Daisies is a pasta shop and Midwestern comfort restaurant that endeared itself to the Logan Square community in its tinier original iteration. In April, the operations moved a few blocks southeast, still along Milwaukee Avenue, to a gorgeous and roomier space. The kitchen has more amenities to serve a large menu of pasta (a giant seasonal ravioli is impressive; right now it’s stuffed with ramps) and more composed dishes. There are also delicious pastries and coffee (La Colombe’s roastery is just next-door). Daisies 2.0 is one of the hottest reservations in town.

Thattu is a restaurant that bridges relationships. It’s the story of its owners, Margaret Pak (a Korean American) and Vinod Kalathil (who’s from Kerala, India). Pak is charged with translating recipes from Kalathil’s mother, and the result is a humble, yet bold, South Indian restaurant, the likes the city has been waiting a long time to enjoy. The restaurant debuted with lunch and spicy chicken sandwiches and recently unveiled dinner service with a decadent pork chop inside a newly built-out space in Avondale.

Warlord is a force of nature in Logan Square, a small and cleverly designed space that doesn’t take any reservations. Most items — with the notable exception of raw seafood (dry-aged on-site) —touches the grill. The menu changes daily. Sometimes the chefs will serve fish collar or a ribeye steak. On other days scallops may star. The menu’s volatility is an allure, and the cocktail bar in the back is serving up well-crafted and balance drinks. Warlord’s kitchen is open until 1 a.m. which makes it a beloved space for restaurant workers needing a late-night spot. A patio is also on its way.

Erling Wu-Bower’s return has already earned acclaim in the West Loop where the chef and partner Josh Tilden have treated customers to a creative menu with great ambition and ambience. Music plays a big part of Maxwells Trading — there’s even a pop-up record shop in front. This comfy spot is a tribute to immigrant neighborhoods, with a family-style menu that crosses Asian countries like China, Korea, and Japan. The restaurant will feel different in the spring and summer as a rooftop garden will supply ingredients. Right now, it’s the perfect antidote to the throng for restaurants along Randolph Street, where hospitality sometimes plays second fiddle to hype.

The owners of Omakase Yume, a Michelin-starred sushi restaurant, are it again, presenting a Korean-style steakhouse where diners can enjoy a special seven-course meal featuring several cuts of beef. Not all of the cuts at Bonyeon will be familiar, and that mystery is part of the allure. This intimate 12-seat dining experience is different from a traditional Chicago steakhouse, and perhaps a precursor to the arrival of more Asian-inspired steakhouses in the city.

The Ramova Grill closed 12 years ago, an all-day diner next to the decades’ old Ramova Theater in Bridgeport. The theater has reopened with help from celeb owners Quincy Jones, Jennifer Hudson, and Chance the Rapper. The food is handled by the Duck Inn’s Kevin Hickey, and he’s got a lunch and dinner menu for chili, duck-infused corn dogs, and pizza in a cup (inspired by Steve Martin’s The Jerk). Other Half Brewery has also set up shop and there’s fantastic cocktails from the Duck Inn’s Brandon Phillips. The recently added weekend brunch service, too.

It’s been a long time coming from Norman Fenton, a Detroit native who worked at Schwa and Brass Heart, a fine dining restaurant with a tasting menu in Uptown. That restaurant closed allowing Fenton to tap into his travels in Mexico and Central America. With that, and new ownership, he launched Cariño, where he’s having fun with masa and other ingredients used south of the border, placing them in daring new presentations. There’s also a late-night taco omakase that’s a little bit less expensive, but Fenton aims to pummel guests with tacos in different ways.

The Group, the New York hospitality company, has opened a pair of restaurants in Downtown Chicago, including La Grande Boucherie, a two-level French spot with an absinthe bar in the former Ruth’s Chris space in River North. Owners poured significant resources into gutting the building to install a grandiose ground floor and mezzanine with curved vaulted ceilings, as well as a $1.5 million scrollwork-gilded stone facade. The menu touches on all the brasserie hits, as well as a raw bar and hefty, meaty cuts like a chateaubriand for two.

Bayan Ko is reborn in Ravenswood, as the family-owned restaurant is now reservation only and serving a five-course prix fixe menu with both Cuban and Filipino items. It is meant to be a fun slice of upscale dining with creating takes on lugaw (with black rice and lobster), and ropa vieja (made with wagyu beef). While the menu has been flipped, those craving the classics can wait until later this spring when a second restaurant, Bayan Ko Diner, opens next door.

This lively South American restaurant in West Town from the chef and owner of El Che Bar is serving grilled chicken and other items kissed by the grill or the wood-fired oven. John Manion has created another hit near his old Wicker Park restaurant, Más, and he’s going all over Argentina, Brazil, and other nearby countries for an impressive bean stew and more.

Folks, Tre Dita is finally open. The Tuscan steakhouse from LA chef Evan Funke and Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises lifted the curtain halfway in mid-February, opening up the bar located at the St. Regis, the luxury skyscraper near Lake Michigan in what’s become River East. Even in preview mode, it was one of the hottest reservations in town, and now that the doors are officially open, locals and visitors are beating a path to the 101-story structure to marvel at panoramic views and stuff themselves with stellar Tuscan pasta and steaks.

Chicago’s increasingly competitive Mediterranean dining scene gained a compelling new contender with the April debut of Tama, chef Avgeria Stapaki’s inventive new neighborhood restaurant in Bucktown. Stapaki, a Greek native who moved to Chicago in 2019 to open splashy Mediterranean spot Nisos, was forced to forge a new path when its owners decided to close and revamp the restaurant after less than a year. In the end, the split set Stapaki free to cook on her terms alongside co-owner Adalberto Olaez (Lao Peng You, Boeufhaus). Their opening menu is unlike any other Mediterranean lineup in town with early hits like avgolemono ramen (crispy chicken, Swiss chard “nori”), vibrant dolma (tabbouleh, beurre blanc), and zesty yuzu tuna tartare.

La Serre is a new restaurant from the owners of Fioretta and Bar Sienna. It’s inspired by coastal France, located on the second floor of a new building off Fulton Market. There are plenty of creative cocktails and a unique all-season ledge with windows that open up to the street. Menu highlights include charcoal-cooked double-cut beef ribeye cote du boeuf, duck chinoise for two, and gnocchi.