Try the chicken-thigh pizza from our 100 Best list: Everybody knows that, at the end of the day, there’s really nothing more satisfying than a well-made pizza.
Try the moules + frites from our 100 Best list: These things just may be the tenderest, most delicious mussels Chicago has seen yet.
Try the Full English fry up from our 100 Best list: Hands down, this British pub is putting out one of the best brunches in the city, from the ornate coffee service to made-in-house seasonal scones.
Try the fried chicken and waffles from our 100 Best list: The chance to eat Art Smith's incomparable fried chicken from the dinner menu, for breakfast—smothered with Burton’s maple syrup.
Try the bagel sandwich from our 100 Best list: We’ve latched on to one of the few always-present brunch items on this ever-changing menu, this bagel with lush trout cream cheese and a fried egg.
Try the mashbrown from our 100 Best list: The search for the perfect hash browns ends at Bite, where a patty of skin-on potato mash is always fried to a golden crisp.
Try the estrellados y tampiqueña from our 100 Best list: We order steak and eggs, and we challenge you to find a better, more fairly priced version than this aggressively seasoned $12 skirt steak.
Try the Macau pork belly from our 100 Best list: Chef Wu Ming's made us care about pork belly again, accomplished by crisping the skin like candy and cooking the flesh into silky submission.
Try the croque-madame from our 100 Best list: Lush has developed one of the most craveworthy menus of drinking snacks in the city, though this sandwich—ham, cheese, béchamel, egg—is no snack.
Try the Bridge House Burger from our 100 Best list: This burger is rebellious in its restraint, classic in its conception and on-point in its execution. None of that keeps it from being enormous.
Try the squid-ink gnocchi in carrot broth from our 100 Best list: Chef Giuseppe Tentori is first and foremost an Italian & where he really shines is with pastas such as this rich yet delicate gnocchi.
Try the chef’s selection steak from our 100 Best list: Go for the chef’s selection, they’re beautifully marbled, expertly grilled over Japanese binchotan charcoal, and the best value in the house.
Try the Autumn Scene at Next: Childhood from our 100 Best list: This stunning, intriguing, arresting, intricate, beguiling array of shoots and leaves is like a salad we want to live in.
Try the chilled seafood platter from our 100 Best list: Leave it to the Lettuce Entertain You restaurant group to find a way to turn a luxurious platter of fresh lobster, shrimp and more into a steal.
Try the Competition St. Louis slab from our 100 Best list: These ribs take two additional hours of labor because they’re pulled out of the smoker periodically to baste. These bones are killing it.
Try the fried chicken dinner from our 100 Best list: Dinner is served only Wednesdays & Fridays, but the limited window is worth hitting for some of the best fried chicken around.
Try the mushroom and kale pie from our 100 Best list: This is one of our favorite openings of the year: It’s understated, authentic and charming, just like this individual savory pie.
Try the Montreal-style smoked pastrami from our 100 Best list: The smoked meat of Montreal: thick, hand-cut slices, edges lined with black pepper, the meat gorgeously marbled and fall-apart tender.
Try the Swiss chard tortelloni from our 100 Best list: These chard-stuffed pasta pockets aren’t currently on the menu. But we strongly encourage you to start a petition to bring them back.
Try the goat-cheese tortalacci from our 100 Best list: These pockets of delicate tortalacci are like tiny, edible presents to everyone lucky enough to get their hands on them.
Try the duck fat yaki soba noodles from our 100 Best list: A bowl of everything you could ask for: thick, satisfying noodles in mustard sauce, fatty morsels of duck and crunchy slivers of cabbage.
Try the braised rabbit from our 100 Best list: Peas and rabbit. Is that some kind of twisted joke, serving rabbit with the very things it loves to eat (before it’s roasted)?
Try the kimchi and sausages from our 100 Best list: It’s a Polish-Korean mash-up and the best of both worlds. (Look for the free grub to reappear occasionally over the winter.)
Try the chef’s cut New York strip from our 100 Best list: The high-end chain had us woozy with its dry-ice martinis, warm butter cake, and expertly cooked and seasoned cuts of beef.
Try the grilled green tea–washed mackerel pike from our 100 Best list: Chef-owner Kee Chan’s underappreciated ode to grilled seafood & modern Japanese small plates are insanely good, expertly grilled.
Try the scallops from our 100 Best list: The accompaniments (corn-poblano hash on our first visit) change with the seasons. The flawlessly seared scallops are here to stay.
Try the carne en su jugo from our 100 Best list: Pinto beans, crispy bacon, radish rounds, avocado, raw onion and cilantro among oil droplets lining the surface of tender bits of beef in its juices.
Try the Posole verde from our 100 Best list: The hearty green hominy stew rules our winters, with its hunks of pork, grassy broth and mess of add-ins alongside.
Try the almond soup from our 100 Best list: When is a soup the most satisfying part of a midsummer meal? When it is as cool, smooth & balanced (sweet, acidic grapes; rich, savory almonds) as this one.
Try the caldo gallego from our 100 Best list: With white beans, potato, spinach, ham and chorizo, it’s every bit as smoky, porky and satisfying as the restaurant’s Cubano.
Try the cioppino from our 100 Best list: Among the reasons people flock to the place is this classic San Francisco dish: a spicy broth sporting a rotating cast of fish, sweet shrimp & tender mussels.
Try the soup from our 100 Best list: Rick Spiros’s herbaceous, spicy broths, such as this take on Vietnamese pho (we tried it with short ribs—now it’s made with braised brisket) are life-sustaining.
Try the Motawma from our 100 Best list: Move on to motawma, the ethereal whipped collision of garlic and potatoes that makes the trek to Bridgeview well worth it.
Try the sturgeon “caviar” from our 100 Best list: Anthony Martin created his own take on caviar: smoked sturgeon turned into a mousse and then dropped into cold oil to form silvery-white pearls.
Try the garlic bread from our 100 Best list: It was a close call between this side dish and the goat-cheese cheesecake. But garlic-schmeared bread smothered in blue-cheese sauce wins every time.
Try the french fries from our 100 Best list: It’s the fries that stick with us: skin on, hand cut, deep brown, liberally salted and pretty much perfect.
Try the salad with buttermilk dressing from our 100 Best list: An obsession with detail, an amount of scrutiny seldom applied to lettuce, a superlative, creamy dressing.
Try the mozzarella sticks from our 100 Best list: You’ve got to give props to a mozzarella stick whose mozz is made in-house.
Try the pork loin tartine from our 100 Best list: The Logan Square wine bar is turning out glammed-up bruschetta piled with pickled pork loin, whipped feta, Bosc pears and juniper vinaigrette.
Try the onion rings from our 100 Best list: They’re executed with attention to detail—thick-cut rings dipped in beer batter, fried golden and sprinkled with salt. Simple but standout.
Try the kimchi bacon cheese fries from our 100 Best list: We never really understood the fuss over cheese fries…until we had these.
Try the Pommes Anna from our 100 Best list: This unassuming potato side dish—crispy and golden on top, tender and gratinlike underneath—makes you remember why you love seasoned chef Jason Paskewitz.
Try the fava-bean crostini from our 100 Best list: You realize why everyone wants to imitate Avec. And just how inimitable Avec is.
Try the Naem khao thawt from our 100 Best list: Northern specialties like this crispy rice salad with ham, are a textbook example of Thai food’s ability to hit sweet, sour, salty & spicy all at once.
Try the fried onions with lemon and jalapeño from our 100 Best list: A medley that balances the sweetness of the onions with acidity (the lemon), heat (the jalapeño) and lots of flavor (both).
Try the goat arancini from our 100 Best list: In Giuseppe Scurato’s hands fried rice balls are crisp and ethereal, qualities that are a foil for the meaty goat ragù inside.
Try the bhel puri from our 100 Best list: This heaping pile of puffed rice, chickpeas, onions and cilantro, drowned in a rainbow of chutneys, is dubbed “Indian nachos” by many.
Try the blue-cheese-and-mushroom beignets from our 100 Best list:We went for the cocktails. We came back for these meltingly rich puffs.
Try the roast carrot and avocado salad from our 100 Best list:Crunchy with seeds, redolent with spices and enhanced with crème fraîche, this is proof there is such a thing as salad evolution.
Try the Forest mushrooms from our 100 Best list: Founding chef Laurent Gras left. Michelin took away two stars. When we ate this wild and brooding mushroom dish at L2O, we couldn’t have cared less.
Try the steak tartare from our 100 Best list: If you can find a better steak tartare anywhere in town, we’re buying.
Try the ricotta and honeycomb from our 100 Best list: This ricotta is richer and smoother than we could have imagined (it’s whipped with olive oil), paired with sweet honeycomb and grilled bread.
Try the ham and cheese fondue from our 100 Best list:Take a croque-madame, increase the cheese tenfold, melt it in a crock, fold in ham, put the egg on top and use the bread on the side, for dipping.
Try the basque cake from our 100 Best list: Thankfully, this warm cake with a golden crust and soft middle is the only dessert pastry chef Amanda Rockman keeps on her menu year-round.
Try the Irish bread pudding from our 100 Best list: These slices of moist bread pudding are griddled, giving the pudding crispy, caramelized edges—and giving you a reason go take a nap.
Try the Rau câu from our 100 Best list: Stiff coconut custard flavored with grassy pandan leaf and poured into a skinned coconut shell to set.
Try the Salted-caramel marshmallows from our 100 Best list: Katherine Duncan takes her masterful caramel and folds it into her light marshmallows sweetened with wildflower honey.
Try the Chèvre fritters from our 100 Best list: Thanks to pastry chef Elissa Narrow, now every time we bite into a fritter, we expect it to ooze with liquefied Prairie Fruits Farm goat cheese.
Try the frozen cucumber mousse from our 100 Best list: Executive pastry chef Bryce Caron turns a humble cucumber into this creamsicle-like dessert, which is unexpectedly rich & surprisingly refreshing
Try the pineapple upside-down cake from our 100 Best list:Sandra Holl turns a dessert most associated with the Midwest, the ’70s and canned pineapple rings into something lovely and sophisticated
Try the Ice-cream sundae from our 100 Best list: Grant Achatz + whipped cream + Oreos + gummy bears + peanuts + unreal ice cream + maraschino cherries + a carafe of chocolate sauce = believe it.
Try the Oatmeal-chocolate bread from our 100 Best list: There was nothing molecular or fancy about these thick slices of homey, chocolate-studded cake. There was, though, something special about them.
Try the chocolate bouchon from our 100 Best list: Stephanie Izard successfully incorporates foie gras as a decadent marshmallow “fluff” alongside a moist chocolate cake.
Try the cinnamon bomb from our 100 Best list: Why call this (admittedly tame-looking) pastry a “bomb”? Because this moist, cinnamon-dusted cake is unexpectedly addictive. And that’s dangerous.
Try the gianduja gelato from our 100 Best list: Every flavor, every time, Jessie Oloroso kills it. But when her shop is out of this knee-bucklingly rich chocolate-hazelnut flavor, it nearly kills us.
Try the Sweet-potato pie from our 100 Best list: It’s the most obvious treatment of all that wins us over: straight-up sweet-potato pie, as ideal as it is simple.
Try the fruit shortcake from our 100 Best list: This sweet-as-pie biscuit-and-fruit concoction (the fruit varies with the season) is good enough to go toe-to-toe with any of the fancier takes.
Try the Chestnut doughnut from our 100 Best list: It doesn’t get any better, any fresher, any more flavorful, any airier than this.
Try the In the Rocks from our 100 Best list: It's our favorite drink at this high-concept lounge, for how it seamlessly integrates tactile pleasure (“cracking” the rock) into a beautifully made drink.
Try the maatje herring shot from our 100 Best list: Make way, tequila shots. We want to start every meal slurping a piece of sweet pickled herring followed by a shot of genever.
Try the Bloody Margaret from our 100 Best list: This gin-based Bloody is fragrant with thyme, lightened with cucumber and brought down to our level with a good old beer back.
Try the michelada from our 100 Best list: We know it contains Tecate, Cholula and Valentina hot sauces, and Maggi. Oh, and we’re certain it's delicious, alleviates hangovers & might just cure cancer.
Try the Oaxacan old-fashioned from our 100 Best list:This cocktail is not on the menu, but it’s a Paul McGee classic available by request.
Try the The Bedford Bloody Mary from our 100 Best list: The kimchi actually belongs in this drink. It adds a pleasant background of earthiness to what otherwise would be just tomato juice and spice.
Try the El Pirata from our 100 Best list: The spiked shakes at this L.A. import are so thick, so boozy and so frickin’ delicious that even the burger-bored should get in here for these alone.
Try the calamari from our 100 Best list: Put this calamari stuffed with chicken and pork forcemeat and flavored with Korean chilies and peanuts squarely in that camp.
Try the coffee from our 100 Best list: When we tell you the best thing we ate or drank at this deli was mug after mug of alarmingly rich, complex coffee, you’ll know this is one hell of a cup.
Try the Pure Black, a deep, dark, bottled cold brew from our 100 Best list!
Try the Horizon fruit ale Half Acre just brewed for Next’s Thailand menu from our 100 Best list!
Try the Rocket Sauce from our 100 Best list: It’s the most refreshing iced tea known to sticky summer days, boosted with ginger syrup and fresh lime juice.
Try the uni avocado toast from our 100 Best list: Chef Ryan LaRoche’s unlikely combination of briny sea urchin, smooth avocado, Mangalica ham and bright capers exhibits a keen understanding of flavor.
Try the whitefish sandwich from our 100 Best list: Long live Justin White, the new chef who’s raising the bar on bar food one God-given fried-fish sandwich at a time.
Try the Triple S from our 100 Best list: This maki, made of sweet potatoes, salmon and the mysteriously-named “spicy dynamite sauce” is everything that is wrong with sushi. And it tastes so right.
Try the Jucy Lucy from our 100 Best list: Oh, man, we do not need to remind ourselves how good this juicy, greasy, medium-rare burger oozing Velveeta cheese is.
Try the Home-fed chicken Xiang Xi–style from our 100 Best list: We don’t care about the misleading translation when the result is one of Hu’s best signatures.
Try the quiche from our 100 Best list: Closer in texture to a soufflé—and that’s a marvelous thing.
Try the almond Danish from our 100 Best list: This marble-replete space is a fine room in which to drink a cappuccino and enjoy a danish.
Try the carrot-whole-wheat pancakes from our 100 Best list: This cafe's changed the breakfast game with its tender, sweet and maybe (but probably not) healthy pancakes.
Try the Ham on Rye from our 100 Best list: Three Floyds’ smoky Bukowski tribute.
Try the Baked creamy egg yolk buns from our 100 Best list: These pillowy-soft buns are the standout, pulling open to reveal a warm, sugary, creamy core.
Try the alfajores from our 100 Best list: When it comes to alfajores, no one makes them better than Lucila Giagrande, which is why we follow her to anywhere there’s word of her specialty being sold.
