Duck breast Photo: Martha Williams Boka Restaurant Group’s flagship has always been the most significant, capital-R restaurant in the company’s impressive portfolio (which includes heavy hitters like Bellemore and Swift & Sons), but that doesn’t mean it’s deadly serious. The dining room features a framed portrait of Bill Murray in full sea-captain regalia, a dizzying … Read more
Lobster au pain Photos: Jeff Marini Drive to the West Loop on any given night and peer into the white minimalist box at 619 West Randolph. No matter the time of year, you will find the little room full of laid-back, well-dressed urbanites who seem to be having an absolutely splendid evening. No restaurant in … Read more
Beef tongue pastrami Photos: Jeff Marini Smyth 177 North Ada Street West Loop Contemporary $$$$$ Few chefs think harder about what they cook than John Shields, who helms the kitchen of this sophisticated, tasting-menu-only spot. Shields is a kitchen wonk, prone to intellectualizing his cooking in a way that takes after his former boss, … Read more
Wood oven fideo paella Photo: Jeff Marini However you feel about small-plates dining, you can credit Avec with its proliferation. Fifteen years ago, the West Loop pioneer started a trend that launched a thousand servers asking, “Have you dined with us before? Let me explain how our menu works.” And yet, even in its teenage … Read more
Classic ribeye with truffle mac and cheese Photo: Nick Murway Bavette’s 218 West Kinzie Street River North Steakhouse $$$$$ Bavette’s is everything a steakhouse should be right now. Its alluringly moody interior allows for the transference of whatever vibe you’re demanding from the place—exquisitely fancy, stylishly downtown, date-night romantic. Its steaks range from the … Read more
Sashimi platter Photos: Jeff Marini This self-described “multidimensional Japanese restaurant” from the Boka Restaurant Group comprises three levels and 10,000 square feet and cost $3.4 million to build. Its expansive menus cover many genres—robata, hibachi, sushi—each with its own rules. In lesser hands, all this might lead to some kind of culturally dodgy theme park. … Read more
Carne asada (top) and al pastor tacos Photo: Jeff Marini There is so much to love about La Chaparrita that it’s hard to know where to start. The Mexico City–style taquería attached to a Little Village corner grocery may look like nothing special—a Santa Muerte altar here, colorful papel picado decorations there—but look closer. The … Read more
Roasted Maine lobster Photo: Jeff Marini Everest 440 South La Salle Street, 40th floor Loop French $$$$$ Whether you consider it a relic, a civic treasure, or a mixture of both, there’s no denying that Everest is the last of its breed. Despite small efforts to lighten it up over its 32 years—goodbye, animal-print … Read more
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
