Chicago’s Best Steakhouses Where You Should Save Room for Dessert

Servers always tell us to “save room for dessert,” but after a steak, it’s sometimes hard to free up additional belly real estate for more food. What follows, however, are a few Chicago steakhouses where you really should plan to heed the servers’ advice and take a few less bites of steak and a few more bites of dessert.

Tavern on Rush. You might expect a Gold Coast standard like Tavern on Rush to have a good selection of dessert…and that expectation would be correct. Chocolate Marble Tiramisu is the house’s innovative take on a classic, dressed in crème Anglaise. If you prefer something that *sounds* like a healthy option, go for the Gold Coast Organic Carrot Cake, a slab of velvety softness crowned with the traditional cream cheese topping: it may not be, technically, health food, but you will enjoy every bite.

Boeufhaus. All desserts at steakhouses are not gigantic, over-the-top servings of richness. The “posset” is a classic dessert of thickened cream, and at Boeufhaus, you get a reasonable serving size, flavored with lemon, a lighter, but still delightfully rich, way to end a meal. Keeping it on the lighter side, the blueberry semifreddo is spiced with basil and perked up with red wine, a lighter-weight option to close out your steak dinner. Of course, if your tastes in dessert tend toward the more substantial, there’s a Chocolate Decadence with sweet red cherry, cocoa nibs and hibiscus.

Perry’s Steakhouse & Grille. At Perry’s Steakhouse & Grille, be prepared for an epic list of desserts, starting with the irresistible Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Candy Bar, a chocolate peanut butter mousse with a chocolate cookie crust, topped with hot fudge, whipped cream and candied peanuts – a decadent take on a retro treat. For traditionalists, there’s the Bananas Foster, the fruit flambéed with brown sugar, rum, cinnamon and nutmeg, topped with vanilla ice cream, perfection.

Eddie V’s.  Baked fresh every day in their kitchen, the desserts at Eddie V’s leverage fresh-baked goodness to top off your steak dinner with style. The warm Hot Chocolate Godiva Cake is paired with cool vanilla bean ice cream, creating a yin-yang of after-dinner sweets. The made-in-house Peach Cobbler is interestingly paired with butter pecan ice cream, and the Bananas Foster is served with butter cake, a tasty touch. However, if you must go lighter, there are several options, and a good one is Fresh Seasonal Berries, but even with that you get some top-quality baked goods: a chef’s selection of cookies.

Tavern at the Park. Overlooking monumental Millennium Park, the dining room at Tavern at the Park serves up worthy conclusions to any lunch or dinner. You can indulge in classics like the Flourless Chocolate Cake or the Banana Cream Pie, or you can walk on the wilder side with Salted Caramel Gelato Sliders, buttery Parker House Rolls with salted caramel gelato and Chantilly cream, out of this world. Or there’s Key Lime Crème Bruleè, the light acidity of the citrus balancing the lush creaminess of this classic in a way you’re sure to love. So save room for that!