20 Best Restaurants in Detroit

The Detroit 75 Kitchen, which opened in 2014 near Clark Park, is a sandwich lover's paradise, with delicious options for every craving and diet. It provides generous portions, outdoor umbrella-covered tables, healthy food options, and reasonable prices. 

Try a savory and best-selling hand-held favorite, such as the 3rd Street Detroit Philly. It's a Detroit-style cheesesteak made with beef, lettuce, sweet pickled jalapenos mushrooms, tomatoes, Swiss cheese, onions, sautéed peppers, and a house-made vinaigrette. If you're a vegetarian, go for the Russel Street Veggie with garlic cilantro fries. It includes lettuce, onions, smoked tomatillo salsa, tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers, provolone, and a garlic cilantro aioli.

Duly's Place has been a local institution since 1921. This delightful eatery offers reasonable prices, quick service, and traditional American fare. 

It also serves drinks such as brewed coffee, tea, and soft drinks. Authentic diner fare like pancakes, chili, hot dogs, grilled cheese, bacon, pies, hamburgers, and more are available at this lively restaurant.

Takoi, which opened in August 2017, is a popular restaurant that serves elevated interpretations of Thai cuisine. It has a stylish interior, colorful lighting, and artfully plated dishes. This restaurant features a seasonal patio for outdoor dining as well as exceptional service. There is also a full-service bar that serves signature cocktails, imported sake, fine wine, and cold beer. 

Order the Khao Soi for a flavorful noodle-based entree. The egg noodles are flavored with aromatic coconut milk curry, shallots, cilantro, crispy noodles, stewed chicken, pickled mustard greens, lime, and roasted chili paste.

The main attraction at this decades-old carryout restaurant near Eastern Market is the spiced gumbo loaded with seafood. It's served with sausage, shrimp, cut okra, onions, celery, tomatoes, and a proprietary blend of gumbo seasonings at this Detroit institution, alongside bayou favorites like red beans and rice, jambalaya, and shrimp po'boys.

There’s one original location in Eastern Market and a second location on Seven Mile.

Folk is a well-known neighborhood café that opened in April 2018 and specializes in elevated brunch dishes. 

Get ready for an exciting day of sightseeing by enjoying a delicious meal with your travel companions at this charming café. It provides catering services, a variety of deli-style sandwiches, coffee blends, and dishes made from the finest locally sourced ingredients. It has an onsite market where you can buy organic specialty foods, natural alcoholic beverages, gourmet grocery items, gift items, and other items.

Mudgie's Deli and Bar is a popular sandwich shop and wine bar near West Riverfront Park. It has a laid-back atmosphere, a changing beer menu, sandwiches made with homemade soups, house-smoked meat, and off-site catering options. 

The Bat Outta Hell sandwich is one of the most popular items on the menu. It comes with a kaiser roll, Romaine lettuce, bacon, ground top sirloin meatloaf, cheddar, yellow mustard, red onions, tomatoes, and ketchup.

Pietrzyk Pierogi is a popular Polish pop-up restaurant in Gratiot Central Meat Market. This fantastic restaurant is one of the most popular places to try Pierogi, or traditional Polish dumplings. It provides frozen dishes for take-out, friendly service, reasonable prices, quick service, and special diet options. 

Enjoy a meaty and flavorful Pierogi, such as the Goblin King. It has peas, red sauce, cheddar, potatoes, seasoned ground beef, and carrots as fillings. The Black Soul is a must-try if you you’re a vegan. It's made with corn flour dough and filled with black beans, jalapeno peppers, and avocados.

Rose's Fine Food and Wine, which opened in 2014, is a homey restaurant that serves hearty American fare. Rose's Fine Food and Wine offers a glass of wine paired with delectable dishes. 

This popular restaurant has a vintage diner-style setting, house-made desserts, a large wine selection, and dishes prepared with organic produce. It sells a variety of fine wine, coffee blends, canned beer, hot tea, and other beverages.

Rocco's Italian Deli, which opened in 2018, is a well-known deli that specializes in Italian-style sandwiches. It serves subs made from high-quality produce, diet options, draft beers, specialty wines, and more. 

Try a traditional best-selling sandwich, such as Il Rocco. It's made with hot soppressata, spicy red pepper relish, fontina, Romaine lettuce, mortadella, and garlic-lemon aioli.

Shangri-La, which opened in 1995, is an Asian restaurant specializing in Cantonese and Thai cuisine. This is one of the best Detroit restaurants for traditional Asian cuisine. It has a lively vibe, friendly servers, generous servings, and a modern space with themed accents. 

Order the Pad Thai to sample the restaurant’s take on a well-loved classic. These are thin rice noodles topped with egg, green onions, bean sprouts, crushed peanuts, and your choice of shrimp or chicken.

Baobab Fare, which is located at the intersection of Grand Boulevard and Woodward Avenue, introduces fresh flavors to Detroit. Burundi husband-and-wife team Hamissi Mamba and Nadia Nijimbere celebrate East African cuisine and culture. 

The restaurant serves authentic East African foods and specials like Ugali, a traditional East African dish served with an okra stew, and Mhogo, which includes shredded chicken and cassava root in a tangy mustard-onion sauce.

Bert's Marketplace in Eastern Market, which opened in 1987, serves barbecue, soul food, and live music. Bert Dearing founded the restaurant, which is famous for its fried chicken and ribs. 

While its delectable food is the main draw, the marketplace is also known for its bars, live jazz shows and concerts, and two hallway-length murals commemorating Black history in Detroit.

Chef Maxcel Hardy's Coop Caribbean Fusion is known for its one-of-a-kind cuisine inspired by Hardy's Bahamian roots. Coop serves jerk ribs and Caribbean-seasoned grilled chicken from a stall in the Detroit Shipping Co. food hall in Midtown.

Hardy has also opened Jeds, a quick-service pizza and wing restaurant in northern Detroit. Aside from a variety of pizza and wing options, the restaurant also serves Caribbean-style ribs and burgers.

This Downriver carryout spot, which opened in 2019, is known for its Nashville-style hot chicken. Jay "Jim" Brandon owns the restaurant, which serves chicken sandwiches, chicken tenders, chicken and waffles, and catfish. 

The Fat Daddy is the restaurant's specialty and it’s a fried, boneless chicken thigh sandwich. Redford Township, Riverview, and the MGM Grand Detroit all have locations.

This restaurant in Detroit's New Center is inspired by boxer Joe Louis and his Southern upbringing. Joe Louis Southern Kitchen serves breakfast, lunch, and brunch, and its menu includes stacked-high fluffy pancakes, waffles, Foster French toast, and Cajun fried turkey topped with everything from shrimp alfredo to jambalaya. 

Southern favorites include shrimp and grits and chicken and waffles. The interior of the restaurant features photos from Louis' boxing career, and the space is designed to look like the front porch of an old Southern home.

Motor City Soul Food has perfected the art of soul food and comfort food. For more than 20 years, the family-owned business has been serving recipes from husband-and-wife owners George and Martha Clay's archives, and it has received high praise from metro Detroit residents and visitors alike. 

The restaurant has appeared on "Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern" on the Travel Channel. The "D.L. Hughley Show" named it the No. 2 Best Place to Eat, and the late Free Press restaurant critic Sylvia Rector praised the restaurant's mac and cheese in 2014. Motor City Soul Food's sweet candied yams and award-winning fried chicken are now available at locations in Detroit, Oak Park, and Redford Township.

When Norma G's opened in 2018, it became one of Detroit's few Caribbean restaurants, as well as the first full-service restaurant to open in Detroit's Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood in 30 years.

Lester Gouvia, a Trinidad native, converted a popular food truck into a brick-and-mortar selling modern twists on West Indian staples. In addition to Caribbean classics like doubles and curry goat, tacos and nacho appetizers feature tender oxtails and spicy jerk chicken.

Godwin Ihentuge, the chef and owner, expanded his food truck business to this brick-and-mortar location on Woodward Avenue in Detroit's New Center neighborhood in 2019. Ihentuge's Yum Village, owned by a Nigerian and an African American, serves Afro-Caribbean cuisine. Among the specialties are jollof rice, jerk chicken, maafe peanut stew, and Suya pepper seasoned fried chicken. 

According to the website, Ihentuge sources 15% of its ingredients from Haiti, the Caribbean, and West Africa. He also gets the majority of his ingredients from the Detroit area.

Mezcal Mexican Bar & Kitchen opened in Ferndale in March 2022, giving Oakland County's Mexican food scene a much-needed boost. 

The bar offers 30 different types of agave spirits, and the menu includes tacos such as fish, birria, campechano (a chorizo and carne asada blend), and alambre — with bacon, melted cheese, chorizo, and your choice of chicken or steak.

Trap Vegan is located in Detroit's west side Green Acres area, expanding the city's selection of vegan dining options. 

With a selection of vegan burgers including the BJ Burger made with grilled BBQ jackfruit and topped with pepper jack cheese, mushrooms, avocado spread, and the restaurant's "Trap Sauce," owner Jasmine Raiford has created a menu that will convert any discerning meat-eater. You can also enjoy a wide selection of smoothies, juices, salads, acai bowls, and loaded nachos.

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