5 Chicago Restaurant Week menus we’re excited to try

The holidays are over and the bitter January cold is settling in, but there’s still cause for excitement: Chicago Restaurant Week 2024 is upon us, offering deals at restaurants across the city.

This year, the event spans 17 days and features prix fixe menus for brunch, lunch and dinner at more than 400 restaurants. For those overwhelmed by the options, the Tribune Food team looked over menus to find especially exciting ones.

Here are five Chicago Restaurant Week menus we can’t wait to try. Be sure to make a reservation early since slots fill up fast. Happy dining!

— Kayla Samoy, food editor

Restaurant Week runs Jan. 19 to Feb. 4. The full list of participating restaurants and their menus is available on the Choose Chicago website.

When Cecilia Cuff and Eric Williams opened Bronzeville Winery in its historic namesake neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago two years ago, they had dreams that the business would become an artists’ space to celebrate the community. They’ve exceeded those goals at their restaurant and wine bar, now led by chefs Lamar Moore and Dondee Robinson, with a wine list by Derrick C. Westbrook, the correctly self-described “world’s dopest sommelier.”

Go — no, run — for the Bronzeville Winery $25 brunch Restaurant Week menu. It’s a steal for three courses including avocado toast (normally $10) with grilled sourdough bread, sliced avocado, vegan feta and chile crisp; shirred eggs (normally $15) baked in a tomato sauce with a side salad; and chicken and waffles (normally $22) with fried thighs finished with a hot sauce gastrique, plus buttermilk waffles with warm maple syrup and butter.

All three dishes would normally be $47, but at only $25, you save $22.

(By contrast their $59 Restaurant Week dinner menu curiously costs $3 more than the regular menu, so I don’t recommend that.)

But go get that brunch deal.

And with what you’ll save, perhaps pair a glass or bottle of Cheurlin ($18 per glass / $75 per bottle), an extremely rare Champagne house that’s Black-owned (by West Side native and former legendary basketball player Isiah Thomas) and based in Chicago.

Reservations are available for brunch on Sundays, served from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., but do note that the kitchen closes at 1:45 p.m.

4420 S. Cottage Grove Ave., 872-244-7065, bronzevillewinery.com — Louisa Chu

During the cold winter months, many of us dream of escaping Chicago for the tropics. What if I told you that it’s possible without leaving city limits?

At Mima’s Taste of Cuba in Irving Park, founders Jamie and Billy Alvarez say they want patrons to relax and feel good vibes as if they’re on vacation. The restaurant is known for its bright, colorful decorations and Latin Caribbean cuisine, which is featured in its two Restaurant Week menus.

There are four courses on the $25 lunch option. You can start out with empanadas — possibly the dish Mima’s is best known for — or yuca frita. For the main course, there’s a Cubano sandwich or jibarito, a Puerto Rican plantain sandwich created in Chicago. The jibarito honors the heritage of Billy Alvarez’s mother.

There’s rice, beans or fries for a side dish, along with Key lime pie or coconut flan for dessert. You can also choose one cocktail or beer to sip on.

Except for the entrees, the $59 dinner option is much the same. They introduced a choice of chicken and grilled camarones or churrasco and lobster for the main course. The latter dish typically costs around $40. Each entree comes with white rice, black beans, and tostones or maduros. — Rebecca Johnson

2925 W. Irving Park Road, 773-654-3075, mimastoc.com

It’s hard to believe that award-winning chefs and spouses Beverly Kim and Johnny Clark opened Parachute 10 years ago this year. Possibly because they’ve reinvented their Korean American restaurant in the Avondale neighborhood over the past decade. Previously, they drew inspiration from Kim’s culture, but now they’ve made it their own.

The Parachute $59 Restaurant Week dinner menu looked like such a deal that I rechecked my math more than an Asian after school tutor. You get four courses, but really it’s more than that.

For your first course, choose between two options: yukhoe, Slagel Family Farm beef tartare served nearly frozen in a sesame dressing with preserved shallots; or golbaengi-muchim, knobbed whelk salad with chilled somyeon noodles and herbal greens in a Kisoondo gochujang dressing. Each dish is normally $33, and the latter is available gluten free and vegetarian upon request.

For your second course, choose from three options: Korean fried chicken (normally $18), whole wings dressed with gochujang and garlic, plus a side of pickled mu; or japchae tteokbokki (normally $19), noodles and rice cakes with vegetables in a sweet and savory sauce, available gluten free and vegetarian; or haemul pajeon (normally $26), seafood and onion pancake with a chile onion soy dipping sauce.

For your third and main course choose from three options again: 30-day dry-aged bulgogi (normally $39), marinated Slagel Family Farm sirloin, enoki mushrooms and scallions; or godeungeo gui (normally market price), Boston mackerel cured with bourbon barrel smoked sea salt and grilled over eucalyptus charcoal (served with complimentary banchan and cooked to order rice!); or Kisoondo doenjang-jjigae (normally not on the menu), soybean paste stew with wild mushrooms and tofu, gluten free and vegetarian.

For the dessert course, try to choose between two options: strawberry pudding (normally $12), strawberry cheong, Peruvian ground-cherry and perilla; or s’mores pat-bingsu (normally $19), chocolate shaved ice with toasted meringue, cinnamon honey ice cream, mochi and candied adzuki beans, gluten free.

That’s all normally at least $117, so at $59, you save $58 if not more.

Go with friends and/or family to try all the options, served family style, or order double or triple for yourself and take home leftovers.

Reservations are available for dinner Tuesdays to Thursdays from 5-9 p.m., and Fridays and Saturdays from 5-10 p.m. The restaurant is closed on Sundays and Mondays.

3500 N. Elston Ave., 872-204-7138, parachuterestaurant.com — L.C.

Experience home-cooked, tropical flavors from South America at Sinhá Elegant Cuisine, the Brazilian restaurant across from the United Center.

Owner Jorgina Pereira intentionally selected dishes that highlight the range of Brazilian cuisine for the $25 Restaurant Week lunch menu. One of the main courses, bife a cavalo (which translates to horseback-riding steak in Portuguese), is a grilled sirloin topped with a fried egg. In Brazil, “people having brunch on a weekday, especially men, like to have a steak with an egg on top,” she said.

Another dish, the bobó de camarão — shrimp with a yucca, coconut milk and ginger sauce — shows the African influence on Brazilian culture, Pereira said. The restaurant has what is perhaps the city’s best deal on oxtail, which are cooked slow and served with polenta.

Pereira isn’t leaving vegan customers out of the fun — also on the menu is the bobó de cogumelos, or portobello mushrooms with mashed yucca.

Along with the four main dishes, diners can expect a buffet of black beans, rice, pasta and salad, along with a sampling of passion fruit mousse. The Jean Banchet Award-winning restaurant is a bring-your-own-bottle restaurant, with no corkage fee.

Pereira recommends diners arrive right as lunch service begins at 11:30 a.m. to get the best experience, and assures that “it’s a good portion, so nobody gets out of here hungry.” — Lauryn Azu

2018 W. Adams St., 312-491-8200, sinhaelegantcuisine.com

For a fusion of global flavors, the River North restaurant brings a menu with French and Asian inspiration, set to the backdrop of Macallan, the Scotch whisky it’s named for.

Eat. Watch. Do.

Weekly

What to eat. What to watch. What you need to live your best life … now.

Its $59 dinner menu for Restaurant Week has three courses, and diners will be greeted with a glass of Gramona Reserva Brut to begin. The first course includes a choice of chestnut velouté with prosciutto or smoked beet and red pepper tartare.

For the main course, patrons can choose between roasted sea bass with a cherry glaze or an Australian wagyu short rib with winter vegetables and a black garlic puree. Both entrees come with a truffle pomme purée.

For dessert, select either a chocolate mousse cake with orange confit or a miso blondie with banana and rhubarb hibiscus sauce to close out the meal.

Diners can add on beverage pairings for $35. Vegetarian and gluten-free menus are available at request. Savings for Restaurant Week range from $13 to $19. — L.A.

450 N. Clark St., 312-224-1650, mroomchicago.com

rjohnson@chicagotribune.com, lazu@chicagotribune.com, lchu@chicagotribune.com

Big screen or home stream, takeout or dine-in, Tribune writers are here to steer you toward your next great experience. Sign up for your free weekly Eat. Watch. Do. newsletter here.