John Kessler

Carrie Nahabedian (pictured above, on the right), a star chef from the early aughts, spends five nights a week in the kitchen at this French restaurant she owns with her...

Much like a Japanese izakaya, a Korean pocha is essentially a watering hole, but one where the drinks are basic (think draft beer and shots) and the food is the...

This restaurant has been around long enough that it goes through phases. It’s reliable until it’s perfectly fine, then suddenly — like now — it’s great again. Brothers Oliver and Nicolas Poilevey have turned...

Avec, which means “with” in French, was originally conceived as a casual sidekick to Blackbird, Paul Kahan’s now-closed influential fine-dining spot next door in the West Loop. From the outset,...

Rare is the fine-dining restaurant that works this hard to appeal to all guests, no matter what their tastes or dietary restrictions demand. Every night, Sujan Sarkar proposes four distinct...

If you follow many Chicago food social-media accounts, you’ll always know when Creepies introduces a new dish. Avid local diners love being the first to post images of, say, the...

As a student in Japan 16 years ago, Mike Satinover became a ramen otaku, the Japanese word for a geek, a fanatic, an obsessive — a person looking for the differences that...

There’s no way to talk about this Basque steakhouse, set in a swank townhouse, without mentioning its almost surreal expense. But it’s easy to fall under the devil-may-care sway of...

Chicago’s best sushi (Kyoten, No. 3) and best ramen (Akahoshi, No. 20) are both made by Americans with no Japanese heritage. Yet if you’ve ever lived in Japan, you know...

Shaw’s Crab House is a nice-enough old-school restaurant — a place to appreciate the sound abatement of tablecloths and carpet, gorge yourself on free bread, and order a lobster for your birthday....