MCCB Chicago

There's an honesty to a place that calls itself a neighborhood noodle joint and then actually behaves like one.

Here's a Loop secret worth knowing: while the suits clear out of Clark Street, S2 Express Grill is just getting warmed up.

Boka Group has a knack for making a room feel more expensive than it is, and Zarella Pizzeria & Taverna at 531 N Wells St.

Aba is a Lettuce Entertain You production perched on a Fulton Market rooftop in the West Loop, and the room appears to be doing considerable work before a single plate arrives.

Alla Vita is a Boka Restaurant Group Italian project in the West Loop, occupying a bright, plant-filled room that reads as deliberately contemporary — closer to a modern European brasserie than the brick-and-candle Italian template Chica…