Where to eat
Chicago’s distinctive eating scene might be formidable to navigate, so I turned to Rick Bayless, the award-winning chef, restaurateur, and media character who opened Frontera Grill in 1987 and now owns three different spots in the town. Frontera Grill stays a must-visit for genuine and ingenious Mexican dishes made with native substances, just like the meat-heavy taco menu.
Bayless informed me he favors smaller institutions the place cooks present “uniqueness and personal expression.” I adopted his suggestions and added a number of of my very own stops, together with my perennial favorites: the bar at RL Chicago, Ralph Lauren’s clubby but intimate spot, and Mon Ami Gabi, a French bistro in Lincoln Park.
My journey started at El Che, a steakhouse celebrated for live-fire cooking. “When we’re in the mood for meat, it doesn’t get a whole lot better,” mentioned Bayless. The steak tartare, served in a ceramic “bone,” was the most effective I’ve ever tried.
“I will say Monday night at Le Bouchon is one of the greatest things you could ever do in Chicago,” Bayless informed me of the beloved 33-year-old French bistro. That’s when cooks dine out, since many eating places listed here are closed on Mondays. Pro ideas: Book lunch (dinner reservations are almost not possible), and on Mondays bottles of wine are half-price.
Bayless additionally pointed me to The Duck Inn in Bridgeport, famed for its “duck dog,” a beef-and-duck-fat Chicago-style sizzling canine that lives as much as the hype. I break up it with a pal, together with my first- ever cheese curds and a glass of Palestinian arak for dessert.
Virtue is in Hyde Park, a brief drive from the Obama Presidential Center. Chef-owner Erick Williams and chef de delicacies Damarr Brown, each James Beard Award winners, serve what Bayless calls “a slightly modern take on soul food—one of the best restaurants in our city.” They additionally serve their very own house-label vodka, which makes for a superb martini.
Bayless has observed Chicago’s rising urge for food for sudden fusion and directed me to Mirra in Bucktown, the place South Asian and Mexican flavors collide in dishes like a roti quesadilla made with Indian flatbread and dum biryani with braised lamb barbacoa.
Gallerist Mariane Ibrahim recommended Juno, an IYKYK spot persistently ranked among the many metropolis’s finest. The chef’s-choice sashimi and signature nigiri have been among the many most uncommon and scrumptious I’ve had.
Finally, meals journalist and longtime TV character Steve Dolinsky informed me Chicago is “having a Filipino moment.” He wasn’t kidding. Kasama, in the East Ukrainian Village neighborhood, turned the world’s first Michelin-starred Filipino restaurant, in 2022, incomes a second star in 2025 for its 13-course tasting menu. Instead my brother and I headed to Boonie’s, a Bib Gourmand in our previous neighborhood of Lincoln Square. We began with Sizzling Sisig, adopted by a charred Chinese eggplant omelet with swimmer crab and Batangas kaldereta (Wagyu beef cheek).
