This month, we’re sharing our favorite Chicago staples for our focus on “Cravings: Tourist best bets.” The idea is to provide tourists and Chicagoans with guests coming to town — plus locals who want to act like a tourist in their own town — with our tips on the best places to eat and drink.
But we write about our favorites every day, and we always like to guide readers to the city’s fantastic offerings.
To make that task easier, we’ve gathered here 30 of our guides to different types of food — tacos to burgers to pizza — restaurants and neighborhoods. Call it a guide to our guides. So, if you’re looking for something specific, chances are we have a story that can help you find it, no matter if you’re visiting or planning to stay.
Favorite foods
Best burgers: Au Cheval may be the household name, but who really makes the best burger in Chicago? Our reporter tried 71 in search of Chicago’s best. And if you’re not traveling into the city, here are our favorites from the suburbs.
Best pizza: If you’re looking for deep dish, you’ve come to the right place. If you’re not looking for deep dish, you’ve also come to the right place. We do all kinds of pies.
Best steak: Chicago and steakhouses are practically synonymous. But we certainly have no shortage of them either, so we rounded up the ones serving the best cuts, and other delicious steak bites in the city.
Favorite ice cream: Who doesn’t love ice cream? Not us.
Best hot dogs: Chicago carries an appropriate respect for encased meats, and yes, that extends to hot dogs.
Best tacos: A months-long, citywide search for Chicago’s best taco yielded a champion, as well as 24 other delicious bites.
Best burritos: Maybe it’s an “us” problem, but we need to know where to get a very good burrito. So we had one reporter bite into 40 tortilla roll-ups to find out what’s at the top.
Best french fries: Did you know that you can find fresh-cut french fries for under 5 bucks throughout Chicago? Well, you do now. If that piques your appetite, we tasted fries at more than 100 spots and ranked our top 20.
Best soup dumplings: Our reporter and XLB connoisseur sampled soup dumplings across the city in search of the best. She found some good ones, but one clear-cut winner.
Best French food: As our restaurant critic Phil Vettel wrote, “Forgotten French? Mais non! Not that it ever went away, but French dining in Chicago is surging anew.” We spent a month chronicling our favorite dishes in Chicago from this classic culinary culture.
Guide to Chicago-born breweries: Chicago has more brewpubs and taprooms making beer in the city than it knows what to do with. Wait, actually, that’s not true — we do quite well with brewpubs and taprooms, thanks.
If you need any help deciding where to start with Chicago’s beer scene, we have a guide to breweries and brewery crawls, based on time, location and other factors.
Favorite coffee shops: Chicago, thankfully, does not run on Dunkin. That doesn’t mean there’s anything close to a lack of spots for grabbing a cup of joe, however.
Essential Chicago foods: We Chicagoans, if you haven’t heard, can be a little, erm, discerning when it comes to who’s allowed to identify as a city native. Even if you can’t name your Chicago high school, though, making your way through some essential Chicago dining and drinking traditions will go a long way.
Chicago’s best bets, tourist-style: Whether you’re actually visiting or just want to eat like a tourist in your own city, we put together a list of Chicago staples that deserve their reputation.
Favorite appetizers: Appetizers and bites can often steal the show from the entree main-event. We rounded up some of our favorite such show-stoppers — the ones that make you want seconds on your starters.
Best croissants: “We are living in a golden age of croissants in Chicago,” writes Louisa Chu in the opening to her report on the French breakfast favorite. Her quest through 15 bakeries had her trying classics, plus styles unique to Chicago. Read about the eight best in the city.
Best corned beef sandwiches: Chicago is a town that takes its corned beef seriously. Having said that, here’s a highly scientific ranking of which stacks are the ones to topple.
Best fried chicken sandwich: Yeah, we do those well too.
Best cheap eats: Sometimes your stomach is empty, but so is your wallet. We can help you find a tasty bite on a tight budget.
Neighborhood guides
South Side’s Black food scene: Too often overlooked, Chicago’s South Side, particularly the Black South Side, has its own special food culture. We spent a month exploring the rich stories and cuisine throughout this massive part of the city.
North Side Black-owned restaurant guide: Black-owned restaurants are more populous on Chicago’s South Side, and one reader asked us where to find similar restaurants on the other side of the city. We were happy to oblige with a list of 24 North Side spots.
Pilsen neighborhood guide: In a collaboration with Hoy, our Spanish-language sister publication, we put together a guide on the best spots for eating, drinking and doing something fun in Pilsen, the city’s most prominent Mexican neighborhood.
Bronzeville neighborhood guide: This historic Chicago neighborhood still has plenty of awesome things to eat, drink and do in the present. Allow us to be your guide.
Northwest-Side Italian food guide: You can’t throw a meatball without hitting an Italian restaurant in the Loop, but, if you’re willing to make the trip, there’s outstanding Italian food on the city’s Northwest Side as well.
Chinatown dining guide: If you’re not already familiar with the area, choosing where to dine in Chinatown can feel a little daunting. That’s why we wanted to help you get familiar, with the help of our dining guide to the neighborhood.
New Koreatown dining guide: The northwestern section of Chicago is home to one of the city’s most significant Korean populations, so we put together a guide to help you enjoy the endless options of restaurants, stalls, markets, bakeries and more in the community.
Best Loop lunches: Whether you’re working in the Loop, or just visiting, you need your lunch fix. These are our favorite places to grab an easy midday meal downtown.
Wrigley Field bar guide: When we say guide, we mean a list of every single bar around Wrigley Field and what you need to know about them, ranked by proximity to the park. Don’t say we never did anything for you, Cubs fans.
Bars and restaurants near our favorite Chicago music venues: Going to a show? We listed a dozen places near some of the city’s most popular venues for easy food and drink before or after the show.
10 places to find a great meal along the Magnificent Mile: A lot of things are easy to find along the famous stretch of North Michigan Avenue — an outstanding sit-down meal is not necessarily one of them. Our reporter went up and down the avenue to find 10 of them.
Restaurants by type
Phil’s 50, the Tribune critic’s 50 best restaurants: Our dining critic Phil Vettel updates his list of the city’s 50 best restaurants a few times a year. Check the roster for his looking at restaurants ranging from treat spots to neighborhood favorites.
Guide to patios and rooftops: When summer hits the city, one must take advantage. And what better way to do so than a rooftop or patio? Check our list of more than 160 (!).
Guide to food halls in Chicago: Food halls bring a bunch of vendors to one place, and they’re typically neighborhood favorites, rather than the chains of a food court. These halls are booming in Chicago right now, and we’ve created guides for all of them.
Essential restaurants to be a Chicago dining expert: If you’re trying to get in touch with the past and present of Chicago dining, one writer lists his essential places to experience a meal.
