The Best Places in Chicago

1. Eater Lincoln Park’s Best Restaurants

1. Time Out The 40 best coffee shops in Chicago

This is a small counter-service bakery in Greater Grand Crossing where the cakes are sold by the slice, so you can sample the whole case without committing to a wedding order. The caramel cake is the one people talk about, with light, open layers frosted so neatly it looks like a surveyor was involved. Cheesecake, pies, and cupcakes crowd the case too, and the line tends to move with the focus of people who already know their order.

1. The Infatuation The 29 Best Bakeries In Chicago

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

1. Time Out The 40 best coffee shops in Chicago

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

1. Eater All the New Restaurant Openings to Know in Chicago

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

Carlyle Club sits on the Chicago River and runs a menu that can't decide between a steakhouse and a sushi bar, then declines to choose. Dry-aged steaks share the table with raw bar towers, handmade pasta, and a wagyu cooked over binchotan. There's a small sushi counter for the committed, plus hand rolls at the bar for everyone else. Expect an all-day, expense-account kind of room where a burger and a lobster pie coexist peacefully.

1. Eater All the New Restaurant Openings to Know in Chicago

1. Time Out The 40 best coffee shops in Chicago

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Breakfast Spots

1. Eater Lincoln Park’s Best Restaurants

This is an old-school Chinatown bakery on Wentworth where the pastry case does all the talking and the register takes only cash, so bring some. The baked BBQ pork buns are soft and fluffy, the sesame balls and egg tarts are the other usual suspects, and the egg tart crust flakes enough that you should check a mirror before rejoining society. Everything is made fresh daily, and a few dollars buys a bag.

1. The Infatuation The 29 Best Bakeries In Chicago

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

1. Time Out The 40 best coffee shops in Chicago

1. The Infatuation The 29 Best Bakeries In Chicago

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Breakfast Spots

1. Time Out The 40 best coffee shops in Chicago

1. Eater Lincoln Park’s Best Restaurants

1. Eater The Best New Restaurants in America
2. Eater Chicago’s Best Breakfast Spots

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Breakfast Spots

1. Time Out The 40 best coffee shops in Chicago

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Brunch Restaurants

1. Time Out The 40 best coffee shops in Chicago

1. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Dublin, Ireland

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

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

From the street, Hermosa looks like the hot dog and beef stand you grew up near, which is the joke, because inside it's a Cambodian sandwich shop with a fried chicken sandwich that has opinions. At night it quietly becomes a dinner tasting, where a group of up to 14 can take over the whole room for an 11-course BYOB spread. It's casual and counter-service, so dress for sandwiches, and bring the wine.

1. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Chicago

1. Time Out The 40 best coffee shops in Chicago

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Breakfast Spots

1. Time Out The 40 best coffee shops in Chicago

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

1. The Infatuation The 29 Best Bakeries In Chicago

1. The Infatuation #17 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Chicago

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Breakfast Spots

1. Eater Lincoln Park’s Best Restaurants

1. Time Out #17 · The 25 best restaurants in Chicago

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

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

Lao Peng You is a tiny, no-frills dumpling and noodle spot where the dumplings arrive plump, in a dried shrimp broth, and the chile oil is homemade enough to sell by the jar. Two brothers took their grandmother's lessons and ran with them, and the noodles have a pleasing chew. Seats are scarce, so arrive early or spend the wait watching other people's dinner with open envy.

1. Eater The 38 Best Restaurants in Chicago

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Coffee Shops

1. Eater Lincoln Park’s Best Restaurants

Lost Larson is a Scandinavian-leaning bakery and cafe in Andersonville that mills its own flour, which sounds like a bit until you see the loaves. The pastry case looks like a Great British Baking Show finale, all tarts, cardamom buns, and savory croissants. Order at the counter, grab a sandwich or an afternoon bun with Earl Grey sugar, and expect to linger over coffee longer than you planned.

1. The Infatuation The 29 Best Bakeries In Chicago

1. Eater All the New Restaurant Openings to Know in Chicago

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Brunch Restaurants

1. Time Out The 40 best coffee shops in Chicago

1. The Infatuation The Best Cocktail Bars In Chicago

1. Time Out The 40 best coffee shops in Chicago

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Coffee Shops

1. James Beard Awards 2022 · Nominee · Outstanding Bar Program
2. The Infatuation The Best Cocktail Bars In Chicago
3. The 50 The 50 Discovery

Tucked into a historic greystone next door to Moreno's Liquors, a southside family institution, Osito's Tap is a neighborhood cocktail bar where the drinks lean hard into Latin American classics, agave spirits, and Micheladas done right. The connection to the liquor store isn't just sentimental; the spirits selection reflects it. Low-key enough that you might walk past it, specific enough that regulars don't want you to find it.

1. The Infatuation The Best Cocktail Bars In Chicago
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Coffee Shops

This is a Pilsen panadería where you grab a tray and a pair of tongs at the door, which makes you feel briefly like you work there. The shelves of Mexican pan dulce run from cocoa-dusted conchas to molasses-heavy marranitos, and a dozen kinds of tortillas, spinach and black bean jalapeño among them, cover the savory side. Nothing costs much, so you'll leave with far more than you planned.

1. The Infatuation The 29 Best Bakeries In Chicago

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Coffee Shops

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

1. Time Out The 40 best coffee shops in Chicago

Pierrot Gourmet is a French bakery-cafe attached to the Peninsula Hotel, which means it's the one place in that building where nobody asks you to dress up. Grab a seat among the brunching tourists if you like, but the to-go line is where the flaky chocolate croissants, hefty cinnamon rolls, and tarts shaped like chrysanthemums are moving. The Infatuation includes it on its Chicago bakeries list.

1. The Infatuation The 29 Best Bakeries In Chicago

1. Time Out The 40 best coffee shops in Chicago

1. Time Out The 40 best coffee shops in Chicago

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Coffee Shops

This is the bakery that quietly supplies the bread for The Publican and its sibling meat counter, with a small storefront attached for the rest of us. Pastries start at 7am, the loaves land around 9, and the sourdough comes with a crust that puts up a fight. There's nowhere to sit, so you buy more than you meant to and eat a croissant in the car like a person with a plan.

1. The Infatuation The 29 Best Bakeries In Chicago

1. Time Out #24 · The 25 best restaurants in Chicago

Sarima is a small bakery that shares a room with a burger chain, which is the kind of living arrangement that sounds like a sitcom premise. The pastries mix Filipino and Indian flavors, so the donuts come filled with calamansi and shrikhand cream, and the cookies borrow from kaju katli. There are a few tables, but most people treat it as a grab-and-go morning stop before work.

1. The Infatuation The 29 Best Bakeries In Chicago

1. Eater All the New Restaurant Openings to Know in Chicago

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Coffee Shops

1. Time Out The 40 best coffee shops in Chicago

1. Time Out The 40 best coffee shops in Chicago

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Coffee Shops

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Brunch Restaurants

1. Time Out The 40 best coffee shops in Chicago

1. Time Out The 40 best coffee shops in Chicago

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Breakfast Spots

Susu is a steakhouse on West Randolph that borrows from Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, and Asian kitchens, so the usual creamed spinach has some company. It also runs a weekend bakery out of the back entrance, where pre-ordered croissants, shakshuka danish, and tahini canele get picked up like contraband. The breakfast sandwich comes loaded with house-made wagyu sujuk, which is a lot of ambition for a pita.

1. Eater All the New Restaurant Openings to Know in Chicago

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

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

1. The Infatuation The 29 Best Bakeries In Chicago

1. Midwest Living 2023 · Best of the Midwest
2. Difford's Guide 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide
3. The Infatuation The Best Cocktail Bars In Chicago

1. Time Out The 40 best coffee shops in Chicago

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Brunch Restaurants

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

1. The Infatuation #13 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Chicago

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Coffee Shops

1. The Infatuation The Best Cocktail Bars In Chicago

1. Eater Lincoln Park’s Best Restaurants

Rick Bayless runs a small empire in Chicago, and somehow his airport torta counter at O'Hare landed on the New York Times list of the city's 25 best restaurants. It's a quick-service spot, so expect a counter and a tray, but the choriqueso, a griddled sandwich of molten Jack cheese, chorizo, and avocado, audibly crunches when you bite it. The tortilla soup is the same recipe they pour at Frontera Grill. Boarding group 7 has never been so bearable.

1. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Chicago Right Now

1. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Chicago Right Now

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

The aquarium smoker in the window tells you what kind of place this is before you get through the door. Uncle John's is a South Side Chicago BBQ shop running one of the city's rarest traditions: pork hot links and rib tips cooked in a plexiglass box, fire controlled by hose, a technique tracing back to Delta pitmasters who came north during the Great Migration. The New York Times named it among Chicago's 25 best restaurants.

1. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Chicago Right Now

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Brunch Restaurants

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Breakfast Spots

1. Eater All the New Restaurant Openings to Know in Chicago

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

This Edgewater pizza shop does deep-dish on a sourdough crust that borrows from a Greek bread called lagana, then turns around and makes cracker-thin tavern pies from the same dough. There's barely any seating and the oven is small, so most people order online and take it home, where an uncut pizza stays crunchy. Eater has put it on its lists for deep-dish, thin-crust, and best pizza overall.

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Tavern-Style Thin-Crust Pizza Restaurants
2. Eater Chicago’s Best Pizza
3. Eater Chicago’s Best Deep-Dish Pizza

1. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide

The cocktail menu runs 32 pages and opens with a table of contents, which tells you everything about how seriously this hotel bar takes its work. Originals are sorted by style; classics are filed by decade. The room holds up in daylight just as well as it does after dark, which isn't something most hotel bars can say without lying. Bring someone who likes to read before they order.

1. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide

The ground floor runs dark wood and dim light, with a long bar and clandestine booths; upstairs it's velvet couches and armchairs, like someone's very well-stocked living room. This Lincoln Avenue cocktail bar leans into an old-time saloon feel without making it a costume, pulling sixty-plus classics-leaning drinks organized by spirit and style. The Harry Johnson-style etchings on the menu are either charming or insufferable, depending on your mood.

1. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Eater Best New Restaurant · The 2025 Eater Chicago Award Winners
2. Eater Chicago’s Best Steakhouses

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Steakhouses
2. Eater Chicago’s Best Burgers

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

Fioretta is a Fulton Market Italian steakhouse styled after a 1950s supper club, which means a lounge with a stage, a roving cart that makes your Caesar at the table, and cannoli stuffed with wagyu tartare. Expect dressed-up people, shared pastas, and a shellfish tower that arrives like an event. Book ahead, and know that dinner here involves a live band and a fair number of Sunday prime rib orders.

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Italian Restaurants
2. Eater Chicago’s Best Steakhouses