Best things to eat in Chicago right now

05.09.2024 - 03:23 / lonelyplanet.com

Sep 4, 2024 • 5 min read

Chicago racks up a slew of Michelin stars and James Beard Awards, but it keeps it real with an affordable, no-pretenses scene that spreads across neighborhoods and mixes with the city’s cultural mash-up.

Something tantalizing is always cooking in Chicago, and the 10 dishes below lead the pack.

Humble Birrieria Zaragoza focuses on one thing: birria, a stew of tender, adobo-marinated goat traditional to Jalisco, Mexico, the chef’s hometown. The compact menu has plates or bowls of it, bone in or bone out. Go for the plate, bone in, and then take a handmade corn tortilla, load it with birria, diced onions, cilantro and fresh salsa, and dunk it into the rich consommé that comes on the side. They’ve been crowned Chicago’s best tacos for a reason.

How to get it: The Archer Heights location of Birrieria Zaragoza takes reservations by phone; the smaller Uptown outpost does not.

Deep-dish pizza was invented in Chicago. Debates rage over who makes the best version now, but for many locals the answer is easy: Pequod’s Pizza. The pepperoni pie is the gold standard, baked in a cast-iron pan lined with mozzarella, so it emerges with a caramelized cheese crust that crackles with every bite.

How to get it: Book a few days in advance. Walk-ins are welcome, but you may wait an hour, since that’s about how long it takes for each pizza to bake. 

Arty Lula Cafe has been serving farm-to-table fare for 25 years, and doing such a bang-up job that it won this year’s James Beard Award for Outstanding Hospitality. While most of the menu comes and goes with the seasons, one dish remains constant: pasta yiayia (pronounced 'yah-yah'). Named after the Greek word for grandma, the bowl of thick noodles is tossed with nutty browned butter, toasty garlic, salty feta and earthy cinnamon. The dish was inspired by the owner’s own yiayia and evokes a soulful taste of the old country.

How to get it: Make dinner reservations a good week in advance. Walk-ins are accepted, but arrive early. Lula doesn’t take lunch bookings.

Chef Stephanie Hart conjures the spirit of her Southern grandmother when baking her caramel cake. Each hulking wedge – in which soft, melty caramel plumps up four layers of spongy yellow cake – really does smack of love. Red velvet cake, German dark chocolate cake and carrot cake are among the other temptations from the Beard Award Outstanding Baker semifinalist.

How to get it: Order through Brown Sugar Bakery’s website for pick up, or walk in and hope they’re not sold out. Picnic tables outside let you devour your spoils on the spot.

Thattu is a Chicago newcomer, set in a sunny, repurposed warehouse where dishes inspired by the South Indian coastal cuisine of Kerala warm the tables. The fried chicken sandwich