From our BEST Food + Drink of the decade feature:
Over the course of ten years, Champaign and Urbana have seen a boom in restaurants. We have more, for sure, but I’d argue we also have better restaurants. Better is subjective, sure, but for me better means more variety, more diversity, and higher, more consistent quality. Even though we can’t seem to keep a Middle Eastern/Mediterranean restaurant, we do have plenty of options for experiencing cuisines from around the world. We have a whole bunch of Chinese and Korean restaurants, Caribbean food, more than one place for ramen, more than a few places for burgers, Mexican food, new Indian restaurants, coffee shops, popsicle bicycles, coffee bicycles, barbecue, fried chicken, fancy Italian, casual poke, and plenty of baked goods.
It’s been wonderful to see and support our local food industry grow, develop, and evolve. It’s the core of any interesting and robust city. (Jess Hammie)
Photo credit from left to right: Jessica Wolff, Veronica Mullen, Anna Longworth
