Author: Constance Cooper

February 22-29, Chicago will host its very first Restaurant Week.  Featuring seven days of fabulously priced meal promotions, Restaurant Week gives Chicagoans and visitors alike the chance to indulge themselves at some of the city’s best restaurants while still keeping their wallets nice and fat.  For one week only, 35 of the city’s restaurants will feature a three-course prix-fie lunch for $21.95 and a three-course dinner for $31.95.  Although the prices are exclusive of beverages, tax, and tip – they remain unheard of values for the restaurants participating.  A full list of these restaurants can be viewed at the Chicago Restaurant Week official website, and reservations can be made via OpenTable.

The following are just a few must-visit spots participating in Chicago Restaurant Week:

17 West at the Berghoff

17 West Adams Street
Chicago, IL 60603
312-427-3170
website

A German beer hall opened in 1898 by immigrant Herman Joseph Berghoff, the Berghoff was the oldest restaurant in Chicago when it closed its doors in 2006.  Owned and operated by Carlyn Berghoff, Herman’s great-granddaughter, 17 West at the Berghoff maintains the Old World charm of the Berghoff Restaurant but with lively contemporary touches all its own.

Aigre Doux Restaurant and Bakery

230 West Kinzie Street
Chicago, IL 60610
312-329-9400
website

Named one of Chicago Magazine’s “Best New Restaurants of 2007” - Aigre Doux, whose name literally means “sour sweet,” features the elegant, restrained New American cuisine of husband-wife team Mohammad Islam (executive chef) and Malika Ameen (pastry chef).  The impressive culinary resumes of this powerhouse couple includes working together at the helm at L.A.’s famed Chateau Marmont.  Aigre Doux’s menu features such stunners as Roasted Lobster Bucatini with asparagus, squash, and crispy leeks as well as Colorado Rack Of Lamb with truffled grits, fennel, roasted peach, and a fava bean salad.

Aria

200 North Columbus Drive
Chicago, IL 60601
312-444-9494
website

Chef de Cuisine Leon Gunn has created a menu of paradoxes for Aria - featuring “global comfort food” that deftly blends adventurousness with familiarity.  Aria also features a sleek sushi bar/lounge billed as “Chicago’s only sushi club” - with sari-inlaid tables, private recesses draped in gold and amber shears, and a soaring global soundtrack.

Carnivale

702 West Fulton Street
Chicago, IL 60661
312-850-3017
website

Lively, colorful, and hip, Carnival offers playful Nuevo Latino cuisine in a nightclub-like setting.  Featuring delicious cocktails such as the spiced rum Horchata-tini, as well as made-to-order guacamole and a fresh ceviche bar, Carnival caters to an up-and-coming crowd of young foodies looking to mix dinnertime with party time.

David Burke’s Primehouse

616 North Rush at Ontario
Chicago, IL 60611
Phone: 312.660.6000
website

No visit to Chicago would be complete without a big, juicy steak.  Opened in 2006, David Burke’s Primehouse has already taken its place among the city’s most storied steakhouses.  The crowning jewels of menu are Burke’s boldly flavorful dry-aged steaks, which hang for up to 40 days in the restaurant’s salt-tiled aging room.  

Fulton’s on the River

315 North LaSalle Street
Chicago, Illinois  60610
312-822-0100
website

Located on the Chicago River, with stunning views of the downtown loop, Fulton’s is a classic Chicago seafood and steak house with quite possibly the best oyster bar in town.  Although the steaks are scrumptious at Fulton’s, seafood is the real star of the menu.  Featuring everything from barramundi, to kampachi, to ono-wahoo, to corvina, Fulton’s seafood menu is guaranteed not to disappoint.

Naha

500 North Clark Street
Chicago, Illinois 60610
312-321-6242
website

New American dining with bold Mediterranean touches characterizes Executive Chef Carrie Nahabedian’s menu of sophisticated comfort food – featuring such unique creations as Braised Kurobuta Pork Cheek with Amish shell beans, winter root vegetables, and smoked Manuka sea salt, as well as Tasmanian Ocean Trout - hot smoked and blossom honey glazed, served with black beluga lentils, portabella mushrooms, and balsamic syrup.

Pump Room

1301 North State Parkway
Chicago, IL 60610
312-266-0360
website

Originally opened in 1938, the Pump Room has hosted decades upon decades of celebrities – everyone from Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, to Bette Davis, to Frank Sinatra, to Jim Belushi, to Mick Jagger.  Maintaining four AAA diamonds since 1978, the Pump Room features contemporary American cuisine with subtle French influences.  Often compared to New York’s The Rainbow Room, this historic restaurant and bar is definitely the place to visit for an experience that is truly, uniquely Chicago.

Sushi Samba Rio

504 North Wells Street
Chicago, IL 60610
312-595-2300
website

Named Chicago Magazine’s best rooftop bar in town – this Brazilian-Japanese-Peruvian hybrid restaurant features an indoor space that feels just like outside – where you can experience summer even amid February’s chill.  This colorful, high-energy restaurant boasts a deliciously eccentric menu designed by Chef de Cuisine Abel Cortez, an extensive and intricate sake menu compiled by Sake Sommelier Moncia Samuels, all set to a vibrant, pulsing samba beat.