CHIGuide
The Chicago Hotel Restaurant Power Rankings
photo credit: Eric Wolfinger
Hotels play an important role in the restaurant ecosystem. They provide places to grab breakfast before visiting the Field Museum, power lunch with your work frenemy, or eat expensive sushi solo while glaring at the Morningstar Investment Conference goers that took over the bar. Most hotel restaurants are pretty average, with solid food and generically attractive spaces that probably all started as the same chatGPT for Hotel Design prompt. But some are downright offensive, serving terrible, overpriced dishes to captive out-of-towners too scared to leave the property. Use this guide to avoid a fate worse than overcooked steak in a tourist trap.
THE SPOTS
Most hotel restaurants—including many on this list—are quirky utility players at best. But Tre Dita in Lakeshore East’s St. Regis, an Italian spot from the LA chef behind buzzy places like Funke and Mother Wolf, is seriously great. The riverview and towering art deco designs are stunning. The staff in well-pressed suits give a masterclass in service as they chat about wine with couples or casually dressed friends who might be VIPs. And when delicious duck ragu pappardelle, prawns in salsa verde, and maybe complementary pre-dessert vermouth show up, you’ll feel very important too—even if you didn’t spend $800 on a room.
photo credit: Clayton Hauck
#2
Between Cindy’s, Milk Room, and The Game Room, the Chicago Athletic Association Hotel might have the best collection of hotel bars in the city. Cherry Circle Room, an upscale spot hidden away on the second floor, is an equally great food option. The wood paneling, overstuffed leather booths, and huge fireplace remind us of a fancy turn-of-the-century lodge, and the dark, windowless restaurant is ideal if you want to have a secretive meal and not worry that anyone can see you. Perfect for conducting Very Important Business over truffle pasta and a NY strip, or maybe the location for an Eyes Wide Shut situation.
Considering it’s inside the Mag Mile’s Peninsula Hotel, it makes sense that Shanghai Terrace feels luxurious. Chopsticks rest on ornate golden holders shaped like boats, and each meal begins with warm “ST" monogrammed towels. But it’s the food that completes the experience. For $21, you can get four pieces of lobster, chicken, and truffle dumplings that scream “Just Got A Bonus,” and there’s an excellent Peking duck. When it’s warm, make chun bing duck wraps on the secluded, namesake terrace. You’ll probably get charged $10 just for breathing the rarefied air, but it’s worth it for some of the best Chinese food in the city.
photo credit: Tim McCoy
#4
Schneider is a small deli in the parking lot of River North's historic Ohio House Motel. The sandwiches are particularly good, especially the pastrami or corned beef done reuben-style, and they come with a housemade pickle spear. And the breakfast options, like lox and bagels “imported” from Highland Park, definitely beat whatever continental breakfast and cold croissants you’re used to. The space is cramped but charmingly retro—though you won't feel the same about the 1960 motel's infamous HVAC system when you have to call the front desk to change the room temperature.
There are Sushi By Bou’s all over the place, and they follow the same format: a timed omakase experience with straightforward sushi. The 10-seat Sushi By Bou in the Emily Hotel is no different, although here, you get to sprawl out in the hotel lobby while you wait for your reservation instead of being crammed up against a host stand. Along with 12 or 17 courses in 60 minutes, a meal consists of a lot of ‘90s hip-hop, and banter with the charming chefs. It’s a fun time and the food is good. Given how expensive Chicago omakase restaurants are, any opportunity to eat a bunch of sushi (let alone in the West Loop, and in a hotel), without feeling the urge to check your bank account halfway through is worth knowing about.
Cabra could get away with just being flashy and mediocre—after all, it’s got a former Top Chef winner behind the scenes and a prime West Loop location in the Hoxton hotel. Instead, this rooftop restaurant chooses to deliver with flavorful and interesting Peruvian small plates. The best things here are the ceviches, shrimp tacu tacu, chicharron de puerco (a not-so-small plate), and an impressive view. The only unappealing thing about Cabra is that it’s filled with trend-seeking tourists staying at the hotel. But as soon as you start eating the food, you completely forget that someone’s Away luggage rolled over your foot on the elevator ride up.
Restaurants in the Loop tend to be terrible or overpriced—often both. Luckily, 312 Chicago is neither of those things. Is it the best Italian restaurant inside a Royal Sonesta in the world? A question for the ages. Probably not, but what we can confirm with certainty is that this is a useful spot for scarfing down deep-fried garlic bread the size of a baseball, decent pasta, and strong drinks before catching a show at the Cadillac Palace Theater next door. Plus, you and your fellow consultants will feel right at home pulling out your laptops during a working dinner amidst the nondescript artwork, characteristic hotel carpeting, and dulcet tones of soft jazzy music (probably) piped in from the hotel lobby.
This Japanese restaurant is on the rooftop of the $700-a-night St. Regis Hotel in Lakeshore East. The skyline view is incredible, and the service is even better. Unfortunately, Miru's food isn't amazing. The long menu ranges from just-OK sushi to not-very-good entrees like burnt miso cod, so unless you happen to be staying here and have extra money to throw off said rooftop, it’s not worth the price. But a fantastic meal isn't why you're here. It's to admire the view, have a bunch of drinks or dessert, and feel like you can afford to throw money around.
If you’ve ever thought, “I’d like to experience a rapid-fire omakase while drinking cocktails in a Lincoln Park hotel suite,” Sushi Suite 202 is the answer to your very specific prayers. You have exactly 75 minutes to enjoy a 17-course (mostly nigiri) omakase at this speakeasy from the same people behind Sushi By Bou. There are better sushi restaurants in Chicago, but the real draw here is the novelty of eating in a second-floor room of the Hotel Lincoln. It makes for a casually intimate meal, ideal for dates with a hard stop trying to make a Second City show. Or, take over the whole suite with a group and pretend you have your own bartender and personal sushi chef, at least for an hour.
There’s no real reason to go to Michael Jordan’s Steak House unless you want to eat a 23-layer chocolate cake the size of your head. Connected to the InterContinental Hotel on the Mag Mile, this place feels like it’s stuck in MJ’s heyday. The main dining room upstairs is a cross between someplace high schoolers go for a “fancy” pre-prom dinner, and a place where fur-coated tourists visit because they don’t know about Chicago’s storied steakhouses. And while service is attentive and warm, unfortunately, the food here is as snoozy as the scene.
Nobus are ubiquitous in major cities, and Chicago’s very own is in the West Loop, at the bottom of the (you guessed it) Nobu Hotel. It has an identical Japanese fusion menu to its brethren, with dishes like miso cod, tuna crispy rice, and black truffle ribeye. Some are better than others, but nothing is mindblowing. What is mindblowing is how expensive the bill will be—especially for just-fine food and an unpredictable dining experience that might have you surrounded by tables filled with sulking couples, MMA fighters on their phones, and recent grads celebrating with their parents. Skip the restaurant and head straight to the much-more-fun roof for drinks and a lighter bill instead.
Olio E Piú lands in a River North Hampton Inn & Suites by way of NYC, and should have stayed on the East Coast. The food is disappointing across the board (read: watery carbonara, bland meatballs, and mushy branzino), and the dining room is so loud you’ll have to shout to be heard. Skip it and visit one of the other great Italian restaurants in this city instead.
