La Marsa Brings Mediterranean to the Dexter Corridor

Dexter's restaurant scene clusters on Main Street: Jolly Pumpkin, The Beer Grotto, Aubree's, 42 North. Good options, all of them. But the cuisine range tilts heavily toward American, pizza, and craft beer. La Marsa, at 7049 Dexter Ann Arbor Road, sits just outside the downtown core and fills a gap that Dexter's Main Street does not cover: Mediterranean and Middle Eastern food, served seven days a week, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.^{1Hours per the restaurant's posted schedule as of fall 2025.}

The Food

La Marsa is part of a Southeast Michigan chain that reportedly started in 2006, with locations across the metro area.^{2La Marsa's founding and expansion per the chain's own public materials; multiple Southeast Michigan locations are documented.} The Dexter location runs the same menu: grilled kebabs, house-made hummus, tabbouleh, shawarma, falafel, fattoush, grape leaves. A chicken kebab plate with rice and salad runs around $16. A lamb kebab plate is closer to $19. Hummus and pita as a starter costs $7.^{3Prices approximate as of fall 2025, based on menu observations.}

The hummus is the baseline test for a Mediterranean restaurant, and La Marsa's version is smooth, properly seasoned, with enough olive oil on top to matter. Shawarma comes stacked on pita with pickled turnip and garlic sauce, the meat shaved thin and well-spiced. Tabbouleh is heavy on the parsley in the Lebanese tradition, bright and acidic, a useful counterpoint to the grilled meats.

Breakfast is available in the morning hours, including ful medames and egg dishes that expand the menu beyond the lunch and dinner standards. Vegetarian options are plentiful. Falafel, grape leaves, hummus, baba ghanoush, and several salads give a non-meat eater more choices than the typical restaurant in this corridor provides.

The Location

The Dexter Ann Arbor Road corridor is a commercial strip that connects Dexter to Ann Arbor, and La Marsa sits in a plaza along this stretch. The location is convenient if you are driving between the two towns. It is less convenient if you are on foot in downtown Dexter, which is about a mile east. But the parking is easy, the hours are long, and the fact that it is open seven days a week gives it a reliability that some of Dexter's smaller restaurants cannot match.

The dining room is clean and functional. Tables, booths, a few framed photographs of Mediterranean landscapes. The decor does not compete with the food, which is the right approach for a restaurant where the kebabs and hummus do the talking.

What La Marsa Adds

The Dexter dining guide covers the full roster, and La Marsa's entry is notable for what it represents: cuisine diversity. A town of 4,500 people with a brewery, a BBQ joint, two pizza options, and a Mediterranean restaurant has a food scene that punches above its weight class. Ann Arbor's Mediterranean options are deeper, naturally. But Dexter residents who want kebabs and hummus on a weeknight without driving 20 minutes now have a local answer.

Open daily from 10 to 9 means La Marsa is available for a late breakfast, a quick lunch, or an early dinner. That flexibility matters in a small town where hours can be unpredictable. You do not need to check the website to see if La Marsa is open. It is.

La Marsa is at 7049 Dexter Ann Arbor Rd, Dexter. Open daily, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.