The Top 100 Places to Eat Near Big Shoulders Coffee

1. US Coffee Championships #1 · U.S. Coffee Roasters Championship · Diego Guartan
2. Time Out The 40 best coffee shops in Chicago

The open kitchen anchors a lounge-like room in Chicago's West Loop, and what comes out of it has earned Smyth three Michelin stars and the top spot on North America's 50 Best list. The tasting menu leans on Midwest seasons and a farm garden, but the cooking is genuinely strange in the best way: foie gras doughnuts, kelp tarts, lobster custard with raspberry butter. Strange enough that you stop second-guessing the kitchen about halfway through.

1. AAA Five Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide 3 Stars
3. 50 Best #1 · North America's 50 Best Restaurants

1. Time Out Chicago Pie · The 18 best pizzas in the world right now
2. The Banchets Nominee · Best Pizza
3. The Infatuation #23 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Chicago

Venetian plaster walls and tables so generously spaced you forget the rest of Chicago exists set the scene at Curtis Duffy's fine dining room on Fulton Market. The cooking is visually precise, multi-textured, and structured like architecture you're meant to eat. Service is choreographed without feeling clinical. A spirit-free pairing option runs alongside the wine program, and the attached cocktail bar, After, is there when you're not ready to go home. Two Michelin stars and an AAA Five Diamond.

1. AAA Five Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide 2 Stars
3. World Culinary Awards 2025 · Nominee · North America's Best Fine Dining Experience

You arrive through a converted freight elevator in what used to be a warehouse, which sets the tone before you've touched a menu. Oriole is a tasting-menu restaurant where the chef blends French and Japanese ideas into something that reads as neither, with polished service that somehow avoids feeling stiff. It holds two Michelin stars and a James Beard Award, and the room earns both the ceiling collage and the hushed reverence of everyone in it.

1. AAA Five Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide 2 Stars
3. James Beard Awards 2025 · Winner · Best Chef: Great Lakes · Noah Sandoval

A patio strung with soft light anchors this fine dining room on Randolph's restaurant row, where the menu runs Danish-inflected and quietly seasonal. The kitchen, holding a Michelin star, offers both a tasting menu and à la carte, so the commitment level is yours to choose. Anna Posey's desserts are compositions in the visual-arts sense, restrained and a little arresting. The kind of room where nobody seems to be performing.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. The Banchets Winner · Pastry Chef of the Year · TC Lumbar
3. James Beard Awards 2024 · Nominee · Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker · Anna Posey

The menu changes entirely with each new theme, so you might land on ancient Rome or a meticulous recreation of Escoffier's Paris. It's a tasting-menu restaurant in Fulton Market where the conceit is the whole point, and the kitchen takes it seriously enough that it works. A Michelin star lives here. Come curious, leave wondering what the next theme could possibly be.

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide 1 Star

Roman pizza comes out of an open kitchen at this spacious trattoria in the West Loop, where Joe Flamm followed up Rose Mary with a full homage to the Eternal City. The pasta is made on-site, the wine list is all-Italian, and the amaro cocktails are worth staying for. Carciofo alla giudia, the deep-fried artichoke the place is named for, gives you a pretty clear sense of where the kitchen's priorities lie.

1. Condé Nast Traveler The best new restaurants in the world
2. The Infatuation #10 · Chicago’s Best New Restaurants
3. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Frank Callero, Joe Flamm, and Steven Zaleski - Day Off Group

1. Wine Enthusiast Forward 50 Restaurants
2. The Banchets Nominee · Best New Restaurant
3. The Banchets Nominee · Best Design

Soup dumpling tortellini is either a great idea or a cry for help, and at Maxwells Trading it reads as the former. This contemporary restaurant in the West Loop packs a converted warehouse, where the bar stretches nearly the full length of the room and the kitchen folds Japanese, Chinese, and Thai threads into a single, coherent menu. A rooftop herb garden feeds the kitchen. Named a James Beard nominee for Best Chef: Great Lakes two years running.

1. The Banchets Winner · Rising Chef · Chris Jung
2. James Beard Awards 2025 · Nominee · Best Chef: Great Lakes · Chris Jung and Erling Wu-Bower
3. Wine Enthusiast Top 50 New Restaurants

Kasama takes its name from the Tagalog word for "together," which tells you something about the whole project. It's a tasting menu restaurant in Wicker Park where a husband-and-wife team reimagines Filipino cuisine with fine dining precision, two Michelin stars, and a James Beard Award for Best Chef: Great Lakes. Traditional preparations get elegant, inventive treatment, and the pastry work is serious enough to hold its own.

1. Michelin Guide 2 Stars
2. James Beard Awards 2023 · Winner · Best Chef: Great Lakes · Tim Flores and Genie Kwon
3. Eater The All-Time Eater 38

A sleek, intimate tasting room on West Chicago Ave where two chefs turn Korean pantry staples into something considerably more architectural. The room is small and modern, the cooking precise, and the mood falls somewhere between a serious dinner and a genuinely good time. A Michelin Selected restaurant, and a Bon Appétit best new restaurant pick a few years back. Wear something nice and leave the night open.

1. The Banchets Nominee · Best Hospitality
2. Bon Appétit America's Best New Restaurants
3. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. The Infatuation #10 · The Top-Rated New Restaurants
2. Esquire The Best New Restaurants in America
3. Eater Best New Pizzeria · The 2025 Eater Chicago Award Winners

Pani puris and chats arrive at a fine-dining pace in a River North room where rose-pink booths meet exposed warehouse ceilings. Chef Sujan Sarkar runs tasting menus, vegan through non-vegetarian, that read as modern Indian with a quiet French undertow. The food looks composed and architectural, then tastes warmly familiar. A Michelin star and a James Beard nomination confirm what the room full of very still, very attentive diners already suspected.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. James Beard Awards 2024 · Nominee · Best Chef: Great Lakes · Sujan Sarkar
3. Esquire #36 · The Best New Restaurants in America

A charcoal hearth does most of the heavy lifting at this Adriatic-inspired restaurant in West Fulton Market, turning out lamb and other mains with a smoky authority you can smell from the door. Chef Joe Flamm built the room to feel like a Croatian konoba, all whitewashed walls, rustic clay, and hanging plants, with servers who can actually walk you through the menu. Bright, easy, and louder than a library.

1. The Banchets Nominee · Restuarant of the Year
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Frank Callero, Joe Flamm, and Steven Zaleski - Day Off Group

A single plaque by the door is all that marks this 22-seat omakase counter on West Lake Street, so walk slowly. Chef B.K. Park's room is hushed and focused once you're in, the surrounding traffic completely forgotten. The kitchen moves through nigiri with quiet precision, finishing courses with things like chawanmushi rich with mushroom and crab. Dessert pulls its weight too. Mako holds a Michelin star, and the room earns every quiet minute of the reservation hunt.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star

The foie gras Monte Cristo at brunch should tell you where this is headed. Obélix is a white-tablecloth French bistro in River North where duck, foie gras, and pâté en croûte run through a menu of hearty classics, all made in-house. The sun-drenched dining room fills with seafood platters and bottles of wine at a pace that suggests nobody here came to be sensible. Save room: the pastries alone make a case for staying through dessert.

1. James Beard Awards 2023 · Nominee · Best New Restaurant
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. The Infatuation #12 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Chicago

The kitchen runs down the center of the room at this Ukrainian Village tasting menu spot, so you watch the whole production up close. The team sources almost everything from within a four-hour drive and tends to run a single ingredient through several preparations in one meal. On nice nights the backyard fire pit opens, with sour cherry trees visible overhead and, predictably, sour cherries on the menu. It holds a Michelin star and a James Beard Award.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. James Beard Awards 2026 · Winner · Best Chef: Great Lakes · Jacob Potashnick
3. Bon Appétit America's Best New Restaurants

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Coffee Shops
2. Time Out The 40 best coffee shops in Chicago
3. The Infatuation The Best Coffee Shops & Cafes In Chicago

The wood-grain bar wraps around the pasta station, where sheets are rolled, cut, and hung to dry in full view, which tells you everything about what Sarah Grueneberg is doing at this West Loop Italian spot. Counter stools fill by 5:30, and the regulars who claim them rarely need menus. The cucina tipica runs deeper than pasta, but the pasta is why people talk. A Michelin Selected restaurant.

1. James Beard Awards 2026 · Nominee · Emerging Chef · Bailey Sullivan
2. The Banchets Nominee · Chef of the Year · Sarah Grueneberg
3. Eater The Best New Restaurants in America

Dessert ends with a nitro-fueled splatter painting made directly on your table, which tells you everything you need to know about the vibe here. Grant Achatz's flagship is a modernist fine dining tasting menu where scented vapors, hidden ingredients, and tableside theater run all night. It holds two Michelin stars, a Forbes Five Star, and an AAA Five Diamond. Wear something you won't mind sitting in for three hours; standing up is optional, but awe is not.

1. AAA Five Diamonds
2. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
3. Michelin Guide 2 Stars

A mural of Michelle Obama in a hanbok greets you at the door, which sets the tone for a Korean steakhouse that doesn't take the expected route. The room is sleek but warm, with large windows onto Milwaukee Ave. and a semi-open kitchen. The menu reads like familiar Korean comfort food seen sideways, banchan on every table, kimchi stew, fire chicken, and Wagyu tartare brightened with Asian pear. The Michelin Guide awards it a Bib Gourmand.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. The Banchets Nominee · Best Design
3. The Infatuation Chicago’s Best New Restaurants

No servers, rap music overhead, and a Michelin star: Schwa has always done things its own way. This tiny BYOB tasting menu spot runs on the chef's terms, which means the kitchen sends out whatever it feels like that night, and "whatever it feels like" might be chilled gumbo or foie gras ice cream in a cinnamon shell. The cooking is genuinely strange in ways that somehow cohere. Shots of whiskey may arrive at the end, which feels about right.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. The Infatuation #3 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Chicago

The entire room is wood-plank from floor to ceiling, which either reads as cozy or a fire hazard, depending on your mood. This West Randolph wine restaurant has been packed since forever, with regulars jostling for counter stools and close-set tables to graze through a seasonal Mediterranean menu. The plates are bold, colorful, and generously sized, and the wine list leans into the food rather than upstaging it.

1. Wine Enthusiast Forward 50 Restaurants
2. The Banchets Winner · Restuarant of the Year
3. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

The whisky list arrives on a retro departures board, which tells you something about how seriously this West Loop modern Japanese restaurant takes its own theatrics. Multiple kitchens run simultaneously across an impeccably designed space, turning out robata, sushi, and small plates to a crowd that books well ahead. The private dining room upstairs is styled like a mid-century boardroom, in case you needed more proof this place has a sense of humor about itself.

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Banquettes, mirrored bulbs, and a room that manages to feel romantic without trying too hard: this is a Michelin-starred modern American restaurant on the North Side that has been doing this long enough to make it look easy. The menu chases seasonal ingredients with real precision, and the cocktail program is worth treating as its own course. Lee Wolen's flagship holds a Michelin star and an AAA Four Diamond rating.

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide 1 Star
3. James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Chef · Lee Wolen

Julia Momosé's Japanese-inspired dining bar on West Lake holds a James Beard Award for Outstanding Bar and the Spirited Awards title for World's Best Bar, which tells you something before you've even sat down. Staff in sharp black uniforms somehow manage to feel genuinely warm rather than stiff, and the tasting menu now matches the cocktail program's precision, leaning into Japanese flavors and technique. Come for the drinks, stay through dinner, and plan to linger longer than you intended.

1. The Pinnacle Guide 3 Pins
2. Spirited Awards 2025 · Winner · World's Best Bar
3. James Beard Awards 2025 · Winner · Outstanding Bar

Street food from Mexico City filtered through a chef-driven kitchen in the West Loop, where duck carnitas and blood sausage tacos share a menu with the al pastor. This taqueria earns a Michelin Bib Gourmand, and orders come on freshly griddled corn tortillas while you wait under a covered patio. Seasonal specials move fast, so regulars follow the Instagram. Bold flavors, casual setting, and the kind of place that makes a standard taco feel like a missed opportunity.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Nicolas Poilevey and Oliver Poilevey

1. The Banchets Nominee · Best Counter Service
2. The Infatuation #10 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Chicago

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Coffee Shops
2. Time Out The 40 best coffee shops in Chicago
3. The Infatuation The Best Coffee Shops & Cafes In Chicago

1. Time Out #18 · The 25 best restaurants in Chicago
2. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Chicago Right Now
3. Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Restaurant Bar – U.S. Central

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Coffee Shops
2. Time Out The 40 best coffee shops in Chicago

The Txuletón, a Basque-style ribeye from mature dairy cows, grilled over open charcoal with salt, heat, and not much else, is the organizing principle of this Basque-inspired chophouse in River North. The kitchen takes its cues from the asador tradition, applying that discipline to seriously sourced beef, carefully aged. Spanish reds anchor the wine list. Esquire named it among the best new restaurants in America, and it lands at number 15 on the World's Best Steak Restaurants list.

1. World's 101 Best #15 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
2. Esquire Dirty Dirty · The Best Martinis in America
3. Esquire The Spanglish · The Best Martinis in America

1. The Infatuation #3 · The Ice Cream Power Rankings

Rick Bayless's fine dining room on Clark Street holds a Michelin star and makes a strong case for Mexican cuisine as a serious tasting-menu occasion. The kitchen roots every dish in regional tradition, then tilts it somewhere unexpected, with the menu rotating through the seasons and sometimes zeroing in on a single state's food. The agave spirits pairing is its own curriculum.

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide 1 Star
3. Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Chicago

A renovated meat and produce warehouse in Fulton Market, now a grand steakhouse where sweeping wood-trimmed arches and polished brass make the room feel like an occasion before the food arrives. USDA Prime beef hits a high-heat broiler and comes with a trio of sauces; Australian and Japanese Wagyu round out the beef program. The Boka Restaurant Group runs it with the kind of quiet polish that makes a large room feel effortless.

1. World's 101 Best #73 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Wine Enthusiast Forward 50 Restaurants

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Coffee Shops
2. The Infatuation The Best Coffee Shops & Cafes In Chicago

Sinatra murmurs overhead, leather banquettes fill the room, and the bread basket arrives before you've even settled in. Elina's is a neighborhood Italian-American restaurant done with real affection for the canon: clams casino, rigatoni alla vodka, chicken parm under a blanket of marinara and mozz. The kitchen doesn't reinvent anything, which is rather the point. Cozy, intimate, and thoroughly absorbed in its own nostalgia.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Coffee Shops
2. The Infatuation The Best Coffee Shops & Cafes In Chicago

1. The Banchets Nominee · Rising Chef · John Dahlstrom
2. Time Out #20 · The 25 best restaurants in Chicago

A single chef's counter runs the length of a cool, dark room in Wicker Park, putting every diner front-row for the kitchen. Valhalla is a tasting menu spot where the food roams freely, pulling from Filipino, Mexican, Chinese, and Indian traditions in the same meal. The cocktail and wine pairings are taken as seriously as the food, which is saying something. The Banchets named the sommelier of the year for 2025.

1. The Banchets Winner · Sommelier of the Year · Jelena Prodan
2. The Banchets Nominee · Chef of the Year · Stephen Gillanders
3. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. The Banchets Nominee · Best Hospitality
3. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Chicago Right Now

Empty tomato sauce cans double as pizza stands here, which tells you most of what you need to know about Coalfire's personality. It's a coal-fired pizza spot on West Grand where the 800-degree oven does the heavy lifting, producing thin, blistered crusts with those charred edges that take years of patience to fake. The open kitchen keeps pie production visible from anywhere in the snug dining room, and the Michelin Guide has taken notice.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

The menu is organized by ingredient rather than course, with an entire section devoted to goat, which tells you everything about the kitchen's sense of humor and ambition. This lively New American restaurant on Randolph Street fills every night with groups working through shareable plates in a warm, beamed room full of dim corners and elevated platforms. A Michelin Bib Gourmand spot where the flavors are direct and the portions, upon request, flexible.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

Murals by street artist Senkoe climb the walls of this lively Pan-Mexican restaurant on a corner that the surrounding industrial stretch does nothing to prepare you for. Aqua-blue chairs, cement floors, and a DJ booth set the tone before the food arrives. The menu roams Mexico freely, and the kitchen has a flair for the dramatic. A whole grilled pineapple stuffed with octopus and Chihuahua cheese makes the point pretty quickly.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

A New Orleans-style tavern in Wicker Park named for the chef's great-grandmother, which tells you the food comes with some actual stakes. The bar up front runs three-deep, the dining room behind it hums with the kind of staff that keeps things loose without losing the thread. Gumbo, po'boys, and beignets anchor the menu, and the Nashville fried chicken has quietly become the thing regulars steer everyone toward.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Mark Domitrovich, Brian Jupiter, and Aaron Torricelli - Pioneer Tavern Group

The hummus arrives looking like a still life, crowned with charred and crispy chickpeas, zhoug, and za'atar, and the table hasn't even filled up yet. This wood-fired Middle Eastern restaurant in River North comes from the team behind Indienne, and earns a Michelin Bib Gourmand by loading the table with dips, small plates, and things fresh off the grill. The menu is built for sharing, though everyone will test that theory over the last scoop of house-made ice cream.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

Weathered wood, a playlist with opinions, and a menu that splits its loyalties between Sicily and the bayou. This small, intimate Italian-Creole restaurant on Chicago Avenue is the project of a chef paying tribute to his Sicilian grandfather, and the kitchen's personality comes through in calamari stuffed with jalapeños and banana peppers, and trenette with cognac-splashed shrimp scampi. The portions are built for sharing, so bring a table's worth of people.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

A restored coach house on Division Street sets the scene for one of Chicago's more quietly ambitious tasting menus, where the kitchen pulls from South and Southeast Asia through a lens shaped by India, the Middle East, and a detour through finance. Pickling and fermentation run through the menu like a through-line, and desserts tend toward the joyfully unruly. The chef earned a James Beard Emerging Chef semifinalist nod in 2024.

1. James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Emerging Chef · Zubair Mohajir
2. Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Chicago

Tobacco-brown Chesterfield sofas, exposed brick, and a jazz soundtrack that never quite lets you hear your neighbor all set the mood at this River North steakhouse. Wet-aged cuts are broiled with care, and the raw bar holds its own alongside them. The room is dark and loud by design, which mostly works in everyone's favor. The Michelin Guide has it listed, and on a Friday night you'll understand why the reservations go fast.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. The Infatuation #15 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Chicago

Edward Kim's Bucktown restaurant plays Midwest and Chinese off each other in ways that feel neither forced nor fussy. It's a casual, feast-style spot where the menu roams freely and the cooking has enough personality to pull it off. The Michelin Guide gives it a Bib Gourmand, which tracks for a place where the food is ambitious but the vibe stays loose. Go with a group and order widely.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. The Banchets Nominee · Restuarant of the Year

The okonomiyaki griddle in the center of the room is the whole point, and it makes conversation difficult in the best way. This is Paul Virant's Japanese comfort food spot on Lake Street, small and izakaya-ish, with brass fittings and exposed brick keeping things warm. Guests build their own path through Osaka and Hiroshima styles, with a custom Moody Tongue brew on hand to accompany whatever direction that takes.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Stone walls, an arched ceiling, and a lower level with its own fireplace make this Lebanese restaurant feel more like a Beirut cellar than a Fulton Market address. The chef draws on family recipes for his mezze and tasting menu, moving through charred pita and parsley hummus before landing on stylized takes on traditional stews and fish dishes. The bar pours cocktails built around arak and tahini for a shorter, looser visit.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Mark Domitrovich, Brian Jupiter, and Aaron Torricelli - Pioneer Tavern Group

1. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Frank Callero, Joe Flamm, and Steven Zaleski - Day Off Group

The checkered tile floors and art-lined stone walls make it look like a Parisian bistro that wandered into the West Loop and decided to stay. Creepies is a neighborhood French restaurant from the team behind Elske next door, with a concise menu that leans classic and slides Midwestern where it can. The vesper martini landed on Esquire's list of the best in the country, which is not nothing for a place called Creepies.

1. Esquire Vesper · The Best Martinis in America
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. The Infatuation #9 · Chicago’s Best New Restaurants

Deep blue velvet seats across two floors mark this upscale Indian restaurant at the edge of West Randolph's dining strip. The cocktail list comes with its own flavor matrix, which is either endearing or a lot, depending on your mood. The kitchen runs classic Indian technique through a contemporary lens, turning out dishes that feel familiar and surprising at once, the kind of place where you dress up a little and nobody feels overdressed.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Checkered tablecloths and red-sauce ambition fill this cozy Italian-American fine dining spot in River North, where the Hogsalt group went full throwback and meant it. Pastas are made in-house, portions are unapologetically generous, and the tiramisu is heavier on the booze than most places would dare. The Michelin Guide gave it a Bib Gourmand, which tracks for a room this loud with this much garlic in the air.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

Studded leather banquettes and low, nostalgic lighting set the tone at this moody River North gastrobar, where the front bar runs cocktails at a steady clip and the kitchen leans into big plates and bolder flavors. Fried chicken with a proper crust, beef cheek pot pie with bone marrow gravy, a carrot cake you'll talk yourself into ordering despite having no room: the Michelin Bib Gourmand crowd knows what it's doing here.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Coffee Shops

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
3. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Chicago Right Now

Table-shaken margaritas set the tone at Rick Bayless's long-running regional Mexican restaurant on Clark Street, where the menu rotates around whatever's local and the molé gets the kind of attention most kitchens reserve for special occasions. The room runs warm and loud in the best sense, with music that makes the wait feel shorter than it is. The Michelin Guide awards it a Bib Gourmand, and Eater counts it among Chicago's essential restaurants.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
2. Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Chicago

1. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Frank Callero, Joe Flamm, and Steven Zaleski - Day Off Group

1. Time Out The 40 best coffee shops in Chicago
2. The Infatuation The Best Coffee Shops & Cafes In Chicago

1. Time Out The best bakeries in America
2. The Banchets Nominee · Pastry Chef of the Year · Bo Durham

1. The Infatuation #24 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Chicago

The hummus arrives first, topped with brisket, alongside salatim and pita still warm from the flame, which is a good sign of what's coming. Galit is a prix-fixe modern Middle Eastern spot on Lincoln Ave, holding a Michelin star, where chef Zach Engel builds a menu that feels personal rather than encyclopedic. The wine list leans into Armenia, Lebanon, and Palestine, so the pairings have something to say.

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. James Beard Awards 2025 · Nominee · Outstanding Restaurant
3. Michelin Guide 1 Star

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Coffee Shops

1. The Infatuation The Best Coffee Shops & Cafes In Chicago

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Coffee Shops
2. Time Out The 40 best coffee shops in Chicago

1. Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Chicago

A wood-fired hearth anchors this Gold Coast steakhouse, casting the kind of light that makes everyone look like they have somewhere more important to be later. Maple & Ash leans hard into the party-steakhouse genre, with deep leather couches, clubby music, and a photo booth tucked somewhere in the multilevel room. Dry-aged cuts come in generous portions, and the seafood menu holds its own. The bar is a Top 10 U.S. Nominee at the Spirited Awards.

1. AAA Four Diamonds
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. Spirited Awards 2025 · Top 10 U.S. Nominee · Best U.S. Restaurant Bar

Crystal pendants, hand-painted tile floors, and an amber sculpture drifting overhead set the tone at this West Loop Italian from the Boka Restaurant Group. The menu moves through freshly made pasta, puffy-edged pizzas, and a confident roasted half chicken, with a long stone bar doing brisk sandwich work at lunch. It's the kind of room where you can linger over a bottle or be in and out in forty minutes, and the staff reads the difference without being asked.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

The fish arrives already sliced, since the chef handles his prep before guests sit down, which gives this West Loop omakase counter an almost ceremonial stillness. Korean flourishes like kimchi puree and sesame oil show up alongside fish flown in from Japan, and the pacing moves faster than you might expect. The chef rarely looks up, staying locked in, which somehow makes the whole thing feel more serious rather than less.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Food & Wine Chocolate Bourbon Tiramisu · Best Dishes Our Editors Ate This Year

1. US Coffee Championships #1 · U.S. Coffee Roasters Championship · Diego Guartan

Dinner at this fine dining tasting-menu spot on Clark Street begins standing up, with small bites served at standing tables near the entrance before you're seated for the multicourse progression. The minimalist room reads like an art gallery, and the dishes arrive on custom ceramics made by local artists. The chef holds a Michelin star and a James Beard nomination. Dover sole and goat cheese ice cream share equal billing on a menu that keeps you guessing.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. James Beard Awards 2024 · Nominee · Best Chef: Great Lakes · Jenner Tomaska
3. Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Chicago

1. Sprudgie Awards 2024 · Finalist · Notable Roaster
2. Time Out The 40 best coffee shops in Chicago

1. The Banchets Nominee · Best Heritage Restaurant

1. Time Out Chicago Pie · The 18 best pizzas in the world right now
2. The Banchets Nominee · Best Pizza

Ten seats, one seating, everyone served together: Chef's Table runs like a dinner party where the host happens to have a Michelin listing and a thing for caviar. It sits inside the private Astor Club on the Gold Coast, though non-members can book a spot. The tasting menu leans luxe, with ingredients that suit the hushed, gilded setting. Forbes Four Star. Jacket-and-a-good-story territory.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

Dum biryani folded with lamb barbacoa is a reasonable sign that this Bucktown restaurant is not picking a lane between Mexican and Indian, and has no intention of starting. The kitchen weaves the two cuisines into a menu that earns a Michelin Bib Gourmand and an Eater Chefs of the Year nod. Exposed brick, a long banquette, an open kitchen, and a crowd that arrives loud and leaves louder. Share everything.

1. Midwest Living 2025 · Best of the Midwest
2. The New York Times Chaas Aguachile · The Best Restaurant Dishes We Ate Across the U.S.
3. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. World Culinary Awards 2025 · Nominee · North America's Best Mediterranean Cuisine Restaurant
2. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Chicago Right Now

1. US Coffee Championships #1 · U.S. Coffee Roasters Championship · Diego Guartan

1. The Banchets Nominee · Best Design

Large steel fermentation vats line the back wall of this cozy Wicker Park brewpub, making the beer program hard to ignore. The kitchen holds its own with filet sliders layered with blue cheese and caramelized onions, a grilled fish sandwich with house-made remoulade, and a warm carrot cake with candied pecans that earns its spot on the menu. Tastings help you navigate the draft list before committing, which is a small mercy.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Pizza

1. Eater Best New Restaurant · The 2025 Eater Chicago Award Winners

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Pizza

Chef Phillip Foss lives upstairs, which pretty much sets the tone. This Michelin-starred tasting menu in a converted warehouse runs one seating a night, serves everyone at once, and asks you to bring your own wine. Guests wander into the pantry, hover next to the cooks, and eat off plates that occasionally require licking. The menu shifts constantly, but the French fries with potato leek soup and nitro-poached ice cream never leave.

1. Michelin Guide 1 Star
2. James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurant

1. The Infatuation The Best Coffee Shops & Cafes In Chicago

The beef fat fries are the kind of thing that quietly reorganizes your priorities. John's Food and Wine is a laid-back neighborhood restaurant on North Halsted with exposed white brick, a long banquette, and a wine program worth lingering over. You order at the counter, then someone shows you to a table, which turns out to be no hardship at all. The menu runs from country ham to dry-aged steaks, and the room fills with people who seem to have stopped resisting.

1. The Banchets Nominee · Best New Restaurant
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
3. Time Out #13 · The 25 best restaurants in Chicago

A neighborhood restaurant in Logan Square that won a James Beard Award for Outstanding Hospitality, which tells you something before you've even sat down. The menu rotates with the seasons, so regulars show up trusting the kitchen rather than ordering from memory. The room fills fast from morning through dinner, and the bar in the adjacent space is a solid solo option. The Michelin Guide lists it as a Bib Gourmand.

1. James Beard Awards 2024 · Winner · Outstanding Hospitality
2. James Beard Awards 2022 · Nominee · Best Chef: Great Lakes · Jason Hammel
3. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. The Infatuation #5 · The Ice Cream Power Rankings

The antojitos here lean into Aztec culinary tradition that most Mexican restaurants skip entirely, which gives this Logan Square neighborhood spot a menu worth reading slowly. The chef has earned James Beard nominations and a Michelin Bib Gourmand while running what is, at its heart, a warm, unpretentious antojeria. Seasonal cocktails, knowledgeable servers, and a room that stays lively without tipping into loud.

1. Eater The All-Time Eater 38
2. James Beard Awards 2023 · Nominee · Best Chef: Great Lakes · Diana Dávila
3. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

A lakeside terrace with a direct view of the water is a strong opening argument for any pizza shop, and Robert's doesn't squander it. The pies have a crispy, well-salted crust and toppings that lean generous rather than restrained, built for sharing. The room itself is airy, anchored by a big bar counter, and the staff treats you like an actual guest. It landed at #8 on 50 Top Pizza USA, which tracks.

1. 50 Top Pizza #26 · 50 Top Pizza World
2. 50 Top Pizza #8 · 50 Top Pizza USA
3. The Banchets Nominee · Best Pizza

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Coffee Shops

1. Time Out The 40 best coffee shops in Chicago