must eat restaurant for 1st time foodie visitor to Chicago?

Will be in downtown Chicago Labor day weekend. Am an adventurous foodie interested in local eats. What is the best Chicago has to offer? What restaurant is a must-eat-at?

price is no object?

no, price is not a concern

although I understand Chicago has a plethora of cheap and delicious eats

For Chicago at it's very best: Al's Beef on Taylor and walk across the street to Mario's Italian Lemonade.

For a plethora of cheap and delicious eats, run, don't walk, to download the Great Neighborhood Restaurant list. If you're a true LTHer, you can find time to try them all over the Labor Day weekend.

Hello Redtailwatcher--

The first place I'd direct you to is the board's list of Great Neighborhood Restaurant award winners.

I'll tell you that you'll get a lot more helpful suggestions if you let people know where you're staying, how much time and effort you want to spend on dining, and where you're coming from, and any other parameters that might be important. I mean, we could tell you about some great thai places up in lincoln square, but if you don't want to travel so far, hate thai food, and/or live in LA, perhaps that wouldn't be your best bet.

The Al's/Mario's idea is a fantastic one.

Good luck and enjoy your stay!
-erb

L2O, Alinea, Tru, Spiaggia.

redtailwatcher wrote:Will be in downtown Chicago Labor day weekend. Am an adventurous foodie interested in local eats. What is the best Chicago has to offer? What restaurant is a must-eat-at?

Where are you coming from? What kind of food do you like? What kind of food do you want to try. This city has everything from apple fritters to James Beard Award winners, so it all depends on what you want to try.

Coming from Santa Fe, NM, where I currently live. Native of Texas, have lived in Houston, Austin & Dallas. Have eaten my way around the world, and am an adventurous diner.
Love everything from fine dining to hole-in-the-wall dives. Although ambiance and service are important, nothing trumps food in my book.

redtailwatcher wrote:Coming from Santa Fe, NM, where I currently live. Native of Texas, have lived in Houston, Austin & Dallas. Have eaten my way around the world, and am an adventurous diner.
Love everything from fine dining to hole-in-the-wall dives. Although ambiance and service are important, nothing trumps food in my book.

Then follow the upthread suggestion of using the GNR for this trip and leave the rest for the future.

Note that the GNR list doesn't have great downtown or high-end coverage. I find the Chicago Magazine dining guide as good as any for rating the pricey places. I like Spiaggia or Everest for formal, expensive places. Topolobampo is good too, but reservations are a pain. Avenues, Trotter's, Tru, Alinea are other places to consider.

Well if your coming from the South then something you should try is chicago style deep dish. Just do a forum search and you will find many pizza options.

IMO, the Publican is a unique dining experiece to folks living outside of Chicago and amongst the best in whole hog butchering fad. Mado is great as well, but the Publican's expansive beer menu gives it the edge.

The Publican
845 W Fulton Market
Chicago, IL 60607

Alinea. It has won awards as the best restaurant in the country and one of the ten best restaurants in the world. And it deserves them; not only is it amazingly delicious, but eating there is FUN!

Alinea with a nightcap at Al's #1 and Mario's on Taylor.

I'll second Alinea. A night to remember.

Alinea is hereby thirded. Our last meal there was last Thanksgiving, and we are still talking about it. SO, if money* and time** are no object, then yup, that's the one restaurant to visit.

BUT if you're looking for something that's quite nice, yet a little less of a commitment, and also near-ish to downtown, might i suggest something selected from the trio of Blackbird, Naha, or North Pond? I've had some fun meals at Graham Elliot as well.

You might also consider rolling the dice and seeing if you can get a reservation at Schwa. Really amazing creative food served to you by the 4 chefs in a tiny little storefront. Ring them in the late-ish afternoon and perhaps you'll get lucky.

All these restaurants are well-discussed here on the board - search is your friend. You can do a search on the googles like:

Blackbird site:lthforum.com

good luck and good eating

-erb

*you'll likely drop $400 a head, at the inside.
**and spend 4-5 hours.

I agree with all the suggestions so far. I'd also include Avec as one to check out.

Attrill wrote:I agree with all the suggestions so far. I'd also include Avec as one to check out.

Seconded. If money is literally no object, Alinea.

I've already recommended Avec to out of town visitors, in part because of the great food and in part because so many visitors were staying downtown.

Your comment "nothing trumps food" would lead me to nudge Schwa toward the head of the line.
Just be flexible with the phone reservation process. . . .

As a former NM (ABQ) dweller, I'd at least think about one of the fancy Mexican spots, AND a trip to a hole in the wall tacqueria like Tierra Caliente for steak or al pastor tacos, or Las Asadas for steak tacos. Pick your fancy spot, but I'd suggest Frontera just to say you've been if you haven't already.

P.s. can you bring me 10 lbs or so of roasted green chiles?

Birreria Zaragoza. You can thank me later. If you don't have a car I'll be happy to give you a ride.

4852 S. Pulaski, Chicago
Tel: (773) 523-3700

Thanks so very much to everyone! I'm on the standby list at Alinea. Am eager to taste Chicago.

redtailwatcher wrote:Thanks so very much to everyone! I'm on the standby list at Alinea. Am eager to taste Chicago.

GNR list and, once again, Zaragoza.