Fodor's Expert Review Sola Restaurant

While you can dine very well in Chicago's neighborhoods, most local joints aren't as ambitious as Sola, which would be right at home downtown and probably far more expensive there. Now North Siders don't have to travel far for ginger-glazed salmon, short ribs with pineapple-roasted kohlrabi, and hoisin-mustard panko-battered tuna. Chef-owner-surfer Carol Wallack's affinity for Hawaii shows in Pacific Rim fare like "Kalua" pork with banana bread and crab cakes with pineapple-beet relish. Proving its affection for the neighborhood, the restaurant is fronted by a wall of windows and is warm within, thanks to a gas fireplace. Go around the corner to Byron Street to find the front door.