Daisies Review

Madeline Mahoney

Photos: Karina Mak

Daisies is a Chicago restaurant that’s been in the spotlight recently, having gained a spot on the New York Times’ 2023 “The Restaurant List” and being awarded a Michelin Green star for its locally sourced menu and sustainable practices. However, Daisies isn’t new to the Chicago restaurant scene, despite their recent accolades. Daisies originally opened in 2017 in Logan Square before moving to a larger space this past March. Their menu varies seasonally, making the most of what the Midwest has to offer, sourcing much of their food from Chef Joe Frillman’s brother’s farm located seventy miles outside of Chicago as well as from other local producers.

I went to Daisies on a Sunday evening with Karina, one of Bite’s photographers. The interior design is clean but welcoming, with darker, cozier elements like neon signs, wooden tables, and brick backsplashes. As a vegetarian, I always appreciate a menu which keeps my dietary needs in mind, and Daisies’ certainly does. Our informative and attentive server made sure to ask about any dietary restrictions before we ordered and told us that most of the menu items with meat could be modified for vegetarians.

We began with the Sweet Onions and Squash Salad as starters. The Sweet Onions was a standout dish of caramelized sweet onions with black garlic and bone marrow on a thick slice of sourdough toast. The bone marrow can be left off or put on the side to make the dish vegetarian-friendly, and the vegetarian version was fantastic as well. There was a nice acidity to the dish and the toast balanced a crispy exterior while maintaining a soft interior. Not only was this incredibly tasty, but the presentation was beautiful as well.

The Squash Salad is a room temperature dish with squash, pecan, and parmesan in a brown butter sauce. The dish had a nice variety of textures and was good, but probably would not be a re-order for me as it just didn’t really stand out for me and I would rather try other options on their lengthy menu.

For the first entree, we decided to order the pappardelle dish, planning to order another dish if we were still hungry. However, between the pasta, two starters, and saving a little bit of room for dessert, we were more than satisfied! The pappardelle is served in a mushroom ragu with house cheese and basil. This dish was fresh and very tasty. However, it wasn’t quite as good after it cooled down (which was certainly on us due to our extended photoshoot).

One of my favorite parts about Daisies was their extensive and very Midwestern dessert menu! They offer five dessert options which, although we only tried one, all felt equally creative and thoughtful. Additionally, they have a “Treats” section of their dessert menu which offers seven smaller options as well as five flavors of gelato and sorbet. We got one Dessert and one Treat – the Apple Cider Donut Cake and Raspberry Pretzel Pie, respectively.

The Apple Cider Donut Cake was incredible and totally nailed the flavors of what you would want a combination of apple cider donuts and cake to taste like. The dish was not overly sweet but had a nice spice, the poached apples were firm, and the pecans added a nice saltiness to the dessert. The Raspberry Pretzel Pie was fun, but not a must order for me (based on my personal dessert preferences). It was composed of a salty crumbly pretzel crust and a cheesecake layer with topped with a raspberry gelée, which provided a nice tartness to the dish. Once again, as somebody with a massive sweet tooth, I really appreciated that the “Treats” section made it feasible to try multiple sweets after a filling dinner.

Generally, given the quality of the food and service, the total for our dinner felt reasonable. Daisies does have an automatic 25% service charge (which they are very up front about) as well as a ten-dollar deposit per person for reservations. The 25% service charge goes towards providing fair wages and benefits for both front of house and back of house employees. As a former restaurant employee, I’ve seen the large wage discrepancies between tipped and non-tipped employees, so I appreciate seeing a restaurant address this issue.

Daisies also offers a happy hour from 3 – 5 pm Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, and a café from 7 am – 3 pm daily serving pastries, coffee, and tea. I really enjoyed their dinner service and would love to come back to try out their happy hour or café. I would certainly recommend dinner at Daisies if you have a special occasion to celebrate!