Your Ultimate Midwest Food Road Trip: 5 Must-Try Regional Eats from Ohio to Missouri
You already know about Chicago’s famous deep dish pizza. But if that’s where your Midwest food knowledge ends, you’re seriously missing out. From Ohio to Wisconsin to Missouri, the region is packed with iconic eats worth planning an entire road trip around.
Here’s your delicious checklist — five stops that will turn any Midwest drive into an unforgettable food tour.
Cincinnati, Ohio: Cincinnati Chili
This isn’t your typical bowl of chili, and it definitely isn’t served with cornbread. Cincinnati-style chili goes over spaghetti, and the flavor profile is unlike anything you’ve had before. According to The Takeout, “Cincinnati-style chili is a carb-loaded blast of classic chili flavors with the Mediterranean twist of cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon in the mix.”
The ordering system can seem intimidating if you’ve never been, but Kat Kinsman for Food & Wine broke it down perfectly: “One-way: Just a bowl of chili. Order it like that if you want, but you’re missing out. And no one calls it a ‘one way.’ Two-way: Chili plus spaghetti. Which is fine, but unless you’re avoiding dairy or are allergic to joy, this is not why you’re here. Again, ‘two-way’ isn’t really a thing; just call it chili spaghetti. Three-way: This is where it gets good. This is chili spaghetti, topped with a nimbus of fluffy, shredded cheddar. It’s perfectly fine to stop here. This is golden glory. Four-way: This can go one of two ways, adding either onions or beans to determine how the rest of the day is going to go for you. Five-way: All bets are off. You’re getting both onions and beans and bless your heart.”
Where to go: Skyline Chili is the beloved chain you’ll spot across the city. Walk in, order a three-way and work your way up from there.
Wisconsin: Cheese Curds
No Wisconsin road trip is complete without cheese curds. Per WisconsinCheese.com, cheese curds are “small pieces of curdled milk, roughly the size of peanuts in the shell, with a mild and cheddar-like flavor. Fresh cheese curds have a rubbery texture that causes a squeak when you bite into them.”
They’re a tasty byproduct of the cheesemaking process, and you’ll find them deep fried at restaurants across the state. Pair them with a local beer and you’ve got yourself the quintessential Wisconsin snack.
Chicago, Illinois: Italian Beef
The sandwich originated in the early 1900s when Italian immigrants in Chicago slow-roasted tougher cuts of meat in a spicy broth to make it tender, then piled thin slices onto Italian bread.
When ordering, you’ll want to know the lingo: “sweet” means topped with sweet peppers, and “hot” means topped with giardiniera. The popular TV show The Bear depicts a fictionalized version of the original Mr. Beef location in Chicago, which famously serves the sandwiches alongside other casual fare. Yes, you can actually visit.
St. Louis, Missouri: Gooey Butter Cake
According to GooeyButterCake.com, “In the 1930s, a happy baking accident in South St. Louis gave birth to gooey butter cake. Legend has it that a baker, faced with too much sugar in a butter cake, improvised with additional ingredients, creating a beloved St. Louis dessert.”
Traditional versions from local St. Louis bakeries start with a yeasted crust topped with a mixture of butter, sugar, eggs, corn syrup and vanilla — then baked just barely until set.
Ohio (Again): Buckeyes
Round out your Ohio stop with buckeyes — a no-bake candy made of balls of peanut butter fudge dipped in chocolate with a circle of peanut butter still showing on top. They’re made to resemble the nuts from the buckeye tree, the official Ohio state tree. The nuts and candies are said to resemble the eye of a male deer (buck), hence their name. Cafes, candy shops and grocery stores throughout the state commonly have them, so you’ll have no trouble tracking these down.
This article was created by content specialists using various tools, including AI.
