We’re getting hungry just thinking about these memorable dishes.
Aunt Dotty Oysters, served at Mabel Gray, Otus Supply, and other fine metro Detroit restaurants
See our feature, “In search of Detroit’s best oysters”
The complex Aunt Dotty oysters from Massachusetts’ Island Creek Oyster company hold meaty little nuggets that start off briny, then throw a mineral punch that concludes with a somewhat bitter note. It’s a fascinating progression. The Dotty is among the many fine oysters that the city’s bivalve purveyors are sourcing from Island Creek in Duxbury Bay, which some call the Napa Valley of the oyster trade. —Tom Perkins
Bistecca con chimichurri at Rincon Tropical
6538 Michigan Ave., Detroit; 313-334-8526
Rincon Tropical’s bistecca con chimichurri is a sheet-thin strip of slightly fatty, chewy, griddle-charred skirt steak that’s salty and acidic from adobo and sofrito. The steak is served next to a mound of rice with gandules and more acidic punch from green olives. Cover that in Rincon’s chimichurri, which is composed of vinegar, parsley, oregano, garlic, salt, pepper, and more, and rack your brain to think of a better plate in Detroit. As a bonus, it’s served in a Puerto Rican nightclub. —Tom Perkins
Fox Hollow Farm Pizza at The Bricks
15201 Kercheval Ave, Grosse Pointe Park; 313-925-3430; thebrickspizzeria.com
The Bricks kitchen pulls many of its ingredients off the land at the farm it owns north of metro Detroit, and those are on display in the excellent Fox Hollow Farm egg pizza with red sauce, mozzarella, pancetta, red onion, and a fried egg that’s dusted with dried Hungarian pepper from Detour spices. The gooey egg yolk mixes well with the salty, fatty pancetta — essentially Italian bacon — and red onion. The salt-acid-smoke combination over the sour background from Bricks’ sourdough, Neapolitan-style crust is what makes it. This pie stood out in a year full of a lot of new pizza in and around Detroit. —Tom Perkins
Brown Stew Chicken at Delphine’s Jamaican Restaurant
14377 E. Nine Mile Rd., Warren; 586-217-5000
Is there a better Jamaican dish than brown stew chicken? No. And Delphine’s, the new-ish Jamaican spot in Warren, does an excellent take. The bird is caramelized in what likely includes browning sauce and brown sugar, then slow-cooked in a marinade. Delphine’s chef said she adds onion, tomato, thyme, allspice, pimento, scallions, and Scotch bonnet peppers at various points. It’s super tender and slides right off the bone. Jamaican Pot’s brown stew chicken made the MT year-end list last year, and we’re hoping there’s more brown stew chicken to put on 2020’s year-end list. —Tom Perkins
Black Shell Puttanesca at the Shinola Hotel
1400 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-356-1400; shinolahotel.com
Perhaps the best of a menu full of excellent plates at Shinola’s San Morello restaurant is the black shells puttanesca, which arrives with big, sweet pink shrimp and small rings of tender calamari amid a perfectly salty mix of shells, sweet cherry tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, chili, white wine, anchovy, arugula, and bread crumbs with dehydrated olives, capers, and anchovy that provides a textural contrast. It’s a masterpiece, even if it’s made in the Shinola Hotel. —Tom Perkins
Porcini-Mushroom soup at Savant
51 W. Forest Ave., Detroit; 313-285-9294; savantmidtown.com
One of the city’s top new restaurants is Savant, and though it’s a tight contest, there’s no missing the porcini-parmesan soup. Half the fun is the presentation. A server brings a bowl holding only salt-roasted rutabaga, parsnip puree, pea tendrils, and fresh shaved parmesan. The soup arrives separately, and is poured into the bowl. The umami-heavy soup is made with fresh and dried porcinis, along with whole button mushrooms and shiitake, and the stock is reduced with cream, shallots, and sherry vinegar. That’s all hit with matsutake shoyu, which gives it even more of an umami burst. —Tom Perkins
Steak and Eggs at Karl’s Diner
1509 Broadway St., Detroit; 313-855-2757; karlsdetroit.com
It would seem on the surface that Lady of the House chef Kate Williams dialed it down a bit for her new diner concept in downtown Detroit’s Wurlitzer Building, but a more informal setting doesn’t mean a drop in quality. The steak and eggs are a simple dish, but built on Karl’s excellent sourcing. The giant plate filled with two eggs and super tender and tasty teres major beef from west Michigan’s Cover Crop Ranch, and it’s likely the highest quality steak that you’ll find next to a pair of sunny-side-up eggs. The dish is filled out with a generous helping of fried redskin potatoes and a milk gravy made with sweet Vidalia onion, roux, rosemary, cayenne, and a finish of sweet sherry. —Tom Perkins
New branzino at Zao Jun
6608 Telegraph Rd., Bloomfield Twp.; 248-949-9999; zaojunnewasian.com
Zao Jun’s new branzino is composed of delicate tabs of raw fish that are adorned with a paper-thin slice of crunchy jalapeño and microgreens. That sits in an intensely flavorful pool of truffle ponzu with shallots, garlic, and brightening yuzu. The recipe is nearly the same as that in the hamachi at Adachi, where Zao Jun chef Lloyd Roberts also runs the show. (Adachi’s hamachi made the year-end last year!) Roberts says he decided to switch to branzino at Zao Jun because some Michiganders didn’t like the hamachi’s fat. —Tom Perkins
Agnolotto at Besa
600 Woodward Ave, Detroit; 313-315-3000; besadetroit.com
Besa is an awesome new-ish restaurant deep in downtown Detroit. There’s been a regime change in the kitchen since MT reviewed it, but the agnolotto was the old kitchen’s best offering. Agnolotto is the singular form of agnolotti, a cousin of ravioli. The plate holds one long agnolotto tube that’s covered with emulsified marrow and stuffed with housemade ricotta that’s mixed with microthyme, citrus, and cream cheese. The dough is flavored with pastrami spice, which is sweet from the brown sugar, and the emulsified marrow is made with apple vinegar reduction and cream. The agnolotto comes under three small bunches of wild mushrooms, and the entire plate is dusted with pastrami spice. —Tom Perkins
Döner kebab at Balkan House
3028 Caniff St., Hamtramck; 313-262-6234; balkanhouse-restaurant.business.site
No restaurant and menu item blew up this year quite like Balkan House’s döner kebab. It deserved the praise. The döner’s lepinja bread is like a puffier, lighter, and softer pita, and Balkan House stuffs the pocket with salty, somewhat greasy, and thinly cut kebab meat that’s the pre-cut gyro variety, not sliced from a spit. The lamb and beef is counterbalanced with fresh slices of crunchy cucumber, white onion, red cabbage, shredded lettuce, and tomato slices. But owner Juma Ekic says the sauce is really what makes or breaks a döner. She uses a very garlicky Greek yogurt-based condiment and ladles it on thick, hits it with a dusting of sour sumac, and sends out of the kitchen a döner so packed that its contents nearly bust out of the lepinja. —Tom Perkins
Carrot tagine at Warda Pâtisserie, inside Trinosophes
1464 Gratiot Ave., Detroit; 248-795-3026; trinosophes.com
The bold, bright, and curiosity-inducing flavors in this North African stew were the most unusual I encountered this year. They were created, by Algerian-born chef-owner Warda Bouguettaya, by adding turmeric, ginger, and sumac to vivid carrots and Castelvetrano green olives. Turmeric and ginger is a usual Algerian combination, Bouguettaya said, but the sumac was her idea. The sauce blends tahini with pomegranate molasses. —Jane Slaughter
Double-fired meats at Shark’s BBQ
4845 Rochester Rd, Troy;248-250-6412; sharksbbqtroy.com
To achieve the perfect juicy texture for beef brisket and pork shoulder, Louai Sharkas designed his enormous outside fire pits himself and burns oak and cherry in them — no gas or electricity. The meat is injected with nothing, just rubbed with salt, pepper, and a little garlic. He fires the meat for six hours, lets it sit overnight, and then re-fires for four hours more, always adjusting for wind, cold, and freshness of the wood. Though there is a sauce, the emphasis is where it should be, on the meat: pulled pork of creamy, melt-in-mouth fattiness and brisket with a little tangy crust. The two-meat plate or the tasting plate is the way to go. —Jane Slaughter
Pork ribs or carne en su jugo at La Posada
1930 Springwells St., Detroit; 313-841-1690; laposadadetroit.com
It’s the tomatillo-based green sauce that lifts these ordinary meats into delectableness. “Meat in its juice” is morsels of steak stewed with tomatillos, bacon, jalapeños, onions, garlic, and cilantro. Pork ribs, also cut up but with bones left on, come in that same mouth-watering sauce. —Jane Slaughter
Plum salad at Smith and Co.
644 Selden St, Detroit; 313-974-7100; smithandcodetroit.com
Roasted pears were substituted the night I was there, instead of sugar-seared plums, but I’m not fussing — this was the year’s best salad. Arugula is the base, and rye croutons, award-winning Driftless fresh sheep’s cheese from Wisconsin, smoked black pepper, pickled onions, and miso-candied walnuts lift the fruit and the greens. All these ingredients would have been fine just plain, but note how extra steps were taken to enhance each one. The vinaigrette is applied with the correct light touch. —Jane Slaughter
Ginger curry chickpeas at Yum Village
6500 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-334-6099; yumvillage.com
The chickpeas at this Afro-Caribbean spot are lightly fried in vegetable oil and then tossed with chef-owner Godwin Ihentuge’s curry mix (available bottled to take home). Next the little darlings are tossed with agave syrup perked up by a little rosemary and thyme, and finally they’re topped with a version of pico de gallo that involves coriander and cumin. They’re slightly crusty without, creamy within — an enticing mouth-feel as well as an intriguing blend of flavors. —Jane Slaughter
Oyster mushrooms at Magnet
4842 Grand River Ave., Detroit; 313-656-2640; magnetdetroit.com
These delicately sea-flavored beauties are smoky — which makes sense in a restaurant where everything is wood-fired — in a koji stock. Mushrooms are umami factories anyway, but koji, the traditional Japanese ingredient behind sake and soy sauce, multiplies the effect. The texture is velvet. This dish gives vegetarians — who are already supremely happy at Magnet — even more reason to thumb their noses at meat. —Jane Slaughter
Aguacates de Mexico, a margarita at Peso Bar
2547 Bagley St, Detroit; 313-974-6197; pesobardetroit.com
This is one of 20 margaritas designed by owner-manager Eddie Vargas and using the bar’s house-brand super-smooth tequila, Cabresto. Co-owner Tony Lopez’s family has an agave finca in Jalisco and gets the juice distilled into tequila there. Aguacates de Mexico features puréed avocado and Triple Sec, so it’s creamy and silky, with none of that tequila gasoline essence. The red band of tajin (chili, lime, and salt) is placed around just one side of the glass, so you can change your experience from sip to sip. —Jane Slaughter
Salt-and-vinegar wings at The Charlevoix
14927 Charlevoix St., Grosse Pointe Park; 313-458-8448; thecharlevoix.com
The white crust is strange-looking, I’ll admit, but get past it for meaty, succulent twice-cooked wings with a tart bite and crisp skin. They’re cured for 48 hours in a salt-sugar mix, then dredged with potato starch, fried only part-way done, and popped in the freezer. Going straight from the freezer to the deep-fryer makes them crisper, says the chef, but it’s the juxtaposition of tang and juiciness that makes these a winner. —Jane Slaughter
Strawberry shortcake at Table in the Fort Street Galley
160 W. Fort St., Detroit; 313-230-0855; fortstreetgalley.org
Sometimes-fancy soul food is the theme here, so chef Phil Milton macerates fresh berries in sugar and Grand Marnier. He makes pound cake with cream cheese and lemon and cuts it bite-size, whips up scads of cream with a vanilla bean, adds more fresh berries, folds everything gently together, and serves it in a Mason jar. The result is the best dessert of the summer. —Jane Slaughter
‘Bagley Chorizo’ deep-dish pizza at Michigan & Trumbull
1441 W. Elizabeth St., Detroit; michiganandtrumbull.pizza
The chefs keep the preparation strictly traditional but play a bit with the toppings. Cheese sprinkled around the margins of the deep blue pans creates the required crisp edge. The housemade chorizo is like uber-chorizo: more red wine vinegar flavor, more paprika, cumin, and oregano. The cheese is mozzarella and the sauce is cilantro-ranch; pink pickled onions are sprinkled on top. —Jane Slaughter
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This article appears in Dec 25-31, 2019.
