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The 100 best dishes in Chicago 2014: entrees

Fill up on the best crispy pizzas, decadent pastas, rich ramen and other top entrees we had this year

Amy Cavanaugh
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Amy Cavanaugh
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When hunger pangs strike, seek out these big dishes to fill you up. This year we sampled lots of new pizzas and pastas, found a fantastic bowl of ramen and hit a food truck for currywurst. And about half the dishes are vegetarian, so you can also eat—a little bit—lighter. These are our 18 favorite entrees of the year.

RECOMMENDED: The 100 best dishes and drinks in Chicago

The best entrees

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  • Restaurants
  • Italian
  • Lake View
We like Ceres’ Table’s new Lakeview location, but we like the new wood-burning pizza oven even more since it started turning out these exceptional, lightly charred crusts topped with mozzarella. $14–$16.
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CurryWurst from DönerMen
Photograph: Martha Williams

CurryWurst from DönerMen

We scraped up every bit of the rich, tomatoey housemade curry sauce that coats the grilled sausage and fries, and wound up returning to the food truck for an extra cup. $8.
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Chef’s choice sashimi at Juno
  • Restaurants
  • Japanese
  • Sheffield & DePaul
The chef in question is esteemed sushi chef B.K. Park, which means you’re crazy if you don’t let him fill a bowl with a generous array of pristine slices of fish. $38.
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Spicy and salted crab at Silver Seafood
  • Restaurants
  • Chinese
  • Uptown
Bring a friend and get messy with a massive Dungeness crab, which is broken apart, deep-fried and tossed with onions and peppers. We wound up with crab in our hair, but who cares? $36.
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  • Restaurants
  • West Loop
That the standout dish at this charcuterie restaurant is a bowl filled with seasonal vegetables, fruits and herbs (which are roasted, raw and pickled) is a testament to just how thoughtful chefs Thomas Rice and Kurt Guzowski are with every dish. $18.
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Gyro platter at the Parthenon
  • Restaurants
  • Greek
  • Greektown
  • price 2 of 4

Sometimes, you need to visit a classic, which is how we found ourselves recently demolishing a plate of tender, well-spiced gyro meat, pillowy pita, thick tzatziki sauce, tomatoes and raw onions. Throw in a glass of moschofilero, and you have our perfect meal. $8.75.

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