Best of Chicago 2012: Food & Drink
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Critics' Picks
Best Fine-Dining Restaurant to Reinvent Fine Dining
2419 W. 14th St. 312-226-8144What's the best restaurant? Most aggravating question I'm ever asked. There is no best restaurant, and anyone who thinks they can name one doesn't… continue
Best Culinary Historian
5347 N. Clark St. 773-275-5725Between putting in face time at the Southern Foodways Alliance Symposium and plumbing the depths of his historic cookbook collection, the southern Indiana… continue
Best In-House Pasta
833 W. Randolph St. 312-432-0500Jared Van Camp's ambitious grain-to-table program, which has the kitchen milling its own flour for bread, pasta, and pizza, achieves its highest pinnacle… continue
Best Appetizer on Which Reasonable Critics Can Disagree
2956 N. Sheffield Ave. 773-687-8177Critics can be thin-skinned motherfuckers, so I hope that resident Reader food guy Mike Sula doesn't take umbrage when I say that he is woefully… continue
Best Barbecued Brisket
1354 W. Wabansia Ave. 773-227-4433Local "pop-up" barbecue operation Brimstone BBQ, run by Arman Mabry and Mike Tsoulos of the band Rabid Rabbit and their friend Stacey Egan,… continueBest Fluorescent Dining Experience
5449 N. Clark St. 773-334-6214There are situations in which candlelight is appropriate, such as seances, or an episode of The Red Shoe Diaries. The sensual aspects of a… continue
Best Place to Eat Fried Green Tomatoes in a Once-Booming Industrial Area That's Fallen on Hard Times
3504 W. Lake 773-801-0110Most diners wouldn't think to drive west down Lake Street in search of good grub. Not so far beyond the Loop the street enters what… continueBest Antiquity
2152 N. Damen Ave. 773-862-5555Garum was an ancient Greek, Roman, and Byzantine condiment made from fermented fish guts. Sounds gross, but it was the culinary equivalent of turning… continue
Best Free Cheese
960 Skokie Ave. 847-498-3900Every day at 4 PM this independent outpost of the once-mighty pizza chain puts out a deep, complimentary bowl of pimiento cheese. Owner… continue
Best Eastern European Afternoon Snack
77 E. Adams St. 312-360-0000The potato dumplings—vareniky—are almost as good as the ones my grandmother made, and the vodka's more interesting than what my grandfather drank. The vareniky… continue
Best Corner for Rowdy Latino Seafood
1035 N. Ashland Ave. 773-486-6850I begin with a disclaimer: I do not know where to find the best mariscos in the city. I only know that there's one… continue
Best Vegan Korean Buffet
3188 N. Elston Ave. 773-267-1970Though it's been scaled back from a weekly to a monthly event, Dragonlady Lounge's vegan Korean buffet is a holy shrine for the sometimes… continue
Best Place for a Vegetarian to Take a Visitor Craving Pork Blood
4955 N. Broadway 773-878-2253I could stare at Tank Noodle's menu for an hour, but that might annoy my dinner companions. With numbered dishes stretching into the hundreds—spring… continue
Best Eight-Tentacled Creature Served on a Stick
3056 N. Lincoln Ave. 773-697-4725Baby octopus isn't even close to the most challenging item on Chizakaya's eight-item kushiyaki (skewers) menu, which also features duck hearts and chicken gizzards.… continue
Best Hunter Beef Sandwich
2331 W. Devon Ave. 773-338-9804Hunter beef is the Pakistani version of corned beef, a brisket cured in a masala that—depending on the recipe—may include salt, saltpeter, sodium nitrite,… continue
Best Lentil Soup
1509 W. Foster Ave. 773-334-1600It is an inexorable fact that Andersonville will become, over time, one long uninterrupted strip of vintage-furniture shops. The moment I take to the… continue
Best Deli With Soup That Changes Daily
914 Noyes St. 847-475-9400Open since 1949, this Evanston shop charms in its attempt to replicate a French deli, with vintage posters and photos of France hanging… continue
Best Coffee Shop That Is Nothing Like a Coffee Shop
1750 W. Division St. 773-278-2739Tired of huge rooms full of grubby layabouts sitting on color-clashing vintage furniture gazing into MacBook Matrix portals? Not to mention establishments that serve… continue
Best Ethiopian Breakfast
6764 N. Sheridan Rd. 773-761-8100Judging by the name, decor, and website, the owners of Royal Coffee are proudest of their coffee. They're not wrong to be: it's… continue
Best 500-Calorie "Sack Lunch"
120 E. Delaware Pl. 312-799-4900In the bag—well, actually on china—are three courses: an asparagus-leek terrine, grilled wild salmon with beet quinoa and English pea relish, and a scoop… continue
Best Bakery With a Cute Patio
Best Lutheran Dessert
6216 S. Archer Ave. 773-581-8500I first encountered this extraordinary dessert at New Pioneer Coop in Iowa City, Iowa, where it was shipped in from Omaha's Lithuanian Bakery.… continue
Best Nonalcoholic Cocktail
3124 N. Broadway St. 773-661-9166When Dale Levitski's new Lakeview bistro, Frog N Snail, opened without a liquor license this spring, he and his GM/beverage director, Briar Brackney… continue
Best Bar for Rare Spirits
Best $40 Pour of Whiskey
2853 N. Kedzie Ave. 773-904-8558Barkeep Alex Bachman keeps a fascinating collection of spirits, in particular a bunch of fine, uncommon Japanese whiskeys. Among them, this marvelous… continue
Best Bitters-Based Cocktail Menu
Best Cocktail List Rooted in Midwestern Pride
601 N. State St. 312-266-7677It's hard to imagine anything local and organic growing under Pops for Champagne, yet underneath the glitzy bar there has sprouted out of… continue
Best Wine List Lyricism
2601 N. Milwaukee Ave. 773-292-9463Let's play a game. I'll recite descriptions from sommelier Jeremy Quinn's swoon-worthy wine list. You tell me which rhapsodic passage sounds most like your… continue
Best New Bottled Beer
Best Beer That Tastes Like the Desert
I'll admit that I have no idea what the desert tastes like. But I do have an imagination, and 5 Grass, the latest release… continue
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