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    Critics' Picks

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  • Best restaurant that's been around forever and is still worth the trip
  • Best fancy restaurant in Chicago
  • Best bang for your buck
  • Best chef
  • Best up-and-coming chef
  • Best food blog
  • Best ampersand restaurant
  • Best restaurant name
  • Best new food trend
  • Best cocktail list
  • Best mixologist
  • Best wine list
  • Best sommelier
  • Best brewpub
  • Best local brew
  • Best wine shop
  • Best liquor store
  • Best BYOB
  • Best alfresco dining
  • Best late night
  • Best for kids
  • Best waitstaff
  • Best-looking waitstaff
  • Best food festival
  • Best food truck
  • Best gourmet market
  • Best local grocer
  • Best local food product
  • Best farmers' market
  • Best butcher shop
  • Best cheesemonger
  • Best barista
  • Best restaurant with a view
  • Best restaurant for romance
  • Best restaurant for a cheap date
  • Best neighborhood restaurant
  • Best bagels
  • Best bakery
  • Best breakfast
  • Best brunch
  • Best Chinese
  • Best coffee shop
  • Best desserts
  • Best Greek
  • Best hot dog
  • Best ice cream
  • Best Indian restaurant
  • Best Italian
  • Best Korean
  • Best Mexican
  • Best Middle Eastern
  • Best pizza
  • Best Polish
  • Best pub grub
  • Best sandwiches
  • Best seafood restaurant
  • Best steak house
  • Best sushi
  • Best taqueria
  • Best Thai
  • Best vegetarian
  • Best Vietnamese
  • Best Italian steak house where my dad felt at home in the 60s and I do now
  • Best case of nostalgia, bordering on time travel
  • Best restaurant empire founded the same year as the Reader
  • Best restaurant
  • Best bargain Michelin chef
  • Best chef downshift, animal division
  • Best chef downshift, vegetable division
  • Best venerable restaurant alongside the el
  • Best new food truck
  • Best buffet
  • Best game day
  • Best dairy product to camp out in front of the cheese shop for
  • Best use of alcohol at breakfast
  • Best university coffeehouse
  • Best bakery you've never heard of
  • Best place to see bakers at work
  • Best place for ambience and egg sandwiches
  • Best bagel
  • Best tubular collaboration
  • Best sausage
  • Best place in Chicago to sample salumi from Mario Batali's papa
  • Best broccoli and shells con patio
  • Best fancy-pants pizza special
  • Best Polish-Mexican-American $1.50 taco
  • Best tater tots
  • Best spinach pie
  • Best som tam
  • Best soundtracked strawberry shake
  • Best newly minted (if loosely defined) neighborhood for destination dining
  • Best hangout after a day at Rogers Park's beaches
  • Best few square blocks to eat really well, and cheaply
  • Best place to feel bad about gentrification but good about your meal
  • Best restaurant staff bent on making your day
  • Best one-woman kitchen
  • Most underrated James Beard Award winner
  • Best new food blog
  • Best food blog written by a linguist
  • Best place to eat and drink for a good cause
  • Best CSA farmer to swoon over
  • Best canine control at a farmers' market
  • Best craft brewery that doesn't exist yet
  • Best cocktail book club
  • Best barbecue
  • Best burger