Best Restaurants For Wine 2018: Illinois Has 93 Award Winners

CHICAGO, IL —Cheers, Illinois! Wine Spectator, one of the world’s leading authorities on wine, has assembled its 2018 list of the Best Restaurants for Wine, based not only on the breadth of vintages in their cellars but also how well wine is paired with entrees. In Illinois, 93 restaurants made the prestigious list of 3,759 restaurants worldwide with outstanding wine selections.

The lifestyle magazine on wine and wine culture gave awards across three categories — Award of Excellence, Best of Award of Excellence and the Grand Award, which went to only 91 restaurants around the world. Wine Spectator experts inspect all candidates for the Grand Award to evaluate both quality of the dining experience and the cellar.

This award is given to restaurants with world-class cellars and wine lists that typically feature 1,000 or more selections, a breadth of top producers, and outstanding depth in mature vintages and selection of large-format bottles. Restaurants in this category are also evaluated on the presentation of the wine list and the harmony with the menu.

In Chicago, no restaurants won the Grand Award, but 31 received the Best of Award of Excellence. (For more news like this, get Chicago Patch's real-time news alerts and free morning news letters. Like us on Facebook. Also, download the free Patch iPhone app or free Patch Android app.)

Here are all Wine Spectator listings for Chicago and the surrounding area:

BEST OF AWARD OF EXCELLENCE
(1,215 restaurants nationwide)

• Acanto, 18 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago
• Alinea, 1723 N. Halsted St., Chicago
• Benny's Chop House, 444 N. Wabash Ave., Chicago
• Booth One, Ambassador Chicago, 1301 N. State Parkway, Chicago
• Cafe Lucci, 609 Milwaukee Ave., Glenview
• Cherry Circle Room, Chicago Athletic Association, 12 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago
• Chicago Chop House, 60 W. Ontario St., Chicago
• City Winery Chicago, 1200 W. Randolph St., Chicago
• Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steakhouse, 58 E. Oak St., Chicago
• Formento's, 925 W. Randolph St., Chicago
• Gibson's Italia, 233 N. Canal St., Chicago
• Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab, 60 E. Grand Ave., Chicago
• Kinzie Chophouse, 400 N. Wells St., Chicago
• La Cantina Enoteca, 71 W. Monroe St., Chicago
• Les Nomades, 222 E. Ontario St., Chicago
• Maple & Ash, 8 W. Maple St., Chicago
• Mastro's Steakhouse, 520 N. Dearborn St., Chicago
• Morton's, The Steakhouse, 65 E. Wacker Place, Chicago
• Parkers' Restaurant & Bar, 1000 31st St., Downers Grove
• Prime & Provisions, 222 N. LaSalle St., Chicago
• RPM Italian, 52 W. Illinois St., Chicago
• RPM Steak, 66 W. Kinzie St., Chicago
• Shanghai Terrace, The Peninsula Hotel, 108 E. Superior St., Chicago
• Smith & Wollensky, 318 N. State St, Chicago
• Spiaggia, 980 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago
• Swift & Sons, 1000 W. Fulton Market St., Chicago
• The Saddle Room, 2559 Pratum Ave., Hoffman Estates
• The Tavern, 519 N. Milwaukee Ave., Libertyville
• The Turf Room, 650 Randall Crossing Lane, North Aurora
• The Village, 71 W. Monroe St., Chicago
• Vivere, 71 W. Monroe St., Chicago

AWARD OF EXCELLENCE
(2,453 restaurants nationwide)

• 1776, 397 Virginia St., Crystal Lake
• 20's Hideout Steakhouse & Bar, 2602 W. Wanda Drive, Marion, Illinois
• Allium Restaurant, Four Seasons Hotel, 120 E. Delaware Place, Chicago
• Bar Siena, 832 W. Randolph St., Chicago
• Beacon Tavern, 405 N. Wabash Ave., Chicago
• Bobby's Deerfield, 695 Deerfield Road, Deerfield
• Boka, 1729 N. Halsted St., Chicago
• Carlucci Rosemont, 6111 N. River Road, Rosemont
• Chef's Station, 915 Davis St., Evanston
• Chicago Prime Italian, 1370 Bank Drive, Schaumburg
• Chicago Prime Steakhouse, 1444 E. Algonquin Road, Schaumburg
• Coco Pazzo, 300 W. Hubbard St., Chicago
• Coco Pazzo Cafe, 212 E. Ohio St., Chicago
• Coda di Volpe, 3335 N. Southport Ave., Chicago
• Eddie V's Prime Seafood, 521 N. Rush St., Chicago
• Fig & Olive Chicago, 104 E. Oak St., Chicago
• Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, 960 Milwaukee Ave., Lincolnshire
• Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, 35 E. Ohio St., Chicago
• Fogo de Chao, 511 N. LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago
• Fogo de Chao, 5460 Park Place, Rosemont
• Fogo de Chao, 1824 Arbriter Court, Naperville
• Fried Green Tomatoes, 213 N. Main St., Galena
• Frontera Grill/Topolobampo, 445 N. Clark St., Chicago
• GT Fish & Oyster, 531 N. Wells St., Chicago
• GT Prime, 707 N. Wells St., Chicago
• Geja's Cafe, 340 W. Armitage Ave., Chicago
• Morton's, The Steakhouse, 1050 N. State St., Chicago
• Morton's, The Steakhouse, 1470 McConnor Parkway, Schaumburg
• Morton's, The Steakhouse, 9525 W. Bryn Mawr Ave., Rosemont
• Morton's, The Steakhouse, 699 Skokie Boulevard, Northbrook
• Osteria Langhe, 2824 W. Armitage Ave., Chicago
• Perry's Steakhouse & Grille, 5 Oakbrook Center, Oak Brook
• Porter's Steakhouse, Doubletree Hotel, 1000 Eastport Plaza Drive, Collinsville
• Rare Chop House, 224 S. 10th St., Mount Vernon
• Roka Akor, 456 N. Clark St., Chicago
• Roka Akor, 166 Oakbrook Center, Oak Brook
• Ruth's Chris Steak House, 933 Skokie Boulevard, Northbrook
• Ruth's Chris Steak House, 431 N. Dearborn St, CHicago
• Ruth's Chris Steak House, 100 Higgins Road, South Barrington
• Seasons 52, 1770 E. Higgins Road, Schaumburg
• Seasons 52, 3 Oakbrook Center, Oak Brook
• Shula's Steak House, Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Tower, 301 N. Water St., Chicago
• Siena Tavern, 51 W. Kinzie St., Chicago
• Somerset, 1112 N. State St., Chicago
• Stetsons Modern Steak + Sushi, Hyatt Regency Hotel, 151 E. Wacker Drive, Chicago
• Sullivan's Steakhouse, 244 S. Main St., Naperville
• Sullivan's Steakhouse, 250 Marriott Drive, Lincolnshire
• Suzette's Creperie, 211 W. Front St., Wheaton
• The Capital Grille, 633 N. St. Clair St., Chicago
• The Capital Grille, 87 Yorktown Center, Lombard
• The Capital Grille, 5340 N. River Road, Rosemont
• The Craftsman By Two Brothers, 16 W. Jefferson Ave., Naperville
• The Dawson, 730 W. Grand Ave., Chicago
• The Florentine, JW Marriott Chicago, 151 W. Adams St., Chicago
• The Gage, 24 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago
• The Palm Chicago, 323 E. Wacker Drive, Chicago
• Tied House, 3157 N. Southport Ave., Chicago
• Trattoria No. 10, 10 No. Dearborn St., Chicago
• Truluck's, 41 E. Chestnut St., Chicago
• Wildwood, 477 S. Third St., Geneva
• Zed451, 739 N. Clark St., Chicago

Wine Spectator’s 2018 Restaurant Award winners range from neighborhood wine bars that serve small plates to opulent palaces with star chefs and elaborate tasting menus. Getting a mention on it is a pretty big deal for the restaurants.

“A Wine Spectator award tells our guests — current and potential — that our program has been vetted by a panel of experts and deemed amongst the best in the world,” Erik Segelbaum, corporate wine director for the Starr Restaurants group, said in a news release.

Segelbaum, whose restaurants won 16 Wine Spectator awards this year, said they tell “wine-loving guests that visiting one of our restaurants is time and money well spent.” The awards are well regarded domestically and internationally, he said.

“There is no doubt that Wine Spectator reviews and awards are held in the highest regard in the domestic and international community,” he said in the release. “Awards of this nature show our wine-loving guests that visiting one of our restaurants is time and money well spent.”

The restaurants recognized by Wine Spectator are in all 50 U.S. states and 75 countries.

Click here see all the Grand Award winners.

Click here to peruse all winners by metropolitan area.

Photo via Shutterstock / media_digital