Schmap Detroit Dining & Drinking

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Detroit - Dining & Drinking
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Few people know it, but Detroit is one of the best places for eating out in the United States. Throughout its history, Detroit has welcomed immigrants from around the world, and each group has brought its foods. Older groups like the Germans, Italians, Polish, Greeks, and Irish vie for the palate of visitors with more recent imports from the Middle East, Mexico and South America, India and the Far East. As a result, the area has an astounding range of restaurants offering a wide variety of authentic foods—often at bargain prices.

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, soul food at Ja-Da, and Italian food at the Intermezzo. Also on the eastern side of downtown are Opus One, an acclaimed American eatery, and the Summit, atop the Renaissance Center.

A little further east, the warehouse district known as Rivertown offers several American restaurants, including the trendy Rattlesnake Club and Dunlevy's River Place. On downtown's north end, in the new theater district, are the spanking new Century Club, which strives for an old-world charm, and the Hockeytown Café. Other restaurants are planned for the new Columbia Street development near Comerica Park.

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. Mexican Village is the old reliable here, but has been eclipsed in popularity by 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.

The Irish influence on Detroit can be noticed in a number of bars near Tiger Stadium, including Nemo's, and in drinking spots like the Old Shillelagh downtown. Downtown's most famous bar is the Lindell A.C., which has autographed photos of many of Detroit's legendary sports figures. The Lindell was a sports bar before there was such a thing as sports bars.

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 adventurous Traffic Jam; the Majestic Café for Middle-Eastern food; and two of the city's oldest traditional Italian restaurants:Mario's, and, farther east in the Eastern Market area, the Roma Café, the city's oldest restaurant. Another Italian eatery, the Ristorante El Centro, is near the Fisher Building, in the New Center Area, where the pickings are slimmer.

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. More places are opening around Auburn Hills and Pontiac, including the remarkable Rain Forest Café, a theme restaurant with animals, an aquarium, and continuous indoor rainstorms.

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 Govinda's, for vegetarian fare, and the Harlequin Café, 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 Mac&Ray's Restaurant, a marina resort along Anchor Bay.

Windsor

Windsor is the place to venture if your taste runs to Chinese and Vietnamese food. It has several of the area's best Asian restaurants, concentrated near the University of Windsor west of downtown. Many of them, such as Wah Court, serve the traditional Chinese weekend brunch known as dim sum. It's as good as you'll find in Toronto or San Francisco.

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Cultural Center/New Center

Detroit
United States

Detroit's Cultural Center is situated between Wayne State University and the Detroit Medical Center, an impressive complex of hospitals and research facilities. The Detroit Institute of Arts is famed for its Diego Rivera murals, which chronicle history through the eyes of laborers, and Auguste Rodin's sculpture "The Thinker". Nearby is the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, the largest museum of its kind in the United States. Families can also enjoy the Detroit Science Center and the Detroit Historical Museum. Farther north, the New Center Area boasts the ornate, golden-towered Fisher Building and its Fisher Theater, home to touring Broadway shows, as well as the General Motors Building and Henry Ford Hospital. South of the Cultural Center, a major renovation effort is underway to preserve acoustically rich Orchestra Hall.

Review © 2007, Wcities

Cultural Center/New Center photo by Ian Freimuth

Photo: Ian Freimuth

Cultural Center/New Center photo by Matthew Daley

Photo: Matthew Daley

Cultural Center/New Center photo by Miles VanMeter

Photo: Miles VanMeter

Dearborn

Detroit
United States
Dearborn rose to fame as the headquarters of Henry Ford's auto company, and it still attracts as many immigrants today as in the days when men from all over Europe dragged their families here in pursuit of work on the world-renowned assembly lines. Now, however, assimilation isn't forced and cultural diversity is heralded in Dearborn, home to 30,000 Arab-Americans, the second-largest such community in the country, behind only New York. The city is home to the largest mosque in North America, and shop signs and billboards in Arabic script fill the sides of many streets.

Review © 2007, Wcities

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Downtown

Detroit
United States
In the 1950s, downtown Detroit was such a bustle of shops, theaters, restaurants, and nightlife that residents of dreary, staid Toronto rode trains to Detroit for weekend excursions. In later decades, the two cities switched places, but now Detroit is making a comeback. The old downtown of grand cinemas and department stores is all but vanished, but lively areas have sprung up around the perimeter of the aging commercial center. The north end of downtown is the latest hot spot. Comerica Park, a new baseball stadium for the Detroit Tigers, opened in 2000. The NFL Detroit Lions, who abandoned downtown in the 1970s for suburban Pontiac, are set to return to Ford Field, adjacent to Comerica Park. Nearby is the glamorous Fox Theater, the renovated crown jewel of the city's movie houses, as well as the Gem Theater, a Second City comedy theater, the Music Hall, and an assortment of restaurants and bars.

Review © 2007, Wcities

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Greektown

Detroit
United States
On the eastern edge of downtown is Greektown, once just a block of Greek restaurants, now the center of Detroit nightlife, with eateries, bistros and clubs. One of Detroit's three temporary casinos is drawing additional people to the area. Adjacent is the restaurant-and bar area known as Bricktown, and near that is towering Renaissance Center. East of the Renaissance Center, along Jefferson Avenue, new housing and retail developments are taking shape beyond the eateries and clubs of the warehouse district known as Rivertown.

Review © 2007, Wcities

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Royal Oak

Detroit
United States
In the southern part of the county, a vibrant restaurant and nightclub scene has sprung up in once-stodgy Royal Oak. The nightlife has even attracted its share of celebrities--and celebrity crimes; Eminem was arrested here in 2000 on charges of gun possession. The city has also been home to Meg White of the White Stripes and someone with a different sort of fame: Dr. Jack Kevorkian.

Review © 2007, Wcities

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Other Schmapplets in this city related to "Detroit - Dining & Drinking"
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