41 Best Restaurants in Chicago for Every Kind of Craving

Just across Millennium Park, Wildberry is a light and airy spot for tasty breakfast with large pancakes, creative Benedicts, and egg dishes. The restaurant on Prudential Plaza is perfect for tourists who need a breakfast place close to the city center, and its broad daytime menu and fast service allow it to be a great lunch destination too.

Batter & Berries brings some fun into brunch time in Lincoln Park, offering inventive French toast, breakfast sandwiches, and chicken with waffles. Large portions, flavorful dishes, and daytime hours alone make it a perfect candidate for comparison among the best morning restaurants on the North Side of the city.

Garcia’s is a Mexican restaurant located in Lincoln Square, which offers an easy-going and family-friendly atmosphere. The restaurant has a varied menu that goes from traditional chilaquiles and egg dishes to lunch and dinner dishes. Thus, it will suit both casual guests and people who are looking for reliable Mexican food outside downtown.

Exchequer combines traditional pub style, classic American comfort foods, and Chicago-style pizzas in one spot, located conveniently on the fringe of the Loop area, and is perfect for meeting before theater or sightseeing due to its convenient location. Its combination of deep dish, ribs, sandwiches, and drinks makes for a more informal dining experience than some others might.

Demera offers the Uptown district its own taste of Ethiopia by way of messobs, stew-filled plates, and many vegetable options. The injera that comes with every meal allows for a communal dining experience, made possible by the versatility of the kitchen, which features both meat, fish, and vegetarian dishes.

Bar Siena provides an exciting Italian menu on Randolph Street, offering not only cicchetti and sharing dishes but also pizza and pasta and a late-night West Loop atmosphere. It is elegant yet still casual enough to be great for either business lunch or dinner with your friends while visiting Fulton Market.

The theme of Geja's is fondue dining: start with the cheese, cook your meat at your table, and enjoy the warming chocolate as dessert. Lighting candles and live music by guitar will make the atmosphere in the dining room in Lincoln Park famous for romantic dinners, not just fast meals.

At RL, Ralph Lauren's style of design combines the refined elegance of American classics close to the Magnificent Mile. The dining room is chic yet cozy, and the restaurant's menu consists of well-known seafood, steaks, salads, and sandwiches. This place is perfect for a leisurely lunch, a business meeting, or a sophisticated dinner on the Gold Coast.

Manny's has all those elements that can be associated with local cuisine: take a tray and pick your food in the cafeteria style among high-deluxe sandwiches, matzo ball soup, hot plates, and breakfast. This South Loop classic is practical and full of history.

Gene & Georgetti gives you the authentic steakhouse experience in River North without forgetting its Italian background. There are prime cuts alongside pasta, sausages, and many more of the old favorites on the menu, not to mention the classic wooden interior that represents many years of Chicago’s history of fine dining. This is where you head to have that good old-fashioned meal.

The Berghoff continues to stand out among the other Loop restaurants, as it serves German-American dishes ranging from schnitzels and sausages to sauerbraten, and its long history is well represented through the interior décor. Being open all day long, it fits perfectly into lunch menus during sightseeing and business hours.

R.J. Grunts is a casual place next to Lincoln Park with hamburgers, ribs, chili, and one of the most flexible salads you will find anywhere. The interior decor retains that 1970s fun atmosphere, hence fitting the families visiting the zoo and those living in the neighborhood.

Momotaro brings Japanese cuisine to the table with precision and modern Fulton Market flair. Sushi, nigiri, and robata-style cooking and composed plates fill the menu, with Friday lunch providing the added value of dining at noon. In essence, it is elegant enough for a special occasion but fun enough for an evening out in West Loop.

The traditional steakhouse gets a chic River North makeover in the form of RPM Steak. Global selection of beef, polished service, and a seafood menu are the highlights here. From appetizers to dry-aged steak and wagyu, the place works well as a destination restaurant for business dinners, celebrations, and steak-centric evenings.

Located inside an historic South Loop firehouse, this steakhouse marries the architecture and menu. Steaks and chops make up dinner here, but the addition of seafood, composed appetizers, and a unique venue make it a great choice for date nights, celebrations, and those looking to dine around McCormick Place.

The Vernon Park Tap from Tufano is one of those old-school Italian places where there is more than just food on the menu; the story of the neighborhood is as important as the actual menu. The dining room at Little Italy prefers the traditional pasta meals with red sauce, lemon chicken, and other traditional recipes.

Alinea transforms dining into a process that is all about a performance involving modern technique and presentation. It is a dining venue located in Lincoln Park meant for those guests that want to experiment rather than get an entrée and dessert. Signature concepts can show up, yet the menu itself is always changing.

Located at Macy's State Street, the Walnut Room is the place where department store history meets comfort food from America. Chicken pot pie by Mrs. Hering continues to be the centerpiece, yet the archive dishes will remind you of the good old days.

The menu at RPM Italian includes a mix of homemade pasta, Italian classic food, and a lively atmosphere in the dining room. Bucatini, carbonara, and vodka rigatoni accompany the seafood and steak dishes, making it diverse enough for group meals but still concentrated around contemporary Italian cuisine.

Valois is an old-time Hyde Park diner famous for quick, hot, and simple meals served by a cafeteria counter. Meals like omelets, pancakes, and steak with eggs dominate the menu here, and its price range is affordable for students and tourists who have come to visit the South Side.

At Andy's, jazz music is accompanied by a complete dinner menu, which means that dining and music happen in the same place instead of being two different parts of the night. The menu has jambalaya with a Creole twist, chicken cooked in Chicago style, and pasta meals.

Ssyal is famous for serving samgye-tang, a Korean ginseng chicken soup in a simmering earthenware bowl. This signature dish, along with other Korean foods such as pancakes, dumplings, and noodles, provides the dining room with a focus on homestyle food that feels comforting, traditional, and unique from the popular Korean barbecue.

Ghareeb Nawaz's location on Devon Avenue is designed to provide affordable and late-night halal food. Pakistani and Indian food comes in large portions, with popular menu items being biryani, curries, and slow-cooked beef. The extended hours of operation make the restaurant very convenient since other kitchens close down earlier.

Usmania presents a more formal approach to Pakistani cuisine in the setting of Devon Avenue while maintaining the taste in authentic grilled dishes, curries, and cooked items. The restaurant employs 100% zabiha halal meat, thus presenting itself as an obvious choice for people seeking halal food in a sit-down ambiance.

Wilde combines the comfort food of the Irish pub with a warm dining room featuring bookcases, leather seats, and fireplaces. Traditional fare such as fish and chips, pot pies, curries, and burgers provides familiar comforts, along with weekend brunches and later operating hours, which increases their utility past a typical pub dinner.

Weber Grill takes the concept of a live flame from the brand's backyard grill to the menu in River North. Ribs, beer can chicken, steaks, and salmon are prepared using grilling as the focal point of the menu, and the breakfast menu offered there makes the State Street restaurant quite versatile from morning to dinner.

Siena Tavern offers contemporary Italian cuisine at River North with scratch-made pasta dishes, shareable appetizers, and a lively atmosphere that serves well both lunch and dinner times. Dishes vary from coccoli and burrata to vodka rigatoni and lobster linguine, offering groups a wide variety of familiar foods but avoiding predictability.

What sets Maple & Ash apart from its Gold Coast steakhouse peers is its use of live fire for cooking, dry-aged steaks, seafood towers, and even a decadent chef's tasting experience. This is far from a quiet place; it has a lively, festive atmosphere, which makes it ideal for a celebration like a birthday or a weekend brunch.

Butterfly is a unique venue because it combines Japanese sushi with Thai cuisine in the same West Town space. Not only do they serve specialty maki, but they also have noodles and curries. This way, they offer more variety to people who are trying to cater to different members of their party, who might want both sushi rolls and hot entrees.

Yassa offers Senegalese and wider West African cuisine to Bronzeville, with yassa dishes (onions), grilled meats, stews, and rice dishes. The servings are large and made for sharing, so it's a good neighborhood place if you want something more than the standard restaurant fare of downtown establishments.

From breakfast until dinner time, Beatrix River North offers a coffeehouse ambiance together with an extensive American menu. Fresh juices, salads, sandwiches, vegetarian foods, and more luxurious comfort food may coexist at one table, which makes this Clark Street restaurant particularly versatile for different appetite needs.

Mart Anthony's is not about a new wave; rather, it is a traditional Italian dining room of West Town, where one may enjoy some classic family recipes like braciole, stuffed artichoke, or pappardelle Bolognese. The evening hours and Italian cuisine of this restaurant make it perfect for a relaxed dinner.

While Gale Street Inn is famous for its ribs, nowadays the Jefferson Park location offers its visitors steaks, seafood, sandwiches, and brunch. The ambiance of the restaurant is classic and cozy, and the signature dishes of the restaurant make it a reliable place to visit for a family dinner.

With its European beer hall vibe via Midwestern ingredients, charcuterie, oysters, bread, and farm-driven American cuisine, the Publican provides an atmosphere for lunch during the week, brunch on weekends, and dinner, as well as two separate service times to allow both short midday dining and long evening dining with friends.

Located next to Millennium Park, Remington’s is a place where you can order an American grill menu featuring prime rib, steaks, rotisserie chicken, and seafood. The Michigan Avenue location allows easy access to the city’s sights or pre-show meals, and the extensive menu will suit any lunch date, family dinner, or celebratory occasion.

Golden House is a retro-style Uptown diner that has everything you could expect from such a place—early hours, old-style American breakfasts, large portions, and affordable prices. Pancakes, omelets, French toast, and biscuits feature among the dishes served at breakfast time there.

Calo has been around in Andersonville for years, providing a large menu of Italian-American dishes centered on pizza, pasta, ribs, chicken, veal, and seafood. It will be especially good for a family or group that does not want everybody ordering the same type of food, and there are lunches and dinners seven days a week.

Oriole is a small West Loop spot serving a tasting menu where the service and technique come first. Contemporary American cuisine reflects French and Japanese influences, and the menu changes seasonally, so one should be prepared for an experience of the selected dishes rather than signature entrées.

Le Colonial serves French-Vietnamese cuisine in an elegant Oak Street restaurant. Herbs, curries, and wok-fired food are presented with professional service. It allows the menu to go easily from rolls and pho to shaking beef and whole fish, which is good for a slow Gold Coast lunch and dinner.

Cindy’s Rooftop offers sweeping views of Millennium Park combined with an ever-changing American seasonal menu and busy cocktail bar. The enclosed glass roof makes the restaurant accessible all year round, while brunch, lunch, and dinner increase its versatility. This is a good choice if rooftop dining is as important as food served there.

Carmine's Restaurant is back on Rush Street in a renovated Gold Coast location offering its traditional large portions of Italian-American cuisine that regulars come for. Chicken Parmesan, pasta, eggplant, and seafood will be on the menu of the lively place appropriate for groups' celebrations, brunches, and late dinners.