It was an impressive year for dining across the Midwest, and that, of course, goes for Chicago, a city with a formidable dining scene that each year continues to showcase rich international diversity and a laser-focused hospitality scene built on a foundation of impeccable service.
The city’s standouts for 2026 included a comforting bistro finding new ways to showcase Chicago’s most iconic dishes, a superlative bakery deserving of the long lines it commands, and a chef expertly connecting the culinary traditions of Mexico and Guatemala in a welcoming space. Chicago’s at the forefront of a national restaurant/bar combo trend, courtesy of the two-punch impact from Kitty’s Cosmopolitan and Crying Tiger, and impressing diners with a showstopping five-course tasting menu where even the bread makes a singular impression. Congratulations to this year’s winners, and be sure to check out the full list of Eater Awards, presented by Capital One. — Missy Frederick, dining editorial director
Brie gougères. Kim Kovacik/Eater
A psychedelic green and orange oeuf mayonnaise. Kim Kovacik/Eater
The cracker-thin tarte flambe channels a party cut. Kim Kovacik/Eater
Best New Restaurant: Creepies
In 2026, the Midwest has proven a formidable destination for dining, with restaurants from Cleveland to Milwaukee leaning into what makes the region’s food special. Creepies in Chicago embodies this movement: A nonsensical (if memorable) name belies a thoughtful restaurant destination from chefs David and Anna Posey. The refreshing space feels contemporary, but with cottage-esque touches — geometric patterns dot the furniture, cartoonish artwork shares space with kitchenware tchotchkes, and mini curtains hang from open shelving.
Chef de cuisine Tayler Ploshehanski embeds French technique into dishes fiercely grounded in Chicago’s identity. Steamed mussels get kissed with classic Pernod and a fennel giardiniera that honors the city’s iconic Italian beef sandwiches. An Alsatian-leaning tarte flambé comes “tavern-style,” a nod to the square-cut pizza beloved by locals. Not every dish invokes the Great Lakes; the generous portion of gougeres may be Midwest-appropriate, but here the French classic takes a decadent turn as warm Brie seeps from the center of each choux pastry. A textbook roast chicken’s umami-laden sauce gains extra depth from liver; drag one of the restaurant’s hefty, yet impossibly crispy fries through its drippings for the best bite of the night. Save room for Anna Posey’s desserts: The savory soft-serve trend manifests as a baguette-infused concoction topped with chocolate and buttery breadcrumbs. In a year when a diner can grow weary that Everything’s a Bistro these days, Creepies proves some still offer delights and surprises. — MF
Tuna tostadas with salsa macha, avocado, red onions, and cilantro. Noncreative Photo/Mazor Chicago
Chef of the Year: Cristian Orozco, Mazor
Chef Cristian Orozco opened Mazor in June 2026. Alebrije Brands
Long before the borders between Mexico and Guatemala were drawn, corn, or maiz, connected cultures across the region. That ancient throughline lives at the heart of Mazor. No stranger to new beginnings, chef Cristian Orozco grew up in Pajapita, Guatemala, close to the border with Mexico, before moving to the U.S., where he honed his skills in some of Chicago’s best kitchens, including Acadia, North Pond, and Tzuco. After closing Five O Four in Glen Ellyn last October, Orozco found a fresh start in Chicago proper with Mazor — a new place to keep speaking a culinary language shaped by where he comes from and where he has been.
Precision and visual flair define the menu, though not at the price tag we have come to associate with them. Take the generous $9 bluefin tuna tostada, where homemade ponzu meets salsa macha. The plating features thoughtfully placed microgreens and nasturtium that add zest, verdant color, and texture. Dishes such as tetelas — crunchy-chewy triangular masa pockets packed with chorizo and cheese — and desserts such as a rosy hibiscus-infused flan with toasted white chocolate arrive prettily dressed.
Orozco wanted to create a restaurant that welcomes everyone. And at a moment when the cost of dining out feels increasingly prohibitive, Mazor makes a compelling statement: Excellence doesn’t have to be eye-wateringly expensive. Mazor effortlessly blurs the casual and the refined. It also draws new lines, challenging the idea of what an ambitious restaurant should — and can — look like. — Brenda Storch, freelance contributor
Bad Butter made a permanent home in Bucktown in May 2026, and pastry fans have been lining up in droves ever since. Garrett Sweet/Eater
If one new place in Chicago needs no further hype, it is Bad Butter. You’ll know you’re there when you spot the line cascading out of the whitewashed storefront along West Cortland Street, a queue that doesn’t let up until the pastry case is empty. Formerly a head baker at Soho House Chicago, Dan Koester was stuck at home like the rest of us in 2020, handing off excess home-baked sourdough loaves to friends and family and making some available for free pickup. After he was officially laid off that summer, he launched his own online bakery business, earning a massive following along the way.
One residency at the Emily Hotel later, Koester debuted his Bucktown bakery, demonstrating the full range of his skill. Still warm, charred, and dimpled flats of focaccia showered with scallion furikake rest on its shelves. Impossibly crisp and exquisitely laminated twice-baked almond croissants burst with subtle, aromatic almond paste. A spicy harissa monkey bread with a cloudlike texture is cooled by a pool of creamy labneh drizzled with silky olive oil.
The bakery’s menu has breadth and also manages to arc with the season. Customers snake along the floor waiting their turn to claim a towering cruffin, dusted in fine grains of sugar and piped full of ginger plum jam, or a seasonal tart piled with plump, lacquered blueberries. A pastry box filled with these confections is well worth the wait. — Brenna Houck, dining editorial manager
Délice de Bourgogne-stuffed pasta bathed in brodo is accompanied by a delightful mid-meal dessert of nutty buckwheat butter sweetened with honey. Kim Kovacik/Eater
Dish of the Year: Puffed grain toast at All Well
When experiencing a five-course tasting menu ($145), I wasn’t expecting toast to be a main attraction. But even with competition from luxurious courses featuring everything from a complex Hokkaido scallop to an assertive charred rib-eye with peaches, All Well’s puffed grain toast left a lasting impression.
After three years at two-Michelin-starred Oriole, Larry Feldmeier partnered with Noah Sandoval, fellow Oriole alum and James Beard winner for Best Chef: Great Lakes, to open the ambitious West Loop restaurant All Well, which offers both a la carte bar options and the aforementioned tasting; the toast is only available as part of the latter experience.
The dish arrives at the table amplified with nutty buckwheat butter sweetened with honey, the backdrop for a pasta stuffed with triple-cream Délice de Bourgogne and a cauldron of salty chicken brodo. You’ll dive into the pasta, of course, using the bread to sop up the rich beurre blanc. Like a performer waiting in the wings for their monologue, the puffed grain toast takes center stage. The toast effectively offsets the creaminess and saltiness of the rest of the dish, but can stand on its own even without the accompanying pasta. Its subtle sweetness almost acts as a mid-meal dessert, a distinctive break in a seamless dinner you don’t quite want to end. — Isaiah Reynolds, audience editor
Rolled rice noodles at Crying Tiger. Madeleine Lyman
Drinks at Kitty’s Cosmopolitan Club come with a touch of drama. Lindsay Eberly
Aside from their entrance, Crying Tiger and Kitty’s Cosmopolitan Club share very little, offering a Southeast Asian menu upstairs and a chic cocktail lounge downstairs. At ground level, Crying Tiger is adorned with colorful ceiling drapes and light fixtures meant to mimic Southeast Asian night markets. Jade marble intermingles with leather seating against a backdrop of paintings playing into its tigrine theme. Notable menu items include the decadent peanut duck panang, crispy prawn toast, and namesake tiger-shaped glittery vanilla cake with Thai banana and caramel sauce.
Kitty’s entrance is through a back stairwell, where you’ll find a dimly lit, velvety 1920s lounge that exudes Jay Gatsby swank. There’s a double-take-worthy clarified whisky and Coke, and the servers manning the tableside trolley make mixing Japanese Old Fashioneds and gin martinis a full-on show.
Despite the dramatic juxtaposition, Crying Tiger and Kitty’s differences make the two a superb restaurant-bar combination (something of a trend in Chicago restaurant developments these days). Where else can Chicagoans get clay pot lobster pad Thai and a freezer-cold apple martini without having to take a car in between? The double feature has its own benefits, as Kitty’s is a tough walk-in on its own. Our pro tip: Once your party is seated at Crying Tiger, head down to Kitty’s host stand to make a reservation for your post-dinner nightcap. — IR
The Pinky Gonzalez with pinchitos at Culebra. Garrett Sweet/Punch
Punch’s Best New Bar: Culebra
Tucked behind Lonesome Rose, a casual Tex-Mex restaurant in Chicago, is a short stairway leading to an unassuming door. There’s no sign, but there is a logo — a snake entwined around a bottle — and the faint sounds of a salsa soundtrack playing Puerto Rican music. This is how you know you’re at Culebra.
With cocktails that tap Malta India (a nonalcoholic malt beverage), tamarind, and culantro, this bar is an homage to Puerto Rican flavors and the Latinx influences of the surrounding neighborhood, Logan Square. Owner Diego Garcia-Gonzalez was born and raised there, and worked his way up through Chicago’s bar industry, beginning in 2013 at age 15, then began visiting Puerto Rico in 2024 to do guest bartending shifts. At Culebra, he has staffed the bar with a top-tier team of all Latinx bartenders. Daniel Maysonet Rivera, the chef and co-owner of Jungle Bird, a beloved bar in San Juan, contributed a tight menu of Puerto Rican snacks, like a standout chicken thigh pinchito with fiery salsa criolla.
The menu leans toward rum and agave cocktails, and there are many ways in. Do you like savory? The Michedalla, a michelada made with Medalla Light (Puerto Rico’s bestselling lager), tomatillo, and aji dulce peppers, is an industry favorite. Sweet? The Quesito Colada turns the Puerto Rican cream cheese pastry into a blended drink, with pastry-infused coconut cream and guava. Boozy? The Culebra Manhattan is an elegant Black Manhattan with a three-amaro blend, cacao, and rooibos tea. This is a serious cocktail bar, but it’s also a comfortable neighborhood hangout. Case in point: Order the “Boricua Handshake,” a can of Medalla Light and a shot of Palo Viejo, for two easygoing tastes of the island. — Amy Cavanaugh, Punch contributor
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