The best new restaurants in Chicago this fall (2026)

How we picked

Every season we build a pack of the newest Chicago openings worth your time — not every opening, just the ones we would send a friend to. Fall 2026's list runs from a 50-seat Logan Square bistro to a coffee bar inside a streetwear shop.

Here are 8 of them, with what to order. The note under each is ours, not the restaurant's.

Restaurants

• Hooligan — Logan Square · Neo-Midwestern bistro · $$$. Christian Hunter won Atelier its Michelin star; his own 50-seat bistro turns out house sourdough, perch boudin and wood-roasted shrimp with a French hand. Book on OpenTable
• Black Briar — West Loop · Coal-fire tavern · $$$. Jimmy Papadopoulos of Bohemian House is cooking again: an English-style pub where nearly everything meets the coal fire. Get oysters and the swordfish. Book on OpenTable
• Gilda — West Town · Basque pintxos · $$$. Basque pintxos on Chicago Avenue. Start with the gilda (anchovy, olive and guindilla pepper on a pick), then Iberico pork and the burnt cheesecake. Book on OpenTable
• Noema — Lincoln Park · Modern Greek · $$$. Chef Konstantinos Kvasilava came from Kyma in New York. Share the dips, let the charcoal handle the fish, and drink from a Greek and Macedonian wine list. Book on OpenTable
• Arla — Gold Coast · Japanese-Mediterranean · $$$$. Six floors above Oak Street in the old Barneys restaurant space, the Adalina team blends Japan and the Mediterranean. Get the shawarma dumplings and miso cod. Book a table
• Mazor — River West · Guatemalan-Mexican masa · $. Cristian Orozco, ex-Five O Four Kitchen, grinds masa in-house for blue-corn quesadillas and tuna tostadas. Order at the counter; no reservations.

Bars

• Drama Club — Humboldt Park · Agave bar · $$. Scofflaw's sister bar went all in on tequila and mezcal. Try the cucumber-salted mezcal sour or a baby marg; it's walk-in only and there's no food.

Coffee & bakeries

• Josephine's at Every Now and Then — West Town · Coffee bar · $. Streetwear designer Joe Freshgoods named this coffee bar for his grandmother and built it into his West Town shop: coffee among the books, art and clothing racks.

Getting a table

New rooms book up in waves: the first month is friends and press, the second is everyone who read about it. For a Friday or Saturday, book two to three weeks out and set an alert for cancellations the week of.

The easier move is to go early on a weeknight or sit at the bar, which most of these hold back for walk-ins. And if a group is coming, settle the date before you book — a table for six is far harder to find than two tables for three.

The other 17

The rest of the pack includes a French tasting menu that has moved to a new home, Liberian and Ivorian home cooking in Bridgeport, a high-tea room inside a South Side arts bank, hand-pulled Uyghur noodles, a rotisserie-chicken counter from a beloved French bistro's family, and a martini bar back from the dead. They are all in the app.

Making it a plan

The restaurant is the easy part. The hard part is the eleven-message thread about which night works. Put two dates up, let everyone tap one, and send the winner with the reservation attached — anyone can answer from the link, with no app and no account.

See all 25 — and plan the first dinner

The Chicago Fall 2026 pack drops all 25 new spots onto your map in Whosly, ready to turn into a dinner your friends RSVP to from a text — no app needed to answer. Seasonal packs are included with Planner Pro.

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