Welcome to the NEW Detroit.

For so long, we’ve been waiting for the dining scene to pick up in our city.  With the welcoming of the Little Caesars Arena and a new (and still useless) rail system, this city is finally getting some love.

I have a love hate relationship with the restaurant scene downtown right now.  The attempted revival of old school steak houses have been sub par.  The new “trendy food” restaurants are trying waaaaay too hard to give the people something different, yet falling short on execution.

Just give us good, tasty, and reasonably priced dishes.  It doesn’t have to be trendy, or have a bunch of ingredients and cooking techniques that people can’t pronounce.  Sometimes, simple clean flavors with rustic flare is all that is needed.

Alright alright, maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned wanting simple food in this post…..but if you’re going to complicate things, at least perfect your execution.

When Michelin starred Chef Thomas Lents brilliantly decided to navigate his way to Detroit to revive our lackluster city, he did just that…perfected his execution.

Back in December, I had the pleasure of dining there for the first time with my best friend and our husbands.  Per usual, we ordered up [almost] the whole menu and were thoroughly impressed.

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Immediately from the first sip of my cocktail, I had an amazing first impression: their drinks are immaculately crafted…..boozy, tasty, and not too sweet.

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Chicken Liver Mousse: The bread and butter with black sea salt, and the added sweetness and crunchy texture of an apple….this was simply delicious.

Beet Salad: Simple, clean flavors.

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Harissa Spiced Carrot Salad: Warm, spicy, and herbaceous, the carrots were very well cooked with great contrasting flavors and textures.

Beef Tartare: flippin awesome…..do NOT hesitate to order this. It is perfectly seasoned, texturally refined with the crisp of the bread, with hints of citrus to mellow out the salt.

Squid Ink Risotto: Wow.  The texture of the rice with the developed flavors of the black ink…..and the charred, tender octopus tentacles…this was fantastic.

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Cavatelli: In case anyone as wondering, Cavatelli is my favorite pasta (next to gnocchi).  It is so rarely served anywhere, I always jump at ordering it anytime I see it on a menu.  The suckling pig ragu melts in your mouth…with pickled peppers for some spice and acid…..and the crispy pork cracklins on top just took it above and beyond.

This is EXACTLY the type of cooking we need in our city.  Rustic, simple flavors….with just a little bit of a new school flare.

Bone in Pork Chop: a frequent complaint I have about pork chops is that it dries out while cooking and ends up being super tough and flavorless.  Apparatus Room did a great job keeping the pork succulent and juicy.

Duck Breast: nomnom.  This was superb.  Crispy skin with beautiful pink, medium rare, fatty meat and a delicately salted jus; I am a sucker for duck breast, and this was magnificent.

Lake Superior Walleye: This restaurant really excels in their refinement of flavors and textures.  This fish had crispy salty skin, with flaky tender meat; the sear was gorgeous.  The speck lent some fattiness while the veggies gave it some vibrancy.

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Overall, this place was fantastic from beginning to end.  The wait staff was extremely knowledgeable, the food came out pretty fast, and the drinks were delicious!

Side note: we went for lunch during the North American International Auto Show and their lunch items are just as fabulous and magnificently tasty as their dinner!

Last but not least…
Thank you, to all my patient followers for understanding that I get caught up in everyday life and forget about this site.