Monteverde
Monteverde holds the eighth spot because Grueneberg has built something durable — a restaurant that has been excellent for nearly a decade and shows no signs of softening.
James Beard Award winner Sarah Grueneberg opened Monteverde in 2015 and has spent the years since refining rather than reinventing, which is a harder discipline than it looks. The pasta program is the anchor: handmade forms driven by Italian regional logic but inflected with global ingredients and techniques Grueneberg picked up from years of restless travel. Spaghetti alle vongole, cacio e pepe, shapes you haven't seen elsewhere — the range is deep and the execution is reliable in the way only a kitchen with deep repetitions can be.
The West Loop room has the warmth of a long-running neighborhood place without the sloppiness. Tables are tight, the room is loud on a weekend, and none of that detracts. Monteverde has earned its perennial presence on best-of lists by doing the same things extraordinarily well year after year.
- Seasonal handmade pasta
- Cacio e pepe
- Tonnarelli with braised lamb
