Chicago racks up a slew of Michelin stars and James Beard Awards, but it keeps it real with an affordable, no-pretenses scene that spreads across neighborhoods and mixes with the city’s cultural mash-up.
Something tantalizing is always cooking in Chicago, and the 10 dishes below lead the pack.
Get your goat at Birrieria Zaragoza
Humble Birrieria Zaragoza focuses on one thing: birria, a stew of tender, adobo-marinated goat traditional to Jalisco, Mexico, the chef’s hometown. The compact menu has plates or bowls of it, bone in or bone out. Go for the plate, bone in, and then take a handmade corn tortilla, load it with birria, diced onions, cilantro and fresh salsa, and dunk it into the rich consommé that comes on the side. They’ve been crowned Chicago’s best tacos for a reason.
How to get it: The Archer Heights location of Birrieria Zaragoza takes reservations by phone; the smaller Uptown outpost does not.
Heft a slice of pepperoni deep-dish at Pequod’s Pizza
Deep-dish pizza was invented in Chicago. Debates rage over who makes the best version now, but for many locals the answer is easy: Pequod’s Pizza. The pepperoni pie is the gold standard, baked in a cast-iron pan lined with mozzarella, so it emerges with a caramelized cheese crust that crackles with every bite.
How to get it: Book a few days in advance. Walk-ins are welcome, but you may wait an hour, since that’s about how long it takes for each pizza to bake.
Twirl your fork in the pasta yiayia at Lula Cafe
Arty Lula Cafe has been serving farm-to-table fare for 25 years, and doing such a bang-up job that it won this year’s James Beard Award for Outstanding Hospitality. While most of the menu comes and goes with the seasons, one dish remains constant: pasta yiayia (pronounced ‘yah-yah’). Named after the Greek word for grandma, the bowl of thick noodles is tossed with nutty browned butter, toasty garlic, salty feta and earthy cinnamon. The dish was inspired by the owner’s own yiayia and evokes a soulful taste of the old country.
How to get it: Make dinner reservations a good week in advance. Walk-ins are accepted, but arrive early. Lula doesn’t take lunch bookings.
Fork into a towering slice of caramel cake at Brown Sugar Bakery
Chef Stephanie Hart conjures the spirit of her Southern grandmother when baking her caramel cake. Each hulking wedge – in which soft, melty caramel plumps up four layers of spongy yellow cake – really does smack of love. Red velvet cake, German dark chocolate cake and carrot cake are among the other temptations from the Beard Award Outstanding Baker semifinalist.
How to get it: Order through Brown Sugar Bakery’s website for pick up, or walk in and hope they’re not sold out. Picnic tables outside let you devour your spoils on the spot.
Feel the heat of the Kerala fried chicken sandwich at Thattu
Thattu is a Chicago newcomer, set in a sunny, repurposed warehouse where dishes inspired by the South Indian coastal cuisine of Kerala warm the tables. The fried chicken sandwich shows everyone how it’s done, with crisp-battered bird thigh, snappy pickles and curry leaf aioli piled high on a soft brioche bun. It hits your mouth with a hot-spiced wallop.
How to get it: Thattu takes reservations for lunch and dinner; book a day or two in advance.
Savor a bowl of Filipino lugaw at Uncle Mike’s Place
You’re forgiven for thinking Uncle Mike’s Place is just an old-school, bacon-and-eggs breakfast joint. It is, but thanks to Mike’s Filipina chef wife, the menu also includes Filipino comfort foods such as sweet longanisa sausage, garlicky fried rice and warm, soothing lugaw (rice porridge). A free bowl of the latter arrives when you sit down at your table, simmered from a family recipe using chicken slivers, crunchy fried garlic, sharp-tinged scallions and tangy sliced lemon for a gorgeous explosion of flavors.
How to get it: Uncle Mike’s Place does not take reservations. Weekdays you’ll likely get seated right away, but on weekends you might have a 20- to 30-minute wait.
Bite into gooey arancini at Sfera Sicilian Street Food
Sfera’s two young chefs initially hawked their arancini (fried, cheesy rice balls) at farmers markets, but when fans clamored for more, they opened a small cafe near Osterman Beach. What to crunch into first – the arancini classico (beef ragu, risotto and mozzarella), arancini porcini (mushrooms and fontina cheese) or arancini wild garlic (with ricotta and mozzarella)? Maybe all three, with a side of sparkling lemonade.
How to get it: Sfera Sicilian Street Food doesn’t take reservations. The small seating area usually has availability, as most people carry out. You can order ahead online.
Slurp the rich tom kha kai at Me Dee Cafe
Chicago has myriad Thai restaurants that serve good tom kha kai (chicken coconut milk soup), but there’s something to be said for a place that does it supremely, addictively well. That place is Me Dee Cafe. Hearty chicken hunks, galangal slivers and lime leaves bubble up in the thick, velvety broth that is coziness in a bowl.
How to get it: Me Dee Cafe takes reservations by phone, but you can almost always walk in and get a table. Bonus: it’s open until 12:30am daily to satisfy late-night cravings.
Taste-travel south by eating the gumbo at Virtue
Chef Erick Williams keeps the flavors of Southern cooking alive at Virtue. He won a Beard Award in 2022, and his gumbo is one of the main reasons why. The thick, smoky stew arrives in a china bowl where chunks of chicken and andouille sausage bob, and a dollop of buttery Carolina gold rice tames the spice.
How to get it: Make reservations online a day or two in advance.
Sweeten your day with maisok at Tary Coffee House
Tary is a type of millet grown in Kazakhstan, and it’s the main ingredient in the food at this sleek cafe, where colorful carpets and carved wooden bowls from the homeland set the scene. Try the maisok, a little pot of oatmeal-like porridge cooked with the signature grain and sweet condensed milk. It makes an energizing breakfast to fuel your plans for the day, or a tasty afternoon treat (it’s also considered a dessert).
How to get it: Tary Coffee House doesn’t accept reservations. Scoring a table on weekdays should be no fuss, but weekends take patience.
Vegetarians and vegans
Vegetarians will be fine in Chicago, as most restaurants have some sort of meat-free dish, typically a pasta or veggie burger. Vegans will need to be a bit more focused in their search. Bloom Plant Based Kitchen, Liberation Kitchen, Native Foods and Chicago Diner lead the tried-and-true options that cater to vegans.