Chicago, home to six of the best steakhouses in the world, can now proudly claim a spot among the top 100 restaurants globally as well: Michelin-starred destination Smyth was just named the 90th most delicious eatery across the planet.
The ranking comes courtesy of The World's 50 Best Restaurants (the organization just dropped its 51-100 list right here) and includes Smyth, from chefs John Shields and Karen Urie Shields, as a new entry, the only Chicago representative on the latter half of the top 100. The organization will release its top 50 slate on June 5.
"I often think about how our approach to hospitality stands out from other restaurants throughout Chicago and the world," said Christopher Gerber, General Manager and Partner at Smyth, in an official statement. "I can best describe our service as technically proficient and purposefully perfect, but riding alongside that is the more important rail of empathy, listening, validating and ultimately fulfilling guests’ needs."
Clearly, whatever it is that they are doing at Smyth is working—the West Loop restaurant was also awarded a prestigious third Michelin star in 2023.
In case you are not familiar with the fine dining destination: The staff collaborates with small farmers and select meat purveyors to offer some of the freshest, highest quality and most natural dishes across town, accompanied by a stellar wine list.
In a way, you can think of the restaurant as a love letter to the farmlands of Smyth County in Virginia, where the owners spent much time in (see what they did there with the name?).
Smyth is only open from 5pm to 9pm on Tuesdays through Saturdays and, following this latest achievement, we suspect an even bigger increase in traffic at the eatery. Which is to say: Snag a table right here as soon as you can because it might be much harder to secure a reservation soon.