Smyth Chicago: A New Head Chef, One Chef’s Menu & the Next Chapter at North America’s No. 1 Restaurant
Smyth Chicago is the dinner people plan a year around, and this fall it is changing in ways worth knowing before you chase a table. The three-Michelin-starred West Loop room from John Shields and Karen Urie Shields, named No. 1 on North America’s 50 Best Restaurants in May, has hired Michelin-starred UK chef Conor Dalton as head chef. And starting November 5, 2026, Smyth will serve a single experience every night: the longer Chef’s Menu, paid in full when you book.
Here is why that matters for the night itself. Ten years in, Smyth is not coasting on a list. It is narrowing to its most generous format and adding a new set of hands at the pass, which usually means the cooking is about to get more interesting, not less.
What is changing at Smyth Chicago this fall?
Two things: a new head chef in the kitchen and one menu on the books from November 5.
Smyth announced on September 25 that Conor Dalton will work alongside executive chef John Shields and executive pastry chef Karen Urie Shields after an international search. Dalton most recently ran the kitchen at Skof, Tom Barnes’ Manchester restaurant, which earned a Michelin star within eight months of opening. Before that he cooked at Simon Rogan’s three-star L’Enclume and at The Five Fields in London, and he was shortlisted as a Chef to Watch at the UK’s National Restaurant Awards in 2025.
The way he got the job tells you something about the room. Shields and Dalton first connected over influences and hospitality, then cooked together in Smyth’s kitchen for two days before the offer was made. “Chefs John and Karen have built one of the world’s most extraordinary dining destinations,” Dalton said in the announcement. “I’ve always admired the warmth of American hospitality.”
The second change is the format. Through November 4, Smyth offers two menus: the Smyth Menu at $420 per person and the extended Chef’s Menu at $550. From November 5 onward, only the Chef’s Menu remains, and every reservation is prepaid in full instead of secured with a deposit.
Why does Smyth feel like the best night out in Chicago right now?
Because the food tastes like someone drove to the farm that morning, and the service feels like you were expected.
Smyth’s whole idea is the North American grower, fisher, and maker at the exact peak of their season. The kitchen leans on a tight network of producers, and you can read the calendar in the dishes. In late September that meant Sungold tomatoes from Froggy Meadow, which Smyth calls one of the things it looks forward to most all summer. The house turned them into a tomato “tofu”: a tomato meringue sponge glazed in soy milk and house-pressed sesame oil, set over tamarillo purée with Jimmy Red masa miso, with Sungold concassé, calendula oil, and summer blossoms around it.
That is the Smyth trick. It sounds cerebral on paper and lands like the sweetest, most sun-warm tomato you have had all year.
The corn story is even better. Corn from Frillman Farms started as a plated dessert, became a savory corn-and-caviar sandwich, and then turned into the Corn Cloud: fresh corn juice, eggs, and cream stabilized with beeswax, folded between crunchy tuiles made from sweet dried corn and fermented corn juice, with masa butter and Thai basil. It is an opening bite that cannot decide if it is sweet or savory, and it doesn’t need to.
What will you eat on the Smyth Chef’s Menu?
You will eat what is best that week. The menu changes daily, so treat any dish list as a taste of the house style, not a promise.
Recent courses the restaurant has shown give you the shape of an evening. An Enoki Cannoli opens as one of three first bites: a crisp shell of potato, leek, and mushroom lined with Pleasant Ridge Reserve pastry cream, filled with golden enoki from Four Star Mushrooms, grown just down the street, marinated in birch gastrique and finished with spruce wood oil and garden blossoms.
Summer brought Monterey Bay abalone braised in white veal broth with barley koji, citrus, kinome, dried scallops, and mushrooms, then finished tableside with an emulsion of abalone liver, wild mushrooms, brown butter, and seaweed. Hokkaido uni turned up in a dulse-and-tomato tart, and a frozen uni cloud crowned the Maine Uni Parfait, set over a custard of N25 Kaluga caviar and smoked lobster. Willapa Bay “Behemoth” oysters came brined in ice water and suspended in a clarified tomato and mussel “seawater.”
Karen Urie Shields’ pastry thinking runs through the whole menu, not just the end. Savory courses borrow dessert technique, and desserts borrow from the garden. Smyth also keeps a rooftop garden, where early-summer mornings start with the daily harvest of rosebuds that become house oils, syrups, and vinegars for later menus.
The Chef’s Menu is the bigger version of all of this. The restaurant describes it as an upgraded experience offered at a prime time, with additional courses and chefs presenting some dishes at the table. Plan on about three and a half hours.
Who is behind Smyth Chicago?
Husband-and-wife chefs John Shields and Karen Urie Shields, who between them bring about 30 years in kitchens that include Alinea, Tru, and Charlie Trotter’s. They opened Smyth and The Loyalist, its more casual sibling bar downstairs, ten years ago, and they credit partner Keith Shapiro among the people who make it run.
Smyth has held three Michelin stars in 2023, 2024, and 2025. It rose from No. 4 to No. 1 on North America’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2026, a ranking that also named it the best restaurant in the Midwest. The 50 Best citation praised a personal style of cooking “rooted in a network of growers and purveyors” that turns seasonal ingredients into “a precise and ever-evolving tasting journey.”
The current front-of-house team lists Cara Sandoval as general manager, Jenna Pegg as pastry chef, Louis Fabbrini as wine director, and Chris Martin as lead bartender. Now Conor Dalton joins as head chef.
What does the Smyth room feel like?
Warm, wooden, and a lot less stiff than a three-star room has any right to be.
The dining room at 177 N. Ada St. is all honeyed timber, low light, and an open kitchen you can watch from your seat, so the chefs are part of the evening rather than hidden behind a door. Outside, ivy climbs the brick around tall windows. There is an intimate private dining room, and both Smyth and The Loyalist can be bought out entirely for events.
Wine is part of the story too. Fabbrini sources small-production, regenerative, low-intervention bottles meant to feel like a continuation of the menu. The Smyth Pairing is $245 per person, and the Reserve Pairing, a limited run of rare bottlings and iconic producers, is $475.
How do you plan a night at Smyth?
Pick your date, decide whether you want it before or after the November switch, and book on Tock.
Smyth serves dinner Tuesday through Saturday, 5 to 9 p.m. Reservations are on the restaurant’s Tock page, released on a rolling 90-day basis at noon Central. The current Tock listing already shows prepaid extended-menu reservations at $510 to $570 per person depending on the night, for parties of one to six. Before then, the $420 Smyth Menu still takes a $100-per-person deposit.
Two practical notes. The restaurant says the Chef’s Menu cannot accommodate dietary restrictions or allergies, and that the kitchen cannot safely work around vegan diets, egg or mushroom allergies, all-seafood or seaweed allergies, sunflower allergies, or dairy-free diets that exclude clarified butter. If that’s you, write to info@smythandtheloyalist.com before you book; it’s the same address the restaurant gives for questions about the November change.
If you want the lighter version of the same hospitality, The Loyalist downstairs books separately.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Smyth Chicago?
Smyth is at 177 N. Ada St., Suite 101, in Chicago’s West Loop near Fulton Market, with The Loyalist bar in the same building.
Who is the new head chef at Smyth?
Conor Dalton, a Michelin-starred UK chef who led Skof in Manchester and trained at L’Enclume and The Five Fields. He works alongside John Shields and Karen Urie Shields.
What changes at Smyth on November 5, 2026?
Smyth moves to a single extended Chef’s Menu, and all reservations from November 5 onward require full prepayment at booking instead of a deposit.
How much does dinner at Smyth cost?
Before November 5, the Smyth Menu is $420 and the Chef’s Menu is $550 per person. Tock already lists prepaid extended-menu reservations at $510 to $570 per person depending on the night. Wine pairings are $245 or $475.
How do you get a reservation at Smyth?
Book on Tock. Smyth releases tables 90 days ahead at noon Central time, Tuesday through Saturday dinner only.
Is Smyth really the best restaurant in North America?
North America’s 50 Best Restaurants named Smyth No. 1 in May 2026, and it holds three Michelin stars. Whether it’s your best is a question worth a reservation.
Sources
- Smyth official site, Dining at Smyth
- Smyth team page
- Smyth on Tock
- FSR Magazine on Conor Dalton’s appointment, September 25, 2026
- North America’s 50 Best Restaurants 2026 announcement, PR Newswire, May 28, 2026
- Smyth on North America’s 50 Best
- Smyth on Instagram
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