The 10 best restaurants in Wicker Park

This ranked guide covers the Wicker Park restaurants worth planning a night around, plus a few cheaper lunches and a brunch, for neighbors picking a table and for visitors getting off the Blue Line at Damen. Most of the ten sit on North Avenue, Division Street or Damen Avenue, and one address is just over the line in Bucktown. Shops, bars and the rest of the area are on the Wicker Park and Bucktown neighborhood page.

The list favors awards, years in business and current coverage from critics, and the picks span price points. Dinner can be an $11.99 banh mi at Phodega or a $198 tasting menu at Valhalla, with handmade pasta, New Haven-style pizza and an all-day breakfast counter in between. Tortello and Handlebar take walk-ins only, while Schwa books by reservation.

How we chose

Awards set the top of the order. Schwa holds a Michelin star, so the restaurant ranks first. Tortello and Dove’s Luncheonette follow on Michelin Bib Gourmand awards, the more recent one first. Ina Mae Tavern and Valhalla are both listed in the current Michelin Guide; Ina Mae ranks higher because chef Brian Jupiter also has two dated James Beard semifinal nods. Places six through eight are ordered by how long they have been open, oldest first. Amaru and Phodega, the two youngest of the last five, close the list, with Amaru ahead because Time Out Chicago gave the restaurant a full review in 2021. Every entry appears in The Infatuation’s Wicker Park guide, updated August 25, 2026, or in the Michelin Guide, and each was checked against 2025 or 2026 sources for closures.

Hours and prices below come from each business and change without notice. Call ahead if you are making a special trip.

Schwa

Chef Michael Carlson opened Schwa on Ashland Avenue in 2005, and the tasting menu still shifts with the seasons. The Infatuation counts 12 courses. Nobody works the front of the house, per the Michelin Guide, so the cooks carry the plates out themselves; inspectors singled out a Morse-code greeting written in purées, the pappardelle and the poached foie gras. Schwa ranks first on the strength of one Michelin star in both the 2024 and 2025 Chicago guides. The restaurant is BYOB, so pack a bottle.

Hours: Check current hours before you go.

Address: 1466 N Ashland Ave, Chicago, IL 60622

Why they made the list

• Carlson was a Food & Wine Best New Chef in 2006 and won the Jean Banchet Award for rising chef of the year in 2007, according to the restaurant.
• The restaurant also lists a 2010 James Beard Foundation nomination for Best Chef.
• GQ called Schwa “The Most Revolutionary Restaurant In America” in 2009, a line the restaurant still posts.
• Michelin’s listing puts dinner at about $150 per person.

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Tortello

Dario Monni, a Venice native, and Jill Gray run Tortello as a fresh pasta shop and counter-service restaurant on Division Street. Order the tortelli di burrata or the Tagliatelle Tina, a bolognese named for Nonna Tina; Choose Chicago lists both as house signatures. Start with the focaccia with ricotta and honey. Tortello ranks second because of a Michelin Bib Gourmand, which NBC Chicago listed in the 2024 guide, and Choose Chicago calls the shop a three-time Bib winner. There are no reservations, so plan on walking in.

Hours: Mon 4:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.; Tue-Sun 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Address: 1746 W Division St, Chicago, IL 60622

Why they made the list

• Fresh pasta is sold by the pound every day, along with meal kits and sauces for cooking at home.
• Upstairs, a private space called DeSora hosts pasta classes and three- or five-course dinners for 12 to 48 guests, per Choose Chicago.
• Michelin inspectors wrote that at Tortello “pasta is king” and pointed to a ribollita with Italian sausage, white beans and kale.
• Checks carry a 3% wellness surcharge, which the restaurant will remove on request.

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Dove’s Luncheonette

Built around a 41-stool counter, Dove’s Luncheonette pairs Southern-inspired Mexican food with a tequila and mezcal bar, all set to 1960s and 1970s Chicago soul and blues, according to Choose Chicago. The Michelin Guide, which noted the all-day breakfast, gave the restaurant a Bib Gourmand in 2019 and pointed diners to the buttermilk fried chicken with chorizo verde gravy and a chile relleno stuffed with farmer’s cheese in tomato-serrano sauce. That award is older than Tortello’s, which puts Dove’s third. Save room for pie; inspectors singled out the lemony Atlantic Beach pie with a saltine crust.

Hours: Check current hours before you go.

Address: 1545 N Damen Ave, Chicago, IL 60622

Why they made the list

• DNAinfo reported in July 2014 that the restaurant group where chef Paul Kahan is a managing partner planned to open Dove’s that August with about 40 seats.
• The name comes from Nelson Algren’s novel A Walk on the Wild Side.
• The bar carries more than 70 agave spirits, per the Michelin Guide.
• Dennis Bernards is the chef de cuisine, according to Choose Chicago.

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Ina Mae Tavern

Chef Brian Jupiter named Ina Mae Tavern for his great-grandmother, per the Michelin Guide, and the Wood Street menu sticks to New Orleans: gumbo ya-ya with shrimp, chicken and crawfish, several po’boys, char-grilled oysters and beignets. Michelin lists the tavern in the current guide. Jupiter was also a James Beard Foundation semifinalist for Best Chef: Great Lakes in 2019 and 2020, according to the restaurant, and that pair of honors places Ina Mae fourth. Brunch runs 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, and reservations go through OpenTable.

Hours: Mon closed; Tue-Thu 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Fri-Sat 11 a.m. to midnight; Sun 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.

Address: 1415 N Wood St, Chicago, IL 60622

Why they made the list

• Michelin inspectors called the Nashville fried chicken a staff favorite.
• The gumbo ya-ya comes with potato salad on the side.
• Bread pudding rotates on the dessert menu, per Michelin.
• The Michelin Guide notes a terrace and wheelchair access.

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Valhalla

A single counter runs the length of the dining room at Valhalla, where chef Stephen Gillanders cooks a seasonal tasting menu with global influences. The Infatuation counts 13 courses for $198 at 14 seats. Michelin inspectors, who list the restaurant, called seafood a strength and singled out a crystal prawn noodle course dressed with lemon oil. Valhalla ranks fifth on that listing and a 4.9 diner rating that put the restaurant among 16 Chicago entries on OpenTable’s 2025 top 100, as Time Out Chicago reported in November 2025. Book through OpenTable, and leave time for the candlelit gin lounge.

Hours: Check current hours before you go.

Address: 2020 W Division St, Chicago, IL 60622

Why they made the list

• Pastry chef Tatum Sinclair makes the desserts, according to the restaurant’s OpenTable page.
• Michelin inspectors also praised a trio of kampachi hand roll, oyster and clam ceviche.
• Beverage pairings, from cocktails to wine, are available with the menu.
• OpenTable lists the dress code as business casual.

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Club Lucky

Jim Higgins and Bobby Paladino opened Club Lucky in 1991, according to a 2023 Resy profile, keeping the name of a bar that had run on the corner since 1937. The address is in Bucktown, a block north of North Avenue, but the restaurant appears in The Infatuation’s Wicker Park guide, which describes a room meant to resemble a 1940s Italian supper club. Order the handmade cavatelli in vodka sauce, the fried calamari and a round of Killer Martinis. Plates are mostly sized for two. At 35 years, Club Lucky is the oldest restaurant here, so the age-ranked half of the list starts with them.

Hours: Check current hours before you go.

Address: 1824 W Wabansia Ave, Chicago, IL 60622

Why they made the list

• Resy reported that pasta is still made by hand in a kitchen that works 99 percent from scratch.
• A 160-seat patio added in 2020 had become a May-to-October fixture by 2023, according to the same profile.
• A bullet hole from the 1960s is still in the bar, per Resy.
• The restaurant bottles Club Lucky Vodka and sells a one-liter bottle for $36.

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Piece Brewery and Pizzeria

Bill Jacobs opened Piece Brewery and Pizzeria in July 2001 inside a former roofing and construction building on North Avenue. He built the pies with high school friend Ray Peck, who came to the project from a New Haven pizzeria, and the thin crust follows that city’s style, crispy yet chewy. Brewing began a few months after the doors opened. Twenty-five years on the block make Piece the second-oldest restaurant here, which lands the brewpub seventh. The Infatuation recommends Piece for big groups.

Hours: Mon-Sun 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Address: 1927 W North Ave, Chicago, IL 60622

Why they made the list

• Golden Arm, a beer from the first year of brewing, won bronze at both the Great American Beer Festival and the World Beer Cup and is still on tap, per the restaurant.
• The restaurant says the brewery has won 29 medals over the years.
• Dine-in, takeout and delivery are all available, and reservations are handled through the restaurant’s website.
• Private parties are booked through a separate page on the site.

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Handlebar

Breakfast is served until 3 p.m. every day at Handlebar, which has cooked vegetarian and vegan comfort food on North Avenue since 2003. The menu is mostly meatless, though a few fish dishes, including catfish tacos and seared tuna, are marked separately. Each day has a special: Tuesday is “chicken” and waffles for $16, and Wednesday is smashburger sliders for $10. Twenty-three years in the neighborhood put Handlebar eighth. The Infatuation points to the patio in summer, and the restaurant does not take reservations.

Hours: Mon-Fri 10 a.m. to midnight; Sat-Sun 9 a.m. to midnight

Address: 2311 W North Ave, Chicago, IL 60647

Why they made the list

• Monday’s special is chimichangas for $15.50, and Sunday’s pairs fried avocado tacos with a Tecate and a tequila shot for $10.
• Last patio seating is 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
• A single slice of French toast costs $5, per the restaurant’s menu.
• Smoking is no longer allowed on the patio.

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Amaru

Pan-Latin cooking at Amaru draws on Argentina, Peru, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and the Caribbean, with chef Rodolfo Cuadros running the kitchen. Start with the seafood ceviche; Time Out Chicago reported in August 2021 that the ceviches change day to day. Bacon-wrapped stuffed plantains and coconut fried rice round out the table, and Time Out noted that portions are meant to be shared. The bar leans on rum. That full 2021 review puts Amaru ninth, a spot ahead of Phodega. Reservations go through OpenTable.

Hours: Mon-Thu 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.; Fri-Sat 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.; Sun 4 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Address: 1904 W North Ave, Chicago, IL 60622

Why they made the list

• Larger plates include grilled branzino in red sauce and a bone-in ribeye.
• Dessert includes chocolate tres leches cake.
• Latin wines, local beer and nonalcoholic drinks sit next to the rum cocktails.
• Group and holiday party bookings go through a separate page on the restaurant’s site.

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Phodega

The sign at Phodega reads “Est. 2019,” and the website describes an Asian-American noodle and snack shop on Division Street. Banh mi run $11.99 to $12.99, from marinated pork belly to a Viet Dip, and bowls of pho start at $15.95. Shelves of imported snacks, Korean Cheetos and Pocky among them, fill out the bodega side of the name. The Infatuation files the shop under cheap eats, and Phodega rounds out the list as the quick, low-cost pick. Oxtail pho ($19.95) appears only on the last Saturday of each month, dine-in only, until it sells out.

Hours: Mon-Sun 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Address: 1924 W Division St, Chicago, IL 60622

Why they made the list

• A 10-ounce Vietnamese coffee is $5.99.
• The vegan pho chay costs $15.95, the same as the chicken pho.
• A pho-kit bucket that serves eight is $65.99, and the shop also caters.

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See a place we missed or a detail that has changed? Send us a correction.