Travel

The 5 Best New Restaurants in Chicago

The Windy City has become a bona fide gourmet food town, and these five beautifully designed places are the latest hot spots to check out

Spring has arrived in Chicago, which makes it an excellent time to travel to the city to sample its latest crop of buzzy restaurants. Among the newcomers: a botanical brewpub, a different take on the classic Chinatown eatery, and a mecca for homemade pasta lovers. Here, we’ve rounded up your new favorite Windy City eats.

Photo: Nathan Kirkman

Maple & AshThis two-floor Gold Coast newcomer (pictured above) opened in November and shows off the work of Studio K’s Karen Herold, whose other design projects include Chicago favorites like Girl & the Goat and GT Fish & Oyster. The herringbone wood floors, custom-made jewelry inspired chandelier, and club chairs provide a vaguely Art Deco atmosphere for the classic steakhouse menu items, like the wedge salad (served with crispy glazed bacon) and a surf and turf entrée with filet mignon, lobster, and truffled potatoes. 8 West Maple Street; mapleandash.com

Duck Duck GoatBooked solid from the moment it opened its doors earlier this month, this Chinese-inspired restaurant in the West Loop is the third from Bravo's Top Chef winner Stephanie Izard, who also runs the aforementioned Girl & The Goat and Little Goat Diner. The menu is filled with dim sum favorites like shrimp toast, soup dumplings, and crab rangoon, but its claim to fame may be the multiple types of noodles, which range from slap noodles to silver needle noodles to glass noodles to familiar favorites like lo mein. The interiors, meanwhile, are meant to evoke classic Chinatown eateries across the country, with swaths of red wallpaper and an almost apothecary-like feel to the rooms. 857 West Fulton Market; duckduckgoatchicago.com

Photo: Anthony Tahlier

Monteverde Restaurant & PastificioMonteverde may have only been open since November, but Chicago P.D. star Sophia Bush has already dubbed it one of her favorite haunts. The brainchild of Top Chef alum and former Spiaggia executive chef Sarah Grueneberg, this perpetually packed Italian eatery (pictured above) is a mecca for homemade pasta obsessives, offering dishes both tipica (hand-rolled pappardelle) and atipica (wok-fried arrabbiata). The sunlit space has an elevated sense of rusticity (floor-to-ceiling windows; exposed, industrial ceilings), and there’s even a pastificio behind the bar, allowing you to watch as chefs roll and fill the dough. 1020 West Madison Street; monteverdechicago.com

Bar MartaThis cozy, casual Humboldt Park joint is run by owner Austin Baker and executive chef Jeff Pikus, who've created a classic cocktail list that's a highlight (on offer: three different takes on the old fashioned). The sleek black bar is the perfect spot to try the list of orange wines (white wines fermented with the skins) and the epic, umami-packed Caesar salad. 2700 West Chicago Avenue; barmarta.com

Photo: BJ Pichman

Forbidden Root Restaurant & BreweryChef Dan Weiland created the eclectic American menu at this West Town brewpub (pictured above)—think malted hangar steak and milk-brined pork—to complement the brewery’s “botanical beers.” Owner Robert Finkel and his team use bark, blossoms, saps, herbs, and, yes, roots to concoct inventive sips like the Shady Character Porter, brewed with black walnut, roasted chestnuts, licorice, star anise, and tellicherry pepper, and the Sublime Ginger, infused with key lime juice, ginger, honeybush, and, of course, ginger. Appointments can be made to tour the warehouselike brewery. 1746 West Chicago Avenue; forbiddenroot.com