Best Group Dining Gatherings Seafood Restaurants in River North

Joe's brings the Miami-born stone crab legacy to River North, pairing a deep seafood program with a serious lineup of prime steaks. Diners mix bone-in filets and ribeyes with chilled shellfish towers in a clubby, white-tablecloth room that runs packed with business diners, special-occasion groups, and out-of-towners chasing a classic Chicago meal.

Tanta is a high-volume Peruvian restaurant where ceviches, tiraditos, and seafood-forward share plates headline alongside a deep pisco cocktail list. It’s loud, colorful, and consistently busy, making it a go-to when you want seafood with more spice, acidity, and nightlife energy than a traditional raw bar.

Shaw's splits the room between a white-tablecloth dining side and a livelier oyster bar, making it equally useful for business seafood dinners and casual plates. Guests come for seasonal oysters, steamed mussels, and king crab, plus an old-school dessert cart and a jazz-leaning soundtrack.

The Chicago outpost of New York’s Lure Fishbar brings a yacht-inspired dining room, serious raw bar, and a full sushi program to Rush Street. Beyond its seafood towers and lobster rolls, the menu’s crispy rice tuna and signature sushi rolls make it one of the neighborhood’s more polished options for sushi-centric nights out.

Legal Sea Foods’ first Midwest location brings a Boston-born seafood institution to Marina City, with New England clam chowder, lobster rolls, and a broad raw bar served over two levels facing the river. It functions as an upscale-casual catchall for business lunches, pre-theater dinners, and tourists wanting classic East Coast seafood in River North.