Best Steakhouses in Chicago 2026
By Diego Marín · Published · Updated
"This is a Chicago steakhouse city the way New York is a sushi city — we expect the room, the cut, the broiler, and the bone-in ribeye on a Tuesday to be better than anywhere else in America." That's a former Chicago Tribune dining critic talking, and the eight rooms below prove him right. River North holds five of the eight (Bavette's, Chicago Cut, RPM, Gene & Georgetti, and Mastro's). Gold Coast holds Gibsons and Maple & Ash. Fulton Market holds Swift & Sons. Eight kitchens, three neighborhoods, one cut of beef done better than anyone outside Tokyo or Buenos Aires has any right to expect.
Eight Chicago Steakhouses Worth the Reservation
Brendan Sodikoff opened Bavette's on Kinzie Street in 2011 with a Parisian-bistro aesthetic — dark wood booths, low lighting, a zinc-topped bar, French chansons low enough on the speakers to ignore — and a Chicago bone-in ribeye programme that respected the canonical cut without showing off about it. Fourteen years on, the room is the city's most-booked dealmaker dinner. The bone-in ribeye is the order; the roast chicken is the unexpected order; the chocolate cream pie at the end is non-negotiable. Reservations open three to four weeks ahead via the website and Saturday eight o'clock slots disappear the morning they appear.
Danny Grant earned two Michelin stars at RIA before opening Maple & Ash with restaurateur David Pisor in 2015 — a Gold Coast double-decker steakhouse with the second-floor "Big Bar" running until 2am, a pink-lit dining room with a wood-burning hearth visible from every seat, and a wine list heavy on big-format Bordeaux. The tomahawk is the showpiece (38 ounces, dry-aged forty-five days, $189), but the "I Don't Give A F*ck" tasting menu is the room's signature move — Grant cooks whatever he wants for the table at $145 per person, and the answer is usually three cuts of beef and a king crab leg.
Gibsons opened on Rush Street in 1989 and built its reputation on a single innovation: the in-house Prime grading programme. The kitchen buys USDA Prime carcasses and re-grades them against a stricter internal standard, then dry-ages and butchers in-house. The W.R. Chicago Cut — named for William Hagen, the buyer who calibrated the system in 1992 — is the canonical order: a 22oz bone-in ribeye graded above standard Prime, $84. The room is bigger and busier than Bavette's, the late-night menu runs until 11:30, and the lobby is a who's-who of Chicago politics and sports any night of the week.
David Flom and Matt Moore opened Chicago Cut on the Riverwalk in 2010 with a two-floor riverside dining room — the main floor with 270-degree windows along the Chicago River, the second floor with private rooms for corporate functions. The tomahawk is named after the room and serves the showpiece function: a 32-ounce bone-in ribeye dry-aged twenty-eight days, finished in the steakhouse broiler, sliced tableside. The wine programme is the largest in any room on this list — 2,000-plus labels, a Wine Spectator Grand Award since 2014, and a sommelier team large enough to staff three by the glass programmes.
Boka Restaurant Group opened Swift & Sons in 2016 inside the McDonald's HQ-adjacent Fulton Market development with a brief that read "what would a Chicago steakhouse look like if you built it from scratch in 2016." The answer was a three-floor restaurant with a downstairs oyster bar (Cold Storage), a main-floor steakhouse, and a wine cellar in the basement. The dry-aged porterhouse for two is the signature — 42 ounces, T-bone with the filet still attached, dry-aged thirty-five days, $185 — and the lobster macaroni and cheese is the side dish that turned every Fulton Market opening into a destination.
Gene Michelotti and Alfredo Federighi opened Gene & Georgetti on Franklin Street in 1941, and the room's been continuously open ever since — wood-paneled walls, a single bar facing the door, photos of every Chicago politician and Hollywood guest who ate there during the Sinatra era. The third-generation owner is Michelle Durpetti, granddaughter of Gene Michelotti. The Italian-American format predates the modern Chicago steakhouse template: order a Caesar (the Sinatra Salad), a bone-in ribeye, and a side of Italian-style sautéed green beans, and you will be eating exactly what the Rat Pack ate in 1962 for under $100.
RPM Steak opened on Kinzie Street in 2014 as the Lettuce Entertain You group's River North steakhouse anchor, run by R.J., Jerrod, and Molly Melman in partnership with Bill and Giuliana Rancic. The format is modern Chicago steakhouse — a dark dining room, a long bar facing Kinzie, an oyster shooter program, and a Japanese A5 Wagyu menu that runs $24 per ounce when most rooms charge $30. The bone-in filet is the order; the tuna tartare with toasted garlic and avocado is the signature starter that most Chicago steakhouses copied within two years.
Mastro's opened the Chicago location on Dearborn in 2009, an outpost of the Mastro family chain that started in Scottsdale in 1999 and was acquired by Landry's in 2013. The room is the loudest and most-piano-driven steakhouse on the list — a tuxedoed pianist plays the bar from 7pm to close every night, and the bar runs at full volume well into the early morning. The bone-in ribeye is competent; the lobster mashed potatoes are the signature side that built the chain's reputation; the butter cake at the end is non-negotiable. Skip Mastro's if you want a quiet meal. Book it if you want a steak-bar-piano-cocktail evening that runs until 1am.
How to Pick the Right Chicago Steakhouse for Your Evening
Dealmaker dinner (Bavette's, Chicago Cut, RPM) reads as dark wood, low lighting, $90–140 per person, conversation tolerable above the room. Loud-scene night (Maple & Ash, Mastro's, Gibsons) reads as pink lighting, piano bar, $120–180, and a crowd that turns over until 2am. Old Chicago (Gene & Georgetti, Gibsons) reads as Italian-American steakhouse with a Sinatra-era room and a $70–100 ticket. New Chicago (Swift & Sons) reads as 2016-built, white-tablecloth, $95–145, and a smarter wine program.
River North holds five of the eight (Bavette's, Chicago Cut, RPM, Gene & Georgetti, Mastro's) within an eight-minute walk; this is the Chicago steakhouse epicentre. Gold Coast holds Gibsons and Maple & Ash on Rush and Maple respectively, a six-minute walk apart. Fulton Market holds Swift & Sons alone — drive twelve minutes west from the Riverwalk to reach it.
Bavette's is the hardest in the city — three to four weeks for a Saturday eight, six weeks during March (NRA Show), May (Restaurant Show), and October (Sweets & Snacks). Maple & Ash opens ninety days out via Tock with a deposit. Gibsons, Chicago Cut, RPM, Mastro's, and Swift & Sons take same-week reservations through Resy. Gene & Georgetti is the easiest walk-in friendly room — try for the bar.
Chicago Cut and Bavette's run the deepest aging programmes (28 to 45 days dry-aged on multiple cuts). Maple & Ash's tomahawk is the longest-aged single cut on the list (45 days). For A5 Japanese Wagyu, RPM, Maple & Ash, and Swift & Sons all carry it; RPM is the cheapest per ounce. For non-beef carnivory, Gene & Georgetti's veal chop is the order. For pescatarians, every room on the list runs a serious seafood menu — Mastro's lobster, Swift & Sons' king crab, Chicago Cut's halibut.