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This year has brought a variety of new restaurants, bars and bakeries to Chicago, from Filipino-owned to Evan Funke’s . It can be hard to keep up with all the openings. So as we pass the halfway point of 2024, the Tribune food team offers looks at three notable places that have opened in recent months.

These reviews are unstarred, as we only visited each place once, instead of the usual two visits for full reviews. Al-Diar, a welcome addition to the Arab food landscape of Chicago, is a small family-owned Yemeni restaurant with only a few table settings. Since opening in River North in November, the owners and managers have reportedly told many customers that they have the “best lamb in Chicago.



” Lamb Mandi, fahsa, Arabic salad and a cup of Adeni chai are seen at Al-Diar Restaurant in Chicago on Friday, July 5, 2024. (Troy Stolt/for the Chicago Tribune) Business partners Mohammed Mohammed and Zack Saeed said their lamb is from a relative’s farm in Rockford. The quality is certainly apparent in the half mandi lamb ($17), which consisted of two glistening yellow bone-in pieces served atop a bed of fluffy well-separated multicolor rice.

Tender and flavorful to the bone, they were worth digging into with my hands; the provided plastic silverware could not match the task. The meal was eaten with the traditional spicy, green sahawig (also known as zhoug), but there was also a new-to-me variation with yogurt — a bit like a homemade concoction of chutney and raita. Crisp oni.

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