Lynette Smith 
If you’ve dined in Greektown in the past five decades, you’ve seen it: A slice of brandy-drenched kefalotyri cheese, set aflame at your table with a cry of “Opa!” before being extinguished with a squeeze of lemon. Crispy, gooey saganaki isn’t a Greek import; it was invented at Chicago’s now-closed Parthenon restaurant. Other places in … Read more
It’s all about the dipping sauce at this 74-year-old Southeast Side institution. Locals are fanatics for the zingy orange stuff, which is made with mustard, vinegar, and turmeric and was first introduced by local snack manufacturer Vitner’s (nowadays it’s made by a different company but hasn’t lost its neon glow). While the sauce would be … Read more
As you wait to place your order at this venerated fish shack by the Calumet River in the southernmost part of Chicago, you can picture what was: the barges plying the water, the steel plants churning, the European immigrant workers lined up to grab a quick lunch of fried or smoked chubs, pike, or walleye. … Read more
The signature dish at Stephanie Izard’s eternally popular first restaurant, which opened in 2010, sounds like one of most the adventurous bites in the city: cheeks, snout, and tongue from a Slagel Family Farms pig seasoned with cilantro, lime, and coriander, rolled up like a porchetta, and braised, sliced, and cooked in a wood oven. … Read more
Orange Garden opened in this relaxed North Side enclave in 1926, just as most of Chicago’s nascent Chinese community was moving from the Loop to the South Side neighborhood that would become Chinatown. By most accounts, this is the oldest Chinese restaurant in the city, and it has two things fans can’t get enough of. … Read more
Many Black Chicago families with roots in the South claim to hold the key to perfect fried chicken, but Alabama native Harold Pierce thought his family’s recipe was so good that he decided to share it with the world, opening the first Harold’s Chicken Shack, on 47th Street, in 1950. If there’s one must-try order … Read more
Eighteen years, a second location, and 2 million stuffed dates after this pioneering West Loop spot opened, the same cook, Jorge Ruiz, continues to assemble each of these delicious tapas-style snacks, which are based on a recipe from owner Paul Kahan’s father-in-law. The fat medjool dates are big enough to accommodate just the right amount … Read more
With its floury, cracker-thin crust and little nuggets of sausage that are all fennel and juiciness, a takeout pizza from this septuagenarian pub is a timeless pleasure. But it’s only when you dine in that you understand why Far South Siders consider a pie from Vito & Nick’s to be a rite of passage. The … Read more
Juan Zaragoza began making a version of the Jaliscan goat-meat stew here in 2007. His son Jonathan has since joined the operation, and the two butcher the animals in house. To make the restaurant’s signature dish, they steam the goat, marinate it in a deeply flavored mole, and roast it. The rich, fragrant, fall-apart tender … Read more
Unlike the volcano it’s named after, this old-school dish — typically roasted chicken with peas and potatoes in a winey pan gravy — doesn’t normally deliver fireworks. But the Village, the nearly century-old red-sauce temple downtown, breathed life into the shopworn classic by roasting a tender skin-on half chicken to order and leaving the peas out. This is the … Read more
