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54°F / 12°C
(Sunny. Cool.)
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Few people know it, but Detroit is one of the best places for eating out in the United States. The great restaurants are not concentrated in a few spots, but are found throughout the metropolitan region. Getting off the beaten track and finding these places is worth the extra effort, particularly if your taste runs to the adventurous.
Downtown
During the lean years in the 1970s and '80s, Greektown’s single block of Athenian restaurants, known for their saganaki, or flaming cheese, kept downtown from going completely dark at night. Now Greektown has grown and prospered. Carrying on the Greektown tradition are places like the Pegasus Taverna, the Laikon Café, the New Parthenon and the New Hellas Café. Nearby can be found the Cajun excitement of Fishbone’s Rhythm Kitchen Café.
A little further east, the warehouse district known as Rivertown offers several American restaurants, including the trendy Rattlesnake Club. On downtown’s north end, in the new theater district, are the elegant Century Grille, filled with old-world charm, and the bustling Hockeytown Café.
Mexicantown, which starts about a mile west of downtown, is the port of entry to the city’s large Hispanic section on the southwest side. The revival of this vibrant neighborhood has been heralded by restaurants such as Xochimilco and other innovators. The farther west you go along Bagley or Vernor avenues, the cheaper and more authentic the food—- and you can branch out into Central and South American cuisine at El Comal.
Cultural Center/New Center
The eclectic fare that can be found in and around the Wayne State University area includes the unique Whitney, located in an elegant old mansion; the local favorite Traffic Jam & Snug; the Majestic Cafe for Middle-Eastern fare; and two of the city’s oldest traditional Italian restaurants: Mario’s, and, farther east in the Eastern Market area, the Roma Café.
The West Side
Detroit has the largest Arabic population of any American city, and it is concentrated in the eastern end of Dearborn. Here, along Michigan and Warren avenues, is an unmatched assortment of Middle Eastern restaurants. La Shish, one of the first, is the most well-known, but there are myriad other good choices, all offering nutritious, tasty food at remarkable prices.
The food gets blander as you travel farther into the suburbs, but there are plenty of neighborhood bars and family restaurants along streets like Telegraph Avenue.
Northville, a quaint village in the northwestern corner of Wayne County, offers several upscale dining options which are worth the trek, including Genitti’s Hole-in-the-Wall, a reservation-only Italian restaurant which serves traditional seven-course wedding-feast meals.
Oakland County
An unlikely transformation in the late 1980s and early '90s turned the aging downtown of an unremarkable suburb into Detroit’s trendiest evening destination, and downtown Royal Oak remains the closest thing Michigan has to a New York or San Francisco experience. The punk and resale clothing shops still exist, along with jam-packed eateries and a few clubs. This scene generated the unique BD’s Mongolian Barbeque, where you make your own stir-fry and watch chefs grill it using big sticks; the place is so popular it has become a multi-outlet franchise.
The rest of the county has restaurants of great variety flung far and wide. Birmingham and Troy offer more staid, upscale options, such as the Capital Grille in the Somerset Collection. In Farmington Hills and to the north and west, an amazing array of ethnic restaurants hide in strip malls along Orchard Lake Road, Haggerty Road, and around Novi Town Center in Novi, with more places opening around Auburn Hills and Pontiac.
The East Side and Macomb County
Along East Jefferson Avenue, across from Belle Isle, is the urban hideaway known as Indian Village, where there are gems such as the Harlequin Cafe, one of Detroit’s few French restaurants. Along Lake St. Clair, from the Grosse Pointes to Mount Clemens, seafood is king, and fresh lake perch or pickerel can be found on the menus. For the complete Great Lakes experience, spend the time to go all the way out to Sindbad's, a marina resort along Anchor Bay.
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