Best Restaurants In The Midwest

There's little question that Grant Achatz, whose training includes stints with Charlie Trotter, Thomas Keller, and Ferran Adrià, deserves the title of America's most creative chef. The menu at his Alinea sounds deceptively simple ("Bass, black pepper, vanilla, lemon" or "Rabbit parfait rillette consommé), but what shows up on the plate is absolutely original and almost always dazzlingly good.

There's a long line inside this fluorescent-lit, lineoleum-floored barbecue joint, and you better know what you want when you get up to that glass window — or be able to figure it out fast — 'cause it's hot back there and they don't suffer fools lightly. But when you get that plate full of meat with those soft, square slices of white bread and sit down with a bottle of sauce and dig in, it's pretty much one of those meals you're always going to remember.

Celebrity chef Rick Bayless doesn't want for fans; dine at this Chicago-based Mexcian restaurant of his and you'll have a good idea why. The local- and organic-championing chef has a true award winner on his hands here (it took home a James Beard for "Outstanding Restaurant" in 2007), serving real-deal South-of-the-border fare in a casual setting. (He takes the idiom upscale at his Topolobampo, just next door.)

Located in downtown Chicago, Publican serves up a beer-focused menu in a rustic space reminiscent of a European beer hall. From farm-fresh pork to hand-selected fish and seafood preparations, each dish is simply prepared and beautifully presented; don't miss their frites, touted as the best in town.

Although critically-acclaimed chef Laurent Gras no longer runs the kitchen, L2O's prix-fixe-only menu reigns on as one of the best in Chicago.  Diners enjoy expertly-prepared seafood and sashimi of the highest quality, sourced from around the world.  L2O's bread service, featuring anchovy rolls, bite-sized pain au lait and bacon-infused twists along with house-churned butter garners rave reviews from even the most carb-fearing.

Since 1985, Arun's has offered refined, sophisticated Thai food, and earned a reputation as one of the top Thai restaurants in the country. Though the restaurant's namesake, owner–chef Arun Sampanthavivat, is not classically trained, he has a master's touch in the kitchen, best experienced through his nightly seven-course, $65-per-person tasting menu.

True to its name, Everest towers head and shoulders above many of Chicago's other upscale restaurants—literally, from its perch on the 40th floor of the Chicago Stock Exchange Buiilding, and also gastronomically, through Alsatian-born chef Jean Joho's superlative French food. The wine list is almost as stunning as the views—above all in its collection of great wines from Joho's home region of Alsace.

Diners at Moto should be prepared to eat anything from "trash" to a "Cuban cigar" — that is, with his sense of whimsy and cerebral molecular gastronomy, chef Homaro Cantu's creative dishes have been known to fool his guests, leading to playful culinary optical illusions, like a flowerpot with edible dirt.