The 101 Best Food And Drinks In Chicago

"How was dinner last night?" is a question you hear constantly in the Food & Dining corner of the Tribune newsroom, surpassed only by "How was lunch today?" ... or, sometimes, "How was second lunch?"

Our reporters are, as you'd imagine, always eating. (I suggest finding food reporter Nick Kindelsperger on Instagram — @nkindelsperger — if you're looking to follow along with our many-meals-a-day lifestyle.)

Compliments and criticisms of restaurants fly, but the most promising answer is when someone can't stop talking about one thing they tried. "The sandwich I just had at this Torta Haus place in Lakeview is insane. They put bratwurst on top of pork schnitzel, and pile that with sauerkraut and mustard and Brussels sprouts and spicy mayonnaise and a ton of melted cheese, but somehow it works. It's amazing." (Paraphrased from a recent conversation in our test kitchen. But you get the idea.)

This feature is dedicated to those moments, when one of us finds a single dish or dessert or cocktail that we want the world to know about. Here, we've collected 101 of them, from fried chicken nachos with the Honey Butter touch to a spicy, coconuty and cheekily named tequila cocktail to silky thin crepes with goat cheese, honey and black figs, a treasure you'll find at Chicago's first Kurdish restaurant. If you actually do make it through them all, email me — I think we'd be friends.

Click here for the compete list of the 101 most delicious food and drinks from the Chicago Tribune