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Chicago Takes A Hit On Michelin's List of Awesome, Affordable Bib Gourmands

By Anthony Todd in Food on Oct 26, 2016 6:59PM

2016_lulacafe.jpg
Lula Cafe via Instagram

It's Michelin season again, everyone, which means it's time for us to be told which restaurants in Chicago are actually good, whatever us local rubes might think. Just kidding!

The first part of Michelin is always the release of the Bib Gourmands, a list of great, affordable restaurants. The official criterion is that they are restaurants where diners can have two courses and a glass of wine for $40 or less.

This year, the number of Bibs in Chicago has decreased from 59 to 52. The complete list is below (Eater and the Trib both received word in advance) , but some interesting changes have taken place. When a restaurants gets a bib, that usually means that it isn't up for a star, so this list is a bit of an uncertain preview of the stars that are coming.

New to this years list are The Bristol, Dos Urban Cantina, San Soo Gab San. That's it—just three places, for all the openings that have happened in the last year. Nine entries dropped off, including A10, Beatrix, Lao Sze Chuan, Carriage House, The Dawson, and more. Brutal. Apparently the famous inspectors just weren't that impressed with Chicago this year. Does that mean that our star number is going to go down? We'll know next week!

2016 Bib Gourmands

The Angry Crab
Arami
Au Cheval
Avec
Balena
BellyQ
Belly Shack
Bohemian House
The Bristol
Ceres' Table
Chilam Balam
Cumin
DeCOLORES
Dos Urban Cantina
Dove's Luncheonette
The Duck Inn
Fat Rice
Frontera Grill
Gilt Bar
Girl and the Goat
Green Zebra
GT Fish and Oyster
Han 202
Herb
Hopleaf
Jaipur
Jam
Jin Thai Cuisine
Kai Zan
Luella's Southern Kitchen
Lula Cafe
Mana Food Bar
Maude's Liquor Bar
mfk.
MingHin
Mott Street
Nana
The Publican
The Purple Pig
Riccardo Trattoria
Sabri Nihari
San Soo Gab San
Smoque
Sol de Mexico
Sushi Dokku
Table, Donkey and Stick
TAC Quick
Two
Untitled
Via Lima
Wood
Yusho