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Distinct from other Thai restaurants in the city, Arun’s serves a gourmet version of the spice-and-vegetable driven Asian fare with high quality ingredients and careful presentation. Multi-course fixed-price menus change nightly, and dietary restrictions can be taken into consideration with advance notice. The quiet Thai art-trimmed rooms are conducive to conversation.

Waitresses wearing pretty cheongsams , candles on the tables, and lush ferns on the room’s periphery create a romantic setting for Vietnamese cuisine at Uptown favorite Pasteur. Best dishes include the assemble-your-own spring rolls. Continue with the aromatic pho soup and clay-pot chicken.

Superior Chinese dim sum, served with a panoramic view of downtown Chicago, garner outthe-door lines for this Chinatown gem. Dishes emerging from the kitchen are quickly snatched by waiting diners, leading many to ask for a table near it.

This hip, two-story eaterie carves some of the city’s best Japanese sushi. Options include the usual suspects such as tuna and salmon but for the most creative fare sit at the sushi bar, make a special request, and put yourself in the chef’s hands. An upstairs lounge serves up sake martinis.

This off-the-beaten path, regional Mexican specialist is operated by a protégé of Rick Bayless of Frontera Grill fame. Foodies head here for the outstanding mole sauces from Oaxaca, which change daily, and top fish, pork, chicken, or beef.

Locals debate which Indian restaurant along the eatery-and-sari-shop-lined Devon Avenue qualifies as the best. Among them, Tiffin impresses with tender tandoori oven specialties and subtlely spiced lentils. More upscale than most of its neighboring competitors, it generates a warm welcome via the enthusiasm of its staff.

Locals line up on Sunday mornings at the original Belmont Avenue Ann Sather for plates of oversized, sticky cinnamon rolls. But the Swedish diner makes a more ethnic appeal at lunch and dinner with limpa (Swedish rye bread), zesty duck with lingonberries, and hearty Swedish meatballs.

Holder of post-Prohibition liquor license number one, the Berghoff is a Chicago landmark, beloved for its 100-plus-year history as well as its traditional, robust German food. The Bavarian-styled dining rooms serve up generous portions of wiener schnitzel and sauerbraten as well as lighter fare for New World palates. The atmospheric standing-room-only tavern also sells sandwiches at lunch.

In the heart of Polish Avondale, Red Apple offers budget priced, all-you-can-eat buffets, including dessert and coffee. The diner draws a cross-section of immigrants, artists, students, and the just plain thrifty for authentic dishes such as pierogi , borscht, goulash, and stuffed cabbage.

The Sao Paulo owned Fogo de Chao specializes in the allyou-can-eat churrascaria tradition of Brazilian barbecue. At your table costumed “gauchos” will carve 15 different cuts of skewer-roasted meats, including filet, rumpsteak, leg of lamb, and pork loin. You can use a plate-side indicator to signal for more or “basta.” A lavish salad bar begins every meal.