If the bing bread ever comes off the menu at this creative Korean-American spot, the citizens of Chicago’s Northwest Side might revolt. The over-the-top loaves are the bread version of a loaded baked potato, stuffed with bacon and scallions and served with sour-cream butter. Some of the seating in the intimate and always-crowded space is communal, and that’s because the food here is (truly) built to be shared. How else are you going to get a window into the chefs’ keen understanding of flavor (shown off in their unexpected pairing of chioggia beets with cacao nibs); mastery of dumpling making; and unapologetically bold, funky, spicy renditions of classics like bibimbap and beef hot pot?
What to order: baked potato bing bread, mandu, dolsot bibimbap
We love: the hard-to-find Slow City makgeolli, a rice wine brewed in the Chicago suburbs (who knew?)
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