Tiers of Dining in Downtown Naperville

When it comes time to leave campus, the questions start flowing in. What should you eat? Where should you eat? Do you have to eat to Survive? It can be a lot, and sometimes you can get turned off by the idea of how much work it is, but allow me to break it down for you. Downtown Naperville is referred to as the small-scale City of Chicago with tiers of all things edible. This tier system shows the levels of restaurants based on accessibility and price to allow you to see what works for your wallet.

Tier 1: Fancy: $15+ per meal

There are various higher-end dining locations in downtown Naperville. These restaurants are going to have fancier meals accompanied by more attentive service. Overall the experience is much more enjoyable, but the meals at a baseline start around $15 - 25 dollars and meals get pricy quickly. Perfect for the every-once-in-a-while Date Night!

Main Restaurants in Tier 1: Sullivans, Rosebud, La Sorella di Francesca, Blue, Hugos, and Catch 35.

Tier 2: Affordable: $15 and less per meal

These restaurants are going to be the main spots you will find most college students dining at. Ranging from Italian to American to Chinese to Mexican, downtown Naperville truly has it all. These are places you can see yourself going to every other weekend with your friends. 

Main Restaurants in Tier 2: Fiamme, Lou Malnati's, Q-BBQ, Nandos PERi-PERi, Front Street Catina, Bev’s, Empire, Tapville, Jackson Avenue Pub, Fat Rosies, BD’s Mongolian Grill, Egg Harbor Cafe, Everdine’s Grilled Cheese, and many more!

Tier 3: Efficient: $15 and less per meal

These are going to be your simple grab-and-go restaurants. More often than not, they are going to be franchises that you can find in most towns outside of Naperville as well. The pricing for restaurants within tier 3 is going to be $15 or under for a full meal. Tier 3 restaurants are going to lack service due to the quick in-and-out style of dining, but the quality is more often than not going to be the same every single time you attend no matter what town you’re in. these are the restaurants you may frequent on a weekly basis.

Main Restaurants in Tier 3: Chipotle, Smoothie King, Five Guys, Jimmy John’s, Mod Pizza, and Potbelly.

Tier 4: Enjoyment: $10 or less

Within this tier, you have the Naperville bars and coffee shops. These places are all going to be affordable and in the same price range as each other. Of course, the bar can get pricy if you’re planning to not remember what happened that night, but for a drink or two, it fits right into college students’ budgets. Oftentimes, students are just looking for a getaway from campus to clear their heads and go hang out at Sparrow Coffee or La Borra Cafe due to the open space they have for you to buy a drink and then stay to do some work. It's always important to take a mental health check and unplug every once in a while.

Main Restaurants in Tier 4: Features Bar & Grill, Potters Place, Quigleys, Heismans, Lantern, Sparrow Coffee, Sweetwaters Coffee & Tea, La Borra Cafe, Peet’s Coffee, Starbucks, and more!

Tier 5: Sweet Treats: $10 or less

Tier 5 focuses on something that downtown Naperville has no lack of. That is desserts and sweets. These shops are very affordable and have prices of $10 and under depending on what you get. If you decide to take a trip to somewhere like JoJo’s shake bar, the price may be a bit heftier, but your shake is also as filling as an entire meal. You may like sweets, but struggle to find some that fit into your diet. Worry no more because the range of sweets is vast as you can get some gelato, frozen yogurt, or even Cinnaholicwhich is fully vegan and to die for! There is something for everyone, it just depends on what your sweet tooth is.

Main Restaurants in Tier 5: Kilwins, Cookie Dough Creations, Sweet Home Gelato, Le Chocolat du Bouchard, Munchies Rolled Ice Cream, Red Mango, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, Ben & Jerry’s, Cinnaholic, and more

Take the healthy route!

You may be looking above and seeing all of these great options, but you're struggling to find anything healthy. Lucky for you, nearly any sit-down restaurant that you go to in downtown Naperville will have a decent selection of salads. According to both Danielle Tufano of the Naperville Alliance, and Christine Jefferies of the Naperville Development Partnership, there was an influx in requests for a salad-only restaurant in downtown Naperville and wishes are being granted! There will be a Sweet Green put into the old Gap store later this year, so if salads are your thing, stay tuned!

How to decide where to eat

Now you know your budget, the tiers of downtown Naperville, and what the options are, but how do you pick which place to eat at.  You may want to take a trip over to your favorite restaurant review website like OpenTable, or you may not even have to. Word of mouth just might not be cutting it, especially from those who think Kaufman Dining Hall is the go-to. So that means it’s time to do your own research! Let's talk about five key deciding factors for dining downtown.

Location

How far are you willing to travel for this food? Although downtown Naperville is right next to the North Central College campus, if you’re living in ResRec and looking to walk to Fiamme, it may not be as convenient and safe as walking to MOD Pizza due to the distance and busy roads you'll have to cross.

Time

 How much time do you have for this meal? Is it grab-and-go? Are you here for a sit-down meal? Certain places take much longer than others to eat at, so when deciding where to go, you must consider the time you have available between meals. Due to COVID, a lot of downtown Naperville restaurants have implemented curbside pickup which can be very helpful when dealing with a busy college schedule.

Customer Reviews

Before dining at a restaurant, it is important to search for that company beforehand and see its rating. We do not go out to eat solely for the food, because if we wanted food, we could go to the grocery store and make something. We attend a restaurant for the experience, service, and convenience. It is important to know what the experience and service consist of at a restaurant to fully justify the price and the overall trip.

Type of Food

As we know by now, the variety of food options downtown is quite vast. Knowing what type of food you're in the mood for leaves you with only a few options and once you decide the type of food you'd like, you can look at those categories. Personally, I like to dine in places that create food I cannot create on my own because it feeds into the overall experience of dining out. This tends to be more so in Chinese and Mexican restaurants because dorm cooking makes pasta a breeze.

Scope out the Menu

You may find yourself loving Mexican food, but when you look at the Fat Rosies menu, you find out they do not have vegan chicken tacos and you can't see yourself eating anything else there, so the trip is not worth it. Aside from this, you have to look at the pricing for the specific dishes you are hungry for. Naperville tends to be more expensive as stated before, so getting a carne asada taco outside of Naperville may cost $4 each, but at Fat Rosies, that taco would cost $7.25 per taco. Now it is up to you to see if that taco is worth the expense.

What Are You Waiting For?

What are you waiting for? You now have all you need to know to conquer downtown Naperville dining whether you are in the mood for breakfast, lunch, dinner, coffee, drinks, or dessert. Get out there and enjoy! Thank you for following along and I hope this guide makes your downtown Naperville dining experience easier! Check out this video breaking down three of my favorite downtown Naperville dessert spots.