Over the past 6 months, I ate at every Michelin-starred restaurant in Chicago. Below you'll find my final ranking of all 19 restaurants, my best and worst dishes, and a few final thoughts. This is quite a long post, but hopefully you'll find the journey as entertaining as I did.

2024 Chicago Michelin Ranking

1. Cariño - 9.5

2. Alinea *** - 9.5

3. Oriole ** - 9.25

4. Esmé - 9.25

5. Smyth *** - 9.25

6. Indienne - 9

7. Atelier - 8.75

8. Next - 8.5

9. Moody Tongue - 8.5

10. Mako - 8.5

11. EL Ideas - 8

12. Elske - 8

13. Ever ** - 7.5

14. Schwa - 7.5

15. Sepia - 7.5

16. Boka - 7

17. Kasama - 7

18. Topolobampo - 6.5

19. Galit - 6.5

TLDR;

• Best overall: Cariño

• Best food: Cariño

• Best beverage pairings: Alinea pairing from Alinea (alcoholic) / spirit-free beverage pairing from Atelier (non-alcoholic)

• Best individual drinks: Smyth side car from Smyth (alcoholic) / herbal and citrus from Smyth (non-alcoholic)

• Best service: Esmé (warm and interactive) / Oriole (classic fine dining) / Alinea (in between)

• Best ambiance: Smyth (relaxed) / Ever (dramatic)

• Best presentation: Alinea

• Best value: Sepia (classic) / Elske (funky)

Top 10 dishes:

1. Huitlacoche ravioli from Cariño. Never in a million years could I have predicted that corn fungus would be the best thing I ate. This dish was fascinatingly earthy and downright addictive.

2. Venison from Next (Charlie Trotter). That mole was mindblowingly good. I loved the intense, deep flavor and subtle spice of the sauce paired with the ultra-tender meat and bright, crisp apple.

3. Mother of pearl caviar from Esmé. A masterclass in how to balance texture, temperature, and contrasting flavors. “What the hell is this and why is it so delicious?” Pretty much sums up my thoughts.

4. White truffle capellini from Oriole. Smooth and luscious pasta with an intense, luxurious truffle flavor.

5. 16-spice quail from Next (Bobby Flay). So many incredible sauces and textures at play. It was a delight to mix and match elements on the plate.

6. Lobster moilee from Indienne. Firm yet succulent lobster accompanied by a complex moilee and bold garnishes.

7. “Hot potato cold potato” from Alinea. A mysterious, deceptively simple-looking bite that was creative and surprising in the best way.

8. Foie gras from Oriole. Unbelievably decadent little toast with a fantastic crunch. I felt like a rich old widow eating this.

9. Quail egg raviolo from Schwa. A single, silky, perfect bite packing an umami punch. I should have licked the bowl.

10. Vermont quail and boudin noir from Smyth. An impressive showcase of culinary technique and the versatility of a single protein.

Top 5 desserts:

1. “Avocado” panna cotta from Next (Bobby Flay). Innovative in both taste and presentation. I wish I'd had room for another. (11)

2. Truffle croissant from Kasama. Literally perfect pastry. No notes. (12)

3. Truffle and citrus blossom from Smyth. Really ugly but delicious custard with a bizarre combination of flavors that married exquisitely. (13)

4. “Flan” from Esmé. A beautiful blend of sweet and savory flavors presented beneath an actual work of art. (14)

5. “Apples” from EL Ideas. Perhaps not the most adventurous flavor combination, but flawlessly executed and incredibly tasty. (15)

Worst 5 bites:

1. Lamb heart butter accompaniment to the malted milk bread at Smyth. I found this repulsive and couldn't stomach more than the tiniest nibble. (16)

2. Foie gras in a tube from Next (Bobby Flay). One of the most unpleasant bites of food I’ve ever put in my mouth. I desperately wished to spit this out. (17)

3. “Ramen” from Schwa. The concept was clever, but nothing about this dish worked. (18)

4. “Potato” from Ever. A truly unfortunate combination of some of my most hated ingredients. And to add insult to injury, the potato itself was undercooked. (19)

5. “Fluff” from Schwa. A cotton candy-esque dessert which I found overwhelmingly sweet and couldn’t finish. (20)

6. Bonus: raspberry popsicle from Ever. It looked and tasted like it came out of my freezer. Not truly bad, but a deeply confusing choice to end the meal. (not pictured)

A few final remarks:

I am not a professional food critic. I’m an ordinary person who enjoys exceptional meals and trying new things. By sharing my honest thoughts about my visits, I hope to help others decide if such (expensive) experiences are worthwhile for them.

My reviews are structured but subjective, and are based solely on my most recent dinner(s) at each restaurant and my personal preferences. My ratings are primarily driven by the food and my final impression of the overall experience, but I also take drinks, service, and ambiance into consideration. My full writeups for each place can be found by searching my post history or the r/chicagofood subreddit.

I paid for all of my own meals and didn’t make any special requests when booking. I’ve disclosed anything I was kindly offered for free.

I’m happy to answer questions or engage in (respectful) debates in the comments. But most of all, whether you agree with me or not, I wish you good eating.

Thoughts? I think we have a better variety in terms of different Mexican cuisine than most places but I can't lie and pretend the best tacos I have ever had weren't from San Diego lol.

Thank you for begrudgingly complying…it was delicious 😋

1- Dimmi Dimmi
2- papa cache
3- small bar
4- Al’s (on wells unfortunately)
5&6- Rico benne
7- Del sur
8- wiener circle
9- qxy
10- carnitas urupan
11- canton regio
12- diner grill
13- Bari
14- Kasama
15- Millys
16- birria zargoza
17- goat tavern
18- 3 dots
19- queen mary
20- super drunk 2am malort shots at Rossi’s

This was my first trip to Chicago, and I just wanted to thank everyone for recommendations and the hospitality I was shown. This is a truly incredible city with fantastic food and drink culture (among other things!)

I refuse to weigh myself but I definitely gained at least 10 pounds. My liver is also almost definitely failing. But worth it!!

For background: I tip 20% when being waited on and 10% when I’m not. My gf is in college and i’m self employed so we tried to do it on a budget while eating good food that we would enjoy (Canal Street was on me). Overall Moti was our favorite food (and also great for the wallet) and Minghin was our least favorite. I know some of this is essentially fast food but coming from Nashville, it was still enjoyable and we got to walk off everything we ate (we did 100k steps). For further reference we stayed in the loop so Pret and Stans was very easy to get for a quick, cheap meal. Love your great city!

Hi, I am a South Korean national who's having the pleasure of staying in Chicago for a month because my brother is starting university here. Although I had previously visited other US States such as New York, California, Florida and Washington DC, it was the first time visiting a state in the mid-west, and I was excited to try the local cruisine. And luckily, most places, ranging from the michelin-starred places like Kasama and Topolobampo to home-owned restaurants and food trucks, were all impeccable, with people who treated us with so much more kindness than other states.

I'm also a whisky nerd, as is my father, and we were also excited to hit the local bars - South Korea's extremely high whiskey tax(114%), means that Chicago's whisky scene is much better than South Korea's. And we had a great time, visiting the likes of the Franklin Room and the Berkshire room. We had a blast talking to the bartenders, who were extremely kind and chatted with me about 20th century bourbon - a subject that I am completely unfamiliar with.

Therefore, we had to visit Delilah's - which was a very popular suggestion for a unique whiskey experience on this sub and many others. Therefore, I excitedly took both my parents(although my mother doesn't drink) to the bar. We sat down right in the middle of the bar booth, and it became abundantly clear why people recommended this place - the shelves were full of scotch and bourbon, and there were bottles that I've only seen at auctions, so it was exciting to try a dram there.

The problem was that even though we were seated right in the middle of the bar, the bartender practically ignored us for 10 minutes. He was chatting with other customers, which is fine - a bar has regulars, and he must have been excited to see them - but he went from one corner to another without making eye contact with us, and when he finally did bring over the list, he just put it next to us and left without saying anything, going back to chat with other customers. At this point, my parents were both uncomfortable, and my dad urged me to leave as it was clear the bartender for some reason did not want us there. However, I mistakenly thought that he would warm up to us as we ordered and had a chance to talk about the clearly amazing selection there. So I deliberately chose whiskies that were fun to talk about - the Mackillop's St. Magdalene, the Boutique-y whisky's 50 year old blend, and others(pictures included at the bottom). However, every time we ordered, he made no attempt to converse with us, and went back to chatting with other people - including a woman next to our family whose conversation made it clear that she was visiting there the first time as well - so it wasn't a regulars-only thing. Because the bartender was not talking to us at all, at one point, I stood up to go to talk to him about our next pour, and he told me verbatim "I'm with another customer; could you go back to your seat?"

After ordering about 200 dollars worth of whisky and no attempt at a conversation other than that they can't do half-ounce pours, we left, and my dad was furious.

However, I had hope. Maybe I came at a bad time and the bartender was just in a bad mood. Therefore, I came over the second time just with my mother, as my dad refused to go. I went and again, it took more than 10 minutes to get a menu. Again, the bartender was chatting with people right and left to us and averted making eye contact with us. At one point, I was raising my hand for 2 minutes straight. After I got the menu, I ordered a glass - no attempt at conversation while he was talking to four different teams that surrounded me and my mother. My mother urged me to go so I was looking at the menu for a final pour. I saw that there was a Springbank 21 year single cask, supposedly numbered out of 174 bottles, for 55 dollars an ounce. It was a great price for a Springbank single cask, which are mostly private selections, so I ordered a glass as a final pour. However, when the bartender brought out the bottle, it was the Springbank 21 OB release - a vatted/blended mix that is not a single cask(nor is it a numbered release). I politely pointed out the discrepency in the menu and the bottle, and the bartender, verbatim, said "that's a single cask, and if you don't want it, order something else", and grabbed the bottle, put it back, and went back to talking to other customers.

At this point, I was completely done, so I paid the tab and left. The bartender kept arguing with me that the Springbank 21 was a single cask - it's not.

I was wondering why I got such a different experience to other customers. I speak fluent English, so it's not a language thing. I was so embarassed that I subjugated by parents to such a humiliating experience. They were both incredibly mad that they were treated this way. The only reason I can see, considering the fact that we never even had a chance to talk to the bartender, is that we are Asian. Everyone else at the bar at both opportunities were white.

Pictures attached as evidence.

Looking for bar or cafe recs to just collect myself after a long day of work. Any fellow ponderers feel free to drop your favorite spot I will make the journey.

Where are you getting yours from today?

Smacznego!

I know there are some good vendors but I chose some of the worst ones. Next year I will do more research, I do wish these vendors posted their menu beforehand though

Yes I know Lolla robbed me

Went to Feld and really disliked it. I am known in my friend group for saying dishes are too salty, so if I think a dish needs salt, there is a problem. All but two of the dishes were under seasoned and those other two were over seasoned. The drink list is expensive and though they said the paired tasting was about 3/4 of a bottle of wine, the pours were extremely light. The wines were well received though. Some people in my friend group enjoyed a few of the courses but with the exception of the cheese course, no dish was universally liked by our table leading us to be split as to whether we would give it another go in a year. Due to the set up / intention of the dining experience, they need much better air scrubbers than they have. I really disliked paying $195 and having the pleasure of sitting in fried oil scent. Hopefully they can improve with time but there are much better options in the city for the price and taste.

Poppyseed for life, and an extra shake of celery salt. Had to hold the sport peppers cause I’ve been refluxin’ like a motherfucker lately.

I feel like a new one opens up every three months. ENOUGH!!!!!! Canes is disgusting and tasteless and bland. Sauce is not that good either. There are so many better places to get chicken tenders in this city like Fry the Coop or Hot Chi!

Anyone else see this huge Parmesan on the Kennedy last night around 7pm?? Was it real or a prop? Where was it going? If real, how much do you think this would cost? If we were sitting in traffic next to them, I would have asked but by miracle the traffic was moving.

Left for work in NY ten years ago and came back to visit again a couple weeks ago. Anyone I told I was going back for vacation said: “cool. That’s not pizza you know.”

(Reposting with blurred faces even though I got permission to take the photo but I didn't specify in my original post, sorry mods!)

Every time I come here i'm impressed by how fast things go. Almost no wait even when they're busy as hell, she remembers everyone's orders and even some names. We need more of this in the city.

Also she started recognizing me which feels like a prize in itself.

(FYI, I am a black woman so please don't get on my case about referring to her as one, it's all love here💗)

OnlyPans at Milly's

Signed, a west coast native.

Hello again, everyone! It is with a literal and figurative heavy heart that I must announce that this will be my final ranking of fried chicken sandwiches. Yesterday, I had my 125th different fried chicken sandwich in the Chicagoland area, which is when I said I would make my next list, however, I have made the personal decision to retire as a chicken sandwich maniac after this one. I've been doing a better job of keeping myself in much better shape than I used to be in but ultimately my body just reacts much more poorly to both spicy and fried food to the point that it's just not something I can keep up with unless I get a lifetime supply of toilet paper. This will be my fifth and final iteration of my fried chicken sandwich list and wow what a fun ride it has been! You can find my last list here and within there you can find the previous version before that and so on. I'm once again only doing 10, 15 was too many.

I want to lay out a few qualifiers again:

-I only care about the sandwich. Every other aspect of the restaurant or the menu is irrelevant to me.

-I live on the North side in Lincoln Park and the selection of sandwiches I've tried are definitely biased toward that. I don't have a car so it's not easy for me to get around to places in the South or West side.

-I try every sandwich twice and eat it there fresh. Takeout/delivery doesn't count as it usually makes the sandwich soggy. I want to reiterate: any fried food will get soggy when traveling in a sealed container. It steams. It is not fair to judge fried food this way.

-It is a 100% guarantee that there are people reading this that will dislike all 10 of the sandwiches I am about to list, even my top spot, sorry. Food is too subjective and variable, there will never be a place that everyone likes. I am not a monolith, this is just my opinion, feel free to disregard it completely.

I lost my list so I only have my count of how many I've tried. Every time I post these I get great suggestions of sandwiches I haven't tried though. Please keep continuing to suggest sandwiches to me.

This will be the first time that I've made a new list where I don't have to remove any restaurants due to closing which is a great win for our food scene!

With all that out of the way, here are the sandwiches, and for some of them that were on my last list I'm just copying and pasting the description, sorry, I'm not Nick Kindelsperger:

Honorable Mention: I really enjoyed the spicy fried chicken sandwich at Yardbird but for $22 I cannot recommend going there when there are better options for way less money.

10. BiXi Beer, Logan Square, $16 (pic)

This is one I found by recommendation in a previous thread and wow it really blew me away. Bixi Beer is an Asian-American brewery and restaurant with a really nice menu top to bottom honestly but I'm going to just focus on the sandwich. Their spicy fried chicken sando has a Japanese milk bun with black sesame seeds on top, tobiko mayo, ssamjang, lettuce, pickle, and jalapeno. Back in the day you could get the sandwich for $14 and make it a double for $18. Now it's just the one size for $16.

9. Red Light Chicken, Lincoln Park, $7.99 (pic)

If you want a sandwich to post on your instagram, this ain't it! Red Light Chicken to me is basically what I wish a Chick Fil A sandwich was. It's juicy thigh meat with a lot of flavor and it's fucking fresh. Everything is made to order in their little hut where drunk out of their mind DePaul kids used to go for Devil Dawgs like it was Wiener Circle. Your only options are hot (which is a wet vinegary hot, not a dry rub), honey, mayo, pickles, and American cheese. I usually just go honey, mayo, and pickle. I like the hot but the sandwich gets too soggy. A dry rub seasoning would elevate this place to another stratosphere. This year they added a skinny table about the width of my forearm and the length of Justin Fields under a covered patio where you could theoretically eat this. My recommendation? Shove it in your face on the sidewalk on Webster and Sheffield like a fucking animal then go about your day.

8. Mother's Ruin, Avondale, $17, new addition (pic)

This is one that was recommended to me after I posted my last list as well as from a friend. I was contemplative if I should even count this one as they started in NYC and this is their third location. I got over it because the sandwich is in fact very yummy. Now, I will acknowledge that at $17, it is the most expensive sandwich on this list, but it's also the only one that comes with fries, very important context. I won't comment on the fries because this is about sandwiches. Maybe you can try 125 different french fries in this city and let me know where these rank. There's nothing fancy about the ingredients here, buttermilk fried chicken with slaw, pickles, and mayo. A detail I really enjoyed, more than I thought I would, they toasted both sides of each bun here. The sandwich itself is already delightfully crispy but I think having that extra toasty element helps balance out the slaw and pickles. Delightful.

7. Big Boss Spicy Fried Chicken, Bridgeport, $8.95, new addition (pic)

Oh Big Boss how I have missed you. They didn't make my last list but after a recent visit I asked myself, what was I thinking? I love this sandwich. Get the extra hot, it's so good. For $8.95 how can you go wrong? Some slaw and peppers on there, a sauce that I don't even want to know what's in it and a nice spice lather, this sandwich hits.

6. Hot Chi Chickens & Cones, Chatham, $10 (pic)

Hot Chi in Chatham really grows on me more and more each time I go. I absolutely love this place. They also have a spot in From Here On downtown on Van Buren in the old post office building but it's $12 there. I have not tried this one but I assume it's worse despite having no evidence whatsoever to back that up. They have two chicken sandwiches, both $10. One is the hot honey butta' glazed thigh with spicy mayo, pickles, and slaw. The other one is called Popeye's Ain't Shit which is a Harissa glazed thigh with whipped garlic sauce, tomato, sumac onion, and pickles. Personally, I prefer the Hot Honey here but you can't go wrong. This place is no bull shit, just fried chicken done well and you feel good eating it. Or at least I did.

5. Fry The Coop, West Town, Lincoln Park, lots of suburbs, $10.99 (pic)

The former back to back champion still manages to land in a very respectable fifth place. Last time I posted I said I thought the quality had gone down since I first ate there but I take it back. I am here to claim that I think Fry the Coop has gotten their shit together. They keep expanding so you can expect that new locations might have a small lag to get into the rhythm of older locations, maybe certain ones are better than others, but they really do a great job of getting quality ingredients for a big production sandwich. Almost every sandwich I rank ahead only has one location and they're made by trained chefs so it's hard to compare. They have a new Chicago style sandwich with giardiniera that is a delight, despite the fact that my stomach simply cannot handle it anymore. I'll always be a fan of Fry the Coop.

4. Chubbys Hot Chicken, Forest Park, $10.99 (pic)

I loved Chubbys when they were in Austin and I was gutted to see them close. When they reopened in Forest Park, I was pretty annoyed because it was too far away for someone without a car like me to justify going to. However, in a first for me, a redditor actually DMed me, offered to pay for my ubers and sandwich if I'd eat the sandwich with her and her friend while they asked me 200 questions about chicken sandwiches. Luckily they didn't harvest any of my organs and turned out to be cool and the sandwich was as good as I remembered it. Good amount of heat but nothing insane but extra flavorful and juicy. A delight. Inevitable someone will comment that Forest Park is not in Chicago and I will inevitably point them to the rules of the subreddit that this sub is for the entire Chicagoland area. Stop being so uptight.

Here's the part of the post where I apologize for having the same top 3 as the last list. It would be against the integrity of the list if I changed it for the sake of variety for the new list. These are still my top 3 favorites. I'm sorry it's the same, I did right a new blurb about 3LP though.

3. Hermosa, Hermosa (as in Hermosa the neighborhood, sorry this is confusing), $13 (pic)

This place is consistently awesome. Here's what I wrote last time: This Cambodian-inspired sandwich has a papaya salad and mix of Asian herbs that really brings a lot of awesome flavor and spice out that I felt were really original and, of course, delicious. The owners are lovely and seem like they really care about their food and this sandwich is no exception.

2. Frontier, Noble Square, $15 (pic)

Frontier holds pat at the #2 spot on my list. It is a fucking awesome sandwich. This is actually one that I haven't actually seen anyone say they didn't like besides my girlfriend. Brian Jupiter is a wizard. This sandwich is two chicken pieces on top of each other with pickled bananas peppers, mustard sauce, and a melted piece of cheese on each side of the sesame bun.

1. 3 Little Pigs, South Loop, $12.75-$13.95 (pic)

Last year when I crowned 3 Little Pigs the king of chicken sandwiches, they had 2 sandwiches: the original salt and pepper, and the BBQ chicken sandwich. I ranked the BBQ one as my favorite of the two. However, Henry has since outdone himself, debuting the original orange chicken sandwich at a music festival that nobody went to besides me, it was one of the most delicious chicken sandwiches I've ever eaten. I think that's my favorite now. He also now has a spicy and extra hot one which my anus is begging me not to try so I might not (I'm lying). Either way, you can't go wrong here and now he finally has graduated from ghost kitchen to a real restaurant you can go into and eat at right off the Roosevelt red line.

As a final list, I'll leave with what I thought were my top 3 sandwiches I have ever had in Chicago, including ones that have since gone extinct, and therefore no longer on my list.

3: Chicken and Farm Shop

2: 3 Little Pigs

1: Cluck It

And with that, I conclude my run as the chicken sandwich guy. I really love this community and all the great people I've met through it and all the great meals I've had on your recommendations. I love our food scene and will continue to try to enjoy it as much as I can, I'm not going anywhere (sorry). I want to also add lastly, because I have been accused of this several times, I have never received a single penny for putting a sandwich on here. I have been offered several times but I have not ever been bought to promote any restaurant. I am already in the preliminary stages of planning out my next food adventure where I try way too many of one thing to figure out what's the best. Maybe soon I'll be the pasta guy or the french fry guy, who knows. In addition, there are some community events in the works that I'll be excited to announce soon.

Happy eating,

Mitch

Happy January 6th anniversary everyone! Reminder to not eat at Tank Noodle if you support democracy.