The Chicago West Loop Restaurants We Go To The Most Often

When people hear that we live in the West Loop, they usually say something like, “it must be nice to be so close to Randolph Street!”

That’s true, it is nice. But to be honest, we rarely hit up Randolph street for day-to-day meals. Yes, there are SO many great restaurants and bars, but they’re often trendy and expensive. So we save them for more special occasions or group dates with friends. That’s not to say that I don’t have a few favorites, but today, I wanted to talk to you guys about the West Loop restaurants we go to the most often. (Even though none of these places are specific to the West Loop, and have other locations).

Butterfly Sushi Bar

This sushi and Thai place isn’t much to look at. It’s kind of orange on the inside, the the tables are covered in sheets of white paper. BUT the sushi is good and affordable and it’s BYOB! Even though it gets packed, we’ve always managed to get a table, even if we don’t have a reservation. And we also go there to pick up. I usually end up with salmon avocado rolls, miso soup, and the cucumber seaweed salad.

Meli Cafe

This place is…homey…far from your trendy brunch places. We like to go when we want to feel full from brunch, haha. They make their own jam and have fresh squeezed juice as well. I usually get the Farmland Bowl, which has spinach, mushrooms, zucchini, tomato swiss cheese, with red potatoes, two eggs and toast. However, there tends to be a long wait, so if we’re starving, we’ll go to Chicago Waffles or Yolk in Ogilvie Station.

Forno Rosso

Chris and I LOVE the pizza here…it’s authentic from Naples! I love to get the Margherita pizza – it’s so simple and delicious. They have amazing olive oil and this hot pepper/chili oil for drizzling too.

Ramen-San

I am obsessed to going to Ramen-San in River North all winter long during my lunch break. My favorite is the Kimchi Fried Chicken ramen which sounds bizarre but is so so so good (add a molten egg!) I’ve never met anyone who didn’t like it, and I’ve brought friends who don’t like ramen. I was so excited when they opened another location in West Loop/Fulton Market. I also really like High-Five Ramen as well, but it’s really hard to get into since the restaurant is tiny.