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Chicago Food Guide: Where I’d Actually Eat

Chicago Will Fill You Up and Then Argue About How It Did It

By Moe Train • Guide updated Nov 2026

THE SHORT VERSION

How Chicago Eats

Chicago food comes with rules, and the city will correct you if you break them. No ketchup on a hot dog. Deep dish takes time, order a drink and wait. And if you call tavern style pizza by some other city's name, the whole bar will hear about it. I respect a city that defends its food like that. That is not stubborn. That is standards.

Under the rules sits some of the best eating in America: two pizza religions, a beef sandwich that drips down to your elbows, and bars where gangsters, curses, and poetry all have their own seats. Chicago feeds you big and argues with you while you chew. My kind of town.

Here is my run: the famous tables, the neighborhood spots locals guard, the bars with the stories, and The Run that ends the way Chicago nights should.

Best Eats Local Favorites Best Bars The Weird Stuff The Run Straight Answers
THE FAMOUS TABLES

Best Eats

Lou Malnati's Pizzeria

Moe Train Approved
A Lou Malnati's deep dish pizza with chunky tomato sauce on a wooden stand, next to a Lou Malnati's pizza box
Photo: Lou Malnati's Pizzeria

Order: The Malnati Chicago Classic, sausage on the Buttercrust.

Lou Malnati's father worked at Pizzeria Uno, where deep dish was born, and Lou opened his own place in 1971 and built it into the name Chicago families say first. The Buttercrust is the difference: crisp edges, real chew, a pie built like it has somewhere to be. If you eat one deep dish in Chicago, the guides I read put this one at the front of the line, and the bloodline backs it up.

Go see them:WebsiteInstagram @loumalnatis

Pequod's Pizza

Lincoln Park
A Pequod's deep dish pizza with its signature caramelized cheese crust and rich tomato sauce, served in the box
Photo: Pequod's Pizza

Order: A pan pizza with the caramelized cheese edge, pepperoni if you want a second flavor fighting back.

Pequod's, running since 1971 per the Chicago guides, bakes its pan pizza so the cheese runs up the side of the pan and turns into a dark, crisp ring. That ring is the whole reason people cross town. Deep dish purists argue about this place versus the classics, and the argument itself is the endorsement. Order it, take the side nobody else gets, and hold your ground.

Go see them:WebsiteInstagram @pequodspizza

Al's #1 Italian Beef & Sandwiches

Little Italy
A dipped Italian beef sandwich from Al's, sliced beef piled into a soaked roll, with an Al's #1 Italian Beef cup beside it
Photo: Al's #1 Italian Beef & Sandwiches

Order: A beef, dipped, with hot giardiniera.

Al's has served Italian beef at 1079 West Taylor Street since 1938, and this is the sandwich Chicago invented and refuses to share credit for. Dipped means the whole sandwich takes a bath in the beef's own juices. Hot giardiniera brings the heat and the crunch. Eat it leaning forward, sleeves up, napkins ready. There is no clean way and there is not supposed to be.

Go see them:WebsiteInstagram @alsbeef

Girl & the Goat

West Loop
Girl & the Goat's pork shank on a wooden board with flatbreads, slaw and sauces at the Chicago restaurant
Photo: Girl & the Goat

Order: Sautéed green beans, roasted oysters, and the confit goat belly.

Chef Stephanie Izard opened Girl & the Goat in 2010 and the West Loop has orbited it since. The green beans sound like a side dish and eat like the reason you came. This is the one sit down, book it, dress a little better dinner on my Chicago list, and it earns the reservation fight. Goat on the menu, goat in the name, no gimmick, just cooking with a point of view.

Go see them:WebsiteInstagram @girl.and.the.goat

Alinea

Lincoln Park
A plated Alinea dish: deep red beet crisps with sauce swirled in rings across a wide white plate
Photo: Alinea

Order: The tasting menu. There is no other order. That is the deal.

Alinea holds three Michelin stars under chef Grant Achatz, and it's the one blowout dinner I would put on a Chicago list without blushing. The guides put fine dining at this level around $200 to $350 a person, so know what you are signing up for. This is dinner as theater, built by one of the most decorated chefs in the country. Once in a while, a meal gets to be the whole night. This is that meal in Chicago.

Go see them:WebsiteInstagram @thealineagroup

WHERE THE LOCALS GO

Local Favorites

Where Chicago actually eats when nobody is visiting.

Vito & Nick's Pizzeria

South Side Moe Train Approved
Close-up of a Vito & Nick's tavern style pizza loaded with sausage, peppers and giardiniera
Photo: Vito & Nick's Pizzeria

Order: A tavern style pie, sausage, cut into squares.

Vito & Nick's has cut thin crust into squares on the South Side since 1946, per a July 2026 tavern style guide on travelarii.com. Here is the local truth the tourists miss: tavern style is the pizza Chicagoans eat week to week. Deep dish is the special occasion pie. At Vito & Nick's you get the everyday religion, cracker thin, edges crisp, squares shared across the table.

Go see them:WebsiteInstagram @vito_and_nicks

Johnnie's Beef

Elmwood Park
The Johnnie's Beef stand in Elmwood Park in a vintage photo, its sign reading Johnnie's, red hots, fries and shakes
Photo: Johnnie's Beef

Order: The combo. Italian sausage and Italian beef in one sandwich, dipped.

Unearth the Voyage's Chicago sandwich coverage points at Johnnie's for the combo, the order that skips the beef or sausage debate by taking both. Elmwood Park is a short hop past the city line, and Chicagoans make the drive without complaining, which in this city is a five star review all by itself. Get the fries and the lemon ice if they are pouring it.

Go see them:Website

Mr. Beef on Orleans

River North
The Mr. Beef storefront on Orleans Street, its hanging Mr. BEEF Est. 1979 sign over the sidewalk and 'The Original Mr. Beef on Orleans' lettered on the window
Photo: Mr. Beef on Orleans

Order: A beef, dipped, hot peppers, eaten at the counter.

Mr. Beef is the downtown counter version of the Italian beef faith: order at the window, eat standing or squeezed into the little room, juice running down your hands. Unearth the Voyage's beef coverage names it for the classic dipped beef done the old way. No frills, no ceremony, exactly how a workday beef should be.

Go see them:WebsiteInstagram @mr.beefchicago

Superdawg Drive-In

Northwest Side
Superdawg Drive-In at dusk with its neon lit and the Maurie and Flaurie hot dog statues standing on the roof
Photo: Superdawg Drive-In

Order: The Superdawg. All beef on a poppy seed bun with the works, crinkle fries in the box.

Maurie and Flaurie Berman opened Superdawg in May 1948 and the family still runs it, carhop service and all, with Maurie and Flaurie standing on the roof as hot dog statues. Wikipedia's Superdawg entry backs the date, the founders, and the rule the city lives by: no ketchup. Drive in, order through the speaker, and eat in the car like it's 1948. Some places are preserved. This one just never stopped.

Go see them:WebsiteInstagram @superdawgdrivein

DRINKS WITH A STORY

Best Bars

The Green Mill

Uptown Moe Train Approved
Saxophone players on stage at The Green Mill
Photo: The Green Mill

The Green Mill opened in 1907 as Pop Morse's Roadhouse and became a Capone era speakeasy run by his associate "Machine Gun" Jack McGurn, per Free Tours By Foot's Chicago coverage. Capone's booth is still there. So is the jazz, and so is the poetry slam, which started in this room in 1986 and still runs weekly. Order a cocktail, take the music seriously, and sit where the history sat. Bars don't get more loaded than this one: gangsters, jazz, and slam poetry in one room on Broadway.

Go see them:WebsiteFacebook

Billy Goat Tavern

Michigan Avenue, lower level
The Billy Goat Tavern & Grill hanging sign on Michigan Avenue, lettered 'Cheezborger, Cheezborger... No Fries... Chips'
Photo: Billy Goat Tavern

William "Billy Goat" Sianis opened this tavern in 1934, and in 1945 he tried to bring his goat Murphy to a World Series game, got turned away, and put a curse on the Cubs that Chicago talked about for 71 years. The SNL "Cheezborger" sketch made the counter famous nationwide, and the counter still runs the same script: cheezborger, cheeps, no fries, Coke, no Pepsi. Order in that rhythm, eat under a century of newspaper clippings, and respect a dive with a mythology department.

Go see them:WebsiteInstagram @cheezborger

Cindy's Rooftop

The Loop
Four cocktails on a table inside Cindy's Rooftop, a Cindy's menu in front and the dining room's tall windows behind
Photo: Cindy's Rooftop

Thirteen floors up in the Chicago Athletic Association building, Cindy's looks straight over Millennium Park to Lake Michigan, per Travel Lemming's Chicago coverage and its OpenTable listing. This is the drink stop for the view: a cocktail at golden hour with the whole lakefront laid out under you. After two basement bars and a speakeasy, Chicago earns one rooftop, and this is the one.

Go see them:WebsiteInstagram @cindysrooftop

OFF THE EATEN PATH

The Weird Stuff

Garfield Park Conservatory

Garfield Park
Inside the Garfield Park Conservatory fern room: tree ferns around a still pond under the glass roof
Photo: Garfield Park Conservatory

A conservatory from 1908, one of the largest in the country, with free admission. Free, in a city that charges for everything fun. The Knot's Chicago coverage and the conservatory's own listings back both the date and the free entry. Fern rooms, palm houses, and warm green air in the middle of a Chicago winter. It's the reset button this eating day needs by hour six.

Go see them:WebsiteInstagram @gpconservatory

Chicago Magic Lounge

A magician performing close-up card magic for a laughing crowd at the Chicago Magic Lounge
Photo: Chicago Magic Lounge

A magic club hidden behind a laundromat front, where close up magicians work your table while you drink. Back Road Planet's Chicago coverage names the laundromat front and the table side magic. You walk through a wash room door into a full theater. That entrance alone is worth the ticket, and the card work at the table holds up the rest.

Go see them:WebsiteInstagram @chicagomagiclounge

A Shot of Malört

A bottle of Jeppson's Malört towering over the Chicago skyline, from the brand's own website
Photo: Jeppson's Malört

Carl Jeppson, a Swedish immigrant, put Jeppson's Malört on the market in 1934, right after Prohibition ended, per Chicago Rex's Malört history. It's a bitter wormwood spirit that Chicago treats as a rite of passage, which is a polite way of saying locals order it for visitors and watch their faces. Do the shot once. Make the face. You are in the club now. Every city has a handshake. Chicago's burns a little.

Go see them:WebsiteInstagram @jeppsonsmalort

TRAIN RECOMMENDED

The Run

A fun way to go through Chicago, laid out in day parts, not clock times. Take the stops you want, skip the ones you don't. The best parts of a city are not on any list. Wander off the second something better pulls you.

  1. Morning

    Garfield Park Conservatory, early, while the rooms are quiet. Free entry, green everywhere, coffee after. Chicago starts better than people think.

  2. Midday

    Al's on Taylor Street. A beef, dipped, hot giardiniera, eaten leaning over the counter the way the sandwich demands.

  3. Afternoon

    Superdawg on the Northwest Side. Order through the carhop speaker, eat the Superdawg in the car, no ketchup, and look up at Maurie and Flaurie on the roof.

  4. Late afternoon

    Down to lower Michigan Avenue for a cheezborger at Billy Goat. Say the order right: cheeps, no fries, Coke, no Pepsi.

  5. Evening

    Pequod's in Lincoln Park for the pan pizza with the caramelized cheese ring. Give it the full 45 minutes a real Chicago pie needs and don't rush the kitchen.

  6. Night

    The Green Mill in Uptown. Jazz in Capone's room, a cocktail at the bar, poetry if the night lines up. That is Chicago, morning to midnight, and it never once ran out of things to feed you.

BEFORE YOU GO

Straight Answers

Deep dish or tavern style: which pizza is really Chicago's?

Both, and the locals split by occasion. Deep dish is the famous pie, the special occasion order. Tavern style, thin and cut in squares, is the week to week pizza at places like Vito & Nick's, running since 1946. My take: eat deep dish for the event, tavern style to eat like you live there.

How long does a deep dish pizza take?

About 45 minutes in the oven, per Tripbase's Chicago dining guide. Order a drink, order an appetizer, and settle in. Any place serving you a deep dish in 15 minutes is telling you something about the pizza.

What does "dipped" mean on an Italian beef?

The whole sandwich goes into the beef's cooking juices before it lands in front of you. Wet, rich, falling apart in the right way. At Al's, dipped with hot giardiniera is the order I would hand a first timer.

Where was deep dish pizza invented?

Pizzeria Uno, in 1943 on Ohio Street, per Trip Pick's Chicago guide. Lou Malnati's father worked there before Lou opened his own place in 1971, which is why the Malnati name carries weight in the argument.

What is Malört, and do I have to try it?

A bitter wormwood spirit Jeppson's has sold since 1934, and yes, once. Chicago treats it as a rite of passage. One shot, make the face, earn the story.

First published Nov 6, 2026 • Updated Nov 2026 • By Moe Train

LOCALS KNOW BEST

Know Chicago Better Than This Guide Does?

This guide takes input from the people who live here. If your spot is missing, or your neighborhood is eating somewhere better, send me the places visitors never hear about.

Send Moe Your City’s Best

I drop a new city every week. Follow the run.

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