The Best Place to Find Fresh, Authentic Seafood in Illinois

I prefer seafood over most meats. Catherine likes to tease me that I seldom eat ground beef and hamburgers, but I can thaw/prep/eat an entire bag of shrimp like nobody's business. Since a kid, I've always gravitated more towards seafood. There's always at least a couple varieties of shrimp in my freezer at any given time.

My home-state of Illinois thankfully has a plethora of quality seafood options for those like myself. Recently, a restaurant that prides themselves on seafood boils (a nearly impossible thing to find in most landlocked states) was just named the "Best Seafood" in Illinois, per a new list from the dining review site Yelp.

Yelp's list, created by editors who identifies businesses in the "seafood" category, went state-by-state to pick the best, most acclaimed establishments offering food like shrimp, crab legs, and more. Editors then ranked those spots based on a variety of factors, including geographic location and total volume of ratings/reviews.

Illinois' Lowcountry Lakeview at 3343 North Clark Street was tabbed as the "Best Seafood" eatery in the entire state. The small chain also has locations in the South Loop, Chinatown, Milwaukee (WI), and Merrillville (IN), per NBC 5 Chicago.

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Lowcountry Lakeview earned praise from reviewers on Yelp as a restaurant with a "fun experience," "various options," and maybe most notably, a "messy" seafood boil. Their boils appear to be for what they're best known. They are packed with shrimp, snow crab legs, lobster tails, and mussels, along with potatoes and corn on the cob. I'm salivating as I write this.

There's nothing better than a seafood boil, as hard to find up north as they are. Any food that all-but requires you to wear a bib when you indulge might as well come equipped with a stamp of approval that it will be a delicious experience. Not to mention, when you mix shrimp, potatoes, and, in my opinion, some wickedly spicy sauce, that'll get you feeling nicey.

Lowcountry Lakeview boasts a 4.4 star average on Yelp with more than 700 reviews. Yelp also added that searches for "seafood restaurants" on the site jumped by 34% in 2024. "Seafood boils" is up a whopping 81%.

NBC 5 Chicago showed the kind of praise Lowcountry gets by highlighting one growing review in particular:

Lowcountry provides a comfortable and backyard-like environment to embrace the culture of social gatherings around a seafood boil. Our inspiration originates from childhood memories of family road trips to the gulf coast, and digging into lowcountry style seafood in bags set on picnic tables. An experience we’ve longed to share with our friends. That day has arrived, and we’re excited for the opportunity to share this experience - A Yelp review of Lowcountry Lakeview, per NBC 5 Chicago

See for yourself the kind of praise Lowcountry Lakeview garners on their Yelp listing. See Yelp's full list of "Best Seafood in Every State" here. Visit Lowcountry Lakeview's website here.

"Beloved Iowa Seafood Restaurant Features Full Oyster and Sushi Bar"
"Wisconsin's Best Seafood Restaurant Provides a Full-Blown Experience"