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One of the most popular restaurants in Chinatown, this delightful spot serves standard Cantonese and Mandarin fare in a clean, bright setting. Dim sum is doled out daily from 8am to 2.30pm. As a benefit to both hungry diners and dieters, many entrees are available in small and large portion sizes.
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The words simple, rustic, affordable and good summarise this charming spot in the gentrifying South Loop neighbourhood, and it achieves particularly high marks for its seafood dishes. When the weather’s nice, grab a table on the outdoor patio. There’s also a lovely local twist: a hidden door in the back harks back to the city’s speakeasy gangster days, and there’s even a table for two crafted from a safe.
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What’s a trip to Chicago without partaking in the legendary Maxwell St. Dog? (A thick sausage on a steamed bun dressed with mustard, grilled onions, a pickle spear and peppers.) This two-storey monument to all things street food serves up some of the best dogs, Italian beef and Polish sausage, along with an impressive collection of Chicago memorabilia from the 1920s through the 1940s, including a 1928 Thompson submachine gun, a replica of an old barber shop and a 1930 Chevrolet.
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A Chicago institution, this cosy, bustling spot is so Old Country Italian you almost expect to run into Sinatra here (indeed you can, in a way, thanks to a giant oil painting of Ol’ Blue Eyes). Bring your appetite, because portions here are huge, and the wine is reasonably priced. There’s also a location on Michigan Avenue, just off the Magnificent Mile, to attract the tourists, but locals appreciate the warm atmosphere at its original location, near the University of Illinois campus and the pizza parlours of Little Italy.
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