Name: Evelyn's Food Love
Address: 5522 S State St, Chicago, IL, 60621
Telephone: (872) 818-5557
Price range: $$$

Evelyn's Food Love

Super GemWashington Park · Southern / Comfort Food Community-sourced, unverified

📍 5522 S State St, Chicago, IL 60621

Evelyn Shelton opened Evelyn's Food Love in Washington Park in May 2017 after years as the executive chef at Northwestern University's culinary facility, bringing Kendall College training and real institutional-kitchen chops to a neighborhood the Chicago Sun-Times specifically credited her with bringing “soul” back to.

$$$

A classically-trained executive chef's upscale Southern comfort food (Cajun shrimp and cheesy grits, grilled lamb chops) in a Washington Park restaurant covered by ABC7, WTTW, and the Sun-Times.

The menu runs upscale comfort food rather than a quick-counter operation: grilled lamb chops with mint pesto, fried lobster tails, a mini salmon croquette trio, jerk chicken and shrimp alfredo, and the signature Cajun shrimp and cheesy grits that the menu itself flags as the most popular order. Desserts lean homemade — sea salt caramel cake, coconut limoncello cake, caramel bread pudding — the kind of dessert case that suggests someone who actually bakes rather than orders frozen slices. Chef Evelyn has built real media credibility around this one restaurant: ABC7's Hungry Hound, Windy City Live, The Black Foodies, WTTW's Chicago Tonight, and the Sun-Times have all covered her.

Worth knowing before planning a visit: current hours run limited, Monday only from noon to 2 p.m., which tracks with a restaurant that leaned heavily into catering, carry-out, and pop-up service once the pandemic reshaped how it operates — call ahead rather than assume a full weekly schedule. No confirmed discount special here, but a trained executive chef running genuinely elevated soul food in Washington Park, with this much real press behind her, is worth planning a Monday lunch around.

Hours

Mon12:00 PM-2:00 PM; Tue-Sun closed (call ahead -- hours may reflect reduced/catering-focused operation)

🥡 Takeout unconfirmed 📞 (872) 818-5557

Amenities & accessibility

❔Takeout: unverified

❔Wheelchair access: unverified

Location

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