Baobab Fare, San Morello, and More: Detroit Dining’s Best in 2021

The yearslong buildup for this restaurant run by a Burundian refugee couple lasted so long it almost seemed it would never happen, its opening only further delayed by the pandemic. Undaunted, and having already overcome much larger obstacles to get here, husband-and-wife duo Mamba Hamissi and Nadia Nijimbere finally debuted their love letter to Detroit in New Center last winter, serving brightly colored homestyle East African dishes out of a highly visible and stylish corner space at Woodward and E Grand Blvd.

There are no misses on the menu, from the intore, a savory vegetarian eggplant stew, to the nyumbani, a fall-apart hunk of beef simmered in tomato sauce, to the pitch-perfect ending of tangy avocado and passionfruit pudding — each dish made with a mother’s care and love. Taken together with the couple’s warm brand of heartfelt hospitality, Baobab Fare is a real winner, and our top choice.

It was a bold move, leaving the helm of a successful restaurant to strike out on their own in the midst of a pandemic. But that’s exactly what chef-couple Jennifer Jackson and Justin Tootla did when they traded their posts running the kitchen of the nationally recognized seafood restaurant Voyager to open a regional Chinese carryout spot near Eastern Market during the summer of 2020. With Bunny Bunny, Jackson and Tootla arguably made a bigger splash out the gate for their radical choices about labor — paying staff a starting wage of $18 plus tips while not taking a paycheck themselves to do so — than for their food.

But a 2021 course correction finds the pair now mining their own personal family histories for inspiration on the plate, drawing on disparate influences from India, South Africa, and the American South. That translates to dishes like Indian hot chicken, lobster biryani, curry dirty rice, and brown butter paneer. And with brunch services still limited all over town, Bunny Bunny has established itself as the chill spot to be on Sunday for Southern biscuits and whatever else two of Detroit’s most creative chefs come up with.

In October, the New York Times caught on to what in-the-know locals have been discovering since chef Ahmad Sanji and Ali Hamade opened their Lebanese breakfast hole-in-the-wall in Garden City in 2017. That is, AlTayeb, which means “the delicious,” in Arabic, over-delivers on its promise.

Debuting in early 2021, the much larger second location of AlTayeb allows chef Ahmad to stretch beyond what was possible in the original’s oversized broom closet of a cooking space. Meals begin with a bountiful plate of fresh and pickled vegetables and service so charming you’ll be swept off your feet before you even order. But things only improve once the deep bowls of creamy, ivory-hued hummus and crispy hot falafel begin to arrive. If there’s a house dish, it’s the yogurt-based fatteh with various toppings. But the coriander- and clove-spiced makanek sausages make a perfect foil for fried eggs and spicy Lebanese potatoes. Bonus points if it ends up all jumbled together between a pinch of pita. There’s no shame in eating with your hands here.

The intersection of Woodward and Jefferson may not be Fifth Ave. and Central Park South, but it’s about the closest thing to Manhattan’s Grand Army Plaza you’ll find in Detroit. Townhouse Detroit, formerly a bustling corner bistro from Heirloom Hospitality, and its flash-bulb marquee have contributed to that vibe since its debut in 2015 and even more so in 2021. With the restaurant shuttered by the pandemic for much of 2020, restaurateur Jeremy Sasson used the downtime to give the space and concept a classy facelift, replacing the brawny motif and whiskey focus with a much more elegant and understated white-tablecloth experience.

Inspired by the fashion houses of Paris and London, the new look is airy and full of blush, while the expansive bistro menu of yore has been replaced by a streamlined and upscaled modern American one. Highlights include thinly sliced A5 Miyazaki wagyu beef, served with dressed chicory and fried shallot, as well as a tomato kibbeh that has no business being this good outside of a Middle Eastern joint. As with sister restaurant Prime + Proper, desserts here shine. The Michigan cherry is both Instagram-worthy and unforgettable.

When the short-lived Magnet restaurant announced it would not be reopening following the state’s indoor dining shutdown, it seemed a foregone conclusion that such a uniquely appointed kitchen — with only a wood-burning oven and hearth as its heating elements — would require some creative reimagining, or new equipment, at the very least. But, as it turns out, what it most needed was Argentinian-born chef and former Francis Mallman protege Javier Bardauil tending the fire.

Rechristened as Barda in June, the space acts as a fitting blue-tiled canvas for the chef’s trademark style of Patagonian cooking, on full display through the smoldering glow of red neon. It’s not all big hunks of meat and smoke — Bardauil’s confident use of acid provides artful balance and energy to a genre that can quickly descend into caveman tropes. Plates appear deceptively simple. Charred zucchini ceviche arrives crowning a plate of luminescent leche de tigre. A whole crispy trout comes adorned with a tangle of lemon-soaked dill and other greens. And one of the most statement-making dishes to come out of a Detroit restaurant this year: glazed beets are cooked three times, thinly sliced, arranged into a rose — its petals dusted with raspberry powder — and then served alongside an ajo blanco sauce that doesn’t hide the garlic. The restraint on the plate belies the fireworks it sets off on the palate — bright, earthy, sweet, and sour flavors pinging all the requisite receptors. That’s Barda in one romance-inducing dish.

Call 313-952-5182 for more info.

A newcomer to the Resy fold, M Cantina finally received a liquor license in 2021 after struggling to secure one for four years. That’s big news for the Dearborn spot, considering its chef-owner is Junior Merino, once known in the mixology circles of New York as The Liquid Chef, an ambassador of Mexican culture and creator of Mexico’s first official cocktail.

Now, having amassed one of the most impressive, if not the largest, agave-based spirits selection in the state, Merino is finally able to show locals the craft cocktail skills that first put him on the map — though he and wife-partner Heidi Merino have offered ample evidence in the flavorful “Nuevo Latino” food and boozeless cocktails coming out of M Cantina the last four years.

Guests are greeted with a selection of a dozen or so squeeze bottles, each containing a complex housemade salsa, their profiles ranging from chile-infused avocado oil to creamy ghost pepper with Mexican herbs. Settle in and try Mexico’s signature cocktail — the smoky, floral El Angel — with an order of duck carnitas tacos, or the gingery Black Mamba cocktail with popcorn shrimp lettuce wraps. Ento enthusiasts will be thrilled with both the chapulines tacos and the selection of escamoles, chicatanas, chumiles, and mezcal worms that can be added to the Mexican street corn.

Named for the Norse goddess of love, Freya has been a four-year labor of love from the team behind award-winning Chartreuse Kitchen & Cocktails. Freya finds executive chef (and now partner) Doug Hewitt with an actual (and brand new) kitchen, while operator/front-of-house impresario Sandy Levine ups the ante on his team’s brand of earnest hospitality to match the tasting menu-only experience.

Only open since November, Freya has found a fervent market for its vegan tasting menu option, though the “I Eat Anything… Bring it On!” option remains most popular, its five or six courses unfolding over the course of two to three hours. Never a minimalist, Hewitt coaxes balance through the layering of flavors and textures. Beef tartare comes adorned with egg yolk, shaved celery, and crispy dehydrated salmon skin, adding both crunch and salt. Crispy little bits of grilled octopus do the same for a dish of perfectly seared scallops and apple butter, acting almost as garnish. The menu changes often and is reflective of Hewitt’s simple philosophy highlighting fresh, seasonal, top-shelf ingredients.

Pastry chef and bread baker Ben Robison gets the final word with a double-whammy of a show-stopping layered chocolate cake dessert that is somehow both vegan and gluten-free as well as a sourdough baguette to send you home with. In the early goings, Freya is certainly living up to its name.

Call 313-351-5544 for more info.

What do you get when you combine one of the area’s best French-trained pastry chefs with an up-and-coming young Dearborn chef and a seasoned quick-service operator to help tie the thread? An instant hit, if you’re the Great Commoner and its top-level team of Matt Knio, Zane Makky, and Sam Abbas.

The all-day breakfast cafe brings a youthful, sun-soaked energy to an enlivened strip of east Dearborn, offering brunch for lunch alongside a menu of soups, salads, sandwiches and sweets, peppered here and there with a little Lebanese flavor. The cultural nods are subtle, like a labneh toast with za’atar or the fact that you can get ful mudammas if you’re not feeling the French omelette. The something-for-everyone approach seems to have caught on, as a second location recently opened in Ann Arbor.

It may be hard to notice as you zoom by on Woodward, but Hazel Ravines & Downtown has become the sleeper hit of the Birmingham dining scene over the course of the pandemic thanks to its unique focus on fresh, seasonal seafood and an unfussy but well-executed approach to fine casual dining.

And while the lobster rolls and stone crab reel ‘em in, the rest of chef Emmele Herrold’s eclectic menu is more than worth exploring, most notably the khachapuri (simplified as “Georgian cheese bread” here) and some of the finest fried chicken this side of the Mason-Dixon line. Grab a bucket for the family and enjoy a well-seasoned, juicy bird covered in a light, shattering crust.

When Andrew Carmellini’s NoHo Hospitality arrived to town to run food and beverage operations at the Shinola Hotel, their arrival was met with a Detroit-sized dose of ambivalence.

But there’s no better way to earn trust than by showing up for someone when they most need you, and the flagship ground floor restaurant San Morello has done just that by remaining a consistent three-square-meal, seven-day-a-week operation amid short staffs and shrinking dining windows elsewhere. It helps that the deep, Italian-leaning wine list is among the best around, and that chef de cuisine Cory Barberio consistently puts out best-in-class wood-fired pizzas and pastas in a town with no shortage of contenders on both fronts.

Start with an order of sheep’s milk ricotta, topped with crispy garlic and hot honey and served alongside a brown paper bag of sesame-studded bread. Carmellini’s lamb meatballs are a comfort food classic almost designed to be eaten on a snowy Midwest night. Turns out the Cleveland-born chef planted his flag not so far from home.