That’s in large part a credit to consulting by some of the best chefs and bartenders in the city.Ĭhef Paul Kahan, critically acclaimed for restaurants from Avec to Publican Quality Bread, under the One Off Hospitality Group, consulted along with his colleagues on the Medinah Bistro and adjacent Bistro Bar on the third floor. Given the setting, the food and drink is so much better than expected. Inside, the space is clean, but sensorially cluttered with banks of digital slot machines.

That timeline seems ambitious since the temporary casino needed more than a month to start serving the full menus at just three restaurants and two bars.īright red signage marks the exterior of the brooding brown Moorish Revival temple. The opening for the permanent casino and resort is planned for 2026. Bally’s intends to break ground on the Chicago Tribune printing plant and newsroom site in River West by 2024. The first and only casino in Chicago opened last month to much fanfare, but the restaurants and bars have surprisingly remained mostly a mystery.įood and drink have long been a lure in gambling culture, culminating in celebrity chef restaurants around the world from Las Vegas to Macao.īally’s Casino Chicago, temporarily housed at the historic Medinah Temple in River North, made its debut on Sept.

Bally's casino restaurants