The 10 Best Restaurants in Detroit, Michigan Right Now

“I’m so bad, I vacation in Detroit!” was a popular graphic t-shirt in the 1970s—the joke being that Detroit was once so gritty that only the truly brazen would consider it an actual travel destination. For most of the last half-century, this was more or less true. Detroit’s neglected downtown infrastructure and high crime rates weren’t conducive to tourism. But in 2018, to this Detroit native’s astonishment, The D is finally becoming a place that outsiders should want to visit.

The dining scene in particular is in the midst of a growth spurt, with native chefs returning from cities like New York and Chicago to open their own restaurants on home turf. Combine that with the mini hotel boom attacking Detroit’s prime real estate — including the newly opened Shinola Hotel—and you’ve got a slew of new reasons to visit. If you find yourself around for a long weekend, you can’t go wrong by visiting any of these ten culinary gems.