A food influencer in Chicago breaks down why the Windy City should be on every restaurant lover's bucket list

• Erica Noblecilla is a food influencer who's lived in Chicago for four years.
• Chicago is a "melting pot" of different cuisines and has delicious cheap eats as well as Michelin-starred spots, she said.

Erica Noblecilla spends her days scouring Chicago for the best food spots.

She posted her first TikTok reviews in spring 2021. After some of her videos went viral, she quit her job in real-estate marketing and started making content full-time, visiting both well-known restaurants and hidden gems throughout the Windy City and its suburbs.

"Chicagoans take their food very seriously," she told Business Insider. Chicago was ranked third in Food & Wine's 2024 ranking of the best cities for food and drink in the US.

Here's why Noblecilla thinks the city is such a great destination for foodies.

International cuisines

Chicago is a "melting pot" of different cultures and cuisines, Noblecilla said. The city is home to a Chinatown, Little India, Little Italy, Ukrainian Village, and Greektown. There are also Polish, Mexican, Arabic, and Filipino influences, she said.

Noblecilla moved from South Florida to Chicago in July 2020. "I've never really lived in a city before that's had all of these kinds of influences," she said. "I was a little kid in a candy store moving here. It's such a food city."

Chicago staples

New York has bagels, Philadelphia has cheesesteaks, and Cincinnati has Skyline Chili. Chicago has its fair share of staples, too — there's deep-dish pizza, tavern-style pizza, Polish hot dogs, and Italian beef, for starters.

For Italian beef, you can go to Al's or Mr Beef, Noblecilla said. The latter inspired The Original Beef of Chicagoland in the FX series The Bear.

For deep-dish pizza, head to Lou Malnati's. The pizza has a "delicious" and crispy butter crust and "incredibly fresh" toppings, Noblecilla said.

And if you fancy a drink to wash it down with, Malört, a liquor developed by a Swedish immigrant in Chicago in the late 1800s, is the local specialty. It's tradition then when people move to Chicago, "one of the first things you have to do is have a shot of Malört," Noblecilla said.

There's also a "big dive bar culture" in Chicago, as well as a popular speakeasy called the Drifter, she said. "It's actually a place I take lots of out-of-towners." And during the holidays, the city is full of Christmas bars, she said.

Family-owned restaurants

As well as big chains, Chicago is full of mom-and-pop restaurants, Noblecilla said.

And some are pretty old.

"There's a good handful of restaurants that have been open since the 1940s," Noblecilla said. They have "more history than some of the museums here," she said.

Fine dining

The city has 21 Michelin-starred restaurants. Two — Alinea and Smyth — have three stars, while Filipino restaurant Kasama was ranked the fifth-best restaurant in the US in Food & Wine's 2024 ranking.

"There's a really great range in the kind of food that you see at the Michelin restaurants," Noblecilla said. "It's not just one sort of cuisine."

Alfresco dining

"Alfresco dining is such a huge thing here in Chicago," Noblecilla said. Because it's such a cold city, "when it gets warm, you want to be outside," she said.

"Patio dining is pretty top tier here, because it's a beautiful city," she continued. "It's kept very nicely. It's kept very clean. You compare it to New York where there's trash bags piling up on the patio, on the sidewalks."

There's also a lot of rooftop dining, including some restaurants that add snow globes, or heated igloos, in the winter, Noblecilla said.

Cheap eats

You don't have to spend a lot of money to eat well in Chicago. "A big part of the scene is more fast-casual dining," Noblecilla said, adding that those restaurants make up the vast majority her TikTok reviews.

Tacos are a "big Chicago staple," she said. Carniceria Maribel, for example, started as a liquor store and La Chaparrita as a grocery store, "and then they kind of transformed into taquerias because of the popularity of their tacos."

Her favourite spot

Noblecilla's current favorite place to eat in Chicago is Brasero, an upscale Latin restaurant in the city's West Town, which she says has "Brazilian undertones."

"It just blew me away," she said. "So much flavor."

Noblecilla said that her table tried most of the dishes on the menu. Dishes she particularly enjoyed included the oysters, shrimp, lobster, ribs in a guava barbecue glaze, pão de queijo, and desserts. "The seafood stood out to me the most," she said.

At Brasero, the pão de queijo costs $16, ribs $24, and half lobster $68.

Noblecilla also recommends the $14 limonada suíça, Brazilian lemonade made by blending a whole lime with water, then adding condensed milk. For an extra $4, you can spike it with Pitu Cachaça, a Brazilian spirit, which Noblecilla said is "really unique. You can't really find that anywhere in the city."