Chicago.
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64 places
Rooms you can walk into, ranked the way I would send you.
Key: what the badges mean
★ Michelin star · Bib Bib Gourmand · Green ★ Michelin Green Star · Michelin in the Michelin guide, no distinction · J Jeff's own note · Jeff ★★★★☆ 2019 his own rating out of five, and the year he gave it · new the venue itself opened recently · just added recently added to Jeff's list, whatever its age · 2◆ independent chef/industry recommendations · ! hygiene caution in force · ? no current public hygiene record, not a caution · keep walking Jeff has been and would walk past it · the line under a name says when to go: Destination (plan around it) / Solid (the dependable send) / Listed (on the radar). Under it, where the entry states one: how the room takes bookings, and the date I last checked the entry.
Go here first.
Where I'd actually send you first: the rooms I'd put a visitor in on night one, in town rather than an hour down the highway, spread so six cards are six different answers. Producers, markets and the rest of the city are below.
Oriole★★just added
Destination · Contemporary American tasting menu, French and Japanese elements · West Loop · $$$$
booking essential
You get in through a converted freight elevator, and Noah Sandoval shaves the black truffles over the capellini at your table. The guide calls that dish a lesson in restraint.
Akahoshi Ramenjust added
Destination · Japanese, ramen · Logan Square · $$
book ahead
Mike Satinover measures his soup's viscosity with a refractometer and specifies his noodle hydration to the percent.
Maxwells TradingMichelinjust added
Solid · Contemporary American, Chinese and Southeast Asian influence · Kinzie Industrial Corridor · $$$
book ahead
Erling Wu-Bower grew up half Chinese and half Cajun in Chicago and named this after his oldest son.
Mi Tocaya AntojeríaBibjust added
Solid · Mexican, antojitos · Logan Square · $$
book ahead
Diana Dávila stews nopalitos with zucchini and charred chilies and sends it out with salt-dusted fried cheese curds and warm corn tortillas.
The Meadowlarkjust added
Listed · Cocktail bar, small plates · Logan Square · $$
walk-in
Abe Vucekovich came off the bar at The Violet Hour and rewrites this list several times a year, so the drinks you read about are gone.
Loaf Loungejust added
Listed · Bakery, breakfast sandwiches · Avondale · $
walk-in
Sarah Mispagel ran pastry at mk, Nightwood and Sepia, and now bakes the English muffins that go under her own sausage, egg and cheese.
New & next.
Akahoshi Ramenjust added
Destination · Japanese, ramen · Logan Square · $$
book ahead
Mike Satinover measures his soup's viscosity with a refractometer and specifies his noodle hydration to the percent.
Somewhere tonight.
One tap hides everything shut today and everything that needs a booking, then sorts the rest by how close it is to you. I don’t publish opening hours, because they go stale faster than anyone can check them. Check the door before you go.
The dependable sends
Good cooking needs no occasion, and these are the ones I hand out on a normal Tuesday. 5 here.
Elske★
Contemporary American, Danish influence · West Loop · $$$$
booking essential
David and Anna Posey run a one-star kitchen on West Randolph, and she runs the pastry. The coconut sorbet comes out under a beet and hibiscus fluff.
LardonBibjust added
Salumeria, Italian deli · Logan Square · $$
book ahead
Steve Lewis and Chris Thompson cure the meat in the building and then put it in a Reuben with goat gouda and their own sauerkraut.
Ever★★just added
Creative, modern tasting menu · Fulton Market · $$$$
booking essential
Curtis Duffy cooks a ten-course tasting on a quiet stretch of Fulton Street, and it ran $325 and about three hours in March 2024.
Asador Bastianjust added
Basque-influenced chophouse, Spanish · River North · $$$$
booking essential
Doug Psaltis grills txuleton over white oak charcoal in an 1883 townhouse on Erie Street.
Superdawg Drive-Injust added
Chicago hot dogs, drive-in · Norwood Park · $
walk-in
Maurie and Flaurie Berman opened this as a summer stand in May 1948 to pay for his accounting degree, and their children still run it.
On my list
These are on my list; I haven't been yet. 53 here.
Kim's Uncle Pizzajust added
Chicago tavern-style pizza, Italian beef · Downtown Westmont · $
walk-in
The oven came with the building: a 1954 Faulds, built in Chicago for baking bread, now turning out one size of tavern-style thin crust. F.
Intelligentsiajust added
Coffee, roaster · The Loop · $
walk-in
Doug Zell started his coffee career at Peet's and then sold Peet's the majority stake in the company he built here, in October 2015.
Philz Coffeejust added
Coffee, brewed to order · River North · $
walk-inthe room’s own account
The barista brews your cup to order off one of the house blends. The company roasts the beans in Oakland, California.
Tony's Italian Beefjust added
Italian beef, Chicago sandwiches · West Lawn · $
walk-inthe room’s own account
Tony wrote the beef recipe and his father made the giardiniera, and the family has been selling both on Pulaski Road since 1975.