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2 weeks ago | 
theinfatuation.com | John Ringor |Veda Kilaru |Nick Allen
If you tried to keep track of every new restaurant and bar in Chicago, your head might spin. So just read this list instead. These are the new restaurants openings in Chicago you should know about.
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2 months ago | 
theinfatuation.com | Bryan Kim |Molly Fitzpatrick |Alison Kessler |Veda Kilaru
The chef at this hot Brooklyn spot previously worked for the group behind 4 Charles Prime Rib, and the two restaurant’s burgers have a lot in common: a pair of nicely seared patties smothered in creamy cheese, with absurdly thin mandolined pickles. The Snail’s version is great. But it's not great enough to justify the two-hour wait for a table, especially given how inconsistent the rest of the paint-by-numbers trendy menu (steak frites, shrimp cocktail, house martini) tends to be.
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Nov 26, 2024 | 
theinfatuation.com | John Ringor |Veda Kilaru |Nick Allen |Adrian Kane
Most of the food at Christkindlmarket is “good for a pop-up holiday market in the middle of downtown.” But DönerMen is flat-out tasty. The currywurst has an excellent tangy sauce and a hefty dusting of curry powder. And the juicy chicken doner is well-seasoned, complemented by tart tzatziki. Get both over fries—they’re the ideal sponge for all the sauce. Helmut’s flaky strudel pastry is stuffed with lightly spiced apple chunks and studded with raisins.
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Nov 18, 2024 | 
theinfatuation.com | John Ringor |Veda Kilaru |Nick Allen
This Bridgeport spot uses thin slices of tender meat that practically disintegrate in your mouth, leaving behind the pleasant tingling of sichuan peppers in their Chinese-Chicagoan version of a beef. The spice is amped up even more by the chili oil-soaked giardiniera and a side of hot pot broth in place of jus. Sure, it’s not traditional. But like opposable thumbs and Roombas, the hot pot beef at 3 Little Pigs Chi is an evolutionary marvel we didn’t know we needed, and now can’t live without.
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Nov 18, 2024 | 
theinfatuation.com | John Ringor |Nick Allen |Veda Kilaru
2024 brought caviar on fried appetizers, bakeries popping up citywide, and tasting menu spots that fired up Chicago's love of omakase. Not everything new worked—we're looking at you, super-sized restaurants with NYC and London bona fides that left us underwhelmed. Regardless, we were there, eating and paying attention all along. Looking back on our 12 months of restaurant visits, these are the five biggest trends we noticed.
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Nov 18, 2024 | 
theinfatuation.com | Nick Allen |Veda Kilaru |John Ringor
THE MOMENT WE KNEW WE LOVED ITA bite of the hibiscus-and-beet-cured scallop aguachile that simultaneously made us sweat and cry pineapple brothy tears of joy. A PERFECT ORDER FOR IMPRESSING THE HARD-TO-IMPRESSThe scallop aguachile, any of the tacos, an octopus Sonoran dog, a huitlacoche quesadilla, and at least one blue corn macaron. GO IF YOU LIKE... Seafood, bold flavors, chatting with chefs at the counter, Obelix, and Taqueria Chingon. Actually, you should go even if you don’t like those things.
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Oct 30, 2024 | 
theinfatuation.com | Veda Kilaru
You might know Pierrot Gourmet as the unusually laidback French cafe connected to the Peninsula Hotel—home to fancy Chinese food, fancy afternoon tea, and a fancy rooftop with a great view. It’s also a bakery that’s quietly making some of the best baked goods in the city. On weekends, tables are filled with a casual, touristy crowd drinking cappuccinos and eating brunchy things like egg white frittatas and brioche french toast bites.
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Oct 30, 2024 | 
theinfatuation.com | Veda Kilaru
Cadinho is a bakery and cafe in McKinley Park specializing in Portuguese pastries. It’s a great spot for your coffee shop rotation, with a handful of tables and plenty of sunlight, but the tarts are the real reason you should come here. The sweet, silky smooth, vanilla-scented egg custard nestled in buttery, flaky pastry is great on its own as a plain pastel de nata, but it’s even better when it’s balanced by a little half-shell of bittersweet chocolate.
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Oct 30, 2024 | 
theinfatuation.com | Veda Kilaru
This family-owned coffee shop and panaderia bakes everything in-house, from cinnamon buns and cookies to Mexican pan dulce and fluffy bolillos perfect for your next torta-making night. But one of the best things at this Back Of The Yards cafe is the Mexican hot chocolate donut. It has a thick layer of slightly spicy frosting, and it’s only made better by a piping hot cup of sweet cafe de olla.
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Oct 30, 2024 | 
theinfatuation.com | Veda Kilaru
Much like another weekend-only Chicago bakery, the line at Fat Peach in Bridgeport starts forming no less than 30 minutes before open. It’s filled with people happily waiting to get their hands on choux buns stuffed with sweet raspberry and white chocolate, umami-packed mushroom torsades topped with tons of pecorino cheese, and TikTok-famous strawberry milk croissants. The fillings are fantastic, with sweet things never too sweet, and savory things never too salty.
