The Best Places in Chicago

Flo & Santos is a South Loop pub that can't pick a lane, so it picked three: tavern-style thin-crust pizza, Polish comfort food, and a beer garden with daily specials. Order the pie with kielbasa and sauerkraut and a pierogi sampler on the side, and your cardiologist will lose track of the subplots. Casual, reasonably priced, and equally happy to see you in a work shirt or a ballgame jersey.

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2. Eater The Best Restaurants in Chicago’s South Loop

This is a steakhouse that stayed old-school while the rest of River North went glam, and it has the two-story building to show for it. The menu runs to chops, veal, and chicken Parm alongside the steaks, and regulars start with the Garbage Salad, which comes with salami and jumbo shrimp, so it's not a salad in any meaningful sense. The room is full of Chicago deal-makers who haven't changed their order since the Eisenhower years.

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Steakhouses
2. Eater The Best Restaurants in River North

This Pilsen pizza-and-coffee spot wears its owners' Filipino and Mexican roots on the crust, most memorably with longganisa and giardiniera together on a tavern-style pie. The menu includes pan pies and slices, plus coffee drinks from the people behind Side Practice, so you can have breakfast and dinner in one visit. It tends to sell out, which is the polite way of saying go early and bring a plan B.

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

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

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

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

The Alston is a French-leaning steakhouse on the third floor in River North, where the bread gets sliced at your table and you pick your own candle holder, which is the kind of decision-making that makes a steakhouse feel like a party. Steaks are wood grilled with French sauces on the side, but the duck gets pressed tableside, with a metal contraption wringing out the jus. Eater lists it among Chicago's best steakhouses and River North's best restaurants.

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Steakhouses
2. Eater The Best Restaurants in River North

This is an upscale steakhouse operating out of a former Chicago Fire Department firehouse, which in a city with no shortage of steakhouses counts as a differentiator. Red leather stools ring a central bar, the main room is all wood paneling, and the back patio has white marble tables. Happy hour brings oyster deals, wagyu sliders, and lobster bisque under a puff pastry lid. Upstairs rooms host office holiday parties, naturally.

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Steakhouses
2. Eater The Best Restaurants in Chicago’s South Loop

Uncle Jerry's is a casual deep-dish pizzeria in Cary, tucked inside a butcher shop, so the sausage on your pie was probably made a few feet away and the steak case sits right there as a quiet reminder of your priorities. The crust runs neither thick nor thin, the sauce leans a little sweet, and the pepperoni comes cupped. The beer list is solid, and the drive from Chicago is about an hour.

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Deep-Dish Pizza
2. Eater The Best Places to Eat in Suburban Chicago

Zarella is a River North tavern-style pizzeria run by the Boka group, which means the thin, cornmeal-dusted pies come with a cocktail menu and a downstairs speakeasy lounge. Two well-known Chicago chefs developed the crusts, and the toppings include mortadella and all-beef pepperoni, so expect River North prices for what is, technically, bar pizza. Eater has named it among the city's best tavern-style pizza spots.

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Tavern-Style Thin-Crust Pizza Restaurants
2. Eater The Best Restaurants in River North

The name comes from the owner's childhood in Guerrero, where he and his siblings sold radishes at the market and got saddled with the nickname Cinco Rabanitos. This is a casual Pilsen taqueria, the order-at-the-counter, nobody-dresses-up kind, and the menu runs from tacos to tortas to caldos. Guerrero shows up in the slow-roasted pork in red mole and in the cecina, and Eater has it on its list of Chicago's best Mexican spots.

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Mexican Restaurants

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Steakhouses

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Korean Restaurants

1. The Infatuation #10 · The Ice Cream Power Rankings

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Thai Food

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Deep-Dish Pizza

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1. Eater Chicago’s Best Thai Food

The kind of Lincoln Square storefront you'd walk past without a second glance, which is exactly the point. Inside, Atelier is an intimate fine dining room built around a tasting menu that pulls from nearby farms and wanders across cuisines without ever losing focus. A Michelin star landed here, and the kitchen earns it quietly, sending out dishes that feel both deeply familiar and genuinely strange in the best possible way.

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1. Eater The Best Places to Eat in Suburban Chicago

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Italian Restaurants

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Italian Restaurants

Bartoli's is a casual deep-dish pizzeria on Addison, run by the grandson of one of the guys who started Gino's East, so the family has been loading pies with cheese for a while. The crust is on the light, flaky side, the sauce leans sweet, and a spinach-and-cheese number named for a nonna is the one regulars point to. Slices are sold for lunch, which spares you a two-pound commitment on a Tuesday.

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Deep-Dish Pizza

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Deep-Dish Pizza

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Lunch Options

1. The Infatuation #6 · The Ice Cream Power Rankings

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Speakeasies and Secret Bars

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Steakhouses

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Pizza

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Speakeasies and Secret Bars

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Lunch Options

Burt's Place is a deep-dish pizzeria in Morton Grove, and the pie is the whole personality. It comes in a pan with a crust caramelized dark around the edges, the style the late Burt Katz also handed down to Pequod's. Anthony Bourdain once pointed a camera at it and got very reverent. The advice is to order ahead, since a pizza this committed to being slow doesn't care about your schedule.

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Deep-Dish Pizza

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Lunch Options

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Lunch Options

This Hyde Park counter-service spot does meatless versions of the comfort food you'd normally eat in a parked car, burgers first among them. The Big Mik takes obvious cues from a certain drive-thru classic, double patties and special sauce included, with the choice of dairy or vegan cheese. It's casual and inexpensive, the kind of place where ordering ahead online is the smart move. Eater has it on its Chicago burger list.

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1. Eater Chicago’s Best Tavern-Style Thin-Crust Pizza Restaurants

Carnitas Uruapan is a casual carnitas house where the order is measured in pounds, not tacos, though a single taco is allowed. The pork follows a recipe from Michoacán, the region that more or less invented the whole idea, and it comes with cactus salad, pickled chiles, and chicharrón. Brain quesadillas are on offer for the committed. The family now runs three locations, and the one on 55th St hosts the loyal regulars.

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Mexican Restaurants

1. Eater The Best Places to Eat in Suburban Chicago

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Speakeasies and Secret Bars

1. Eater The Best Places to Eat in Suburban Chicago

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Korean Restaurants

1. Eater The Best Places to Eat in Suburban Chicago

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Italian Restaurants
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1. Eater Chicago’s Best Burgers

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Korean Restaurants

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Korean Restaurants

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Korean Restaurants

1. Eater The Best Places to Eat in Suburban Chicago

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Speakeasies and Secret Bars

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Thai Food

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Thai Food

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Korean Restaurants

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Pizza

1. Eater The Best Places to Eat in Suburban Chicago

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Deep-Dish Pizza

Giordano's is a Chicago pizza chain built around the stuffed pie, which is deep dish with a second crust sealed over the cheese and then buried in tomato sauce, like a pizza that got tucked in for the night. Slices arrive tall and heavy, so plan on a fork and a nap. The menu riffs on gyros and Juicy Lucy burgers, and Eater has named it one of the city's deep-dish picks.

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Deep-Dish Pizza

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Korean Restaurants

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Thai Food

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Lunch Options

Immm Rice & Beyond is a casual Thai street food counter on Broadway, where the hot bar up front does the talking and the staff will hand you samples if nothing looks familiar. At lunch you can build a plate of rice or noodles with up to three curries, stews, or wok-tossed things, and a chalkboard behind the counter tracks the day's specials. It's Eater's pick for Chicago's best Thai food, and you order at the counter.

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Thai Food

In-On Thai is a casual Uptown Thai spot with a short menu built around Central Thai cooking, the sort of place where the salad section gets more thought than most restaurants give their entrees. The green bean salad arrives with hard-boiled eggs and tender shrimp in a sharp, sour sauce. The fried chicken is the easy first order, and it's wise to say you can handle the heat and mean it. Online ordering is available.

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Thai Food

Istmo is a Lakeview Mexican restaurant devoted to the food of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a corner of Oaxaca most menus treat as a footnote. It serves breakfast too, which is where the green enchiladas come in, built on the chef's mother's sauce, so there's a family stake in them. Dinner gets tlayudas and baked fish, and the drinks have their own point of view. Eater lists it among Chicago's best Mexican restaurants.

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Mexican Restaurants

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Tavern-Style Thin-Crust Pizza Restaurants

This is the dressier, sit-down cousin of the Archer Heights spot that made its name on pozole, and it keeps that dish while wandering off into aguachiles, mole, cochinita pibil, and grilled meats. The sirloin comes with pineapple-habanero sauce and avocado mousse, which is a lot of sauce for one cut and somehow works. Weekend brunch, plus a tequila and mezcal list long enough to need a plan, and sotol and raicilla for the brave.

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Mexican Restaurants

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1. Eater Chicago’s Best Korean Restaurants

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Thai Food

Joong Boo is a Korean grocery, and the cooking happens at Snack Corner, a few tables tucked in the back of the Kimball Avenue store. You can get bibimbap, soondubu-jjigae, or a bowl of rice cake soup, then do your shopping with a full stomach, which every grocery trip should begin with. A dumpling shop up front is there if lunch doesn't feel complete yet. Cheap, casual, and nobody minds the cart.

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Korean Restaurants

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Lunch Options

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Lunch Options

1. Eater The Best Places to Eat in Suburban Chicago

1. Eater The Best Places to Eat in Suburban Chicago

Kfire is a fast-casual Korean American spot on Milwaukee Ave where you build your own bowl, and nearly everything on the menu bends to your will, including swapping the rice for salad. The galbi gets compared favorably to sit-down barbecue places, and the Impossible crumbles come marinated like galbi and pressed into patties, which is a sentence nobody expected to write. Eater lists it among Chicago's best Korean restaurants.

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Korean Restaurants

1. Eater The Best New Restaurants in America
2. James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Best New Restaurant
3. The Infatuation Chicago’s Best New Restaurants

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1. Eater Chicago’s Best Korean Restaurants

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Korean Restaurants

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La Chaparrita is half Mexican grocery and half taco counter in Little Village, so you can pick up a bag of dried chiles on the way to eating a taco, which is efficient. The cooking happens on a comal con sombrero, the domed griddle you'd see on a Mexico City street corner. The menu runs from al pastor and asada to cabeza, crispy tripe, and sesos, and there's tepache and aguas frescas to wash down whatever you were brave enough to order.

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Mexican Restaurants

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Burgers

1. The Infatuation #7 · The Ice Cream Power Rankings

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Italian Restaurants

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Tavern-Style Thin-Crust Pizza Restaurants

A deep-dish pizzeria wedged into the part of Michigan Avenue otherwise devoted to flagship stores and corporate chains. The focaccia-style dough gets a layer of mozzarella before baking, which builds a crunchy, caramelized crust. There's a skinny deep dish for the dough-averse, and an umbrella-shaded patio where you can nurse a spritz and forget the tourist current rushing past. Eater has named it Chicago's Best Deep-Dish Pizza.

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Deep-Dish Pizza

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Thai Food

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1. Eater Chicago’s Best Burgers

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Deep-Dish Pizza

Manchamanteles is a Bucktown Mexican restaurant named after a mole, which is a bit like naming your place Birthday Cake. The room is bright and permanently dressed for a party, and the menu is built around those sauces, sampled side by side on sopes and spooned over slow-braised pork ribs. It's sit-down but relaxed, with plenty of vegetarian and gluten-free options. Eater put it on a list of Chicago's best Mexican restaurants.

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Mexican Restaurants

Mano a Mano is a dimly lit Italian trattoria on Milwaukee Avenue, run by the people behind the neighboring Andros Taverna and Asador Bastian, so the block is basically a family reunion with better lighting. The pastas are made in-house, with seafood-stuffed shapes and a cacio e pepe, and the focaccia arrives with stracchino. Expect a wine list with some ambition and a mid-to-upper bill, so dress like you planned this.

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Italian Restaurants

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Mart Anthony's is a family-run Italian restaurant on West Hubbard, in its third generation, and it began as a spot for the founder to hang out with friends. The walls are covered in black-and-white photos of regulars, so you're basically dining inside a very long group chat. Expect red-sauce classics from family recipes, a dozen handmade pastas, and a meatball salad credited to Nana. Come as you are, as the place intends.

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Italian Restaurants

Mas Allá del Sol is a sit-down Mexican restaurant on North Broadway where a buttered, griddled telera shows up in place of the usual chip basket. The chef once cooked for an archbishop, which sets a high bar for the enchiladas and the chipotle lamb shank. The mezcal list wanders well past Oaxaca, so plan on a slow dinner. Eater has it on its roundup of Chicago's Mexican restaurants.

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Mexican Restaurants

Matilda is a River North restaurant that puts Mexican and Peruvian cooking in one kitchen and lets them argue it out on the plate. The guacamole arrives as a roasted avocado you mash yourself at the table, which feels like homework you'd happily do. The wine list is entirely Mexican, tequila and mezcal run the cocktails, and a hidden door leads to a speakeasy, because of course it does. Eater lists it among Chicago's best Mexican restaurants.

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Mexican Restaurants

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Thai Food

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Tavern-Style Thin-Crust Pizza Restaurants

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Pizza

Mister Tiger is a family-run Korean restaurant on West Grand, the sort of place where the free banchan arrives before you've decided anything, including whether you like fermented fish cakes. Eater has listed it among Chicago's Korean restaurants. The galbi jjim, braised short rib with carefully carved vegetables in a broth that's sweet with a bitter edge, is the dish to order. The fried chicken and bulgogi hold their own around it.

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Korean Restaurants

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Deep-Dish Pizza

1. Eater Chicago’s Best Italian Restaurants