One of my favorite cocktail bars in the city, I just learned a secret-- visit on Sunday afternoon…read morewhen there isn't a line out the door and it isn't slammed inside. Really creative cocktails, unusual wines, great snack list (and the complimentary olives and cheese made us able to stay longer add have another round!). If you sit at the bar, one of the very talented, friendly mixologists will guide you to your perfect drink progression-- that's right-- you're not just have one thing. Too hard to choose so why should you? There are low and no ABV options as well to balance out the martinis and other spirit forward offerings. I love the decor and overall vibe--classy, French-y, fun not stuffy. Great on your own, with a date, a small group. Special shout out to Hannah but everyone we interacted with was great.

Of course when in Chicago, I had to check out Bisous, ranked #30 on North America's 50 Best Bars…read more2026, climbing from #39 in 2025. With an intimate ambiance, in Chicago's Fulton Market, Bisous brings the vibe of a 1960s Parisian cocktail lounge. Since they don't take reservations, I had a short wait at the door. Somehow, they knew exactly what I wanted, which was a seat at the bar. My favorite place to sip, exhaole, and chat with the bartenders. The cocktails were delicious, and the service was warm, attentive, and welcoming. My tongue-clicking sips for the evening: PASTRY WAR Pistachio Cream, Agricole & Jamaican Rums, Grappa, Almond, Egg White, Lemon, Nutmeg BAIT & SWITCH Blueberry Cordial, Mezcal, Blanche Armagnac, Baking Spices COUNTERPOINT Fig Leaf, Armagnac Duffau Napoléon, Yellow Chartreuse, Oscar.697 Rosso Vermouth Mmmm... #BonAppetit! Cheers! Enjoy!

A great drink, bar service and meat board…read more I was the first person in the door as it was an early stop for a longer evening, the bartender who was serving was helpful to a first timer and tastefully attentive afterwards. As more and more people came in, he was certain to keep me in his considerations and each old fashioned was as good as the first The charcuterie board had very good sourdough bread and the meats were very delicious. Overall a great start to my evening and will be returning

Visit & Wait Time *…read moreWe (group of 6) came here on a Saturday night. * It was a bit packed, so the staff recommended we come back in an hour. * We came back in an hour, and the staff sat us right away. Service * The servers and bartenders were friendly. * It took us some time to get the charcuterie board, but they had one server manning the area. She did her best. Ambiance * The ambiance is moody and vampy. Cleanliness * The bathrooms are clean. Overall Experience * I would come here again.

My husband and I made an early reservation for drinks before dinner on a Friday night. We sat at…read morethe bar and had a great experience! The space is small, but not cramped, nice candlelight, moody but not pretentious. Overall, cool and comfortable. The bartenders were friendly and fun to talk with. The drinks were great. We had the lost in translation, eastern standard time, and paper luck cup. I wish i could've tried more! The menu is quite extensive - theres something for everyone. Since they're solid cocktails, we weren't able to have too many in the hour timespan, but it was fun to watch the bartenders make a variety drinks for others. I definitely want to come back. It is a very approachable cocktail bar, that isn't too challenging to make a reservation, so it can easily become a place you regularly go to. Highly recommend!

Such a cute little speakeasy tucked inside Pilsen Yards! The cozy, dark atmosphere is perfect for a…read morerelaxing night out. The cocktails are creative and delicious, and the service was amazing. They even welcomed us with complimentary shots! Roger was awesome and gave us great recommendations based on what we liked. Definitely coming back!

One of my favorite spots for cocktails in Chicago! The drinks are NEXT LEVEL, the mixology is…read moreseriously insane. They also have live music, and it's always such a vibe. I've never not had a great time here. Shoutout to Guillermo because he's so good at his job and also so fun to talk to! Definitely one of my go-to cocktail spots.

Such a fun moody speakeasy for cocktails located in lower level of The Hoxton! They have such an…read moreincredible range of cocktails it's truly impressive. There's a decent amount of seating and space in the bar but we went on a Monday evening and it was quite busy so I can only imagine how crowded it gets on a weekend. It also is quite dark in this space, something to keep in mind if you struggle with that! We helped one of the bar staff clean a broken glass from the floor and they brought us some extra drinks which was extremely sweet of them! Would definitely come back the next time I'm in the area.

A cute spot for an afternoon or evening bite in the heart of West Loop. The patio is gorgeous!…read moreGreat for sunny fall afternoons! The place turns into a lounge at night with a live DJ on weekends. The bartender Antonio gave stellar customer service, knows his craft. I got their espresso martini and it was perfect, not overly sweet or acidic! Their grilled cheese and tomato bisque is to die for! I will be coming back for seconds. Overall a great 10/10 experience.

Got there a bit early and grabbed a cocktail at the bar while waiting for my friend. The host and…read morebartender were really nice. Cocktail was good. Average prices. Ordered the burger for brunch, felt there was minimal brunch options that didn't feel like lunch food. Everything was decent/ ok. My biggest issue is it was brunch and there was NO coffee. Allegedly the coffee machine is broke? I mean? You can't even get an old school coffee pot to serve coffee? Instead their solution was that I leave brunch and go next door and get coffees from levain bakery. Then I ordered a burger and they didn't have ranch for the fries??? Now they have salads on the menu so the fact they don't have ranch is weird. Overall staff was nice but the food was average and no coffee at weekend brunch was disappointing. I wouldn't go back.

My first time here and it might be one of my new favorite bars in Chicago! First, I love the…read morespeakeasy vibe. It's located inside of a brightly lit liquor store, and it's a completely different vibe as soon as you enter into Osito's Tap. At 8:30pm on a Saturday, we were seated right away at the bar. There was a live DJ, but the music wasn't too loud which I appreciated. Sometimes with live DJs the music gets way too loud, but it was just some nice background music. The service was great, and our bartender was really friendly. We tried the For Ari, Nube Punch, and Jardinera. All the cocktails were delicious and unique. I typically don't like savory cocktails and usually cocktails with malort are intimidating, but the jardinera cocktail surprised me and I actually liked it a lot. I think the tomato flavor just worked really well with the malort. I would come back just for that cocktail, but there were so many other cocktails I wanted to try and didn't get to this time, so we'll definitely be back.

I was really excited to try Osito's!…read more The space itself is lovely and moody. We tried a handful of things from the menu but would have tried more, but as they got busier, the service declined. Everything we tried was delicious--especially the salsas! Their drink menu was fun and interesting so I would definitely recommend stopping by for a few drinks.

Stopped in last night and sat at the bar, was fortunate to get a spot and so pumped to eat here…read more Great happy hour menu, I had two of the HH mastitis (7 bucks each) and then I also ordered the steak tar tar for an app. Holy shit this was incredible, would go back just for this again... sooo good! I had what I thought was the best tar tar of all time in French restaurant inside the aria in Vegas but this is right up there with that, maybe better. For dinner I had the pork dish, was really good probably would get a pasta or the chicken next time. Service was very friendly! The dimly lit restaurant has such a cool atmosphere, I see why this place is so highly regarded m! Definitely recommend!

We visited Gilt Bar for the first time and, while there were a few highlights, the overall…read moreexperience didn't justify the value. Happy hour was the best part: the drinks had good pours and felt like a solid deal, and the onion rings were very good. The sliders on the happy hour menu, though, felt overpriced for what you get--mostly bread with a small piece of chicken or burger. For the main courses, two of the four pasta dishes came out cold. We were seated outside, and it seemed like the plates may have been held while other entrees finished, so they were barely edible by the time they reached us. Service was decent, but it didn't really make up for the misses in pacing and food quality. We also expected a patio, but it was more like curbside seating at a busy intersection, with cars and traffic noise right on top of us. It was distracting and made it hard to have a conversation. Given the overall value and experience, we won't be returning.

My wife and I were on our anniversary trip to Chicago and decided to enjoy the cocktail bar The…read moreAviary before our dinner at their sister concept - Next. I'll start out by saying that the time in the Aviary was the best cocktail experience we have ever had. Not saying the best cocktails (even though they were very good), but the best experience as far as interesting presentations and overall service combined with good cocktails that when you were drinking them did not feel gimmicky at all, but that everything had a purpose. My wife did the 3 drink progression and ordered The Partridge, The 3 Martini Lunch, and the non-alcoholic version of the Kyoto Plum. I got three cocktails, but because I opted for one on their barrel aged part of the menu, my progression was basically a la carte, not the 3 drink $75 price. We also opted for one small bite of food - The Truffle explosion. My drinks were the Cereal Killer, the In The Rocks, and the Blood and Sand. As far as favorites went Joy's Partridge was basically a Mint Julep with some warming spices, but the presentation was great. Almost every table got that drink so it must be well received. My favorite was the Blood and Sand that was just a really well balanced cocktail. I think that part of the menu does not get the elaborate presentations. We both also enjoyed sharing the 3 martini lunch which was a small version of a Vesper, a Gibson, and a dirty Martini. Two things about this drink, we like our martinis with gin rather than vodka (obviously a Vesper has both), but their rules are that there are no changes to their menus, so both the gibson and the dirty martini were vodka based. The Gibson and the Vesper were our favorites of the three as the dirty martini was too dirty. There was even more olive brine if we wanted it dirtier. Bottom line, top notch experience, great friendly service, and the atmosphere was awesome watching the room being served some of the drinks we had, and ones that we did not order. The Truffle Explosion was also a very good bite, basically a truffle/parmesan infused soup dumpling that exploded in your mouth and helped out with a little food in our belly while having all that alcohol at the same time. The only disappointing cocktail was the Kyoto Plum mocktail, interesting presentation, but tasted just like grape juice - no real character. A hostess from Next came and got us and took us to our table in Next for the 1987 Manhattan meal. Thanks for a great experience Aviary!!

What an entertaining experience. The Aviary is like fine dining except almost entirely focused on…read morecocktails. We made a reservation for their three course cocktail experience for four of us which required a deposit of $75 per person. Only one of us ended up doing the experience (the rest of us were too full and already tipsy from dinner) but it was nonetheless, a very cool experience. Service was top notch. My partner has admired this place for a long time, as a bartender himself, and he has even learned a thing or two from their Bible-like cookbooks. So when the maitre d offered to allow him to step into the kitchen and help finish one of their cocktails, he was absolutely giddy. This was such a memorable and special touch for us during our visit to Chicago. I loved seeing how the kitchen worked together in a traditional kitchen line but only focusing on cocktails. It was an impressive thing to see. Many of the cocktails are presented in an incredibly theatrical way featuring interesting glassware, dry ice, and even a plastic bag filled with flavored air. I actually wasn't a big fan of the cocktail I ordered (it leaned too heavy into the BBQ flavor for my taste) but I enjoyed trying everyone else's cocktails at the table. I would definitely recommend checking out The Aviary if you are a cocktail enthusiast hoping to try something you can't get anywhere else. It truly is a fine dining experience with mixology at the forefront.

Ambience 10/10 Service 10/10…read moreDj always 10/10 Drinks 10/10 I haven't tried the food so I wouldn't be able to say. I normally come here as an after dinner or after hours just for a few drinks the music and the vibes so I'll see if I can try the food next time.

LOVE punch house! It is really one of my favorite spots to go to on a weekend or a weekday what I…read morejust wanna get out the house listen to some good music and just enjoy the vibes. The staff is always so lovely my friend and I had the best drink and per usual the energy was just so great. It was a great third spot for the night

Nice little dive bar. First time here. Chill vibes. Good service. They open late at 5:00pm…read more Would recommend, would return.

Brian is the best! Great vibes. Great atmosphere. Live music! Best bar in the area ! Service was…read morephenomenal !