The 15 Best Restaurants in Detroit Right Now

I wrote our first Detroit dining guide a year ago and listed ten restaurants in four neighborhoods. That guide was honest about its limits: I live in Ann Arbor, I drive east to eat, and I can only write about what I know. Fourteen months later, I know more. The list has grown. Some of the restaurants I wrote about then have only gotten better. A few new ones have earned their way in. And I have eaten enough meals in this city to do something I avoided last time: rank them.

Rankings are subjective. This one is mine. The restaurants at the top are the ones I think about on the drive home. The ones at the bottom are still among the best in metro Detroit, which is why they are on the list at all. If your favorite is ranked lower than you think it deserves, you are probably right, and I am probably going back next week.

1. Marrow (8044 Kercheval Ave)

Marrow is the best restaurant in Detroit because the model that drives it produces food that no other restaurant can replicate. Chef Sarah Welch built a whole-animal operation where the butcher counter and the dining room share a supply chain. What the counter does not sell, the kitchen cooks. What the kitchen does not use, the counter sells. The menu changes based on what the animals yield, which means Tuesday reads differently from Friday.^{1Marrow's whole-animal model and butcher counter operation are described in our profile and on the restaurant's website.}

The bone marrow ($16) is the dish the restaurant is named for: split bones, roasted until the marrow yields to a knife, served with grilled bread and gremolata. The pork chop ($34), thick-cut and bone-in from a Michigan heritage breed, was the best piece of pork I ate last year. Beef tartare ($18) is hand-cut, clean, and exposes the quality of the sourcing completely. Dinner for two with drinks runs $90 to $130.

Welch left Marrow in early 2025, but the operation she designed continues under the model she built. The butcher counter alone justifies a trip to West Village.

2. Takoi (2520 Michigan Ave)

Brad Greenhill is cooking Thai-inspired food with Michigan ingredients in Corktown, and the combination works because he refuses to compromise on either half. The khao soi, rich with coconut and turmeric over egg noodles with crispy shallots, is the dish that keeps pulling me back. A whole grilled fish, scored and charred with chili-lime dipping sauce, represents the kitchen's thesis in a single plate: Southeast Asian technique, Great Lakes product.

The cocktail program deserves its own visit. Drinks built around lemongrass, ginger, and makrut lime follow the same flavor logic as the food. Dinner for two with cocktails runs $90 to $120. On Corktown's Michigan Avenue corridor, Takoi is the restaurant doing the most ambitious work.

3. Selden Standard (3921 Second Ave)

Andy Hollyday's wood-fired kitchen in Midtown has been a multiple James Beard semifinalist for Best Chef: Great Lakes, and the recognition tracks with what the restaurant actually does.^{2Andy Hollyday has been named a James Beard semifinalist for Best Chef: Great Lakes multiple times, as reported in local and national media coverage.} The bread, pulled warm from the wood oven with cultured butter, is an argument for what follows. Roasted carrots with yogurt and dukkah ($14) are the dish I mention when someone asks why they should drive 45 minutes for vegetables. Roasted chicken ($32), half a bird cooked in the wood oven, is Michigan-sourced with flavor that commodity poultry cannot produce.

Most entrees land between $24 and $38. Two people sharing small plates, an entree each, and wine will spend $100 to $140. A Tuesday at 7 p.m., the restaurant two-thirds full, the kitchen cooking at its own pace, is the version I like best.

4. Flowers of Vietnam (4440 W Vernor Hwy)

George Azar is a Palestinian-American chef who trained at some of the country's most demanding kitchens, came home to Southwest Detroit, and opened a Vietnamese restaurant inside a coney island on Sundays only. That was 2016. A decade later, Flowers of Vietnam is a full-service restaurant where the pho is built on a broth that took longer than your drive from Ann Arbor, and the cha ca (turmeric-and-dill fish) is one of the best things I have eaten in this state.

According to the restaurant's press materials, Zagat recognized Azar on their 30 Under 30 list and GQ included Flowers of Vietnam on a best-new-restaurants list.^{3Recognition per Flowers of Vietnam's press materials and website.} Dinner for two runs $50 to $80 before drinks. For cooking at this level, that is a good deal by any measure.

5. Wright & Company (1500 Woodward Ave)

Wright & Company is the restaurant I take people to when they have never eaten in Detroit and I want them to understand what the city can do. The room alone justifies the visit: a second-floor space in a building that, as the restaurant tells it, dates to the 1890s and once housed the Wright Kay & Co. jewelry store.^{4Building history per Wright & Company's own marketing materials and website.} High ceilings, arched windows, exposed brick.

The cocktail program is among the best in the city. Small plates designed for sharing fill the menu: roasted bone marrow, steak tartare ($19), seasonal vegetables treated with the same seriousness as the proteins. Most plates fall between $14 and $28. Two people sharing four dishes and two cocktails each will spend $100 to $140. The duck confit, skin shattering under a fork, lentils soaking up rendered fat underneath, is the plate I think about on the drive home.

6. Chartreuse Kitchen & Cocktails (15 E Kirby St)

Chartreuse occupies a corner of the Park Shelton building in Midtown, a block from the DIA, and treats its menu like a sketchbook. Small plates change with the season. The kitchen takes creative swings, and most of them land. Roasted beets with goat cheese and pistachio ($14) is the dish that first got me to drive 45 minutes for a vegetable. The balance between the sweet beet, sharp cheese, and crunchy nut is the kind of precise cooking that rewards attention.

Cocktails run $13 to $17. The program talks to the kitchen, which shows in the pairings. Dinner for two with cocktails and four or five small plates runs $80 to $110. A day that starts at the DIA and ends at Chartreuse is one of the better Saturdays Detroit can offer.

7. Alpino (1426 Bagley St)

Alpino took over the Corktown space where Lady of the House used to be, which is not a problem most owners want. Dave Mancini took it anyway and filled the building with Alpine-inspired cooking: raclette, charcuterie, wood-fired flatbread, and a European wine list heavy on bottles you drink when the temperature drops.^{5Dave Mancini also operates Ottava Via on Michigan Avenue in Corktown, as reported in Detroit dining coverage.}

The raclette ($18), melted from a half-wheel and scraped tableside over potatoes and cornichons, is the signature. It is heavy, and that is the point. Wood-fired flatbread ($14) with seasonal toppings has the char and chew that come from a kitchen with pizza experience. A Detroit Free Press Restaurant of the Year honoree.^{6Alpino was named a Detroit Free Press Restaurant of the Year, as referenced in the publication's annual dining coverage.} Dinner for two with wine runs $80 to $120. Alpino gives Corktown a reason to visit in January, which not every restaurant on this corridor can claim.

8. Supino Pizzeria (2457 Russell St)

Supino has been feeding Eastern Market for years, and the pizza does not need anyone's help getting noticed. Thin crust, fresh ingredients, no performance. The white pizza with arugula and lemon is the one I order most. The margherita is the benchmark. A whole pie runs $14 to $20.^{7Supino pricing from visits and our profile.}

The space is small. The line gets long on Saturdays when the market is running. None of that matters once you are eating. Supino works because it does one thing with patience and consistency, and the thing it does happens to be excellent.

9. Calamansi (4458 W Vernor Hwy)

Calamansi is bringing Filipino-inspired cooking to Southwest Detroit when it opens in spring 2026, and Michigan has almost nothing like it. Tyler Olivier and Marcee Sobredilla are building a 40-seat restaurant on Vernor Highway, next door to Flowers of Vietnam. The menu reportedly centers on adobo, lumpia, and other Filipino staples prepared with Michigan ingredients.

Filipino cooking in Michigan is rare enough that a restaurant doing it well will register as an event. This future Calamansi entry earns its spot on the list on ambition and concept alone. We will update it after the restaurant opens.

10. Folk Detroit (1701 Trumbull Ave)

Folk is where Corktown eats breakfast. Rohani Foulkes' cafe draws from West African, Caribbean, and Southern cooking traditions. The pastry case is the first thing you see, and it is the right thing to see first. Croissants are laminated properly. The egg sandwich is built on bread that earns its place. The jollof rice is excellent.

Folk does not try to be a destination restaurant. It tries to be the place its neighborhood needs every day, and it succeeds. Brunch is the busiest service, but a weekday visit, when you can sit without waiting, rewards the trip.

11. Slows Bar BQ (2138 Michigan Ave)

Slows opened on Michigan Avenue in 2005, before Corktown had much else.^{8Slows Bar BQ opened in 2005 at 2138 Michigan Ave, as reported in the Detroit Free Press.} The brisket, smoked low and slow until the bark develops that dark, peppery crust, is the center of the menu. Fatty slices have rendered, translucent edges. Lean slices are still moist, which is the harder trick. A two-meat plate with brisket and one side runs $19. Mac and cheese ($6) as a side is better than it needs to be.

Every restaurant that opened on this stretch of Michigan Avenue after 2005 owes Slows a debt. It proved people would drive to Corktown to eat. Twenty years in, they still get up early to light the pit.

12. Republic (3011 W Grand Blvd)

Republic calls itself a tavern, and the space supports that label, but the food has more ambition than the word implies. The burger is one of the better ones in the city. Seasonal dishes rotate with enough frequency to keep regulars interested. Republic does not get the press that Corktown restaurants do, and the people who eat there regularly seem fine with that arrangement.

A neighborhood restaurant in the best sense: consistent, unpretentious, and good enough that you do not need to explain why you keep going back.

13. Sunda New Asian (Near Comerica Park)

Sunda brought its Chicago pan-Asian concept to Detroit in March with over 200 seats near Comerica Park. The sashimi pizza and whole roasted duck earned the original location its reputation over more than a decade.^{9Sunda New Asian's Chicago history and menu per the restaurant's website and our opening coverage.} The scale of the operation signals something about how national restaurant groups see Detroit right now.

It is early. The kitchen is still settling into its Detroit home. But the concept is proven, and the opening-week crowds suggest the city wanted this. A full assessment will come with time.

14. Pegasus Taverna (500 Monroe St)

Pegasus has held its spot on Monroe Street in Greektown through decades of neighborhood change. I covered it in our Greektown guide, and the saganaki, lit tableside with a cry of "Opa!", remains the dish that defines what Greektown is selling. Lamb chops and pastitsio anchor the heavier end of the menu. The rooftop patio, when weather allows, offers a view of the neighborhood that few other Greektown restaurants can match.^{10Pegasus Taverna's saganaki and rooftop per our Greektown guide and the restaurant's website.}

Greektown can feel like a stadium district on game nights. Pegasus is the restaurant worth finding between the crowds.

15. Eastern Market Brewing Co. (2515 Riopelle St)

Not technically a restaurant, but the taproom at Eastern Market Brewing, covered in our Eastern Market guide, serves food good enough and beer interesting enough to earn a spot on a list of places to eat in Detroit. Pair a flight with whatever the kitchen is running that week, and you have an afternoon that justifies the drive on its own.

The best version of this experience is a Saturday morning at Eastern Market followed by a late lunch at the brewery. Walking from the market sheds to the taproom takes five minutes.

---

How to Eat Detroit from Ann Arbor

Leave an hour before your reservation. Take I-94 east. Corktown, Midtown, Eastern Market, and Southwest Detroit are all within a few miles of each other. Park once and walk. Dinner at Takoi, drinks at Sugar House next door, a walk past the old stadium site. Or brunch at Folk, pizza at Supino, a beer at Eastern Market Brewing. The restaurants are close enough that one good meal turns into two.

See our neighborhood guides for Corktown, Midtown, Southwest Detroit, Greektown, and Eastern Market.

---

Prices and menus reflect visits through early 2026 and may have changed. All restaurants listed are open as of publication.