Detroit-style pizza, Coney dogs, paczki and the Eastern Market.
Detroit eats off four immigrant waves and one industrial pantry. Greek diners on Lafayette Boulevard built the Coney dog around 1917 when William and Gust Keros opened American Coney and Lafayette Coney next to each other downtown. Gus Guerra at Buddy's Rendezvous on Six Mile and Conant pressed the first square Detroit-style pizza into a forge-blue steel pan in 1946; the crispy cheese-edge style is now national. Polish Hamtramck still bakes paczki in volume on Fat Tuesday at New Palace Bakery and serves pierogi at Polish Village Cafe. Dearborn, with the largest Arab-American population in the US, anchors the city's Lebanese kitchens at Al Ameer and Shatila Bakery on Warren Avenue. Mexicantown along Bagley and West Vernor runs taquerias and Honey Bee Market for tortillas. Eastern Market on Russell Street has hosted the Saturday produce row since 1891. Sanders Confectionery opened on Woodward in 1875 and gave Detroit the hot fudge cream puff and bumpy cake; Vernors ginger ale, first served in 1866, became the Boston cooler base.
Every restaurant, cafe, market and bar we cover in Detroit, pinned. Click a pin for the page.
The plates that define eating in Detroit.
Detroit-style pizza is square, deep-dish and baked in blue-steel rectangular pans first used at Buddy's Rendezvous in 1946. Crispy cheese-edge crust, sauce on top.
Where: Buddy's Pizza, Cloverleaf Pizza, Loui's Pizza, Niki's Pizza
The Coney dog is a Detroit hot dog topped with chili-style meat sauce, yellow mustard and chopped raw onion, served on a steamed bun. Greek immigrant invention.
Where: Lafayette Coney Island, American Coney Island
Paczki are round Polish doughnuts filled with prune, rose-hip jam or custard and dusted in icing sugar or glazed. Eaten by the thousand on Fat Tuesday in Hamtramck.
Where: New Palace Bakery, Srodek's Campau Quality Sausage
A Boston cooler is Vernors ginger ale poured over vanilla ice cream and stirred into a thick float, often served in a chilled glass with a long spoon.
Where: American Coney Island, Lafayette Coney Island
Bumpy cake is a Detroit chocolate cake with parallel ridges of buttercream piped on top, then covered in a dark chocolate ganache that flows around the bumps.
A Detroit slider is a small thin griddled beef patty with chopped onion and mustard on a soft white slider bun. Cheaper than coney dogs and eaten by the half-dozen.
Where: Telway Hamburgers, Green Dot Stables
Lebanese shawarma in Dearborn is a stacked spit of marinated chicken or lamb shaved into pita with garlic sauce (toum), pickles and a hot pepper if you ask.
Where: Al Ameer, Sahara Restaurant, La Pita Mediterranean
Polish pierogi are filled dumplings, half-moons of soft dough wrapped around potato, cabbage, cheese or meat, boiled then optionally pan-fried in butter.
Where: Polish Village Cafe, Srodek's Campau Quality Sausage
Sanders hot fudge cream puff is a choux pastry split, filled with vanilla ice cream and topped with warm Sanders hot fudge sauce. The Michigan birthday dessert.
Yemeni lamb mandi is rice cooked with whole spices under a sealed pot of slow-roasted lamb, served on a communal platter with tomato salsa and warm flatbread.
Where: Yemen Cafe
Detroit Greektown's signature theatre dish: a thick slab of Kasseri cheese dredged in flour, pan-fried golden, doused in brandy and ignited tableside with a shouted Opa. Eaten with lemon and torn pita.
Where: Pegasus Taverna, Astoria Pastry Shop
Where to eat Greektown Saganaki (Flaming Kasseri) in Detroit →
Detroit's defining soda: a deep-aged ginger ale James Vernor barreled in 1862, served from his Woodward Avenue pharmacy in 1866, vanilla-and-spice deep from 4 years in oak. Served straight or in a Boston Cooler.
Where: Astoria Pastry Shop, Eastern Market, Pegasus Taverna
A handful of the places we send friends to when they are in Detroit.
Selden Standard on 2nd Avenue has anchored Cass Corridor seasonal cooking in Detroit since November 2014. Located in Midtown. Priced at $$$.
Signature: Wood-fired vegetables, Hand-cut pasta
Takoi on Michigan Avenue in Corktown serves modern Thai cooking in Detroit since March 2016. Order the crispy rice salad and the whole-fried fish with herbs.
Signature: Crispy rice salad, Whole-fried fish
San Morello inside the Shinola Hotel on Woodward serves Southern Italian wood-fired cooking in Detroit. Located in Downtown. At 1400 Woodward Ave.
Signature: Wood-fired pizza, House-made pasta
The Apparatus Room inside the Detroit Foundation Hotel on Larned Street serves New American cooking in a converted 1929 firehouse. Open since 2017.
Signature: Half chicken, House pasta
Marrow in the Market on Riopelle Street is the Eastern Market butcher-and-brasserie concept from Ping Ho's Marrow Hospitality Group. Priced at $$$$.
Signature: Dry-aged steak, Whole animal cuts
Wright & Company on the second floor of the Wright-Kay Building on Woodward serves James Beard-nominated composed small plates in Detroit. Open since 2014.
Signature: Burrata plate, Lamb meatballs
Woodward Avenue and the Belt alley spine. Standby cocktail bar, San Morello in the Shinola Hotel, Lafayette and American Coney face off at Lafayette Boulevard.
Best for: Cocktails, Coney dogs, Italian, Brunch
The cultural and college spine north of downtown. Selden Standard, Avalon Cafe and Bakery, Wayne State, the DIA. Cass Avenue and Woodward run the main editorial line.
Best for: New American, Cafes, Bakeries, Wine bars
The Saturday produce market since 1891. Six covered sheds on Russell Street and Riopelle, Supino Pizzeria and Anthology Coffee anchor the food-hall sprawl seven days a week.
Best for: Markets, Pizza, Coffee, Saturday brunch
Detroit's oldest neighborhood, west of downtown on Michigan Avenue. Slows Bar BQ, Takoi, Folk, Batch Brewing, Sugar House cocktails. The old Tiger Stadium site anchors the strip.
Best for: Barbecue, Cocktails, Thai, Cafes
Bagley Street between 18th and Vinewood, plus West Vernor Highway. Mexican Village since 1958, Taqueria El Rey, El Asador and Honey Bee Market anchor the strip.
Best for: Mexican, Tacos, Markets, Late night
An independent city inside Detroit, founded Polish, now Bangladeshi and Yemeni. Joseph Campau is the spine: New Palace Bakery paczki, Polish Village Cafe pierogi, Yemen Cafe lamb mandi.
Best for: Polish, Bangladeshi, Yemeni, Paczki
Peak food season: June to October for Eastern Market and Michigan produce. Cherry harvest in early July, sweet corn late July, apples in September. Paczki Day on Fat Tuesday in February or early March. Restaurant Week runs spring and fall. The Detroit Lions Thanksgiving Game is the city's social food day.
Local dining hours: Lunch 11:30-14:00. Dinner 17:30-22:00, last seating often 21:30. Downtown, Greektown and Corktown run later kitchens to 23:00 on weekends; coney islands and Telway are 24 hours. Sunday brunch peaks 10:00-14:00 in West Village, Corktown and Eastern Market.
Tipping: Tip 18 to 22 percent on the pre-tax total at sit-down restaurants. Counters and bars get $1 to $2 per drink or 18 to 20 percent. Tasting menus at Mabel Gray and Marrow add service automatically; check the bill before adding more. Coney island counters are cash-friendly with light tips.
Detroit's signature dishes include Detroit-style pizza, Coney dog, Paczki, Boston cooler, Bumpy cake. See our signature dishes chapter for where to eat each.
TableJourney editors map Detroit by district. Downtown, Midtown and Cass Corridor, Eastern Market, Corktown are among the strongest for food, each with its own guide.
Editor picks in Detroit include Mabel Gray, Marrow in the Market, Prime + Proper, plus the full fine dining chapter on TableJourney.
TableJourney covers 4 editor-picked food tours in Detroit, with what each shows you and how much to budget.
TableJourney's Detroit dietary chapter covers vegan, vegetarian, gluten_free, halal venues, each editor-picked with what to order and how to ask.