Michelin Starred Restaurants in Chicago

Chicago's current Michelin list is the 2025 selection, announced on November 18, 2025, and it's still the one that counts in September 2026. Twenty restaurants got stars. The headline was a demotion. Alinea dropped from three stars to two after holding three since the city's first guide, and chef Grant Achatz announced it himself a week before the ceremony. That left Smyth in the West Loop as Chicago's only three-star restaurant (Block Club Chicago has the full announcement).

One star has already gone dark since then. Atelier in Lincoln Square closed in May 2026, months after moving to a bigger space on Western Avenue, so the list below has 19 places you can still book.

Three stars

Smyth, West Loop (177 N. Ada St.). John Shields and Karen Urie Shields, whose résumés include Alinea, Tru and Charlie Trotter's, cook a menu built around American farmers and fishermen at the top of their season. Right now there are two options, the Smyth Menu at $420 a person (2.5 to 3 hours) and the Chef's Menu at $550 (about 3.5 hours). That changes on November 5, 2026, when Smyth moves to the extended Chef's Menu only and starts charging the full price when you book instead of a deposit. Read the allergy list before you book. They can't do vegan, egg allergies, mushroom allergies or seafood allergies.

Two stars

Alinea, Lincoln Park (1723 N. Halsted St.). Achatz's modernist restaurant is 20 years old and still the most famous meal in the city, star or no star. You pick one of three formats. The Gallery is communal and theatrical, the Kitchen Table puts you in a private room looking into the kitchen, and the Salon is regular tables with a shorter menu. Tickets are non-refundable, though you can reschedule with 72 hours' notice.

Ever, West Loop (1340 W. Fulton St.). Curtis Duffy's 8- to 10-course tasting menu runs about two and a half hours. There's validated garage parking off Ada Street, and the closest L stop is Ashland on the Green and Pink lines. Corkage is $125 a bottle.

Kasama, East Ukrainian Village (1001 N. Winchester Ave.). Tim Flores and Genie Kwon's place became the first Filipino restaurant in the country with a star in 2022, and they moved up to two in 2025. The Filipino tasting menu is $325, served Thursday through Sunday nights. Kasama is also a bakery during the day (Wednesday to Sunday, counter service from 9am), so you can eat their pastries and breakfast without a reservation or a $325 bill.

Oriole, West Loop (661 W. Walnut St.). Noah Sandoval's place has repeatedly earned two stars since it opened in 2016, and he won the James Beard award for Best Chef: Great Lakes in 2025. It's an extended tasting menu with no dress code. There's no valet either, so take a cab or use the metered parking on Desplaines.

One star

Boka, Lincoln Park (1729 N. Halsted St.). A few doors up Halsted from Alinea. Lee Wolen cooks seasonal American food, and unlike most places on this list you can order à la carte or do the tasting menu. It can also handle vegan and gluten-free diners.

Cariño, Uptown (4662 N. Broadway). Norman Fenton does a Latin American tasting menu, a chef's counter and a taco omakase. Open Wednesday to Sunday.

EL Ideas, Douglas Park (2419 W. 14th St.). At $195 plus tax and service, it's the lowest tasting-menu price I could confirm on this list, and you bring your own drinks. It sits on a dead-end street near 14th and Western, just south of the Eisenhower. You don't book it the normal way. You send a request, they email an invoice, and your seat is confirmed once you pay.

Elske, West Loop (1350 W. Randolph St.). David and Anna Posey cook with a Danish accent (the name means "love" in Danish), and you can choose between a tasting menu and à la carte. Anna Posey's desserts get as much attention as the savory courses.

Esmé, Lincoln Park (2200 N. Clark St.). Jenner Tomaska and Katrina Bravo rebuild the whole menu every 12 weeks around a collaboration with a local artist. Use the dining room entrance at Webster and Sedgwick. The Clark Street door is the bar.

Feld, Ukrainian Village (2018 W. Chicago Ave.). The only new star in 2025, and it got a Green Star for sustainability on top of that. Jake Potashnick writes the menu each morning from what his farmers bring in, and cooks it in the middle of the room with diners seated around the kitchen. Open Wednesday to Saturday.

Galit, Lincoln Park (2429 N. Lincoln Ave.). Zach Engel's Middle Eastern restaurant has a regular menu and a happy hour menu, which makes it the most relaxed way into a starred dining room in Chicago.

Indienne, River North (217 W. Huron St.). Sujan Sarkar's progressive Indian tasting menu made this the city's first Indian restaurant with a star, in 2023. There are separate vegetarian and vegan menus, which makes it a good pick for a mixed table.

Mako, West Loop (731 W. Lake St.). Chef BK's seafood omakase. They take same-day bookings until 2pm when seats are open, and there's a waitlist on Tock. They can do gluten-free but not vegetarian.

Moody Tongue, South Loop (2515 S. Wabash Ave.). A 28-seat dining room inside a brewery, where James Bingham's tasting menu is paired with Moody Tongue's own beers instead of wine. Seatings are at set times, one on Wednesday and Thursday and two on Friday and Saturday.

Next, Fulton Market (953 W. Fulton Market). The Alinea Group's restaurant that changes its whole concept every few months. The current one, a 10-course menu called Next: Fashion, runs September 5, 2026 through January 10, 2027.

Schwa, West Town (1466 N. Ashland Ave.). Michael Carlson's BYOB tasting menu, open Wednesday to Saturday. It was on the very first list in 2010 too, and we wrote about its quail egg ravioli back then.

Sepia, West Loop (123 N. Jefferson St.). Exposed brick, old wood and seasonal Midwestern cooking, now under executive chef Kyle Cottle.

Topolobampo, River North (445 N. Clark St.). Rick Bayless's fine-dining Mexican room puts out a new tasting menu every six to eight weeks and says it never repeats a dish.

Booking a table

Most starred tables are now prepaid tickets, and the booking platform depends on the restaurant, so check each one's site before you set an alarm.

• Alinea opens bookings on the 15th of each month at 11am Central, about two months out (on January 15 you book March). It's switching from Tock to OpenTable, with dates from November 1, 2026 onward on OpenTable.
• Smyth releases dates on a rolling 90 days at noon Central on Tock. Oriole is also 90 days on Tock, and it says it doesn't hold back any tables.
• Ever opens reservations at 9am Central on the first Tuesday of each month, two to three months ahead.
• Kasama releases dinner for up to six people on a rolling six weeks at noon, through OpenTable.
• Esmé (Tock) and Boka (OpenTable or phone) take bookings 60 days out.

Most of these tickets are non-refundable. Alinea, Ever and Esmé all say so outright, so plan to transfer or reschedule rather than cancel. If your dates are full, join the waitlist. Oriole and Mako both run one. Menu prices usually don't include tax and tip. Smyth's $420, for example, is before drinks, tax and gratuity.

Cheaper Michelin meals

The Bib Gourmand list is Michelin's pick for good cooking at a moderate price, and Chicago has a long one. Two names from the original version of this post are still on it: Rick Bayless's Frontera Grill and Longman & Eagle in Logan Square, which held a star for seven years before moving to the Bib list in 2017. Nadu, an Indian place, was one of the new additions in 2025. For more ideas in that price range, see Chicago's best cheap eats and our BYOB restaurants list.

How it started, back in 2010

Michelin released its first Chicago guide, the 2011 edition, on November 16, 2010. I wrote the first version of this post the week it came out. Twenty-three restaurants got stars. Alinea and L2O got three, and Avenues, Charlie Trotter's and Ria got two. The 18 one-stars were Blackbird, Boka, Bonsoirée, Crofton on Wells, Everest, graham elliot, Longman & Eagle, NAHA, NoMI, Schwa, Seasons, Sepia, Sixteen, Spiaggia, Takashi, Topolobampo, Tru and Vie.

At the time I wondered how L2O would hold up after chef Laurent Gras left. It's gone now, and so is Charlie Trotter's, which closed in 2012. My old favorite Bonsoirée is gone too. Of that first class, only Alinea, Boka, Schwa, Sepia and Topolobampo are on the current list. The action has moved west since then. Seven of today's 19 are in the West Loop and Fulton Market, and two more are in Ukrainian Village.

Photo by anthimeria