Jaunted

· Blackbird
James Beard Award-winning chef Paul Kahan jump-started Chicago's culinary scene with Blackbird in 1997. Since then, the chef's opened three other restaurants around town. But the original still impresses with dishes like roasted squab and smoked sausage, sweet potatoes and juniper almonds.

· The Gage
After spending the afternoon at Millennium Park, go across the street to this contemporary American restaurant. You'll get entrees like grilled duroc pork chop with braised pork cheeks, Tuscan kale, woodland mushrooms and Madeira. But save room for the cheesecake-stuffed doughnuts.

· NoMI
Tucked in the Park Hyatt is this globally influenced French eatery. Its lunch menu features entrees like Parisian saffron gnocchi with cauliflower two ways and wild mushrooms doused in a parsley pesto. For dessert, try the macarons trio: milk chocolate Grand Marnier, passion banana and lime mint.

· Frontera
Before he was a Top Chef Master, Rick Bayless manned the stoves at Frontera, his first restaurant. Come to this popular Mexican restaurant to try tacos al carbon with fillings like pastor-style red chile-marinated Maple Creek pork with pineapple, slab bacon and red onion.

· Le Colonial
Head to this upscale French-Vietnamese restaurant for apps like traditional pho, an oxtail soup with rice noodles and beef—it gives you a great warm-up from the nasty cold—then follow it up with ca nuong, grilled salmon over vermicelli noodles with dill, mesclun and a lime-garlic fish sauce.

We know our Chicago restaurants pretty well, but we're open to suggestions. Where else should people look to dining during this restaurant week?

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[Photo: Doug Fogelson/DRFP]