Maple & Ash

The Verdict

If you are choosing between Chicago's top-end steakhouses for a special occasion, Maple & Ash is the most technically accomplished option at the $$$$ price point; and the most theatrically enjoyable. Led by two-Michelin-starred chef Danny Grant and holding a Michelin Plate (2024), it outperforms direct chophouses like Chicago Cut and Gibsons Bar & Steakhouse on kitchen ambition, it beats Prime & Provisions on energy and wine depth. The caveats: it is hard to book, it is loud at peak hours, the room skews toward celebration rather than quiet conversation. Book it for birthdays, anniversaries, or an expense-account dinner where presence matters. For a low-key steak night, Bavette's Bar & Boeuf is a better fit.

About Maple & Ash

Maple & Ash occupies a multilevel space on West Maple Street in Chicago's Gold Coast, the room announces itself before the food arrives. Deep-set leather couches, a clubby soundtrack, a semi-open kitchen lit by a wood-fired hearth, a photo booth on the premises signal that this is not a hushed white-tablecloth temple. That is a deliberate choice, it works well for the occasions this restaurant is designed for; moments where you want the setting to match the event, not just frame a quiet meal.

The kitchen's technical identity is built around wood-fire cookery. The wood-fired hearth is the centrepiece of the culinary approach: dry-aged steakhouse cuts are cooked over it, but so is much of the seafood menu. A fire-roasted seafood tower arrives tableside featuring lobster tail, scallops, Manila clams, king crab, all finished with garlic butter and chili oil and served with house-made pasta. Wood-roasted octopus and squid, served with dill yogurt, arugula, roasted potatoes, illustrates how Grant applies the hearth beyond beef. For a $$$$ steakhouse, this breadth of the seafood program is a meaningful differentiator: you are not limited to a single lane. Compared to Bazaar Meat Chicago, which also centres live-fire cooking, Maple & Ash leans more classical and less experimental in its flavour combinations.

The wine program is one of the strongest reasons to prioritise this room over comparable $$$$ steakhouses in the city. Wine director Amy Mundwiler leads a team that includes five additional sommeliers, a staffing level that reflects genuine depth. The list runs to approximately 2,500 selections with a 16,000-bottle inventory, weighted toward California, Burgundy, France, Italy, Spain. Corkage is $50 if you bring your own, but with a list this deep you are better served working with the sommelier team directly. For comparison, the wine programs at Le Bernardin in New York City or The French Laundry in Napa are broader in scope, but Maple & Ash punches above what most $$$$ steakhouses bother to invest in. The wine pricing tier is $$$, meaning expect a substantial proportion of bottles above $100.

Chef Danny Grant brings two Michelin stars of accumulated credential to a format that prioritises accessibility over tasting-menu formality. That balance, technical precision in the kitchen, a welcoming and energetic dining room, is the restaurant's core proposition. It holds a Michelin Plate recognition for 2024 and ranked #182 in Opinionated About Dining's Casual North America list in 2024, moving to #674 in 2025. The shift in ranking does not suggest a decline in kitchen quality; the OAD list fluctuates with voter participation and evolving competition.

Operationally, the restaurant serves both lunch and dinner on Fridays and Saturdays, with lunch-only service Monday through Thursday and Saturday to Sunday. Dinner service runs until 21:00 on Friday and Saturday. Breakfast service operates Monday through Sunday in the morning window. If your priority is a dinner with the full energy of the room and the complete wood-fire kitchen in operation, Friday and Saturday evenings are the right call. Midweek lunch is a lower-key entry point to the kitchen at a likely lower spend, useful if you want to assess the food before committing to a full dinner reservation.

Booking is classified as hard. The combination of a high-profile chef, Gold Coast location, strong awards trajectory, large dining room that nonetheless fills consistently means advance planning is essential. For dinner, expect to book at least three to four weeks out for preferred weekend slots. For those who want to explore the broader Chicago dining picture before deciding, our full Chicago restaurants guide covers the category in depth, our Chicago hotels guide, bars guide, wineries guide, and experiences guide round out the full trip.

For context beyond Chicago: if you are calibrating what a wood-fire-focused $$$$ room can achieve elsewhere, Lazy Bear in San Francisco, Single Thread Farm in Healdsburg, and Providence in Los Angeles all operate at comparable price points with different technical priorities. Among steakhouse-specific peers internationally, A Cut in Taipei and Capa in Orlando each take a different angle on premium steakhouse experience. In New Orleans, Emeril's offers a similarly energetic, chef-driven room at the top of the market.

Practical Details