Badara “Badou” Diakhate is the owner/chef behind this Rogers Park restaurant specializing in Senegalese fare with a few soul food dishes, too. His specialty is a jambalaya of okra cooked in a thick tomato sauce with onion, shrimp, and smoked turkey. There’s also boulette, a Senegalese beef patty accompanied by braised collard greens, and bissap, a refreshing non-alcoholic beverage of hibiscus, anis, vanilla, and mint.

This cheerful, plant-filled cafe at the end of the Red Line on Howard Street is an excellent place to meet a friend for a chat or camp out all day with a laptop to get some work done. The owners promise that the monthly Sol Suppers, prepared by guest chefs, will return when the pandemic is over, but for now, guests can fuel up with a breakfast sandwich or bowl or one of the creatively flavored lattes.

Now that the block of Jarvis Avenue just east of the El has been closed to auto traffic, R Public House has expanded its outdoor dining area into the street, making it even more of a neighborhood gathering place than it was pre-pandemic. The kitchen serves up burgers, pizza, and other comfort food, plus beer, wine, and cocktails to stay or to go.

The West African-centered Qaato features pepper soup, which comes with tender pieces of oxtail. If you need more sustenance, there’s also coconut rice with chicken or fish, plus yam porridge served with tomatoes and spinach for vegetarians.

Aside from food visitors bring themselves, Ropa Cabana is the only place to eat on Loyola Beach. The good news is, it serves food all day long, from coffee and beignets in the morning to hot dogs, walking tacos, and smoothies in the afternoon and evening.

The menu of this family-run restaurant is filled with dishes matriarch Maria Moso learned to make in San Juan Pilcaya, her hometown in the Mexican state of Puebla. Weekdays are for everyday dishes, like picaditas (thick, chewy rounds of masa topped with cheese and salsa), crispy quesadillas, tacos, and pambazos, while the weekends are for the festival dishes: barbacoa, an herbal beef soup called guasmole, and chicken soup dyed red from guajillo chiles.

This tiny spot near the lake was started by social media influencers who created a following through pop-ups and Instagram. It’s an adorable space for coffee, but the focus is creative marshmallows in flavors like champagne, butterbeer, and cinnamon toast. The photos of the s’mores may earn customers a few more social media followers.

A longtime neighborhood favorite (the result of a merger of two even older neighborhood favorites), JB Alberto’s serves pizza in all its forms: thin crust, deep dish, stuffed, heart-shaped for Valentine’s Day, and The Giant, a 24-inch monstrosity advertised as the city’s largest.

Games and indie jams fill this colorful cocktail bar. Favorites like margaritas are on the menu with bar originals, plus there’s a hefty amount of craft beer to boot.

Generations of Loyola students and other people old enough to know better have humiliated themselves in a myriad of ways at this Sheridan Road dive bar — through karaoke, pool, darts, or general drunkenness — but somehow, they always remember the experience fondly.

There’s ramen and udon on the menu at this tiny spot near Loyola Beach, but the main attraction is a truly mind-boggling array of traditional and specialty sushi rolls, which the friendly staff make to order.

Biscuits and breakfast come first at Smack Dab, where egg sandwiches topped with savory balsamic red onion jam and vegan doughnuts are tops. They’re made to be eaten on the go, perfect for grabbing on the way to the office. There are also monthly community dinners and bimonthly pizza night popups.

This fast-casual Korean favorite has a bunch of bibimbap plates on the menu along with burgers, but the thing that stands out the most is the kimchi fries. They’re filling enough to make a meal out of, topped with bacon, cheese sauce, scallions and truffle oil. A second location opened on Belmont in Lakeview.

Traditional Peruvian dishes are tops at this Rogers Park spot. Unassuming from the front, the dishes pack a ton of flavor. Pick the arroz con mariscos, a heaping rice plate topped with a variety of seafood from shrimp to squid.

This place has the decor of a bar that hasn’t updated anything since the bar opened back in the day, which matches its friendly, divey appeal. So belly up to the bar and grab an Old Style, but be prepared: the bar’s cash only.

Locally sourced bakery goods and Dark Matter coffee are this cafe’s bread and butter. Breakfast choices are available all day and meat and threes are on the lunch menu, providing something for nearly everyone.