All 25 on the map
Every restaurant in The 25 best restaurants in Chicago, pinned where it actually is. Tap a marker to see which one it is.
The big nights: Chicago's best fine dining
Tasting menus and award winners, worth booking weeks ahead.
Smyth
John Shields and Karen Urie Shields's three-Michelin-star tasting menu in the West Loop, built on farmers and fishers they buy from directly. The Loyalist downstairs is the casual way in.
Alinea
Grant Achatz's modernist tasting menu in Lincoln Park, served three ways each night: Kitchen Table, Gallery and Salon. Expect theater, from scents at the table to the famous edible balloon; Michelin moved it from three stars to two in 2025.
Kasama
Genie Kwon and Tim Flores's Filipino bakery-restaurant, the first Filipino spot anywhere to earn a Michelin star, and a two-star since 2025. Days are counter service for pastries and breakfast until 2 or sellout; dinner is a tasting menu.
Cariño
Norman Fenton's intimate, Michelin-starred Uptown room: a Latin American tasting menu, plus a late taco omakase at the counter where an oyster arrives dressed like a michelada.
Galit
James Beard winner Zach Engel's Michelin-starred dinner runs four courses, each guest picking a dish per round; Tuesday to Thursday the communal table goes à la carte. Ask about the rotating wine pairing.
Virtue
Erick Williams won the 2022 James Beard award for Best Chef: Great Lakes here, and chef de cuisine Damarr Brown won Emerging Chef in 2023. Southern cooking in Hyde Park: gumbo, collards stewed with smoked turkey, and fried green tomatoes topped with Gulf shrimp. Tables get a 90-minute seating.
The Chicago classics
The rooms people mean when they say you have to eat there.
Girl & the Goat
Stephanie Izard's 2010 original: shareable plates from a wood-fired kitchen, with her sautéed green beans a fixture.
Au Cheval
Hogsalt's diner-bar on Randolph, famous for the cheeseburger (the 'single' has two patties), which Time Out named the best burger in America in 2026; bone marrow and chopped liver round out the menu. It runs late.
The Publican
Paul Kahan's Fulton Market beer hall: oysters, pork and charcuterie at long shared tables, with a deep beer list.
Gibsons Bar & Steakhouse
The 1989 Rush Street original of the Gibsons group, whose beef runs through its own certified program; prime steaks, stiff martinis and a towering macadamia turtle pie.
Greek Islands
Greektown's big, loud anchor since 1971, still run by the friends who opened it, importing its own olive oil and cheeses. Order flaming saganaki, lamb, and the avgolemono, often called the best egg-lemon soup in town, from a very long menu. Closed Mondays.
Sun Wah BBQ
Family-run Hong Kong barbecue on Argyle for nearly 40 years, and a James Beard America's Classic since 2018: roast duck and pork by the pound, or the Beijing duck dinner, carved and served in three courses. Try the ginger mojito.
Pasta and red sauce
Handmade pasta in the West Loop and Logan Square, red sauce in Little Italy and River North.
Monteverde
Sarah Grueneberg's West Loop pasta house, where pastas are rolled in view all day; she won the James Beard Best Chef award for it. Order two pastas for the table.
Daisies
Joe Frillman's Midwestern pasta restaurant in Logan Square, much of its produce from his brother's farm and its sustainability work rewarded with a Michelin Green Star. Leigh Omilinsky's café counter does pastries in the morning.
Tufano's Vernon Park Tap
Run by the DiBuono family since 1930 and named a James Beard America's Classic in 2008: red-sauce staples like lemon chicken and mostaccioli. Closed Mondays.
Ciccio Mio
Hogsalt's tiny, low-lit red-sauce room off Kinzie, a Michelin Bib Gourmand pick with a short list of Italian-American classics done well. Save room for the cannoli-style cannocini or soft-serve gelato.
Mexican, Sichuan, Vietnamese, Greek and Basque
Five more we'd cross town for.
Mi Tocaya Antojería
Diana Dávila's Logan Square restaurant, cooking from her family's travels across Mexico: regional plates you won't find elsewhere in town. The burrito suizo is a Wednesday special. Tuesdays take half off bottles of wine.
Lao Sze Chuan
Tony Hu's original Chinatown dining room for Sichuan heat: dry chili chicken, Chengdu dumplings and plenty of numbing peppercorn. Bring a group so you can cover more of the menu.
HaiSous
Thai Dang's Pilsen Vietnamese kitchen, a 2026 James Beard nominee, made for sharing: whole grilled fish, charcoal skewers, wings glazed in fish-sauce caramel. For a group, the Grand Tasting Menu brings nine dishes shared across the table.
Andros Taverna
Doug Psaltis named it for his family's island: whole Slagel Farms lamb dry-aged and butchered in-house, pitas stretched to order, fish flown in from the Mediterranean and grilled over charcoal, and an all-Greek wine list. Big and busy; bring a group. Ask what fish came in that day; weekend brunch brings tsoureki French toast.
Asador Bastian
Doug Psaltis's Basque asador in a River North townhouse, grilling aged Galician beef over fire; ranked North America's best steakhouse for 2025. The ground-floor Bar Room opens daily at 4 with the full menu.
New this year
Four of the year's best openings.
Hooligan
Christian Hunter, who earned Atelier its Michelin star, opened this 50-seat bistro in October and calls it neo-Midwestern: pike quenelle ravioli, perch with gribiche, hot water cornbread with liver parfait.
Gilda
Chicago's first Basque tavern, opened in July in West Town: small pintxos (sardines under a jamón XO sauce), lamb meatballs and a shrimp pasta. Start with the namesake anchovy-and-olive gilda.
Arla
The Adalina team's restaurant perched atop a Gold Coast luxury tower, mixing Mediterranean and Japanese flavors (white miso hummus, miso cod), with outdoor terraces facing the skyline.
All Well
Oriole's Noah Sandoval and Larry Feldmeier opened this West Loop spot with two ways in: a five-course dining room, or the bar and patio for drinks and raclette-covered potatoes.
The best restaurants in Chicago by neighborhood
Downtown: Gibsons Bar & Steakhouse and Arla in the Gold Coast; Ciccio Mio and Asador Bastian in River North; Greek Islands in Greektown.
West Loop and Fulton Market: Smyth, Girl & the Goat, Au Cheval, The Publican, Monteverde and All Well in the West Loop.
Logan Square: Daisies, Mi Tocaya Antojería, Andros Taverna and Hooligan.
Wicker Park, West Town and nearby: Kasama in Ukrainian Village; Gilda in West Town.
Elsewhere in the city: Alinea and Galit in Lincoln Park; Cariño and Sun Wah BBQ in Uptown; Virtue in Hyde Park; Tufano's Vernon Park Tap in Little Italy; Lao Sze Chuan in Chinatown; HaiSous in Pilsen.
Want more?
For more of one kind, see our lists of the best Italian, Mexican, steakhouses, pizza, Asian and brunch, or Chicago's famous foods. All of them are in the Whosly app.
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