Hai Hai

Hai Hai works Southeast Asian comfort food through a room built for lingering — teal walls, bright blue chairs, a patio that turns lunch into an event and a winter dining room that reads as a break from the cold. The energy in the room is part of the pitch: tables of friends mid-catch-up, loud in the good way.

The food holds up its end. Salt and pepper fried tofu is the right way to start, and the Hanoi sticky rice, topped with ground pork and Chinese sausage, is the kind of dish that makes the case for the kitchen's instincts on its own. The drink list pulls its weight too — a rum-spiked slushie and a papaya-citrus-basil cooler built for a menu with real heat in it. Dessert isn't an afterthought: che with fruit and jellies, and a Vietnamese coffee tiramisu that earns its spot on the table.

The recognition backs up what the food already argues. A James Beard Best Chef win for the Midwest in 2024, following two earlier finalist and semifinalist nods, plus national list appearances, confirm a kitchen that's been operating at this level for years, not one having a moment.