Sweet and sour tamarind tofu (top left) and the arroz gordo Photo: Jeff Marini Fat Rice may be the most universally beloved restaurant in Chicago. Prized in equal measure by discerning diners, of-the-moment chefs, and food writers—along with pretty much any intelligent life form, really—Abraham Conlon and Adrienne Lo’s gloriously diverse homage to the former … Read more
Bison loin carpaccio Photo: Anna Knott One of Chicago’s savviest restaurateurs, Bruce Sherman has built an estimable career of making American food that’s both brainy and fulfilling. His take on pork and beans, for example, consists of grilled tenderloin and boudin noir paired with smoked Mexican peruano beans and hakurei turnips and served with tomato-bacon … Read more
Ham chop Photos: Jeff Marini The Publican 837 West Fulton Market West Loop American $$$$ The Publican may well be the most Chicago restaurant there is—charmingly boisterous, gleefully beer-soaked, and full of oh so much meat. Though it was Paul Kahan’s third restaurant in his now-swaggering One Off Hospitality empire, it still feels like … Read more
Sweetbreads Photos: Jeff Marini Phillip Foss’s tiny BYO draws a self-selecting clientele: the kind of people who want to know every detail of how that chawanmushi with morels and snails was prepared, or exactly what temperature the compressed octopus tentacles were sous-vided at to make them so tender. And the loquacious Foss, whose Douglas Park … Read more
Photos: Jeff Marini Giant 3209 West Armitage Avenue Logan Square Contemporary $$$ If there were a statistic that measured PPSF—pleasure per square foot—Giant would be leading the league. Every inch of the narrow Logan Square storefront seems engineered for fun. A poster of a Shel Silverstein poem hangs on the wall, a Clash record … Read more
Nigiri selection Photo: Jeff Marini Kai Zan 2557 West Chicago Avenue Humboldt Park Japanese $$$$ You don’t come to Kai Zan for a spicy tuna roll. You come to Kai Zan to let brothers Melvin and Carlo Vizconde gently guide you through a rarefied sushi galaxy. For them, fish is a canvas for clever … Read more
Clockwise from top: grilled squid with chorizo verde; masa agnolotti; roasted rabbit Photo: Jeff Marini Housing a print shop in the 1890s, Sepia’s glam, velvet-upholstered space matches the effortlessly stylish cooking of chef Andrew Zimmerman, who continues to guide his flagship spot with grace and confidence without ever seeming forced. The two-tops tend to be … Read more
Hamachi sashimi Photo: Jeff Marini S.K.Y. 1239 West 18th Street Pilsen Korean contemporary $$$ It took chef Stephen Gillanders 30 tries to get the wrapper for his Maine lobster gyoza exactly the way he wanted it. The end result is sublime: wispy-thin wonton sheets that are somehow still sturdy enough to envelop hefty chunks … Read more
Soft scrambled eggs with confit chicken thigh Photos: Jeff Marini Elske 1350 West Randolph Street West Loop Contemporary $$$$ Embrace the hygge. David and Anna Posey’s nouveau-Nordic fairy garden of a restaurant embodies this Danish concept of coziness. It’s like a well-worn sweater that also happens to be incredibly sculptural and chic. The place … Read more
Lasagna pizza Photo: Clint Blowers Freed from the tyranny of geographical purity—the pies here aren’t quite Neapolitan-style, or New York–style, or any single style at all, really—Coalfire is free to riff on any number of august pizza-making traditions. Coalfire 1321 West Grand Avenue West Town Pizza $$ 3707 North Sheffield Avenue Lake … Read more
