Chicago's top new restaurants of 2023: Le Select, Alpana and more

Ally Marotti is a senior reporter for Crain's Chicago Business covering consumer products, food, restaurants and retail. She joined Crain's in 2020 from the Chicago Tribune.

As the pandemic fades into the background, new restaurants are popping up all over Chicago. We visited eight of the hottest recently opened spots to find out what all the buzz is about.

831 N. State St.312-624-8055

When I told a friend we’d gone to Alpana Singh's new restaurant, Alpana, she asked if Singh was there.

She was, and not wearing "I’m the owner and I’m just floating around greeting guests" clothes.

Singh, the youngest-ever person (at 26) to become a master sommelier, a former "Check, Please!" host and an exuberant, friendly advocate of Chicago's dining scene — she was largely responsible for bringing the James Beard Awards to town — has a little more at stake with her fourth restaurant venture.

Unlike at her previous establishments — Seven Lions and Boarding House in Chicago and Terra & Vine in Evanston — Singh developed the menu here. Italian meets elevated comfort food with touches of Middle Eastern and Asian, and it's specifically designed to complement the interesting, broad wine list.

The cavernous Seven Lions near the Art Institute was a handsome but not particularly warm space; Alpana is the opposite. Lots of faux greenery hangs from the ceilings, and English botanical print wallpaper reminiscent of the work of Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch covers the walls, as do photos of strong women (i.e., Tina Turner, Bette Midler, Sophia Loren) who have inspired Singh.

It's fun, it's a tad whimsical and feminine, and a lot like Singh.

We arrived early on a Friday evening and were seated in back. This is where you’d want to be for a quiet business meal, or at a semicircular banquette for a bigger group. Got a client in from out of town and looking for a higher-energy scene? You’ll want a table near the front, or at the bar, where the scene is livelier. There's also a sidewalk patio for nice days.

Our waitress was a total pro, bringing our drinks and letting us linger over the large menu, which was helpfully also divided by gluten-free and vegetarian.

To start, we shared a lovely mezze platter that featured airy whipped feta, marinated olives, pistachios, dolmades, prosciutto and Publican Quality Bakery sourdough ($23). Meaty yet fluffy crabcakes, which I wasn't eager to share, were tasty and not overly burdened by filler ($21).

A wild mushroom ravioli narrowly lost out to pistachio pesto as my main course. Many chefs and restaurateurs seem to have decided that pesto is over; Singh isn't one of them. This version ($24), with lemon feta, green beans and cherry tomatoes, was a terrific twist on the classic pine-nut Genovese one.

Our server sold my husband on a special, an elevated meatloaf ($29), made using the ends of the boneless rib-eye and filet mignon on the menu. She was also extremely helpful in aiding us with wine selections (Rosso di Montalcino and a Rioja Alta Rioja) from the lengthy by-the-glass roster. The regular tastings and training sessions Singh conducts with staff definitely pay off.

A lovely espresso pie and cups of espresso were perfect caps to the evening. —Jan Parr

325 S. Federal St.312-945-7040

The mighty Monadnock Building is one of the jewels in the crown of Chicago architecture, worth visiting just for the sheer exhilaration of it. But since early March, there has been another reason to stop by — this terrific, 120-seat restaurant, which replaced Cavanaugh's, a long-popular Irish pub that closed in 2017. The bistro's main entrance and windows are on the west side of the building, not the more heavily trafficked Dearborn Street side, and it's also accessible via the stunning central hallway on the ground floor.

The slightly-hidden-away quality makes it feel like a secret getaway. Open for lunch and dinner Monday through Friday, it attracts a clientele of bankers, lawyers, financial district denizens and their friends. Booths seating four to six diners along the windows, red-upholstered banquettes and table seating elsewhere, and an inviting bar area are perfect for casual meetings with colleagues and pals as well as clients and customers.

It is, emphatically, a French bistro, and not in name only. The look and feel are warmly inviting, with cafe chairs and pedestal tables, sultry chanteuses on the soundtrack, heavily framed mirrors, moody lighting, dark wood furnishings and polished brass trimmings for atmosphere.

Executive chef Johnny Besch's menu is equally convincing. His hors d’oeuvres range from a baguette with house-cultured butter ($7) to escargots with puff pastry ($18) to a half-dozen oysters Rockefeller ($28). High rollers can spring for a seafood tower ($85-$145) or caviar service ($95-$125); lower rollers might prefer charcuterie platters (from $28). Soups (including a gruyere-encrusted French onion), salads, sandwiches and entrees like steak frites ($40) and bouillabaisse ($45) round out the offerings.

All, judging by what we sampled, are executed with flair. We started with lusciously firm smoked walleye in aquavit with dill sprigs, speckles of piquillo pepper and delicately slivered hearts of palm ($16). It partnered nicely with a beautifully composed Lyonnaise salad, here called frisée aux lardons ($16). We were impressed by the attention that had been paid to each of its components: the feathery curly endive; the perfectly cooked egg on top; the chewy, deeply tasty cubes of bacon; the crunchy gaufrette potato crisps alongside.

Finally, there was the bánh mì club ($18), a spin on the traditional Vietnamese sandwich. Here it comes not on a baguette but on toasted shokupan (a fluffy Japanese milk bread) and features savory fillings of thick-cut bacon, a sturdy white sausage called boudin blanc, ’nduja pork sausage spread, and pickled vegetables. Mon dieu!

Nothing we tasted seemed tossed off or generic; everything was delicious and kind of rousing. We found we couldn't eat our lunch without wine, for some reason, and were very happy with the glass of Château Moncontour, Vouvray, Demi-Sec ($11) we chose from the list of global (but heavy on French) wines.

The owners of Bistro Monadnock are John, Karl, and Graeme Fehr, who also own two North Side bars — Love Street and the Parisian-inflected Victor Bar. Winewise and otherwise, you’re in good hands here, even if you’re a total amateur. —Joanne Trestrail

564 W. Randolph St.312-884-9602

Amid the tsunami of omakase dinners opening in Chicago over the past few years, there has not been a concurrent wave of sushi lunches. A welcome exception opened in March, at Jinsei Motto, the small, sleek restaurant inside CH Distillery in the West Loop. Lunch there is excellent — though not cheap — making it one of the few places offering great sushi at midday (Wednesdays through Fridays), with a still-under-the-radar ambiance, to boot.

Jinsei Motto began as a delivery-only operation in 2020 when chef Patrick Bouaphanh and general manager Andrew Choi worked out of ghost kitchens. The restaurant first popped up at the distillery in late 2020 and took up permanent residence shortly afterward, offering an omakase menu alongside a bar with cocktails crafted around the hyperlocal liquors.

The small, sunny dining room, quiet and mostly unoccupied during our visit, looks through large windows on stainless steel machinery in the working distillery, but the spirit-making does not haunt the atmosphere, with no intrusive noise and only a faint yeasty smell to reveal that the equipment isn't just for show.

The full omakase menu ($175) is not yet available at lunch, though the owners say they’re working on it. We centered our lunch around the Tokushu Setto ($70) collection of nigiri, getting a smaller sample of what might appear in the larger experience. One of our servers told us this particular collection stood out the day of our visit because of two selections from the restaurant's dry-aged fish, a new experience for me. We sampled a six-day kampachi and a seven-day sawada, which were not funkier in the way of aged steak, but differed mostly in texture, having released some moisture, concentrating their flavor. It's hard to describe the change in texture — the best descriptor I can think of is "tighter," although it wasn't at all chewy.

The setto also included a dreamy chitoro, a seemingly magically resculpted scallop the same shape as the other nigiri, and an uni-salmon roe combination so delicious in its simplicity it felt like cheating. When delivering the plate, the server recommended no additional soy sauce, in the way of the temple of omakase, but then added that everyone should do what they like, in the way of the relaxed vibe.

Other dishes didn't knock our socks off in quite the same way, but were better than serviceable. A seaweed salad ($6) burst with marine umami and hid cucumbers cut to resemble the seaweed. Tuna tartare bites ($17.33 for four, up from the usual three to be divisible by two diners) matched a warm, crunchy-outside rice ball with cool raw tuna bits.

The maki we tried, the hidden dragon roll ($17), with the novelty of crispy garlic, and the futo roll ($16) didn't come close to measuring up to the nigiri. The futo came with ponzu for dipping, which was an interesting experience but not one I’ll seek to re-create.

Jinsei Motto would work swimmingly for a business lunch, with a "How did you know about this place?" factor even for Chicago-based guests. —Graham Meyer

202 S. Franklin St.312-789-5992

Walking through Willis Tower's lobby, you can smell Kindling Downtown Cookout & Cocktails before you see it.

The new restaurant became the first sit-down spot in one of Chicago's most well-known skyscrapers when it opened in January. Kindling's open kitchen revolves around a massive wood-fired grill. The menu, from James Beard Award–winning chef Jonathon Sawyer, is focused on live-fire cooking. It all emits a scent hard for a hungry office worker to ignore.

We made reservations for 1:15 p.m. on a recent Wednesday and were shown immediately to our seats. The 17,000-square-foot spot from Fifty/50 Restaurant Group spans two floors on the northeast corner of Willis Tower. Our party of two was led up an open staircase, past a second bar area to a four-person table. We were glad for the extra space when the food arrived.

First out were crispy Brussels sprouts ($12), doused in Thai chili sauce and topped with torn herbs that offset the heaviness nicely. They were savory and packed with flavor. "Crispy" was the operative word in this dish, and good thing, too. No one likes a soggy Brussels sprout.

The starter came out lightning fast, a nice perk for a business lunch. Since day one, the joint has catered to the downtown office crowd. Kindling, which was among a slew of dining and retail options added to Willis Tower during its recent $500 million redevelopment, opened first with lunch and happy hour, then added dinner later. Most restaurants flip that formula. This summer, Kindling is set to get a 200-seat, second-floor terrace overlooking Adams Street that could be a happy hour magnet.

The lunch menu, a trimmed-down version of dinner, is still vast. Besides the requisite starters and salads, it offers raw bar selections (flown in fresh daily, according to the menu), skewers, fresh pasta, sandwiches, rotisserie chicken and lunch entrées.

We shared chicken thigh skewers ($19) and Maine lobster roll ($33); the kitchen cut both in half for us and plated our portions separately, saving us a potential messy fumble. The portions were generous. Even split in half, they filled a large plate.

The skewer came with a large pita that was seasoned and crisp cabbage slaw, and some delightful house-made salt-and-vinegary chips. The black pepper barbecue sauce on the chicken was tangy and helped the thigh cling to the pita when opting for an all-in-one kind of bite.

The lobster roll, which also came with chips, was served on a toasted brioche that held its shape when you bit into it. Topped with herbs and lemon, the freshness was a nice contrast to the wood-fired dishes.

We had our check less than an hour after sitting down. By the time we left around 2:20 p.m., the lunch crowd had mostly cleared and staff was setting up for happy hour. —Ally Marotti

504 N. Wells St.312-896-4504

Update: Chef Daniel Rose is no longer with the restaurant. Chris Pandel has taken over as executive chef and partner.

Le Select, a sprawling River North brasserie, opened in January, the latest installation in Boka Restaurant Group's growing empire. The parent company of Girl & the Goat and Momotaro partnered with Michelin-starred chef Daniel Rose on the restaurant. Rose earned his star in Paris; Le Select is his first restaurant in Chicago. Rose said opening a spot that seats 235 was no easy task with increased costs of food and labor — in France, though, it would have been impossible.

"It's ambitious in this environment to do it," Rose told Crain's in December, as he observed the construction underway at the restaurant. "Ambition is kind of taboo in France. It's regarded as a fault."

Despite its size, the layout makes the dining experience feel intimate enough. The decor is eye catching, from the light fixtures to the archways. The design is meant to evoke French train stations and classic brasseries.

Reservations can be hard to snag, but we grabbed a 5:30 p.m. spot on a Saturday on short notice. We started with cocktails. My dining partner ordered the martini du matin ($18), made with gin or vodka, dry vermouth, three olives and soda, which made the whole thing more refreshing and less weighty. I had a Kir savoie ($11), a French cocktail that mixes black-currant liqueur crème de cassis with white wine and, in this case, dry vermouth. It was delightful.

The mussels ($14) were a favorite of the table. They were plump and brothy, served with sourdough slices crispy enough to hold up after a lingering dunk in the steamy white wine and butter. Dine with someone who won't judge when you slurp up the broth after the mussels are gone.

Salade verte ($14) came topped with an herbed sherry vinaigrette that added a freshness and burst of acid that was nice alongside the mussels.

Tarte flambée (caramelized onion, lardons, cheese, $15) put up an admirable fight for favorite dish. Billed on the menu simply as "enough to share," this tarte flambée hung off the plate it came on. The dough had structural integrity, making it easy to break up and share. It also felt like a good value, an aspect many restaurant operators strive for these days amid high costs.

No brasserie is complete without steak frites ($36), so we had to try Le Select's. The dish is 6 ounces of prime flank steak, topped with herbed butter. The fries that come alongside weren't as crisp as we would have liked. We tacked on a side of mushroom fricassee ($14) to pair with the steak. The vegetables en cocotte ($29) came in a little blue crock. Inside, carrots, artichokes and other root veggies mingled with greens and spaetzle (small egg noodles) in a creamy sauce.

We each had a glass of 2019 Saint-Joseph Poivre et Sol ($22). The server told us it was a syrah and provided excellent, decisive guidance for our wine selection. Though the pour felt a little anemic for the price tag, it paired perfectly with the steak and mushrooms. —Ally Marotti

739 N. Clark St.312-763-3674

This splashy new winery, restaurant, and private event venue from First Batch Hospitality is drawing crowds to its busy corner in River North. FBH has similar set-ups in New York and Washington, D.C.; at all, grapes from American vineyards are delivered to the premises, turned into wine, aged and served on-site. Wine-tastings and winery tours are always possibilities; if you’re up for a meal here, you’re in capable hands with chef Andrew Graves.

On a recent damp, chilly Thursday night, the Liva complex was invitingly cozy. Inside, fireplaces were firing, a glamorous hostess named "Z" was glamming, and we were escorted to a table near one of those fireplaces, having been offered our choice of high-top or regular-height seating. Regular, please.

Decor is posh and lighting romantically dim, necessitating use of phone flashlights to read the menus. A woman nearby wore a sparkly, floor-length dress that picked up glimmers from the fire so effectively that it's possible she had bought the dress to wear in that particular spot at that particular moment.

Server Carlos couldn't have been more solicitous and was quick to run to the kitchen to nail down answers to our questions about ingredients. The menu avoids the terms "small plates" and "shareables," but most portions are smallish and you might need to share quite a few if you’re hungry.

The choices start with lists of vegetables, cheeses and charcuterie ($7-$12) that you can select from to "build a board" or let the chef create an assortment for you ($42). Beyond that, find artful preparations of vegetables, seafood and meats that might, given their prices and descriptions, sound like entrees but are scaled more like side dishes — king salmon with cauliflower, fennel and citrus butter ($28), for example, or cured duck breast with rutabaga noodles in porcini brodo ($34). The only offerings scaled significantly larger are a 52-ounce steak Florentine ($147) and grilled whole branzino ($66).

We began with a board of marinated olives with pickled garlic and fennel and duck rillette with fig jam and marcona almonds, which we were just settling in to enjoy with glasses of riesling and pinot noir when our other three dishes appeared — boom, boom, boom — all at once. Beet salad with ricotta and orange slices, hamachi crudo, and umami short rib with black garlic caramel suddenly crowded our table. It might have been the right pacing for a party of six doing some heavy wine consumption, but we were just two and not in any particular hurry. Chillax, people.

But perhaps it's just a matter of perspective. Liva is more of an immersive wine experience than it is a restaurant where food is the focus. Like other immersive experiences that have sprouted up downtown in the wake of the pandemic — Van Gogh, ice cream and Mozart among them — it's sensorily stimulating, interactive fun. Business diners might choose Liva for entertaining clients up for social drinking and sophisticated snacking in a night-on-the-town atmosphere rather than for a serious dinner meeting. —Joanne Trestrail

905 W. Fulton Market312-660-7722

On a Friday night in Fulton Market, the buzzy Greek restaurant Lyra is a place for celebrating.

Though reservations during prime dinner times have been elusive since Lyra opened in early 2022, we found a spot at 5:45 p.m. about a week in advance. And when we arrived for our seating, the dining room was already bustling.

The restaurant is meant to evoke the ethos of the Greek islands and the people who live there. The lighting is warm but not too dim, and the music is not too loud. The wine list is a mix of familiar and Greek, and the servers are helpful guides through unknown appellations.

DineAmic Hospitality partners Luke Stoioff and David Rekhson had wanted to open a Greek restaurant for years. They worked with Greek chefs to develop the menu — no small task amid pandemic travel restrictions. The result is an 8,000-square-foot restaurant with a custom-built charcoal and wood-burning hearth. It's elevated and open to the dining room, and its smoky aromas reached us before our first drinks arrived.

I started with a Lyra martini ($16), and my dining partner ordered an espresso martini ($16). Then it was on to the food. I'm a sucker for a well-done grilled prawn but balked at the price of this one — $12 each. Still, I ordered one, and as soon as it came to the table the price made sense. This prawn was enormous. It cut easily into four meaty bites that could each grab plenty of the lemon, garlic, urfa chili and tomato confit accompaniment.

We also tried a Maine diver scallop ($14 each), which is similarly jumbo. It comes quartered and presented on a half shell in a mini cast-iron pan. It's topped with a preserved lemon butter, roasted garlic and herby graviera breadcrumbs that give each warm bite a nice little texture.

The Sunday salad ($17) was delightful with its creamy lemon dressing, and you could smell the dill as soon as the server set it on the table. Hummus and charred beets ($17) came with plenty of warm pita and was topped with little bursts of pomegranate seeds and toasted pine nuts.

We saved a little hummus to try with the slow-roasted lamb gyros ($52), but didn't need to. The dish came with "Athenian accoutrements," which meant diced tomatoes, pickled onions, tzatziki and more pita. The lamb was the star of the meal. It was shredded, crispy and drizzled with a lemon olive oil mixture that perked it up beautifully. The smoky flavor was unmistakable, and it paired nicely with a glass of Greek red wine. I had the 2018 Kir-Yianni ($16), a blend of xinomavro, merlot and syrah with notes of red fruit, coffee and cocoa; my dining partner had the 2021 Thymiopoulos ($19), a floral and spicy xinomavro.

The coursing was slow and steady, making for a more involved dining experience. There was time to notice the dazzling desserts coming out to tables as diners celebrated their occasions.

We were feeling stuffed — there was enough lamb to serve as dinner the next night, too — but the desserts were too tempting. We ordered the dark chocolate tart ($15) to go, a daring move, considering the scoop of hazelnut ice cream that accompanies it. The ice cream survived the 15-minute drive home. Celebratory, indeed. —Ally Marotti

700 N. Sedgwick St.312-877-5348

Snagging a reservation at James Beard Award-nominated Obélix, a new French restaurant in River North, is no easy task. But once you're in, the staff makes the effort worthwhile.

We had reservations at 9:15 p.m. on a Friday, but arrived about an hour early to grab a drink at the bar — and be around in case our table opened early. No such luck. The place got busier as the night wore on, and we got to our seats a little after our reserved time slot.

No matter, though. The bar was lovely, and we ordered a round of drinks and a ramp tart ($22) to tide us over. We didn't have seats at first and wondered how we’d juggle our drinks and the tart, but the bartender saved the day. He came out from behind the bar and ushered us into seats just as another couple got up to leave. Their plates were cleared in time for our tart to arrive, and our hunger was quelled with buttery pastry and sautéed ramps.

Once we were seated at our table, the server was similarly personable. We each ordered a macaron au foie gras ($6 each), a wonderfully savory take on what is typically dessert. The server insisted my dining partner and I split a glass of Bugey-Cerdon sparkling rosé (normally $13, but our tasting did not show up on the bill) to complement the macarons.

The restaurant is operated by Oliver and Nicolas Poilevey, brothers from the family behind Le Bouchon in Bucktown. The French menu is complete with a section full of various duck dishes, a raw bar and a $125 beef Wellington entrée. There are plenty of pâte options, dishes wrapped in puff pastry and, of course, foie gras. It is nominated for a James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant (the winners will be announced in June).

Obélix is bigger and more modern than Le Bouchon, making it a better place for a business dinner than its cozy and intimate sister restaurant. Though the tables aren't packed quite as tight as they are at Le Bouchon, it can still be a squeeze. We saw a server move a table out from the wall so a dining party could sit down. The noise level was also a bit loud for private conversation, but it was Friday night in River North.

For our meal, we ordered heavily from the duck section. The duck consommé ($11) is made with pho spice and stinging nettles, and comes in a dainty teacup. Perhaps our favorite dish of the evening was the salade Lyonnaise "canard" ($19). It was topped with a duck egg, duck-fat croutons and duck confit that was crispy and succulent all at once. All those duck variations paired well with my glass of Bordeaux Supérieur ($15) and my dining partner's Côtes du Rhône ($14).

We were basically full by the time our show-stopping entrée came. We had the squab pithivier ($45), which came complete with a squab foot, foie gras, cabbage and mushroom. Dessert was a delicious rocher ($3), the perfect little sweet bite of chocolate and hazelnut to cap the richness of the meal. —Ally Marotti

Ally Marotti is a senior reporter for Crain's Chicago Business covering consumer products, food, restaurants and retail. She joined Crain's in 2020 from the Chicago Tribune.

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