Side, this is the city’s table — ranked. No sponsors, no favors, no pay-to-play. Just where we’d send anyone who asked.

33 rankedNo. 1 — Oriole

Filter · Neighborhood33 / 33

1
Oriole
West LoopTasting menu$$$$
The two-Michelin-star tasting menu that quietly sets the ceiling for the entire city — exacting, luxurious, and somehow still warm.
2
Cariño
EdgewaterModern Mexican$$$
A Michelin-starred taco omakase and long tasting menu on the North Side that treats Central and South American culinary tradition with serious intellectual rigor.
3
Birrieria Zaragoza
Archer HeightsBirria$
A family-run Archer Heights institution doing one thing — slow-roasted Jalisco-style goat birria — better than anyone else in Chicago.
4
Kyōten
Logan SquareSushi omakase$$$$
An eight-seat Logan Square counter where Chef Otto Phan serves Edomae-rooted nigiri with fish flown directly from Japan — one of the most singular dining experiences in the Midwest.
5
Elina's
West TownItalian-American$$$
A twenty-eight-seat West Town room where two Michelin-trained chefs pare Italian-American classics down to their essential, beautiful components.
6
Maxwells Trading
West LoopSeasonal American$$
A rooftop-farm-anchored West Loop restaurant where Erling Wu-Bower and Chris Jung build boldly multicultural seasonal plates from Japanese, Chinese, and Thai registers.
7
Bavette's
River NorthSteakhouse$$$
River North's darkly glamorous steakhouse-meets-speakeasy, where broiled wet-aged beef and a jazz soundtrack make the case that this genre is not finished.
8
Monteverde
West LoopItalian$$$
Sarah Grueneberg's West Loop pastificio where Italian tradition and global curiosity produce the most consistently satisfying pasta program in the city.
9
Trino
West LoopLatin steakhouse$$$
The most exciting steakhouse to open in Chicago in years, led by a chef whose Latin American and New Orleanian range lifts the genre well above its usual limits.
10
Johnnie's Beef
Elmwood ParkItalian beef stand$
The Italian beef counter that has operated from the same Elmwood Park address since 1961 and has never needed a reason to change anything.
11
Pizz'amici
West TownTavern pizza$$
Forty-two seats in a West Town former barbershop, serving the most demanding thin-crust tavern pies in Chicago — weeks-out reservations and all.
12
Jeong
West TownKorean tasting menu$$$$
Dave Park and Jen Tran's intimate Noble Square kitchen delivers a Michelin-recognized Korean tasting menu that treats the cuisine's complexity with full seriousness.
13
Virtue
Hyde ParkSouthern American$$$
Erick Williams's Michelin-starred Hyde Park dining room is the most important restaurant on the South Side — a precise, deeply rooted tribute to the cuisine carried north by the Great Migration.
14
Calumet Fisheries
South DeeringSmoked fish$
A 1928 cash-only smokehouse shack on the 95th Street bridge that won a James Beard America's Classic Award and has changed nothing since.
15
Vito and Nick's Pizzeria
AshburnTavern pizza$
The Ashburn institution that has been making Chicago's definitive cracker-thin tavern-style pizza from the same family recipe since 1949.
16
Boka
Lincoln ParkSeasonal American$$$
Lee Wolen's Lincoln Park restaurant has held a Michelin star since 2010, which is a longevity argument very few Chicago kitchens can match.
17
La Chaparrita
Little VillageTacos$
Angelina Mendez's Little Village taqueria-inside-a-grocery-store is the city's best fritangas counter, where charola-cooked offal and tripe are the point, not the dare.
18
Kasama
Ukrainian VillageFilipino$$
Tim Flores and Genie Kwon's Ukrainian Village spot is a bakery by day and a two-Michelin-starred Filipino tasting-menu destination by night — the first Filipino restaurant in the world to earn that recognition.
19
The Omakase Room at Sushi-san
River NorthSushi omakase$$$$
Master Sushi Chefs Kaze Chan and Shigeru Kitano run a ten-seat River North counter where eighteen courses of luxury-sourced nigiri constitute one of the city's most tightly curated omakase experiences.
20
Indienne
River NorthModern Indian$$$$
The first Michelin-starred Indian restaurant in Chicago history, where Kolkata-born chef Sujan Sarkar runs a tasting menu that presents Indian cuisine as fine dining's full equal.
21
Alinea
Lincoln ParkModernist tasting menu$$$$
Grant Achatz's Lincoln Park modernist laboratory, which held three Michelin stars for over a decade, remains one of the most technically audacious restaurants in the world — and now, with two stars, is in an interesting chapter.
22
Creepies
West LoopFrench-Midwestern bistro$$
The second restaurant from the team behind Michelin-starred Elske, Creepies is a playful West Loop bistro where French technique meets Midwestern sensibility in a room that is genuinely fun to be in.
23
Mariscos San Pedro
PilsenMexican seafood$$
A James Beard-nominated Pilsen seafood restaurant drawing on Mexico City mariscos tradition — and Italian, French, and Japanese touches — set inside the storied Thalia Hall complex.
24
John's Food and Wine
Lincoln ParkSeasonal American$$
A Michelin-recognized Lincoln Park restaurant where you order at the counter and eat seasonal American food — vegetables, seafood, handmade pasta, dry-aged meat — that is a grade above the format's expectations.
25
Smyth + The Loyalist
West LoopTasting menu$$$$
John Shields and Karen Urie Shields run two floors of the West Loop's most thoughtful building: Smyth's three-Michelin-star tasting menu above, The Loyalist's extraordinary burger-and-farm-food bar below.
26
Ox Bar & Hearth
Lincoln ParkWood-fire American$$
A 125-year-old Lincoln Park building reimagined around a wood-burning hearth, where Chef John Asbaty makes modern Midwestern comfort food with genuine local sourcing.
27
Nettare
West TownMidwestern Italian$$
West Town's most original all-day spot, where over ninety percent of the spirits, wine, and beer come from Great Lakes states and the food draws on Italian and Mediterranean tradition filtered through Midwest ingredients.
28
J.P. Graziano
West LoopItalian sub counter$
A fourth-generation Italian grocery and sandwich shop on West Randolph, open since 1937, making the best Italian sub in Chicago with imported meats and house giardiniera.
29
Anelya
AvondaleModern Ukrainian$$
Johnny Clark's Avondale tribute to his Ukrainian grandmother — named for her, tiled in the pattern of her childhood home's floor — is the first Ukrainian restaurant ever listed in the Michelin Guide.
30
Bar Tutto
West LoopItalian café$$
Joe Flamm's Fulton Market all-day Italian café runs from morning cornetti and Caffè Umbria espresso through evening wood-fired grilled dishes and antipasti — a piazza concept that actually works.
31
Dimmi Dimmi
Lincoln ParkItalian-American$$
Executive Chef Matt Eckfeld's Lincoln Park corner Italian brings handmade pastas, tavern-style pies, and shareable plates to the Armitage corridor with contemporary energy and red-sauce conviction.
32
Milly's Pizza in the Pan
Noble SquareDeep dish pizza$
The best deep-dish pizza in Chicago, served from a Noble Square counter in limited daily quantities — forty-five pies maximum — with a caramelized crust, focaccia-style dough, and individual fresh mozzarella dollops.
33
Ithaki Estiatorio
GreektownGreek$$
A 180-seat Greektown dining room with wood-fired whole fish, an extensive Greek wine program, and a kitchen run by a MasterChef Greece alum — the most serious Greek restaurant to open on Halsted in a generation.

Restaurants

Oriole

Cariño

Birrieria Zaragoza

Kyōten

Elina's

Maxwells Trading

Bavette's

Monteverde

Trino

Johnnie's Beef

Pizz'amici

Jeong

Virtue

Calumet Fisheries

Vito and Nick's Pizzeria

Boka

La Chaparrita

Kasama

The Omakase Room at Sushi-san

Indienne

Alinea

Creepies

Mariscos San Pedro

John's Food and Wine

Smyth + The Loyalist

Ox Bar & Hearth

Nettare

J.P. Graziano

Anelya

Bar Tutto

Dimmi Dimmi

Milly's Pizza in the Pan

Ithaki Estiatorio