Bavette's
Bavette's ranks seventh because it has threaded the needle that defeats most steakhouses: it is fully fun without being a theme park, and the beef is genuinely good.
Since 2012, Bavette's has occupied its dim, tobacco-brown cave on West Kinzie with the easy authority of a place that knows exactly what it is. Exposed brick, mismatched pendant lights, Chesterfield sofas, low jazz — the atmosphere is studied but it lands. The menu sticks to steakhouse orthodoxy: wet-aged cuts broiled to order, a raw bar that earns its square footage, sides of the kind people fight over. This is not a restaurant that disrupts anything; it is a restaurant that perfects something.
The experience improves considerably on a bar seat, where the theatrical edge of the room comes into full relief and the long wine list is easier to navigate with help from the bar staff. It is one of the few River North restaurants that locals return to without being dragged there by out-of-towners.
- Wet-aged prime cuts
- Raw bar plateau
- French onion soup
