Find your Where to Eat the Best Mediterranean restaurant.
Showing all 14 restaurants in ranking order.
About Where to Eat the Best Mediterranean restaurants in Chicago
Mediterranean runs wide in Chicago, from the flaming saganaki counters of Greektown to Persian grill houses, Egyptian street food, and the wood-fired rooms of the West Loop. This guide pulls from the full range: the corridor institutions, the fast-casual lunch stops, the upscale shared-plate spots, and the long-running neighborhood regulars that have held their leases for decades. No single style owns the category here.
Compare all 14 restaurantsNeighborhood · price · score · first order
In the same order as the guide. Scores are out of 10; dollar symbols show the listed price tier.
Greektown's Greek Islands is the place to order flaming saganaki, and the room knows it. The tableside fire ritual, finished with lemon, is the centerpiece of any group visit. Spanakopita and lamb chops round out a menu built for sharing. The operation runs at high volume and handles it without much friction. Parking in the West Loop corridor can be a challenge, but the restaurant draws regulars who plan around it.
200 S Halsted St, Chicago, IL 60661 · (312) 782-9855
Ema's lamb ragu is the dish that keeps the room busy, and the rotisserie program gives the menu a through-line. Portion sizes are solid, and the setup works equally well for a drinks-first visit or a full sit-down meal. The related Ema Rotisserie concept, running dollar froyo nearby, draws its own weekday lunch crowd. Service reads as capable and the room handles groups without much trouble.
Ema on West Illinois Street is a Mediterranean restaurant with a light, airy look: pale woods, greenery, two bar areas and an outdoor space for those who do not mind street traffic. Diners call the decor modern and comfortable rather than formal, and the clientele dresses nicely but not stiffly.
Start with the spreads. Sweet corn hummus, bhel hummus, hummus with lamb ragu and charred eggplant baba ganoush are the dishes diners name, with spicy whipped feta close behind. Green falafel, a Greek salad, Brussels sprouts and crispy wild mushrooms round out the sharing plates, and chicken kebab, kefta kebab and a braised short rib sandwich handle the mains. Vegetarian orders are easy to build, and lunch and brunch are available.
The room is popular, so a reservation helps, and a couple of diners reported long waits past their booking. Noise sits at a medium level, and bar seats work well for solo diners. A few found a dish poorly executed, and one lunch order did not match the online menu. Most call it a dependable favorite for birthdays and group dinners.
Kabobi runs a focused Persian grill menu, and the Soltani is the order to anchor a table. The Caspian Mix Grill delivers a spread: boneless chicken, filet mignon marinated in pomegranate walnut sauce, and a side of Albaloo Polo, the sour cherry rice that distinguishes Persian cooking from the broader Mediterranean category. Groups fill out quickly here, and the kitchen keeps pace. This is the kind of place Persian food regulars actually bring out-of-town guests.
3224 W Lawrence Ave, Chicago, IL 60625 · (773) 583-1400
Bar La Rue leans into its patio and the Royale with Cheese and Provence burgers are the reason the weekend lunch crowd shows up. The room fills steadily on Sunday mornings, and the Bloody Mary is a credible way to start. The flower-draped outdoor setup draws attention, and warm-weather service with open windows makes the space work well for groups. The Mediterranean label here is loose; the draw is the room and the burger program.
820 W Fulton St, Chicago, IL 60661 · (312) 533-4607
AMBAR runs an all-you-can-eat format that covers Balkan and broader Mediterranean territory. The Sujuk Flatbread, Steak Tartare, and Crispy Corn Ribs are the shared plates that come up most. Wild mushrooms and Brussels sprouts round out a table well. The unlimited dinner format rewards groups who want to range across the menu. À la carte brunch is an option, though service timing at the weekend sits can be uneven.
700 N Clark St, Chicago, IL 60654 · (312) 547-1700
The Streeterville CAVA location sits inside Northwestern Hospital, which tells the story of who this serves: the weekday hospital-area lunch crowd looking for a grain bowl or a falafel pita without much friction. Counter service, fast turnover, and a build-your-own format make it a reliable fast-casual stop. Large office orders have had fulfillment issues, worth noting for group catering. As a solo or small-group lunch, it operates cleanly.
270 E Ontario St, Chicago, IL 60611 · (872) 766-8918
West Loop Mediterranean That Runs On Shared Tables
Avec has held its place as a West Loop standard for shared Mediterranean-leaning plates. The Medjool dates are a recurring standout at brunch, and the wood-roasted fish anchors the dinner side. Seating at a shared communal table is the format, which suits a midweek lunch or an easygoing brunch more than a quiet date. Service gets consistent marks. The endive salad has drawn mixed notes on execution; the dates do not.
Avec has held its position in the West Loop long enough to become a reference point for the modern Chicago dining room, and the format has not changed much: shared tables, a Mediterranean-leaning menu, and a room that moves at pace whether the occasion is a weekday lunch or a Saturday brunch. The signature Medjool dates draw consistent attention and they illustrate what the kitchen does best, pairing a simple ingredient with enough technique to make the dish memorable. The wine program runs deep in the by-the-glass range, which fits the counter-service-adjacent, communal format better than a long reserve list would. Brunch brings out the room in full: the crowd is mixed between groups and couples, the pacing is relaxed, and the dates and other shared starters are the reason to show up rather than a particular main.
Midweek lunch is the lower-key version of the same room, table assignments still communal, service still attentive. The endive salad has been a point of contention in the record; execution appears inconsistent enough that the vegetable-forward plates carry more risk than the kitchen's richer preparations. At upscale pricing, that inconsistency matters. Avec sits in a neighborhood, the West Loop's Randolph Street corridor, that has accumulated serious competition since the restaurant first opened, and it holds its ground more on institutional familiarity and the strength of a few well-executed dishes than on any claim to being the most ambitious room on the block.
The shared-table format is a feature, not a compromise; solo diners and pairs fill the bench seating without issue. It is an expense-account-adjacent room that the neighborhood crowd also uses for a low-drama weeknight dinner, which is a real and underrated category in Chicago dining.
Insider tip
The Medjool dates are the order here regardless of the meal period. Book ahead for weekends; midweek lunch is the most relaxed version of the room and the best entry point for a first visit.
What to order
Medjool dates, Endive salad, Brunch entrees
HoursMon - Thu:11:00 AM - 2:00 PM, 3:30 PM - 10:00 PMFri:11:00 AM - 2:00 PM, 3:30 PM - 11:00 PMSat:10:00 AM - 2:00 PM, 3:30 PM - 11:00 PMSun:10:00 AM - 2:00 PM, 3:30 PM - 10:00 PM
Cairo Kebab is one of the few Egyptian-specific options in the city. The mezza combo platter, built around baba ghanoush and other dips, is the natural starting point. Koshari, the Egyptian lentil-and-rice dish, runs on the menu and is worth ordering if unfamiliar with the cuisine. Service is friendly and unhurried. Portions are generous enough that the pricing holds up well against comparable Mediterranean spots.
730 W Maxwell St, Chicago, IL 60607 · (224) 521-0649
Beatnik West Town trades on its Chicago River sightlines and a room that reads as design-forward. Birthday brunches and group outings are the dominant use case. Avocado toast, eggs benedict, and french toast cover the brunch program. The room divides opinion: regulars who return for the setting are enthusiastic; first-time visitors sometimes find the food doesn't match the visual payoff. The atmosphere is the primary argument for the visit.
1604 W Chicago Ave, Chicago, IL 60622 · (312) 929-4945
Zizi's Cafe operates as a genuine neighborhood regular, pulling both dine-in and delivery business from a menu anchored by hummus, falafel, and baklava. The kitchen has developed a loyal takeaway following, and the baklava in particular draws repeat delivery orders. Staff is described as welcoming and menu-literate. The room works for a casual dinner out as well as a quick lunch. Baklava arriving as an unexpected addition in a delivery order is the kind of detail that builds regulars.
2825 N Sheffield Ave, Chicago, IL 60657 · (773) 697-9228
Falafel and Grill fills a specific slot: late-night grilled meat when the options narrow. The gyro sandwich and grilled meat-and-rice plates are the core of the menu. Portion size has been inconsistent in the record, with some visitors satisfied and others disappointed by the gyro sandwich specifically. The kitchen runs quickly and the room is spacious. For a late-night stop when the category matters more than the destination, it does the job.
1433 W Montrose Ave, Chicago, IL 60613 · (773) 800-9119
Hub's is priced at the low end of the category and operates as a no-friction quick-meal stop. Burgers and ribs are the menu highlights, and the small parking lot off the street reduces one of the friction points common to city dining. Service is fast. The restaurant has drawn complaints about staff conduct toward delivery workers, a pattern worth noting. For a straightforward inexpensive meal with easy in-and-out parking, it functions.
5540 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago, IL 60625 · (773) 784-4240
MEDI Kitchen and Cocktail positions itself as a cocktails-first room with Mediterranean small plates. The potato borak and hummus are the items that have landed well. The patatas appear on the bar menu and draw mixed marks on value at cocktail pricing. Large front windows give the room good natural light. The main dishes have drawn some notes on dryness. The stronger argument for MEDI is the appetizer and cocktail format rather than a full dinner.
2138 N Halsted St, Chicago, IL 60614 · (773) 857-1025
Old Jerusalem Restaurant has been on the Old Town block for fifty years, and the room still operates with the rhythm of a long-running family spot. Falafel, hummus, and baklava anchor the menu. The kitchen has a warmth to it that regulars describe as immediate from the moment of arrival. Cold-night visits get mentioned specifically. The vegetarian options, soups, and pastry selection give the menu enough range that it holds up for regular repeat visits.
Old Jerusalem Restaurant has held a lease in Old Town for roughly fifty years, and that longevity is the first thing the room communicates. The setup is unpretentious: a neighborhood Middle Eastern table that runs the full range from appetizers and soups through sandwiches, entrees, and pastries, with genuine vegetarian depth alongside the meat dishes. Nothing about the operation signals ambition beyond feeding people well at a moderate price, and that restraint is its own argument. The kitchen covers the corridor of Middle Eastern staples, and the menu breadth reflects a room that has figured out what its regulars want and commits to it across the board. Appetizers and soups anchor the early part of a meal; the sandwich section draws its own crowd.
The pastry program rounds things out on the sweet end, giving the meal a structure that runs from snack to dessert without a gap. Vegetarian options are not an afterthought here, which puts the restaurant in line with the better Middle Eastern operations across the city. The room itself is small and staffed tightly. Service runs warm, the kind that acknowledges a cold Chicago night and adjusts accordingly. The pace is unhurried without being slow.
The clientele skews local and returning, which in a fifty-year-old neighborhood restaurant reads as the real signal: the room earns repeat visits at moderate prices, and it has been doing so long enough to outlast most of the competition on the North Side. For Chicago, the Middle Eastern corridor runs through Andersonville and scattered spots on the North Side. Old Jerusalem is not a destination in the way that Argyle or Devon Avenue anchor their respective cuisines, but it is a reliable, long-running neighborhood room in a part of the city where that kind of consistency is easy to take for granted.
Insider tip
The menu runs deep enough to build a full meal from the appetizer and pastry ends alone. Come with enough people to cover both sides of the menu, because the kitchen clearly built it to be shared.
A foundational dish at this Old Town restaurant, made the same way for decades.
Falafel
The falafel here has the kind of consistency that comes from a kitchen that has been at it for fifty years.
Baklava
Dense, honey-soaked pastry that earns its place as the closer on a menu built around staying power.
Where to Eat the Best Mediterranean restaurant questions, answered.
What is the best Mediterranean restaurant near me in Chicago?
That depends on which part of the city or suburbs you are in. Greek Islands is the Greektown standard for a full sit-down meal. Avec on the West Loop handles shared plates well. Kabobi is a strong Persian grill option on the North Side. Old Jerusalem Restaurant has held down Old Town for fifty years. Each restaurant in this guide carries an Insider Score based on the public review record, and no restaurant pays to be listed.
Is Mediterranean food expensive in Chicago?
The range in this guide runs from budget counter-service spots like CAVA and Falafel and Grill to a mid-range full-service room like Greek Islands, up to higher-priced shared-plate restaurants like Avec and AMBAR. Most of the full-service options fall in the moderate range. AMBAR's all-you-can-eat dinner format can represent strong value for groups.
Which Chicago Mediterranean restaurants are good for groups?
Greek Islands in Greektown handles large groups and high volume routinely. AMBAR's all-you-can-eat format is designed for groups. Avec River North runs a shared-plate format that works well for four or five diners. Kabobi is a solid option for group dinners centered on Persian grilling.
Do any of the Mediterranean restaurants in this guide have outdoor seating?
Bar La Rue has a patio and opens its windows in warm weather, making it one of the more outdoor-oriented options in the guide. Beatnik on the River has riverfront positioning that shapes the experience. For specifics on current patio availability, check directly with the restaurant before visiting. Insider Scores in this guide reflect the public review record, and no restaurant has paid for placement.
The data first, then the verdict
We start with the review record, not a press release. Every room here is a real kitchen with a strong rating across a meaningful number of reviews, ranked on our 10-point Insider Score. We weight consistency over time and the rooms locals return to, not the ones tourists pass through once. The list updates as the data does. How we work →
An Pham covers Chicago's immigrant corridors and the suburbs for Top of Chicago: Argyle Street Vietnamese, Devon Avenue South Asian, Chinatown, Greektown, and the dining of Evanston, Skokie, and Naperville.
