Best Spanish restaurants in Chicago

It’s kind of like riding the El: The wait at this always-packed tapas joint can be long and annoying, but once you get inside, things go pretty quickly. Cheap plates of patatas bravas (soft, habit-forming cubes of potatoes immersed in a spicy tomato sauce) and croquetas de pollo (creamy chicken and ham fritters) arrive at the table almost immediately. A plate of Manchego and a pitcher of sangria to tide you over, and you won’t even notice the wait.

This standout tapas spot is a bit out of the way on a fairly desolate stretch, but offers a comfortable setting, hospitable staff and, most important, great food. The signature menu includes unbeatable paprika-rich garlic soup, plump mussels in parsley-flecked cream sauce, crispy potatoes that soak up flavorful chorizo grease and bacon-wrapped figs with brandy cream sauce so decadent it leans more toward dessert (but have both if you can).

With its small menu of simple but elegant seafood dishes, a dinner (or lunch, if you're lucky to work nearby) at mfk. is a welcome break from fancy plates and elaborate combinations of ingredients. Here, there are boquerones piled with peppers and fennel on a grilled baguette; easy vegetable salads; occasional crab feasts. At mfk., the chefs prove that less is more.

Chef Ashlee Aubin (also of Wood) hit on something we were missing in Chicago—elegant Spanish food that's definitely not tapas. At Salero, you order off a menu with appetizers, entrees and desserts, which is refreshing, considering we're dining in the age of shared plates like potato confit, topped with a gleaming egg and accompanied by mushrooms and a dreamy slab of melted Spanish cheese. Other items on the menu—perfectly textured grilled octopus tentacles, seafood bathing in a sherry-saffron broth, silky flan capped with blood orange gelee—cement how good this restaurant is.

Mark and Liz Mendez, both formerly of Carnivale, escape the trappings of their former employer with this quiet spot. It's a wine bar, so drink up—Liz has assembled an excellent sherry program, and all the servers can direct you toward a glass. Mark handles food, and we're fans of the hearty paella and the generous cheese and charcuterie plate.