When you think about eating in Chicago you may first think of the deep dish pizza. Chicago has so many more great options as well.
Besides being a great city for sports, arts, shopping, and sightseeing, Chicago is blessed with some of the greatest restaurants in the country. The city has a unique blend of hometown eateries that have been around for decades and newer, avant-garde dining rooms with the latest in hip fusion food. And then there's the different regional cuisines: Chicago, like most cities, is a melting pot of cultures and ethnicities, and its restaurants reflect that. In fact, you can eat a meal from a different country every day for weeks without repeating.
Like almost every other city in America, there are hundreds of chain restaurants in Chicago. But also like other cities, the truly great restaurants are the one-of-a-kind ones, with new places to eat opening all the time. Below, in alphabetical order, are some tried and true favorite restaurants of Chicago, along with some newer, more adventurous places to eat. Whether you're in the mood for a great steak, are craving the more delicate flavors of sushi, or want a plate of creative fusion cuisine, there's a great restaurant in Chicago for you.
Alinea: One of the newest restaurants on the Chicago food scene, Alinea is the creation of star chef Grant Achatz. Don't expect traditional fare at this most postmodern of dining rooms: Alinea's menu is all about engaging all five senses in an exhaustive culinary adventure. It's neither for the timid, nor for the faint of heart. Tasting menus of eight, twelve, and twenty-eight courses are offered at fixed prices, and are rumored to take anywhere from three to seven hours to complete. How's the food? Well, Chef Achatz is known to be a perfectionist who refuses to compromise on anything, least of all taste. The ingredients are different, to be sure, and maybe a bit unrecognizable in their preparation, but ultimately, a meal at Alinea promises to be an intense gastronomic experience that hardcore foodies will never forget.
Café Ba Ba Reeba: Tapas, or small plates of flavorful Spanish food, are the main event at Café Ba Ba Reeba. In addition to reasonably-priced appetizer portions of everything from marinated cheese to grilled squid to short ribs, the Lincoln Park eatery also offers varieties of paella and calderos
Café Luciano: If it's authentic Italian cooking you crave, you'll want to dine at Café Luciano. Located on Rush Street, Chicago's restaurant row, Café Luciano offers a wide variety of traditional Italian favorites. Veal parmigiana, several risottos, osso buco, linguine with clams, and more are served up in large, delicious portions. Forget the faux family feel of big-scale Italian chain restaurants: Luciano is the real deal.
Charlie Trotter's: Considered by many to be one of the best restaurants in the world, Charlie Trotter's offers an artful interpretation of uncommon ingredients. Three seasonal tasting menus are offered: a vegetable menu emphasizing the fresh produce of the season, a grand menu consisting of approximately eight meat, seafood, and vegetable courses, and a kitchen table menu, a fifteen-course extravaganza of Chef Trotter's finest. If you go, be prepared to spend prodigious amounts of both money and time. The menus cost between $115 and $175 and take several hours to enjoy.
Emilio's: With two locations in Chicago and two more just outside of the city, Emilio's Tapas is quickly becoming a Chicago institution. The elegant, fresh little plates of Spanish food concocted by chef Emilio Gervilla are masterpieces, and his slow-cooked authentic paella is not to be missed.
Frontera Grill and Topolobampo: You've probably seen celebrity chef Rick Bayless on the Food Network and even on Burger King commercials, but Frontera Grill and Topolobampo are his home turfs. Bayless is known in the cooking world as a master of authentic Mexican cuisine, and both restaurants serve up the real deal. The more casual of the two, Frontera's menu offers enchiladas, carne asada, chiles rellenos, and more traditional favorites. Topolobampo, Bayless's newer and more upscale eatery, offers cuts of meat and fish with a true Mexican flair: dueling sauces, fresh ingredients, and lots of flavor. There are both a la carte and tasting menus.
Harry Caray's: The Italian steakhouse that bears the name of Chicago's favorite baseball announcer has been a local favorite since 1987. Offering a standard menu of pastas, Italian-influenced chicken and seafood, and just about every cut of steak available, Caray's also has a huge collection of baseball memorabilia on display. It's popular among the athletic crowd, too; if you're lucky, you might catch a glimpse of one of Chicago's many sports heroes polishing off a Porterhouse.
Joe's: On the corner of Grand and Rush in the heart of Chicago, Joe's is a throwback to classic meat-and-potatoes American dining. They have steaks, and lots of them, along with the expected steakhouse sides like creamed spinach and crispy fried onions. For seafood lovers, stone crabs, all manner of shellfish, and fresh fillets are also available. For a few dishes, the Joe's servers will cook tableside. While the food is old style, the prices are not; be prepared to spend, but also be prepared to be satisfied.
Kamehachi: In business since the 1960s, Kamehachi has been serving raw fish since before serving raw fish was cool. The restaurant has a handful of locations in downtown Chicago, and if you're a fan of sushi, it's really hard to beat the creative array of maki they offer. For your friends who wouldn't eat sushi if you held a sword to their throat (and there's one in every crowd), Kamehachi also has a full menu of hot Japanese entrees from the kitchen.
Gibson's Steakhouse: If steakhouses were celebrities, Gibson's would be A-list. Autographed pictures line the walls, and if you're out to spot a Hollywood star in the windy city, this eatery would be your best bet. Oh, and they serve lots of meat: filets, porterhouses, strips, sirloins, chops, you name it. Don't like beef? Try the lobster. Don't like lobster? Well, you could probably get a chicken (that's right -- a whole chicken), and there might be some fish on the menu, and maybe you could even make a meal out of the hearty tomato and onion salad. But really, Gibson's is for meat eaters, and they don't disappoint.
MK: Named for renowned chef Michael Kornick, MK is haute yet comfortable cuisine. The menu features over a dozen fish dishes, all of which are accented by unique vegetable arrangements and sauces. The wine list is extensive, and there's even a cheese list, should you wish to give your meal a European flair. It's a great place to take guests you want to impress.
NoMI: You'll find the creatively-capitalized NoMI on the seventh floor of the Park Hyatt hotel; the dining room overlooks the Magnificent Mile. Part architectural marvel, part art gallery, and mostly upscale restaurant, NoMI prides itself on its reinvention of French-inspired American cuisine through specialty ingredients, classic technique, and its motto of simplifying and eliminating the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak. Offering a little something for everyone, the dinner, lunch, and even dishes at NoMI are created to let the delicate flavor of every component shine.
The Signature Room: Located on the 95th floor at the top of the Hancock Tower, The Signature Room offers a view that is incredible: You can see for miles, even across Lake Michigan on a clear day. But luckily for diners, the food is also incredible, even though with a location like this, the restaurant could get away with serving mediocre burgers and fries. The Signature Room prides itself on using fresh, local, and organic ingredients, and you can taste the difference. The menu changes seasonally, and entrees are priced between $22 and $39. (Ladies take note: The best view of the city is from the window in the women's restroom!)
Spiaggia: It's an Italian restaurant, but don't think big sloppy plates of fried cutlets with mozzarella dripping off the sides. Spiaggia is fine dining, Italian style, which means gently prepared meats and fish, lots of roasted vegetables, and elegant presentations. Of course, there's pasta, but of course, it's all hand-rolled or hand-pulled. Spiaggia offers an a la carte menu of primi and secondi piatti (or, first and second plates, meaning a pasta course and a meat/fish course) as well as a tasting menu. If you're in the mood for Italian food that hasn't been Americanized and don't mind paying extra for it, Spiaggia is the place for you.
Spring: Known for its Zen-like atmosphere and Asian-American fusion cuisine, Spring is located in an old Russian bathhouse on North street. The high-quality seafood is the true standout of the menu, with the cuts of beef running a close second. The restaurant offers an a la carte menu as well as a tasting menu with wine parings.
Sushi Wabi: Let's put it this way: if the thought of eating uncooked fish makes you want to skip dinner, then perhaps Sushi Wabi isn't for you. There are maybe half a dozen hot entrees offered, but besides, that, Sushi Wabi, as its name suggests, is all about sushi. Some say it's the best in town. If you're still hungry after your spicy tuna roll and velvety nigri, try the green tea cheesecake.
Trio: Technically not in Chicago proper (it's just a bit north in Evanston) but still worth a mention, Trio was one of the first restaurants in America to explore the notion of playful and unexpected cuisine. Now its second incarnation, the upscale eatery is an experiment in atelier, or artisan studio, cuisine. It's all contemporary bordering on genius bordering on completely weird. The menu offers small, medium, and large plates that focus on complimentary pairings of ingredients. You'll recognize most of them and probably wouldn't think to put some of them together. Like venison with glogg sauce. But who knows? It might be alright.
Tru: Everything's prix fixe at this eccentric upscale eatery. Guests have a choice of several different menus, including a full vegetarian offering, a menu focused around fresh seafood, and a menu of dishes made on the chef's whim. Taste is emphasized over quantity, and everything's first class. After you polish off your creative edibles, be sure to visit the restaurant's art gallery.
Weber Grill: Walking down State Street, you're greeted by a giant charcoal grill hanging off the corner of the Weber Grill restaurant. For most people, this is enough to lure them in: who doesn't like a good piece of meat or fish cooked over a well-stoked fire? Aside from soup, pretty much everything is grilled at the Weber Grill, from the ribs to the steaks to the grilled tomato salad. On a brisk winter night in Chicago, a glass of red from the wine list and a plate of anything cooked over charcoal makes the cold outside a little more bearable.
