Michelin revealed its 2020 stars for Chicago on Thursday, adding five one-star recipients to its coveted list of awarded restaurants. No new venues were elevated to two- or three-star status. Two restaurants — Dusek’s in Thalia Hall and the Alinea Group’s Roister — lost their stars for 2020.
While an Alinea Group restaurant fell off the list, one of the biggest news items for the 2020 guide is one of its restaurants also gained its first star. Next, its quarterly-changing restaurant in Fulton Market, was finally awarded a Michelin star after years of speculation. Its flagship restaurant Alinea is the only three-starred restaurant in Chicago for the second year in a row, while the red guide’s two-starred restaurants — Acadia, Oriole, and Smyth — remained the same too.
The tire company’s 2020 list of Chicago stars consists of 25 restaurants. Two were removed and five were added. Chicago netted 22 starred restaurants last year. Temporis, the fine dining West Town restaurant that opened in 2017, was the sole newcomer to the list for 2019.
Four out of the five additions are Japanese restaurants. That includes Kikko, which sits beneath Kumiko, the Japanese-influenced West Loop cocktail bar with an omakase food menu from the team behind Oriole. Inspectors added two omakase sushi restaurants in Mako and Omakase Yume. Another Japanese restaurant, Yugen, which replaced former three-starred Grace along Randolph Street, earned a star. Kyoten, Jeong, and Galit, three noteworthy new Chicago restaurants that recently opened, failed to make the list. Neither did Stone Flower, the Bucktown tasting menu restaurant which opened under a cloud of controversy.
Just over 130 restaurants worldwide hold three stars, Michelin’s highest accolade, a category signifying “exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey.” Two stars mean “excellent cooking, worth a detour,” while one star means “high quality cooking, worth a stop.” Take a look at the full 2020 list for Chicago below.
Michelin’s Chicago 2020 Starred Selections, *denotes new for 2020:
Three Stars
Alinea
Two Stars
Acadia
Oriole
Smyth
One Star
Blackbird
EL Ideas
Kikkō*
Mako*
Next*
Omakase Yume*
Schwa
Temporis
Yugen*