Restaurants

El Alebrije in Irving Park highlights Mexico’s less-understood regional specialties with an artfulness and attention to detail that suggests we still have much to discover – and eat. 

Chicago's homegrown Jean Banchet Awards for Culinary Excellence have named their 2024 winners. 

The 2024 semifinalists for the James Beard Awards, one of the food industry's biggest national recognitions, have been announced. Seventeen Chicago restaurants, chefs, and bakers are among them, the most in several years. 

Rick Bayless opened his fine dining restaurant Topolobampo 35 years ago, and in the decades since has received accolades such as James Beard Awards, aTop Chef Masters win, and the honor of serving food at the White House. 

Grant Achatz, one of Chicago's most acclaimed chefs, honors Julia Child with a menu of elevated versions of dishes from her cookbooks and TV show at his shape-shifting Next restaurant.

The Chicago area’s incredible variety of international restaurants has expanded over the last decade to include a growing number of eateries that serve Central Asian cuisine. Anyone with a taste for hearty, homestyle food and an adventurous spirit can undertake a tour of that cuisine here in Chicago.

Johnny Clark began exploring Ukrainian cuisine during the pandemic and after the Russian invasion, and has now opened a Ukrainian restaurant that he named after his grandma.

Javauneeka Jacobs, the sous chef at Rick Bayless' Frontera Grill, won the first round of a Julia-themed competition on the Food Network show Chopped. She told us what it's like to be on the high-stress show.

The Jean Banchet Awards are local food industry awards that often spotlight talent overlooked by national and international publications. See the nominees in twelve categories this year.

For a loaf of bread from Publican Quality Bread to reach you, wheat must be grown and harvested and sent to a stone mill to be ground into flour, which then goes through a process as long as 60 hours at the bakery. 

Chicagoan Cam Brenson has taken to TikTok to share his journey of attempting to eat the cuisine of nearly every country without ever leaving the Chicago area.

Onam is a harvest festival traditionally celebrated with a vegetarian feast known as sadya in the south Indian state of Kerala. Avondale's Thattu serves Keralite food, and hosts a sadya. “People are not aware of the diversity of Indian cuisine,” says the owner.

It can be difficult for small businesses such as restaurants to access bank loans, but regulation crowdfunding allows supporters to literally invest in a business, with the chance of making a small profit in the process.

Two cousins opened the first Eggholic, a restaurant featuring a distinctive style of Indian food focusing on eggs, in Schaumburg in 2018. By the end of this year, there will be 28 Eggholics across the country. How did they do it?

Early every morning, the skilled bakers of Chicago’s Chiu Quon Bakery prep dough, cook fillings, shape breads, steam and bake buns, and carry out all the other myriad steps required to prepare the over 100 different baked goods and foods made and offered daily at the bakery.