You may be familiar with Coney dogs and Detroit-style pizza. Yet those standbys are just the beginning of Detroit’s dining scene, which continues to grow and evolve at a breakneck rate.
The incredible agricultural productivity and diversity of Michigan pushes chefs in the state’s biggest city to get creative – especially through seasonal menus that change all the time. Other factors, too, combine to make the city’s food scene exciting. The city is home to historic Eastern Market, the nation’s largest outdoor farmers market, and hot spot for food trucks. A huge urban-farm network, one of the most extensive in the USA, ensures that produce is as local as it gets. And a growing movement of independent Black-led grocers, including the Detroit People’s Food Co-Op and Neighborhood Grocery, are helping to bring top-notch food to every community in the city.
Here’s just a small taste of what the Motor City has to offer right now.
1. Behold the Big Baby burger at Food Exchange
Corned beef has always been huge in Detroit. And over the years, the staple has inspired unique creations – like the corned beef egg rolls found at Asian Cornedbeef and What’s The Dill’s Yum Yum pickle sandwich. Yet no dish is bolder and beefier than the corned beef burger. For 25 years, it’s been a staple at Food Exchange on the city’s east side, in the form of the Big Baby, a work of love created by the restaurant’s owner, the late Bruce Harvey. On an onion roll, you’ll find a massive hand-shaped patty grilled to perfection and topped with corned beef, two melted cheeses (Swiss and American) plus all the classic burger fixings.
How to get it: The burger takes about 25 minutes to cook, and seating is limited (it’s a takeout-style place). Depending on your hunger level, consider calling ahead or ordering online.
2. Crave the kuku at Baobab Fare
Detroit is home to a burgeoning African food scene, with acclaimed restaurants like Maty’s, Saffron De Twah and Yum Village joining the mix over the past decade. Baobab Fare owners Hamissi Mamba and Nadia Nijimbere – partners in hospitality and in life – came to Detroit as refugees before growing their pop-up into a nationally acclaimed brick-and-mortar serving their native Burundian cuisine in the New Center district. An excellent entry point is the kuku: pan-fried chicken served in a delightfully tangy mustard sauce with soft plantains, earthy yellow beans, and your choice of their spiced rice pilau or coconut rice.
How to get it: Walk on in and wait to be seated. Paid street parking is available along Woodward Ave and West Grand Blvd. It’s also near a bus and Q Line stop.
3. Savor the mole at El Barzon
James Beard–honored chef Norberto Garita made his name in Italian kitchens before opening his own restaurant in Southwest Detroit, home to Mexicantown and a long-active Mexican-food scene. At El Barzon, classic Italian dishes Garita has perfected over the years share the menu with sumptuous dishes from his hometown of Puebla, Mexico (arguably Mexico’s culinary capital). Garita’s mole poblano – a family recipe – is a soulful sauce that blends chile seco, tomatillo, anise, bread, banana and chocolate, and which takes days to prepare. Slather it onto enchiladas, pavo (turkey) or pollo (chicken).
How to get it: Reservations are recommended. On-site parking is available through the alley off of Junction. Dress nicely, and have a good answer ready for when your host asks, “What occasion are you celebrating today?”
4. Let Michigan mushroom dumplings blow your mind at Marrow
Marrow is both a restaurant and a butcher shop in the city’s West Village neighborhood. Helmed by 2019 Top Chef finalist Sarah Welch, the James Beard–nominated restaurant aims to operate sustainably, offering seasonal dishes made with Michigan produce and meat the company butchers itself. There’s one dish that will always remain on the menu, however, due to its year-round seasonality: the mushroom dumplings, made with the maitake that can be found growing in forests around Michigan year-round. The delicate dumplings arrived served on a bed of corn butter, and topped with Welch’s signature spicy, savory, sensational Szechuan sauce.
How to get it: The dumplings are available à la carte, and may need to be ordered separately if you’re considering the five-course tasting menu. It’s a good idea to reserve ahead online. Free street parking is available along Kercheval or down one of the side streets.
5. Celebrate the cuisine of the mountains at Alpino
A James Beard semifinalist for Best New Restaurant in 2024, Corktown’s Alpino explores the cuisine of what it calls “the backbone of Europe.” With meticulously sourced ingredients, the team here cultivates elevated interpretations of regional dishes found in the Alpine countries of Austria, France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. Though staples like schnitzel, raclette and fondue remain a constant, a recent addition from Chef Colin Campbell is the pizzoccheri, a hearty and sage-forward pasta dish from Northern Italy. House-made buckwheat pasta, Savoy cabbage and soft potatoes are coated in garlic and sage butter, with soft chunks of nutty Fontina cheese to complete the effect.
How to get it: Reservations are a requirement, and may need to be made in advance to avoid being waitlisted. On-site parking is available.
6. Munch on modern Detroit-style pizza at Michigan & Trumbull
In the 1940s, Gus Guerrara perfected his pizza recipe – a square pie, with deliciously crunchy crusts and corners – and it soon become famous as his adopted city’s version of the Neapolitan treat. So it’s perhaps ironic that the place serving the best homage to Guerrara’s Detroit-style pizza was founded in Pittsburgh seven years ago – albeit by two Detroit natives, Nathan Peck and Kristen Calverley. In 2020, the two returned to their hometown, bringing Michigan & Trumbull back with them. The pies here have an airy, focaccia-like crust that’s perfectly crispy on the edges, complemented by innovative topping builds like the Long Drive Home (a rich combination of vodka sauce, mozzarella, Parmesan, sausage and banana peppers).
How to get it: Walk in, and ask for a table. While this full-service eatery doesn’t have a liquor license, you’re welcome to bring your own drinks. On site-parking is available in the lot off of Lincoln St.
7. Devour a Berlin-style Turkish sandwich with Detroit flair at Balkan House
Michigan’s most diverse municipality, Hamtramck is a city of only about 2 square miles almost entirely within the city limits of Detroit. The dense city is home to a flourishing food scene, with a wide assortment of restaurants and bakeries – many Middle Eastern and Eastern European – as well as stylish bars, shops and live venues. An intriguing, semi-recent addition is the Bosnian restaurant Balkan House, credited with bringing the German-style Turkish döner kebab to the Detroit area. The signature sandwich is a mouthwatering mix of vertical-rotisserie lamb, beef, crunchy vegetables and a garlicky yogurt-based döner sauce stuffed in lepinja (Balkan flatbread).
How to get it: Head over to the stand at the back and ask for a table; or get an order to go. Free street parking is available on Caniff.
8. Take on the day with salmon patties at The Clique
Sometimes, the best things to eat right now have been around for years. The Clique, a classic diner on the ground level of the Jefferson Avenue Rivertown Inn & Suites, knows how to do breakfast: it’s been a go-to for Detroiters since 1968. Only open for breakfast and lunch, it’s home to one of the most heartfelt and delicious breakfasts in the city: two flattop-grilled crispy salmon patties, served with eggs your way and your choice of toast or pancakes.
How to get it: The Clique is a walk-in, full-service type of restaurant, though carry-out is also an option. The restaurant is cash only, so be sure to have enough on hand to leave a decent tip. Parking is available in the hotel lot.
9. Start with the twice-cooked egg at Chartreuse
Chartreuse sits at the ground level of the historic Park Shelton building, across from the Detroit Institute of Arts. It’s one of several acclaimed eateries owned by the James Beard–recognized duo of local restaurateur Sandy Levine and executive chef Doug Hewett. Chartreuse’s menu of shareable, farm-to-table dishes changes frequently with the seasons – though one constant is a take on a frisée salad, which stars an egg cooked two different ways. The egg is first poached, then lightly coated in panko breadcrumbs and deep fried to a light golden hue. The runny yolk blends marvelously with the shallot vinaigrette, coating the crispy Brussels sprouts, shredded Locatelli cheese and greens (frisée and arugula) from Werp Farms in northern Michigan.
How to get it: Make a reservation. You’ll have to put your credit card on file – understanding that you may be charged $25 per person for a no-show or a cancellation less than 2 days in advance. Street parking and a structure are available; it’s also located near Q Line and bus stops.
10. For dessert, order a highbrow s’more at Leña
In Detroit’s Brush Park, Leña is a new, hot and happening neighborhood restaurant with a wood-fire grill. It serves seasonal Spanish-inspired small plates with a made-in-Michigan spirit, prepared with ingredients that are often grown or procured within Detroit’s borders. The dessert program, headed by James Beard–recognized Lena Sareini, turns out inventive and pleasing inventions like the Algunas Mas (Spanish for “some more”), a sweet and smoky torched marshmallow topped with chocolate sorbet, cinnamon sugar tuile, whipped cream and crushed almonds.
How to get it: Though walk-ins are sometimes possible, reservations are recommended. Your best bet for parking is the 440 Alfred lot, which can be validated inside, as most of the surrounding street parking is reserved for residents come nighttime.
