Finally, a West Loop hotspot that doesn’t break the bank. Chef Paul Virant’s thoughtful take on okonomiyaki is complexly flavored and wholly satisfying.
Latest Chicago restaurant reviews
Which Chicago restaurant should you dine at tonight? Read through our most recent Chicago restaurant reviews.
Carlos Gáytan’s ambitious comeback restaurant channels his roots in Huitzuco, Mexico, with bold, heartfelt and unfailingly delicious results.
This pan-Mediterranean tapas spot in Logan Square aims to please with an array of dishes from land and sea—and it mostly succeeds.
Serving mouth-watering pastries and wholesome, scratch-made sandwiches, Butterdough is the neighborhood bakery that every community deserves.
This modern Korean-American barbecue in River West bridges Korean home cooking and chef-driven Midwestern fare.
Chefs Johnny Clark and Beverly Kim effortlessly tackle every chef’s dream and nightmare: a new four-course tasting menu every night.
Flora Fauna’s jet-setting menu misses its connection due to poor execution.
Alinea Group’s take on the classic supper club is charming and enticingly casual.
Paul Kahan’s love letter to the Breton village of Cancale is an elegant, shellfish-focused bistro with staying power.
Time Out loves
Most popular Chicago restaurants
We've rounded up the best chefs in the city to join us at Time Out Market Chicago, a culinary and cultural destination in the heart of Fulton Market. The 50,000-square-foot space houses 18 kitchens, three bars and one drop-dead gorgeous rooftop terrace—all spread across three floors. Our mission is simple: Bring the pages of Time Out Chicago to life with the help of our favorite chefs, the ones who wow us again and again. You'll find delicious barbecue from chef D’Andre Carter at Soul & Smoke, creative burgers at Big Kids, fried chicken from Luella’s Southern Kitchen and extravagant milkshakes from JoJo's shakeBAR. If you're thirsty, sit down at one of the Market's bars to enjoy a menu of local beer, a robust wine list or a cocktail created in collaboration with Chicago mixologists. And keep an eye out for events, concerts and artwork within the Market throughout the summer—we're keeping our calendar packed with things to do.
In a city full of sweeping views, everyone wants to be on top. But this tri-level venue is the tippy top of all rooftop bars. Located on the 21st floor of LondonHouse Chicago, LH Rooftop affords guests stunning vistas of the architecture along the Chicago River and Michigan Avenue. The only downsides: You'll have to arrive early if you want to find a seat, and the drinks aren't cheap. We recommend staying for a glass of bubbly, enjoying the view and moving on.
The rooftop restaurant and bar at the Chicago Athletic Association Hotel offers some of the best views of the city, with an expansive look at Millennium Park and the Lake. The drinks, from Nandini Khaund, are mostly balanced, and very pretty, while the American food is also mostly well-executed and comes in massive portions and is designed for sharing.
What is the function of dining out? Most literally it restores, providing something delicious we didn’t have to make, which we eat in the company of people we love, or at least find interesting. It can surprise us, by pushing creative boundaries; it can be a place to see and be seen, and even offer a kind of cultural currency, like following a certain band or artist. Lately this diversion has gotten increasingly costly for everyone involved; its working conditions are being scrutinized like they should have been all along. All of this throws the question of what restaurants are for into a harsher light. I thought about this question on a recent Saturday at Warlord, a hipster fine-dining restaurant in Avondale that serves some of the city’s most exciting food. My two companions and I were being aurally pummeled by a dark-synth song called “Humans Are Such Easy Prey” while eating a transcendent bite of 12-day aged fatty ora king salmon paired with a perfectly ripe rectangle of cantaloupe. We’d waited two-and-a-half hours for that bite, a sensual yet restrained harbinger of the spectacular food to follow. Was it worth it? I’m still not sure. Chef-partners Trevor Fleming, Emily Kraszyk and John Lupton—who’ve worked in acclaimed places like Kasama and Table Fifty-Two—debuted Warlord in April and quickly soared to critics’ darling status on the back of their bold, elemental cooking, which changes constantly. Every choice, from the name and enigmatic online presence to the first
It's not going to win any awards for most welcoming decor, but look past the Big Buck Hunter arcade game and the handful of tables that could use some busing, and you'll find some of the freshest tacos in town. Meats are grilled on the spot (our favorite is the perfectly spiced carne asada), then sprinkled with fresh cilantro and onion and served up with a fiery, take-no-prisoners salsa verde. Wash it down with a cooling horchata and a side of creamy, made-to-order guac—served with a mound of fresh-from-the-fryer chips—that rivals the fancy tableside preparations you'll find at upscale Mexican spots around town.
Upon entering this breathtaking riverfront oasis, you might catch yourself wondering if you've been transported to a faraway destination. An offshoot of the popular West Town dining destination by the same name, Beatnik On the River draws inspiration from the ’50s and ’60s, offering dishes and drinks from around the globe. The best tables in the house are on the 80-seat patio, which sits along the Chicago River and is outfitted with colorful tile, Indonesian daybeds and fringe-lined umbrellas. Order a glass of bubbly and stay awhile.
Chicago is home to some of the best steakhouses in the world but few can match the vibe and aesthetic of Maple & Ash. Upstairs on the posh second floor dining room, you’ll spot groups of 20-somethings celebrating birthdays, couples on date nights or power brokers doing business. Chef Danny Grant’s menu aims to please with delicacies like caviar, fire-roasted seafood towers, dry-aged beef and truffle agnolotti. Oh, and save room to build your own sundae for dessert. The following review was published in 2015. The Gold Coast steakhouse marries irreverence with spot-on takes on classic dishes. I didn’t expect to find myself in the middle of a clubby lounge in a steakhouse at midnight, but Maple & Ash inverts expectations. You enter the Gold Coast restaurant through a crowded bar, then take the elevator upstairs to a lively lounge before being whisked into the calm, elegant dining room. I also didn’t expect the chef's choice option to be called "I Don't Give a Fuck” or the “Baller” seafood tower, but I did expect classic steaks and sides from chef Danny Grant and exceptional wines from sommelier Belinda Chang. The dichotomy places Maple & Ash in line with other new steakhouses, like RPM Steak, Swift & Sons, STK and Boeufhaus, which update classic dishes while offering a cooler ambience than old-school spots. The meal begins with a round of freebies—a mini gin cocktail, citrus-cured olives, nubs of Hook’s cheddar and radishes with butter—to snack on while you peruse the menu. Sea
Chef Rodolfo Cuadros refers to himself as a “nomad” after a decade spent working alongside Latin American cooks in Miami, London and France. When he opened Wicker Park restaurant Amaru in 2019, Cuadros set out to serve pan-Latin cuisine and share parts of the various cultures that inspire his recipes. Lil Amaru is a continuation of Cuadro’s mission to explore the soul of Latin American cooking, focusing on delicious dishes that are commonly sold by street vendors in countries like Mexico, Cuba and Colombia. MENU: StartersGuacamole serranoFresh avocado, red onions, cilantro, serrano toreados, limePulpo a la planchaCharred octopus, poblano sriracha Sandwiches All sandwiches are served with fries, substitute sweet plantains or crispy yuca for $1 moreCriollo chickenGrilled Amish chicken, sweet plantains, mojo criollo, arugula, tomatoes ChoripanBeef chorizo, burnt garlic aioli, chimichurri, arugula Cuban sandoCuban bread, braised pork shoulder, smoked ham, house-made pickles, dijonaise, swiss cheese Tacos Al pastor tacoPork shoulder al pastor, pickled pineapple escabeche, cilantroAsada tacoSkirt steak, salsa macha, onions, cilantroPacific rockfish tacoAncho Chile battered rockfish, vigoron, smoked chili aioli, cilantro Fries Sweet plantainsMojo friesCrispy yucaPapas bravasBeveragesMexican hot chocolateJamaica agua frescaHorchata
A tasty homage to the streetside eateries of Mexico City, Taqueria Chingón brings pozole, ceviche and tortilla-wrapped meats to Bucktown. The venture is a partnership between Sotero Gallegos (La Sardine), Oliver Poilevey (Le Bouchon) and Marcos Ascencio (Bar Lupo)—three men with a shared passion for the classics. The tacos al pastor are a must, with tender bits of pork finding their match in creamy avocado salsa, sweet pineapple and flecks of cilantro. Vegetarians aren't left out of the fun: There's a veg-based version of the dish that subs in portobello mushrooms and celery root to create a spot-on rendition that's anything but boring. A bowl of chile-laced pozole warms the belly in the winter months, while the zesty octopus and shrimp ceviche is the perfect refresher come summer.
It’s both silly and totally understandable that we human beings require tidy descriptors to sum up what kind of food a restaurant serves. Southeast Asian. Midwestern. Northern Italian. But how should one categorize the bold, veg-heavy, anything-goes dishes at handsome newcomer Maxwells Trading? In many ways, this singular menu synopsizes what it’s like to live and eat through major American cities right now—where cuisines, heritages and identities cram together and intermingle. Indeed, Maxwells Trading self-describes as “a Chicago restaurant by children of the city”—the children being Underscore Hospitality partners Erling Wu-Bower (Pacific Standard Time, Nico Osteria) and Josh Tilden (Pacific Standard Time) and executive chef Chris Jung (Momotaro). Yet even this descriptor feels a little self-serious for what’s in store once you take your seat in the sprawling, urban-chic dining room. Here Chinese soup dumplings collide with pasta traditions of Bologna, Italy; Thai chili sauce dances with bitter greens and rare steak; and edible kelp whisks beurre blanc to the foamy seashore. Maxwells Trading is fresh, fiery and downright fun; I was unsurprised to learn that Tilden and Wu-Bower were inspired to create the kind of place where they’d want to hang out, where upbeat, free jazz spins on the turntable and martinis get their own menu subsection. After all, who said likable means unimaginative? As this 80-seater is seemingly booked into oblivion*, my date and I walked in moments a
By neighborhood
Once strictly an industrial area, the West Loop has been transformed into Chicago's hottest dining hood
Dig into a gigantic Cuban sandwich or grab a scoop of ice cream at some of the best restaurants in Humboldt Park
As one of Chicago’s most diverse neighborhoods, Bridgeport is home to a wide-ranging variety of great restaurants.
Most of Evanston's best restaurants are located right off CTA stops, so you won't have to go out of your way to eat well
There's both cheap eats for the college kids and a three-star Michelin dining destination
Andersonville is best known for its Swedish roots, but the neighborhood's culinary scene is incredibly diverse
Here's where to eat near the museum campus, McCormick Place and Soldier Field.
It's not all Chinese food—you can also find a ramen spot making its own noodles in the basement
There's no shortage of great restaurants in Logan Square, and the openings just keep coming
Discover Time Out original video