Upgrade Your Quarantine Cooking With These Chicago Restaurant Meal Kits

You deserve it.

Cooped up inside and sick of making decisions? Save your brain cells for Zoom trivia night and let some of the Windy City’s most revered tastemakers fix you the multi-course meal of your homebound dreams, cooked, portioned, and boxed for take-out or delivery. In today’s flipped-upside-down world, accessing Michelin-starred dining requires neither shirt, shoes, nor advanced reservation (unless you’re doing curbside pick-up, in which case I recommend wearing a shirt and shoes throughout the transaction).

Alinea
Order on Tock to Go
Can’t seem to snag a resy at famed Chef Grant Achatz’s three-starred Lincoln Park institution? No sweat, just order your fine dining for curbside pick-up and prepare to indulge in cheffy comforts like coq au vin with mashed potatoes and salad finished with a decadent dark chocolate pot de crème. Meals feed parties of one to eight for an astoundingly low $39.95 a pop.

Next Restaurant
Next Restaurant

Order on Tock to Go
Alinea’s globally focused little sister has also made its pick-up debut with prepared experiences like Mexico City at Home, an immersive journey south of the border with stops including pork belly mole, esquites salad, and tres leches cake. The whole flavor-packed adventure runs just $24.95 per person.

Roister
Roister

Order on Tock to Go
This West Loop standout joins its siblings with a few different pick-up options including a fully loaded chicken dinner (grilled chicken breast, fried chicken thighs, hearth-roasted asparagus, strawberry shortcake) and short rib bolognese lasagna with hearth-roasted broccoli rapini in a calabrian chili pesto and sea salt caramel budino. Request up to eight meals at a time for $24.95 each.

Order on Tock to Go
Mix and match your way to Michelin-starred satisfaction with several different family meal offerings from this Fujimura Hospitality stunner. Pick-up and delivery options include a weekend pastry delivery kit complete with the eatery’s own Sparrow Coffee house blend as well as dinner deals Thursday through Sunday featuring fresh pasta, jerk chicken, chicken tikka masala, and Southern fried chicken for parties of two to six. Prices vary based on menu item.

Aba Restaurant
Aba Restaurant

Aba
Order on Tock to Go
Celebrated Chef C.J. Jacobson is whisking hungry social distancers away to a secluded Mediterranean oasis with breezy four-course meals for two. $45 gets you spicy hummus, village salad, chicken kefta kebab, and date bars plus optional add-ons like hand-selected wine pairings, featured sides and veggies, and bonus desserts for a few more bones.

Call 312-610-4200 or order on Grubhub
Enjoy your next cook-out from the comfort and safety of your sanitized dining room with this River North roadhouse’s gut-busting family meal for four. The giant platter of 18-hour smoked brisket, chopped salad, ooey gooey mac ‘n cheese, mashed potatoes, and chocolate chip cookies comes in at just $49.95.

Order on ChowNow 
Missing your Nonna? Make her proud by downing every delicious morsel of RPM’s family meal for four. The lovingly prepared feast spans Giuliana’s Italian salad, Mama DePandi’s bucatini pomodoro, truffled garlic bread, and Bill’s chocolate budino for a grand total of $50 (an extra $15 gets you a bottle of Giuliana Prosecco, just putting it out there).

Order on Grubhub or Tock to Go
Keep your meat cabinet stocked with RPM’s four-person family meal: a massive 24-ounce Prime Midwest Ribeye accompanied by Caesar salad, whipped potatoes, and freshly baked cookies for dessert. Just $65 for a top shelf steak dinner? Sign us up.

Order on Caviar
Backed by Top Chef alum Fabio Viviani, this trend-setting restaurant group has brought together their all-star team of brands to produce a bounty of four-course family meals for pick-up and delivery. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, guests can preorder chef-driven picks like Barrio’s chips with salsa and guacamole, chicken al pastor, and cinnamon churros as well as chopped salad from Bandit and Public House with slow-cooked baby back ribs and more. On the weekends, opt for homey delights like Siena Tavern’s kale Caesar with lasagna and charred broccoli or Prime & Provisions’ roast beef tenderloin with creamed spinach and whipped potatoes. In the mood for a more predictable lineup? Customize your family meal by ordering it directly from Siena Tavern or Public House on Caviar.

Call 312-266-8999 or order on DoorDash
30-year-old chophouse icon Gibsons is hitting the take-out ground running with a boatload of bargain-priced dinners for four. Precooked deals range from $65 to $99 and center around mains like whole rotisserie chickens, bone-in Porterhouses, baby back ribs, and filet medallions complemented by a slew of sides, salads, and desserts.

Virtue Restaurant
Virtue Restaurant

Order online
Chef Erick Williams is keeping Hyde Park fed and happy with daily four-person family meals at just $48 a piece. The regularly changing menu features feel-good entrees like honey baked ham with red beans and rice and collard greens, blackened catfish with grilled zucchini, and grilled chicken with braised cabbage plus sweet treats like chocolate cake with malted chocolate frosting and Chef Becky’s famous cookies.

Order on Caviar or Tock to Go
Dig into a Michelin-starred wonderland without digging out your dusty suit jacket with Dinner for Two from this West Town game-changer. Available Tuesday through Saturday, the prix-fixe menus run the gamut from braised beef short ribs with belly-warming cheddar grits and baby kale salad to seared Faroe Island salmon with Israeli couscous and sofrito and run $35 per guest (add $30 for a particularly excellent bottle of wine).

Heritage Restaurant & Caviar Bar
Heritage Restaurant & Caviar Bar

Call 773-661-9577 or order on Tock to Go
Go ahead and get fancy with a four-person, $75 family meal from caviar-happy Heritage chefs Guy and Shane. The menu changes daily and includes fully-prepped mains like Czech Svíčková with roast ribeye lingonberry demi glace and wood-grilled BBQ shrimp in mushroom gravy with thyme grits (check out the full calendar here), plus house-baked bread and plenty of primo sides.

Order on Tock to Go
Hand the reins to Chef Jimmy Bannos Jr. and settle in for a fine Italian feast feeding up to 20 of your nearest and dearest for $18 plate. Expect farm-fresh salads, housemade pasta swimming in pork neckbone Sunday gravy, and the chef’s special chicken cacciatore alongside bottles of wine at an additional cost.

Order on Tock to Go
Drop by this wine-fueled Ukrainian Village hangout’s clever “drive-through window” on Chicago Avenue (or get delivery) to cop your own Nightly Family Dinner feeding groups of two or four at $16.25 to $18 each. Recent selections include meatloaf with mashed potatoes and gravy, grilled rapini with dijon dressing, wheat berry risotto with crispy maitake mushrooms and Sarvecchio cheese, and Middlebrow seeded sourdough with tasty cultured butter. And don’t sleep on additions like curated wine pairings, charcuterie boards, and desserts.

Brass Heart Restaurant
Brass Heart Restaurant

Order on Tock to Go
Uptown’s premiere white tablecloth destination is packing up a handful of coursed dinners feeding parties of two to six for $25 a head. American classics like roast chicken with potatoes and short rib and braised pork Shepherd's pie are on offer, as is a totally vegan rundown featuring cauliflower tikka masala and baked-to-order vegan cookies. Take on a bottle of wine for an additional cost.

Order on Tock to Go 
Taureaux Tavern, Cochon Volant Brasserie, and Francois Frankie are joining forces to bring the good people of Chicago a variety of exciting four-person family meals at $12.50 per person. Expect familiar favorites like shrimp cocktail, slow roasted salmon, housemade pappardelle bolognese, and pork katsu with yellow curry, plus weekend brunch options and bottles of bubbly starting at $15.

Parachute Restaurant
Parachute Restaurant

Order on Caviar (Parachute, Wherewithal) or Tock to Go (Parachute, Wherewithall)
Local heros Beverly Kim and Johnny Clark have taken both of their award-winning operations online for your pick-up and delivery dining pleasure. Daily $50 family meals for two are the star of the show, with Parachute serving up innovative Korean-inspired dishes like jjajangbap with steamed rice, three different pickles, toasted gim, and the spot’s legendary bing bread and Wherewithall bringing the heat with cheffy numbers like carne guisada with spanish rice and green garlic and cilantro-spiked tostones. Add-ons like bottles of natural wine, cider, and craft beer seal the deal.

Order on Toast, Caviar, DoorDash, or Uber Eats
This Bucktown charmer is keeping families of two in good spirits with daily $55 multi-course meals to fit any appetite. Recent packaged gems include fire-baked focaccia, fluffy greens with conserved peppers, burrata, and roasted tomato vinaigrettes, squid ink mafaldine laced with with shrimp sugo and chili de arbol, and artisan pepperoni pizza topped with tomato crudo and mozzarella among other palate-pleasing creations.

Maple & Ash
Maple & Ash

Call 312-944-8888 or order online
Head over to this sleek Gold Coast steakhouse’s handy Google form Sunday through Thursday and sign yourself up for one of the tip-toppiest family meal programs in town. Guests can either kick back with a fully cooked cornucopia of chophouse specialities like pan-seared halibut with roasted baby leeks, romesco, and charred lemon, shaved fennel and arugula salad, house-baked baguette, and more ($60 feeds two), or DIY it with a $160 grill-at-home kit for four (little gem Caesar, four six-ounce filets, asparagus, house steak sauce, and a bottle of fine carnivore-friendly wine).

Call 312-846-1077 to order
Chef Stephen Gillanders’s humble Michelin-starred outfit has recently introduced lucky Pilsen dwellers to what might just be the city’s best family meal bargain yet. For a mere $39, groups of two get their pick of thoughtful, artfully crafted dishes like Japanese cucumber salad, dumplings stuffed with Maine lobster and drenched in jade butter, Rohan duck confit, and roasted brussels sprouts with burnt honey gastrique plus complimentary cornbread madeleines and black truffle croquettes to prime the palate. Run, don’t walk.

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Meredith Heil is a contributor for Thrillist.