Chef’s Special Cocktail Bar

Chef’s Special Cocktail Bar is a Chinese-American restaurant and cocktail bar at 2165 N Western Ave in Bucktown, opened by the team behind Giant in Logan Square. The kitchen cooks tighter versions of takeout standards: mapo tofu with real heat, shrimp toast, sweet and sour chicken and dan dan noodles, paired with a drink list that includes a house old fashioned. The room is loud by design. The Western Blue Line stop is a few blocks south, and the 49 Western bus runs past the door.

What to know

• The Michelin Guide’s current Chicago selection lists the restaurant as a Bib Gourmand.
• Bar seats are first-come, first-served; tables can be reserved.
• The Infatuation’s Bucktown guide, updated August 2026, listed the happy hour noodles at $13 and the old fashioned at $9.