Ad Categories: Dining & Drinking

Monteverde gets all the big things and all the little things right. It’s buzzy but not braying, easy on the eyes but not design-y, always busy but never a madhouse. We love the way the servers are comfily dressed and totally knowledgeable, and we love the ways around the always-filled reservation book, like by going … Read more

Chicago is known for restaurants that offer ultrapremium dining experiences, no expenses spared. Everyone has their No. 1 pick — places like Alinea, Smyth, or Ever that promise meals you’ll never forget. For us, it’s Oriole. An evening here brims with warmth, fun, surprises, aesthetic marvels, and moments of toe-curling deliciousness. It’s also a journey, figuratively and … Read more

For a hot second we were peeved with chef Zachary Engel and manager Andrés Clavero, Galit’s co-owners, when they transitioned the menu from à la carte to an all-in prix fixe experience. Yet we soon saw it made perfect sense because what is a proper Levantine meal if not a feast? It begins with a rousing … Read more

Everyone needs to have a restaurant in their back pocket where anyone they might bring with them will feel comfortable, where reservations don’t require you repeatedly refreshing your browser at midnight a week in advance, and where the food is unfailingly delicious. Avec is ours. It may have just turned 21, but the restaurant, now … Read more

When this modern Filipino spot opened in 2020, its business model seemed cool but odd. For breakfast and lunch, it would offer fast-casual counter service with pastries, coffee, a few plates, and sandwiches. Dinners would be a seated fine-dining tasting menu. Who knew how influential Kasama would become? Today it’s worth braving the perpetual daytime … Read more

If the name of this restaurant sounds earnest, you’re absolutely right. Chef-owner Erick Williams and his chef de cuisine, Damarr Brown, couldn’t be more purposeful about this Southern heritage restaurant — its menu steeped in tradition while going in new directions, its service built on a culture of hospitality and kindness, and its mission of paying tribute … Read more

Thai Dang (pictured below, far right) is a brilliant culinary translator, a Rosetta Stone of a chef. His Vietnamese cooking manages to be at once absolutely true to its origins and wholly at home in an American bistro setting. With just a few tweaks to presentation, menu description, and ingredients, he finds the universal in … Read more

While the dining room at Shaw’s Crab House is a bit staid, it’s hard to think of a more appealing perch than a barstool at the adjacent Oyster Bar. Energetic and always packed, the room is humming with people drinking martinis or glasses of Chablis and slurping freshly shucked oysters (Shaw’s offers a dozen varieties, … Read more

The better we get to know this restaurant the more we see it for what it is: the city’s best bistro. Ryan Brosseau’s French Canadian cooking suggests the meals you may have had on vacation in Québec City where the bread is impeccable, the homey porcelain plates hold hearty entrées bathed in sauce, and there … Read more