Restaurants in Birmingham

Stowed inside Embassy Suites Detroit, Riparian Grille is a major part of what the hotel's website vaunts as a "distinctly delicious hotel dining experience." Seven days a week, patrons gather inside the Embassy's capacious, open-atrium dining area, where chefs plate up dishes that range from lighter lunch fare to belt-loosening dinner entrees, such as filet mignon and chicken parmesan.

Sunrays and beams from airplane passengers' laser pointers pour in through a glass-paneled ceiling, splashing across the atrium's high-backed booths and the hotel's ascending floors.

Aromas in the castle-like dining room immediately waft over diners when they visit Ollie's Lebanese Cuisine, which the Detroit News praised for authentic preparation techniques. “A baker is stationed at the bread oven visible from the dining room, constantly pulling out the puffy rounds of pita bread on a long-handled paddle. The warm bread, wrapped in sand-colored linen napkins, comes quickly to the tables to be dipped into an olive oil and za'atar dipping sauce.”

The rest of the menu also adheres to the region’s culinary traditions as chefs charbroil beef tenderloin, marinate swordfish, and repeatedly question lentils about what kind of plant they are exactly. Steam trickles from the dishes up toward the columns and faux-stone arches towering over the dining room, which includes mezzanine-level seating at the top of a pair of imposing stairways. The song of ice against glass floats from the full bar, where servers pair meals with carefully mixed cocktails and glasses of Lebanese wine. The restaurant transforms into more of a lounge on some weekend evenings to celebrate Middle Eastern culture with a lineup of live music and undulating belly dancers.

Byblos Cafe & Grill pays homage to its namesake – the city of Byblos, Lebanon – with Lebanese dishes served beneath arched doorways that recall Lebanese architecture. Ornate chandeliers, blush-hued pillars, and walls painted with faux stone surround guests as they dine on the same Mediterranean fare at both of the eatery’s two locations. Skewers hold marinated chicken and lamb while the grill leaves its imprint. Falafel is served with a side of hummus, either wrapped in a pita or stuffed, like a love letter from a short-order cook, inside a burger bun. Classic Lebanese dishes, from meat shawarma to grape leaves, also arrive in the form of a toasted wrap.

While some places focus on specialty entrees, the chefs at Detroit’s Finest Soul Food focus on satisfying customers with a whole meal. That’s why they join each entree with a slice of corn bread and a choice of two sides—such as fresh-picked collard greens, mac 'n' cheese made with five cheeses, or spaghetti. They make their meals fresh daily and center them around a chosen cut of meat, such as a slice of hearty meatloaf or chicken in a choice of white meat, dark meat, or barbecue. They often finish meals on a sweet note with crumbly peach cobbler or banana pudding. They also use their grill skills to create half- and full-sized pans of their dishes for weddings, barbecues, and LAN parties.

The kitchen crew at Sahara Mediterranean Grill shaves tender layers of their popular chicken shawarma from the spit of a traditional vertical broiler, helping them earn the title of Detroit’s Best Middle Eastern restaurant from Local 4 viewers in summer 2011. Vegetarian options range from a falafel sandwich to the smoothly textured adas lentil soup, with beans that chefs carefully crush with an announcement that none of them made their high school’s baseball team. The menu also includes house specialties such as the potato chop—seasoned beef stuffed inside a golden-brown, deep-fried potato shell.

Sips from specialty drinks and smoky hookahs add a sweeter dimension to meals as diners perch on dark hardwood seating. The furnishings contrast visually with butter-yellow walls on which murals appear to emerge from behind crumbling stone.

Filippa’s Wine Barrel

At Filippa’s Wine Barrel, seasoned chefs pay homage to the melting pot of American cuisine with a menu of seafood and steak-house cuisine created from seasonal ingredients from local sources whenever possible. A bounty of fruit de mer dishes range from southern shrimp casserole steeped in rich mascarpone to South African lobster tail. A large, rotating wine list includes pours from local Michigan wineries, as well as French burgundies and Napa Valley reds. Diners tuck into the upscale eats inside cozy, horseshoe-shaped booths or sup al-fresco on the patio surrounded by a lush landscape of high grasses, the gurgling of a small pond, and the soft, lilting melodies of an opera-singing garden gnome.