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GuideUpdated July 16, 2026

7 Best small plate Restaurants in Chicago

The best 7 restaurants for small plate in Chicago — curated by TastyPals editors.

The best small plate restaurants in Chicago are Gus' Sip & Dip, Bar La Rue, Kitchen + Kocktails By Kevin Kelley - Chicago, and more. Start with Gus' Sip & Dip if you want the strongest overall first pick.

By James Whitfield•7 ranked picks•Published July 16, 2026•Updated July 16, 2026
Methodology•Editorial team
Gus' Sip & DipBar La RueKitchen + Kocktails By Kevin Kelley - Chicago
7 Best small plate Restaurants in Chicago
Google

Top picks at a glance

#1Gus' Sip & DipBar • Chicago • moderate#2Bar La RueFrench • Chicago • moderate#3Kitchen + Kocktails By Kevin Kelley - ChicagoAmerican • Chicago • moderate

Who this guide is for

This guide covers the highest-rated restaurants for small plate in Chicago, sorted by Google rating and editorial judgment.

Quick picks

Gus' Sip & Dip
Bar • Chicago
Here's the thing about a bar that calls itself "Sip & Dip": it has to deliver on both, and Gus' actually does.
Bar La Rue
French • Chicago
Bar La Rue is what happens when someone actually commits to the bit.
Kitchen + Kocktails By Kevin Kelley - Chicago
American • Chicago
Kitchen + Kocktails By Kevin Kelley - Chicago keeps showing up in the right conversations when people want a reliable american plan.
Browse all Chicago restaurantsBack to Chicago hub
Editorial details
Published: July 16, 2026
Last updated: July 16, 2026

On this page

  1. 1. Gus' Sip & DipView →
  2. 2. Bar La RueView →
  3. 3. Kitchen + Kocktails By Kevin Kelley - ChicagoView →
  4. 4. Three Dots and a DashView →
  5. 5. Arbella Cocktail BarView →
  6. 6. Storyville ChicagoView →
  7. 7. LH RooftopView →

How the restaurants compare

Editorial restaurant image stand-in for Gus' Sip & Dip
Google
Gus' Sip & Dip
Chicago • Bar
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
Price
moderate
Best for
cocktails
Mood
Casual
Editorial restaurant image stand-in for Bar La Rue
Google
Bar La Rue
Chicago • French
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
Price
moderate
Best for
Cocktails and food
Mood
Casual
Editorial restaurant image stand-in for Kitchen + Kocktails By Kevin Kelley - Chicago
Google
Kitchen + Kocktails By Kevin Kelley - Chicago
Chicago • American
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
Price
moderate
Best for
cocktails
Mood
Casual
Editorial restaurant image stand-in for Three Dots and a Dash
Google
Three Dots and a Dash
Chicago • Bar
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
Price
moderate
Best for
Cocktails and food
Mood
Casual

How we chose

We looked for restaurants that feel like a strong fit for the guide topic, not just the most obvious names in the city. The shortlist favors rooms with clear mood, dependable pacing, and enough distinction to help someone decide faster. Read our full methodology →

Room tone

Lighting, pace, and general energy all need to support the reason someone clicked this guide.

Food fit

We favored restaurants that feel best suited for the moment, not just restaurants with broad reputation.

Useful range

The final list tries to give readers enough variation in neighborhood, price, and style to compare real options.

7 ranked picks

Gus' Sip & Dip — Here's the thing about a bar that calls itself "Sip & Dip": it has to deliver on both, and Gus' actually does. This River North spot from beverage director Kevin Beary (Three Dots and a Dash) and chef Bob Broskey (RPM, Intro) takes its name from Gus' Good Food, which held this address from 1906 to 1966 — so there's a neighborhood-tavern soul under all the Michelin pedigree. The play here is dipped sandwiches and reimagined classics. The Smoked Ham Dip ($23) is a brown-sugar-glazed pork roast on pan de cristal with mustard jus for dunking, and the Wagyu Steak Frites piles thin-sliced rare top round on toast with horseradish cream. The Rangoon Dip deconstructs a crab rangoon into something craveable. Thirty cocktails, all $12 — the Breakfast Martini comes with Earl Grey-infused gin and a honey-buttered toast point, which is exactly the kind of cheeky move I'm here for. It's racked up serious hardware: No. 27 on North America's 50 Best Bars, a 2026 Jean Banchet for Best New Bar. Walk-ins only, first come first served. Worth the wait. View restaurant →
Bar La Rue — Bar La Rue is what happens when someone actually commits to the bit. Fulton Market has no shortage of places trying to straddle the line between neighborhood bar and destination restaurant, but most of them hedge. Bar La Rue reportedly skips the hedging entirely. The 3,000-square-foot room on West Fulton is built around a patinaed zinc bar top with green crystal chandeliers overhead, black-and-white print wallpaper on one wall and glimmering metallic on the other — grit and glamor in genuine tension, not just described in a press release. Out front, an all-season pergola seats 25 with infrared heat and cooling, which means this place is operating as a real streetside bar year-round in Chicago. That's not décor, that's a position. The crowd it draws, by all accounts, is people who want to eat and drink seriously without performing seriousness. The kitchen carries serious résumé lines — Chef Nikitas Pyrgis came up through La Guérite in Cannes, with Chef Partner Athinagoras Kostakos holding Alain Ducasse credentials — and somehow neither of those facts seem to be running the room. The menu is French-American and specific about it. The Provence Style Burger is known for arriving with gruyère cheese fondue rather than a simple slice of melted cheese, which is the kind of detail that separates a concept from a kitchen that can actually execute one. Then there are the Bougie Chicken Nuggets, served with 5g osetra caviar and ranch crème fraîche — a combination that sounds like a bit and is apparently treated like a serious dish. On the dessert side, the Brûléed French Toast, Dark Chocolate Tart, and Warm Apple Bread Pudding round out a menu that leans into comfort without abandoning its point of view. Sit at the zinc bar if you can get it — the pergola works for a first drink, but the bar is reportedly where the room shows you what it actually is. The Bougie Chicken Nuggets are the order to send a skeptical friend when you're trying to explain what this place is doing. Book ahead for weekends; this isn't the kind of spot that has a quiet Friday. View restaurant →

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Arbella Cocktail Bar — Let me tell you what Arbella actually is, because the word "cocktail bar" undersells it in one direction and oversells it in another. This is a room that figured out the thing most cocktail bars get wrong: the food isn't an afterthought bribed into existence by liquor license requirements. It's a genuine kitchen running alongside a genuine bar program, which means you can show up here at 10 p.m. genuinely hungry and leave genuinely satisfied — not just less drunk. The crowd knows it. You'll see people who came for drinks end up splitting a full spread, and people who came for food end up staying for two more rounds. That feedback loop is harder to engineer than it looks, and Arbella has it. The menu plays a smart range of registers. The Coconut Shrimps are the kind of thing that sounds like filler but arrives with enough crunch and sweetness-to-heat contrast to make you order a second round before the first is gone. The Thai Fried Chicken Sliders bring real technique — that brine-forward, lacquered-crust fry that holds up under sauce without going soft. The Smash Burger is exactly what it should be: aggressively seared, lacy-edged, no architectural pretension. And then there's the Cafecito Tiramisu, which is the move you didn't know you needed — espresso bitterness dialed up, mascarpone still doing its cool, cloud-like thing, with enough of a Latin coffee riff to make it feel like it belongs here specifically. Practical intel: the Spinach Cauliflower Fondue and Steak Frites are strong anchors if you're building a table spread rather than snacking solo. The KFC Chx Basket is bar food done right — order it early, it goes fast. Price-point is genuinely reasonable for what lands on the table. Go on a weeknight if you want breathing room; weekends fill up. Sit at or near the bar if you can — that's where the room makes the most sense. Start with the Thai Fried Chicken Sliders and end with the Cafecito Tiramisu; that's the through-line. View restaurant →

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Personalized city picksCleaner shortlistsBuilt for iPhone and Android
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Smarter follow-through after the guide: better restaurant context, quicker narrowing, less second-guessing.
For tonight
Date night spots with warm rooms and polished service
Next step
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