Playlist Restaurant

Restaurant

Shokran Moroccan Restaurant

As Morocco Defies Expectations at the World Cup, Discover One of Chicago's Only Moroccan Restaurants

Daniel Hautzinger

Morocco won a group containing the second- and third-place finishers in the last World Cup and then defeated the heavyweight Spain in the first knockout round of the 2022 World Cup. Khalid Kamal, the owner of the Moroccan restaurant Shokran, is rooting from them from afar, along with his family back in Morocco.
Daley's Restaurant

13 of Chicago's Most Iconic Diners

Jennifer Billock

Chicago is an outstanding food city—but you don’t have to eat at Michelin-star restaurants to enjoy the exceptional dining culture. The city’s (and suburbs’) diners are where Chicagoans of all types congregate for some quick, hearty food and hot coffee.
Nom Bahn Chok from Khmai Fine Dining in Chicago's Rogers Park

A Refugee Mother's Recipes Give Her Life and Inspire One of Chicago's Only Cambodian Restaurants

Daniel Hautzinger

Mona Sang opened Khmai Fine Dining, one of two Cambodian restaurants in Chicago, to share the recipes and culture of her mother, who fled the Khmer Rouge genocide and ended up in Chicago, where she supported herself and four children as a caterer. 
The interior of Don Roth's Blackhawk restaurant in 1966. Photo: ST-70004498-0001, Chicago Sun-Times collection, Chicago History Museum

Memories of Chicago's Most Dearly Missed Restaurants, As Shared By Our Audience

Daniel Hautzinger

We asked our audience to tell us about closed restaurants that they sorely missed, and were delighted by the fond memories people shared of establishments throughout the city and suburbs, in a variety of cuisines. Is your favorite on the list?
Chef Tayler Ploshehanski, 33, left, works with line cook Tyler Damiani, 27, during the dinner service at Wherewithall at 3472 N. Elston Ave. in Chicago, Illinois. Photo: WTTW/Kathleen Hinkel

A Day in the Life of a Fine Dining Restaurant

Daniel Hautzinger

What does it take to make a fine dining restaurant run smoothly—especially one like Avondale's Wherewithall, where the menu changes every week? A creative and organized chef de cuisine and multitasking general manager, for one. 
The Pump Room at the Ambassador East Hotel in Chicago in 1970. Photo: ST-70004622-0013, Chicago Sun-Times collection, Chicago History Museum

Ten of Chicago's Most Iconic Restaurants, Past and Present

Daniel Hautzinger

As iconic signs like Dinkel's and Orange Garden's disappear from Chicago, celebrate some of Chicago's most memorable restaurants, past and present, the kind of places where the surroundings are an inextricable part of the experience. 
Beverly Kim and Johnny Clark at the 2019 James Beard Awards. Photo: Galdo Photography

Meet Chicago's James Beard Awards 2022 Semifinalists

Daniel Hautzinger

The list of semifinalists for the James Beard Awards has been released, and fifteen Chicago people and places in the food industry are on it. Meet them here.
Chefs Beverly Kim and Sarah Stegner

Challenging the Culinary Industry's Gender Disparity by Helping Working Mothers

Daniel Hautzinger

Women are drastically under-represented as lead chefs in the restaurant business, but a new nonprofit aims to begin changing that. “I feel like the difficulties and the lack of systemic support for motherhood are a big part of why a lot of women drop out of this industry," says Beverly Kim.
Diana Dávila of Mi Tocaya Antojería and Beverly Kim of Parachute and Wherewithall are two chef/owners taking part in Women's Restaurant Week

Support Women-Owned Establishments During Women's Restaurant Week

Daniel Hautzinger

During Women's Restaurant Week, from August 26 through 31, you can support women-owned restaurants during the difficult times of the COVID-19 pandemic as some twenty establishments across Chicagoland offer various specials. 
Food at Lincoln Square's LC Pho n Grill. Photo: Sandy Noto for WTTW

Moving Beyond Phở at a Revamped Chicago Vietnamese Restaurant

Daniel Hautzinger

After remodeling, Lincoln Square's LC Phở n Grill reopened with an expanded menu that features harder-to-find Vietnamese dishes that the husband-and-wife owners workshopped while exploring Vietnamese restaurants in California.
Chicago's Han Bat. Photo: Sandy Noto for WTTW

Chicago's One-of-a-Kind Korean Soup Specialist

Daniel Hautzinger

Han Bat serves basically one thing: the milky, restorative Korean soup known as seolleongtang, which takes hours and hours to make. "When [Koreans] come to visit Chicago, they come over here, because... we are the only one who does this kind of food," says the owner.
Sisig from Isla Pilipina. Photo: Sandy Noto for WTTW

A Filipino Restaurant Born Out of a Love for Mom's Cooking

Daniel Hautzinger

"I never really loved high school lunches or any of that, anything outside of what my mom prepared in the kitchen," says Ray Espiritu, the owner of Isla Pilipina in Lincoln Square. When he didn't know what to do after graduating, he decided to take over a restaurant.
Clockwise from left: base camp potato, momo, thenthuk, kwati, and karela from Himalayan Sherpa Kitchen. Photo: Sandy Noto for WTTW

A Chicago Restaurant Where Indian and Chinese Influences Meet

Daniel Hautzinger

Himalayan Sherpa Kitchen serves many hard-to-find Nepali specialties, which combine Indian, Tibetan, and Chinese culinary influences, unlike many other Nepali restaurants in Chicago, which offer mostly North Indian dishes.
Andrea Andrade preparing a pabellón (shredded beef, black beans, fried plantains, cheese) arepa at Sweet Pepper Venezuelan Food Bar. Photo: Sandy Noto for WTTW

A New Life in Chicago Serving an Old Food That Represents Their Home

Daniel Hautzinger

Andrea Andrade and Jose Navea didn't plan to stay in Chicago when they came to visit. Now they operate their own restaurant serving arepas, a nostalgic staple food of their home country of Venezuela. "You can't say Venezuela and not say arepas," Navea says. 
Chef Erick Williams. Photo: Gary Adcock/Studio37

How Chef Erick Williams Shows Kindness Is a Virtue at His Restaurant

Daniel Hautzinger

"For me, sustainability is developing and training the largest sum of African American and brown young men and women that I can possibly find," says chef Erick Williams, who has recently garnered national acclaim for his new Hyde Park restaurant, Virtue.
Subscribe to Restaurant