The Top 100 Places to Eat and Drink Near Johnnie's Beef
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Rank 1. Johnnie's Beef
Italian Beef American
- Time Out #5 · The 25 best restaurants in Chicago
- The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Chicago Right Now
- Eater The Best Places to Eat in Suburban Chicago
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Rank 2. Santa Masa Tamaleria
Mexican
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Great Lakes · Danny Espinoza and Jhoana Ruiz
- The Banchets 2025 · Nominee · Best Counter Service
- The Infatuation 2024 · Chicago’s Best New Restaurants
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Rank 3. Best Intentions
Midwestern
- 50 Best 2026 · #16 · North America's 50 Best Bars
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Professional in Cocktail Service · Christopher Marty
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- The New York Times 22 of the Best Bakeries Across the U.S. Right Now
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Great Lakes · Ben Lustbader and Sarah Mispagel
- The Banchets 2025 · Nominee · Pastry Chef of the Year · Sarah Mispagel-Lustbader & Ben Lustbader
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Rank 6. Sol de Mexico
Traditional Mexican
Tropical walls and mariachi set the scene at this Cicero mainstay, where sopes arrive filled with caramelized plantain and house chorizo in vivid abundance. The pollo en mole manchamanteles—its mahogany sauce rich and nutty—justifies the dish's name: tablecloth stainer.
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Rank 7. Milly's Pizza In The Pan
Pan-style Pizza
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- Time Out Chicago Pie · The 18 best pizzas in the world right now
- The Banchets 2025 · Nominee · Best Pizza
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Rank 14. Daisies
Italian
Sunlit and sprawling, Daisies has upgraded into a roomier iteration of itself, keeping its house-made pastas—pappardelle with mushroom ragù, rigatoni with pork ragù and fermented tomato—front and center. The onion dip with house-made ruffles remains essential; a new bakery operation supplies pastries, ice creams, and sorbets that close the meal with intention.
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Top 10 Nominee · Best U.S. Restaurant Bar
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Hospitality
- The New York Times 2023 · The Restaurant List
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Rank 15. Hermosa
Cambodian
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- 50 Best 2026 · #65 · North America's 50 Best Bars
- Esquire 2023 · The Best Bars in America
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Bar Team – U.S. Central
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Rank 17. Scofflaw
Gin-Focused Cocktail Bar
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Rank 18. Lula Cafe
American
A brick-lined neighborhood corner that fills early and stays full, Lula cycles through seasonal plates with the ease of a place that knows its regulars. The potato 'nduja tart arrives burnished and sharp with aged cheddar; the house-made spaghetti, dressed in pancetta and a sweet-heat chili bean sauce, tastes of real technique applied without pretense. This is comfort that doesn't announce itself.
- James Beard Awards 2024 · Winner · Outsdanding Hospitality
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
- The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Chicago Right Now
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Rank 19. Mi Tocaya Antojeria
Mexican
Lively chatter and seasonal cocktails fill the dining room at this Logan Square antojeria, where Diana Dávila's menu reclaims lesser-known Aztec traditions—guisado de nopalitos, a fragrant cactus stew with charred chilies and salty fried cheese curds, arrives with warm tortillas. The tacos carry the clarity of Mexico City street food, unpretentious and exact.
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Chef · Diana Davila
- Eater The All-Time Eater 38
- James Beard Awards 2023 · Nominee · Best Chef: Great Lakes · Diana Dávila
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After years of pop-ups, this neighborhood spot has settled into a playful approach to Indian cooking that freely mixes tradition with invention. Naan arrives topped with jalapeños and mozzarella or folded into a butter chicken calzone; Kerala crab curry and chana chaat hold their own alongside. The warehouse space, with exposed brick and a long bar, feels open and generous.
- Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand
- James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Great Lakes · Zeeshan Shah and Yoshi Yamada
- Eater Chicago’s Best Pizza
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Rank 26. Brew Brew Coffee & Tea
Mexican (Baja)
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Rank 29. Anelya
Eastern European
In a cozy Avondale dining room, Johnny Clark and Beverly Kim honor Clark's grandmother through meticulously sourced Eastern European fare: green borsch alive with nettles, a zakusky cart of tart roe and seed hummus, butter-glazed pampushky bread. The stuffed cabbage arrives as a study in restraint—locally raised beef, deliberate flavors, no flourish beyond what the ingredients demand.
- Midwest Living 2024 · Best of the Midwest
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- The Infatuation #20 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Chicago
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Rank 30. Akahoshi Ramen
Noodles
- Bon Appétit 2024 · America's Best New Restaurants
- The Infatuation #11 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Chicago
- The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Chicago Right Now
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Rank 32. Giant
New American
Jason Vincent transforms familiar comfort foods—crab salad, ribs, onion rings—with unexpected flourishes in a cozy, modern-rustic room on Armitage. His thick pici noodles with bacon and jalapeños prove that straightforward ingredients, when treated with precision, need no apology.
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Rank 33. Warlord
Live-Fire American
Chefs Kraszyk, Lupton, and Fleming command a live-fire grill in open view, drawing crowds who queue before doors unlock for first-come seating at the counter. Foie gras with grilled bread and honey butter, lacquered duck, and even butter cake charred over flames compose a menu built entirely around flame and timing.
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- Wine Enthusiast 2025 · Top 50 New Restaurants
- The Banchets 2025 · Nominee · Rising Chef · Madalyn Durrant
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Rank 36. Longman & Eagle
Gastropub
A corner gastropub that looks like a whiskey bar but executes refined dishes—terrines, stroganoffs, omelets with brie—from a tiny hidden kitchen. The daylit cured salmon and breakfast menu rival the cocktails that draw neighborhood regulars through morning until night.
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- James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program
- The Banchets 2025 · Nominee · Best Neighborhood Restaurant
- Bon Appétit 2019 · America's Best New Restaurants
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- Time Out The 40 best coffee shops in Chicago
- The Infatuation The Best Coffee Shops & Cafes In Chicago
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Rank 41. Kasama
Filipino
Tim Flores and Genie Kwon cook Filipino food with striking originality in a spare room, each dish—mussel adobo, shrimp-paste peanut sauce—arriving as both homage and reinvention. The desserts, particularly a corn semifreddo that riffs on mais con yelo, are equally inventive, suggesting a kitchen where tradition and technique speak the same language.
- Michelin Guide 2 Stars
- 50 Best 2025 · #31 · North America's 50 Best Restaurants
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurant
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Rank 43. Cellar Door Provisions
Mediterranean
A sunny corner in Logan Square holds a restaurant content with uncomplicated cooking—tender runner beans with garlic confit, silken duck liver mousse on warm bread—where seasoning lands true and flavors sing without fuss. The breezy dining room welcomes you equally whether you've reserved a table or pulled up to the counter. No pretense, no tweezers, just honest food that knows what it is.
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Rank 44. BiXi Beer
Asian-Inspired
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Rank 45. Billy Sunday
Cocktail Bar
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Rank 46. Feld
Contemporary
Chef Jacob Potashnick orchestrates a produce-focused tasting in Ukrainian Village's open kitchen, drawing ingredients from within four hours of Chicago and coaxing them through multiple preparations—raw asparagus, tempura, juice. A single vegetable becomes the evening's argument, whether maitake mushroom across textures or sour cherries from the backyard trees.
- Michelin Guide 1 Star
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Nominee · Best Chef: Great Lakes · Jacob Potashnick
- Bon Appétit 2025 · America's Best New Restaurants
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Rank 48. Andros Taverna
Greek
A handsome Greek taverna near Logan Square where mezze platters and grilled lamb chops emerge from a wood-burning oven with equal care. The wine list ranges across Greek regions, and custard pie with phyllo provides an impressive finale.
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Rank 49. Union
American
A warm, wood-lined gastropub that balances comfort food with creative touches, from spicy baby gem salad to shawarma-spiced chicken. Regulars camp at the bar under Edison bulbs while the kitchen keeps cheeseburgers and fried cheese curds turning.
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Rank 50. Lardon
Salumeria Italian
A converted butcher shop where whole-animal charcuterie hangs in plain sight, Lardon arranges house-cured pork across wooden boards and soft bread with the precision of a craftsman's inventory. The honeycomb floors and visible curing chamber anchor an old-world Chicago sensibility that extends from midday salumeria to weekend bistro fare.
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Chef Otto Phan's 10-seat omakase strips down to nigiri alone, with fish cut large and pressed onto generous rice mounds that feel substantial rather than precious. The tamago finishes silky; the prices and beverage list suggest a counter confident enough to skip pretension.
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Rank 52. Kyōten
Sushi
- Time Out #3 · The 25 best restaurants in Chicago
- The Banchets 2025 · Winner · Chef of the Year · Otto Phan
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Rank 53. Table, Donkey and Stick
Alpine German
A rustic Alpine tavern on Armitage where communal tables and an inviting bar set the stage for whimsical cooking that refuses convention. The grilled lamb shoulder towers over creamy lentils; choucroute garni's beef richness yields to sauerkraut purée; pretzel ice cream sits atop jalapeño caramel. Creative dissonance runs through every course, from charcuterie to dessert.
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Rank 54. Mirra
Fusion
Mirca's kitchen splices Indian and Mexican vocabularies with unguarded confidence, sending out dum biryani with lamb barbacoa and scallop ceviche in crispy fenugreek roti alongside housemade achar and salsa tatemado that taste like they belong together. A young crowd packed elbow-to-elbow under exposed brick and ambient noise confirms what the food already knows: restraint has no place here.
- Esquire 2025 · The Best New Restaurants in America
- Midwest Living 2025 · Best of the Midwest
- The New York Times 2025 · Chaas Aguachile · The Best Restaurant Dishes We Ate Across the U.S.
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Rank 55. Four Letter Word
Turkish Coffee
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Rank 57. Smyth
Contemporary
The open kitchen at this chic West Loop tasting room showcases Shields and Urie-Shields' boundary-pushing approach to seasonal produce, some grown on-site. A kelp tart with pea butter and trout roe, or foie gras doughnuts with crab, exemplify their restless creativity.
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Rank 58. Osteria Langhe
Piedmontese Italian
A glass-fronted garage space on Armitage glows with bare bulbs and wood tables where Piedmontese cooking unfolds with quiet confidence. Thin ribbons of poached beef drift in tonnato; house-made tajarin, eggy and abundant, swirls with ragù; hand-pinched ravioli cradles creamy la tur. A neighborhood fixture that earns its steady crowds through unfussy execution and genuine hospitality.
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Rank 59. Paulie Gee's Logan Square
NY-Style Pizza
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- Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. Central
- Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. Central
- Spirited Awards 2024 · Regional Honoree · Best U.S. Bar Team – U.S. Central
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Rank 62. Parachute HiFi
Korean-American
- The Infatuation The Best Cocktail Bars In Chicago
- James Beard Awards 2022 · Nominee · Outstanding Restaurant
- James Beard Awards 2022 · Nominee · Outstanding Restaurant
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Rank 63. Middle Brow
Tavern-Style
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- James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Best New Bar
- Spirited Awards 2025 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best New U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. Central
- Eater Best New Bar
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Rank 66. Ever
Creative
On a hushed corner of Fulton Market, Curtis Duffy orchestrates an austere dining room where every element—light, spacing, plating—answers to a larger vision. The food arrives as disciplined architecture: technically assured, visually composed, each plate a study in structure and restraint.
- AAA Five Diamonds
- Michelin Guide 2 Stars
- World Culinary Awards 2025 · Nominee · North America's Best Fine Dining Experience
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Rank 67. EL Ideas
Contemporary
Phillip Foss cooks from his home in a warehouse where one seating means everyone eats together, wine is unlimited, and the kitchen is theater—guests drift past the pantry and stand inches from the plating. His cuisine surprises with playful riffs, though the French fries with potato leek soup and nitro ice cream remain steadfast.
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Rank 68. Tortas Frontera
Mexican
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Rank 69. Alinea
Creative
Grant Achatz orchestrates dinner as theater—vapor drifts across the table, hidden flavors emerge from diminutive courses, and tableside pyrotechnics render the plate obsolete. The evening oscillates between whimsy and precision, each course a small rupture in expectation, culminating in dessert painted directly onto bare wood.
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Rank 70. Valhalla
Contemporary
Chef Stephen Gillanders holds court at a dark Wicker Park counter, sending out a globe-trotting tasting menu that pivots between Filipino, Mexican, Chinese, and Indian without apology—lobster tsukune with smoked pimentón butter lands next to white curry noodles. Dessert pavlovas and a beverage program of real thoughtfulness suggest a kitchen that plays seriously.
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- The Infatuation #16 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Chicago
- The Banchets 2025 · Winner · Sommelier of the Year · Jelena Prodan
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- 50 Best 2025 · One to Watch Award
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Bar Team – U.S. Central
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best U.S. Cocktail Bar – U.S. Central
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- Time Out The best bakeries in America
- The Banchets 2025 · Nominee · Pastry Chef of the Year · Bo Durham
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Rank 74. Queen Mary
British-Inspired Cocktail Bar
- 50 Best 2026 · #80 · North America's 50 Best Bars
- Esquire 2023 · Market Price Martini · The Best Martinis in America
- Esquire 2024 · Martini Service · The Best Martinis in America
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Rank 75. Chef's Special Cocktail Bar
American Chinese
The dining room glows with oceanic blues and vibrant art, a loud, convivial space where a U-shaped bar anchors clusters of tables built for lingering. The menu trades in Chinese-American comfort—dan dan noodles, a bone-in pork shank glazed dark with black beans, fried string beans suspended in broad bean purée—each dish settling in with the weight of something remembered.
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Rank 76. Milly’s Pizza In The Pan
Pan-style Pizza
- Time Out Chicago Pie · The 18 best pizzas in the world right now
- The Infatuation #23 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Chicago
- The Banchets 2025 · Nominee · Best Pizza
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Rank 77. Kumiko
Japanese Cocktail Bar
Julia Momosé's dining bar pairs an exceptional Japanese spirits collection with sharp-uniformed servers who radiate genuine warmth across a room designed for lingering. The kitchen matches that precision—butter cabbage with ramp miso and katsuobushi, grilled Arctic char in shio koji beurre blanc—each plate calibrated as carefully as the cocktails beside it.
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Rank 78. Thattu
Coastal Indian
- Eater 2023 · The Best New Restaurants in America
- The New York Times 2023 · The Restaurant List
- The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Chicago Right Now
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Rank 79. Estereo
Latin-American
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Rank 83. Brasero
South American
- James Beard Awards 2026 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program
- Wine Enthusiast 2024 · Forward 50 Restaurants
- Time Out #23 · The 25 best restaurants in Chicago
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Rank 85. Margie's Candies
Old-School Dessert
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Rank 86. Redhot Ranch
Chicago-Style American
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An alleyway corner in Ukrainian Village where hanging plants frame a scatter of garden tables and Chef Noah Sandoval's pan pizzas arrive charred and purposeful. The soppressata square with Castelvetrano olives and maitake mushrooms tastes like someone finally got the ratio right.
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Rank 88. Ina Mae
Southern
A sprawling New Orleans tavern anchors a corner of Wicker Park with a three-deep bar and the restless energy of a place that knows what it does. The gumbo and po'boys arrive honest and sturdy, but it's the Nashville fried chicken—a staff obsession—that reveals the kitchen's true ambition.
- James Beard Awards 2025 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Mark Domitrovich, Brian Jupiter, and Aaron Torricelli - Pioneer Tavern Group
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
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Rank 89. Oriole
French-Japanese New American
A former warehouse accessed by freight elevator, Oriole channels restrained elegance through its open kitchen and striking ceiling collage. Chef Noah Sandoval's French-Japanese tasting menu demonstrates disciplined technique, with black truffle capellini and foie gras canapés executed with quiet precision.
- AAA Five Diamonds
- Michelin Guide 2 Stars
- The Infatuation Infatuation’s Highest-Rated Restaurants In America
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- Time Out #20 · The 25 best restaurants in Chicago
- The Banchets 2025 · Nominee · Rising Chef · John Dahlstrom
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Rank 91. Le Bouchon
Lyonnaise French
- James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Nicolas Poilevey and Oliver Poilevey
- The Banchets 2025 · Winner · Best Neighborhood Restaurant
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In a converted coach house on Division, Zubair Mohajir distills his childhood across India and the Middle East into tasting menus that layer pickling and fermentation through South and Southeast Asian cuisines. A sweet potato pavé under molaga podi rub, dumplings glossed with beet butter and mushrooms, ube jalebi swimming in saffron—each plate announces a cook fully arrived at his ambition.
- James Beard Awards 2024 · Semifinalist · Emerging Chef · Zubair Mohajir
- Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
- Eater The 38 Essential Restaurants in Chicago
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Rank 94. Osito's Tap
Mexican
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Rank 96. Soul & Smoke
Chicago
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Rank 98. Inner Town Pub
Chicago
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Rank 99. Galit
Modern Middle Eastern
Inside a modest storefront, Zach Engel's modern Middle Eastern cooking unfolds through a prix-fixe of diners' choosing, opening with creamy hummus, warm pita, and pickles that establish the evening's warmth. The falafel carries unexpected brightness, wines from the Levantine region flow with purpose, and the whole operation hums with genuine hospitality.
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Rank 100. Schwa
Contemporary
No servers, rap at full volume, and a kitchen that treats classical technique like a toy to dismantle—Schwa remains defiantly itself. A single tasting might pivot from chilled gumbo with blue crab crisps to foie gras ice cream in a cinnamon shell to quail dusted in jerk spice. The cooking is deliberately provocative, sometimes brilliant, always refusing to apologize.