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Frommer's Guide
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Best Bets: Best Dining Bets Frommer

The ribs at Carson's are succulent and the stuffed pizza at Gino's East is deservedly hyped, but don't stop there: Chicago is home to an ever-expanding galaxy of sophisticated restaurants whose kitchens are energized by culinary stars. You can sit for a multicourse tasting menu at the incomparable Charlie Trotter's, make the scene at the Chicago outpost of Jean-Georges Vongerichten's Vong, or savor the unique Mexican cooking of Rick Bayless at Frontera Grill.

Best Spot for a Romantic Dinner: Few activities are more intimate than dipping lobster tails in fondue by candlelight at Geja's Cafe, 340 W. Armitage Ave. (tel. 773/281-9101), with a classical guitarist playing softly in the background. A strong challenge in this category is being mounted by the newcomer North Pond Cafe, 2610 N. Cannon Dr. (tel. 773/477-5845), an Arts and Crafts-styled, Midwestern-flavored restaurant with a postcard-perfect setting in Lincoln Park. Not only does it boast a dramatic vista of the Gold Coast skyline, but the restaurant's out-of-the-way locale requires diners to begin and end their meal with an idyllic stroll through the park.

Best Spot for a Business Lunch: With great food, great service, and a central location in the Loop, Trattoria No. 10, 10 N. Dearborn St. (tel. 312/984-1718), tops the list.

Best Spot for a Celebration: Part supper club, part Nuevo Latin restaurant, Chicago dining kingpin Richard Melman's Nacional 27, 325 W. Huron St. (tel. 312/664-2727), lives the vida loca every Friday and Saturday night with hot Latin tunes that transform the dance floor into a Carnaval-esque tangle of writing revelers doing the salsa, merengue and lambada.

Best View: Forty stories above Chicago, Everest, 440 S. LaSalle St. (tel. 312/663-8920), astounds with a spectacular viewand food to match. In the daytime, another winner is Spiaggia, 980 N. Michigan Ave. (tel. 312/280-2750), overlooking Lake Michigan's Oak Street Beach. One brilliant view, day or night, is at the Signature Lounge atop the John Hancock Building, 875 N. Michigan Ave. (tel. 312/787-7230). It's good for a drink--at the beginning or the end of the evening.

Best Value: At Carson's, 612 N. Wells St. (tel. 312/280-9200), a mere $15.95 gets you a full slab of incredible baby-back ribs, accompanied by a bowl of Carson's almost-as-famous coleslaw and a choice of potatoes. The complimentary chopped liver in the bar area eliminates any need for an appetizer.

Best for Kids: A meal at Michael Jordan's Restaurant, 500 N. LaSalle St. (tel. 312/644-DUNK), and a trip to Niketown will keep most kids happy for hours.

Best American Cuisine: Culinary chameleon Michael Kornick dazzled at Vivo, Marchi, and Red Light, and he now draws adventurous foodies to MK, 868 N. Franklin St. (tel. 312/482-9179), his long-awaited eponymous restaurant in River North.

Best French Cuisine: For fine French dining, Ambria, 2300 Lincoln Park West (tel. 773/472-0076), has few rivals anywhere in the world. Nestled in an elegant Lincoln Park dining room, Ambria's kitchen does not disappoint. Angling for a more casual, classic French dining experience, reminiscent of an upscale Parisian bistro, chef John Hogan serves up a stunning debut with Savarin, 713 N. Wells St. (tel. 312/255-9520), one of the best restaurants to open in Chicago in recent memory.

Best Italian Cuisine: Despite its supertrendy ambiance and buzz, Centro, 710 N. Wells St. (tel. 312/988-7775), offers truly first-rate cooking, from the pasta to the chicken Vesuvio.

Best Steak House: Eli's, 215 E. Chicago Ave. (tel. 312/642-1393), broils a mean steak, and if that's not enough, its multiple varieties of cheesecake will send you into cholesterol overdrive.

Best Pizza: In the town where deep-dish pies were born, pioneer Pizzeria Uno is a dethroned king. The duke and dauphin are Gino's East, 160 E. Superior St. (tel. 312/943-1124), and Lou Malnati's, 439 N. Wells St. (tel. 312/828-9800), both of which bake mouthwatering slabs of pizza loaded with fresh ingredients atop delectably sweet crusts. Lou's fan base is so enamored that the restaurant has even instituted a popular overnight mail-order business to get expatriate Chicagoans with a deep-dish jones over the hump.

Best Pretheater Dinner: A local favorite, the Italian Village, 71 W. Monroe St. (tel. 312/332-7005)--actually three restaurants run by one family under one roof--knows how to get its clientele seated and fed (very well) in time for a show. For Chicago Symphony Orchestra audiences, there's no choice but the exemplary Rhapsody, 65 E. Adams St. (tel. 312/786-9911), the best restaurant to open in the fine dining-starved Loop in years. If you're seeing a play at Steppenwolf or another off-Loop theater on the North Side, try the ingenious French cooking of wunderkind chef Eric Aubriot at his namesake restaurant, Aubriot, 1962 N. Halsted St. (tel. 773/281-4211). For Second City spectators, it's Old Town's reigning Italian charmer, Topo Gigio, 1516 N. Wells St. (tel. 312/266-9355), or bust.

Best Fast Food: Rich Melman scores again with his brilliant concept for foodlife in Water Tower Place, 835 N. Michigan Ave. (tel. 312/335-3663), a food court exemplar with everything from Asian noodles to pizza.


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