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When Spiaggia opened in 1984, fine dining in Chicago--and across the country--was synonymous with French cuisine. "Italian food" meant spaghetti, meatballs, pizza and steak. Along came Tony Mantuano, eager to introduce the city to upscale Italian cooking. Fast-forward 25 years: Spiaggia remains one of the country's preeminent destinations for four-star Italian cuisine. Our favorite dinner plan: feast on pasta, while letting sommelier Steven Alexander fill your glass with lusty Italian wines.
Chicago didn't invent the steakhouse. But it is the birthplace of Chicken Vesuvio and Shrimp de Jonghe, and one of the best places to get them is the 69-year-old Gene & Georgetti. Head to the grey clapboard house on the corner of Franklin and Illinois for garlic-laden Chicken Vesuvio (made with all white or all dark meat by request), steaks, the retro Garbage Salad and, of course, an ice-cold martini.
More than a decade after opening, Blackbird is still just as relevant, turning out seasonal and smart cooking with clever twists that make the most familiar ingredients seem new. As Paul Kahan stays busy upping the culinary cred of other neighborhoods (Fulton Market, Wicker Park), his West Loop flagship remains fresh, with ever-changing seasonal menus and exciting new additions (pastry chef Patrick Fahy and mixologist Lynn House).
Since opening in 1995, Karyn Calabrese has surprised countless meat devotees with the sophisticated flavors and techniques behind her raw, vegan dishes--crafted without animal products and without being heated over 116 degrees. Menu classics like nutty, bracingly garlicky ajo blanco soup and paper-thin turnip ravioli folded around ricotta-like macadamia milk and basil are dishes we’d embrace anywhere.
Some of Chicago's best sushi is at this unassuming restaurant on the far north side, where owner Katsu Imamura has been slicing pristine fish and serving traditional Japanese dishes for 22 years. The menu has plenty of familiar Japanese classics, like agedashi tofu and tempura made with sweet, earthy half-moons of Kabocha squash. But puttung yourself in Katsu's hands and letting him guide you off the menu makes for the most exciting experience.
With three decades of experience behind it, Cho Sun Oak is the elder statesman of Chicago's Korean restaurants. And it’s perpetually busy for a host of good reasons: excellent bulgogi, fiery yukgaejang (kimchi-beef soup) and the city’s best chadol-gui, a two-step meal that begins with sauteed beef and ends with a stone casserole of wildly flavorful rice.
