Ro's Recz

Address: 74 W Illinois St, Chicago, IL 60654

Chicago has surprised me so far with really good food (I didn’t know what to expect before coming), and the best restaurant I have tried so far is Ema. Ema is a Mediterranean restaurant located at the Hyatt Place in River North, and I would definitely go back again.

Ema has a bunch of menu options, and most of the items on the menu are pretty small and sharable. Most of the dishes come with bread, but a couple of them come with rice. The bread is really good, and it tastes even better when you dip it into the sauces (or when you eat it alongside the rest of the meal).

Some of my favorite dishes that I tried at Ema were the chicken eggplant mezze, the hummus with lamb ragu, and the chicken kefta. One thing I like about Ema is that all of the dishes are pretty light, so even if you order a bunch of different things you don’t feel too oily/heavy. Even with eating a lot of bread, I didn’t feel stuffed at the end of the meal (in a good way).

Ema has plenty of outdoor and indoor seating, and the restaurant is conveniently located in River North at a nice hotel. Especially for a hotel restaurant, the food is also reasonably priced!

Ema Recommendation Rating: 4

This post has now been updated to reflect a new ratings system that I have implemented, which is scored as follows:

1: Something worth checking out if you have time

2: Something that is a hit for some people, but not a must for everyone

3: Something worth prioritizing if interested

4: Something worth making time to check out

5: An absolute home run, worth going out of your way for