How to Eat at Chicago's New Michelin-Starred Restaurants
Experience them all for under $100 each
The Michelin Guide announced its 2022 Chicago picks and four restaurants earned new one-star ratings.
Though these restaurants generally offer pricy multiple-course tasting menus, there is a way to experience them without breaking the bank.
Here are the four new Chicago Michelin-starred restaurants and how to eat at each one for under a hundred dollars.
Claudia
This restaurant in Chicago’s Bucktown/Wicker Park neighborhood recently was awarded a Michelin star rating.
The restaurant offers two different tasting menus: The “Claudia” is a seven- to nine-course tasting menu that focuses on the bounties of the sea and costs $235 per person. The “Chef’s Table” offers a 10-15-course tasting menu for $275.
The hidden value is offered at the bar, where diners can experience chef Trevor Teich’s work a la carte. Start with a dozen West Coast oysters ($70) or pate en croute ($27) before your order of lobster pie ($48) or beef tenderloin with potato, truffles, and foie gras ($68).
Kasama
This Filipino restaurant — also in Bucktown — opened in 2020 when Chicago restaurant dining rooms were still closed. Chefs Tim Flores and Genie Kwon earned a Michelin star for their restaurant which offers tasting menus in the evenings and casual fare during the day.
The breakfast and lunch menu is value-priced but rich in flavor. The Filipino breakfast ($16) consists of a tocino fried egg or longanisa, a chorizo-like sausage, over garlic fried rice. Splurge and get both for one dollar extra. Kasama also offers chicken adobo ($16), mushroom adobo ($17), and a “Kasama” combo sandwich stuffed with shaved pork adobo, longanisa, and giardiniera ($16).
Early birds can snag an egg and cheese breakfast sandwich for $6.50 (served before noon).
Esmé
Chef Jenner Tomaska and his wife, Katrina Bravo earned a recent Michelin star for their beautiful Lincoln Park eatery.
The dining room offers a $250 ticketed tasting menu (with an option to donate to a food charity), but those wanted to sample the chef’s food in a more casual setting can opt to dine at Bar Esmé.
The eclectic menu includes Flamin’ Hot Cheeto ($18), chestnut soup ($18), and a charcuterie board ($38) to start before digging into larger dishes like a tableside whole fish ($72), whole roasted chicken ($70), or mushroom tagliatelle ($35).
Galit
Chef Zach Engel offers a prix-fixe dinner of Middle Eastern dishes at this Lincoln Park restaurant which was awarded a Michelin star. Here, Engel offers an affordable four-course “do it yourself adventure” for $68 per person.
Diners start with a choice of hummus (shared, for two), an assortment of “salatim” including labne, pickles, pumpkin tershi, and ezme (Turkish tomatoes and peppers). From there, choose a mezze from beets, carrots, falafel, kale tabouli, Iraqi lamb kubbeh halab, or foie gras blintzes. A coal-roasted entree comes next (choose from smoked turkey shwarma, walleye, Tangier sausage, pastrami, or cabbage) before a choice of dessert.
