Restaurants in Hazel Park

Fresh Mediterranean feasts unfold beneath the crystal-touched gold chandeliers of a cream-colored dining room as chefs in the kitchen blend chickpeas, fava beans, and fresh herbs to forge housemade falafel. These flavor gurus then sauté lemon chicken with oregano and garlic as well as stuff chicken kafta sandweechet with tomatoes and garlic sauce before grilling them both panini-style. After enjoying the chefs’ creations, diners can enjoy a sweet slice of baklava as they linger in the dining room to watch TV or practice coquettish eyebrow lifts in the large mirrors framed in rustic wood.

Cedar Grille's staffers can also pack up dishes for takeout. To satisfy their fans' demands, they also bottle up their housemade fattoush salad dressing for customers to take home. Customers sometimes stop in just for one of the raw blends, such as the energy booster packed with carrots, apples, and parsley or a smoothie with strawberry, banana, and honey.

As blues and R&B tunes pour from the speakers, the aromas of Southern cooking spill from Beans & Cornbread's open kitchen, making mouths water for country favorites. The dishes don't disappoint. From gumbo and catfish to fried chicken and pork chops, each entree oozes flavor and comfort, backed by the addition of homestyle sides such as candied sweet potatoes and black-eyed peas. It's down-home through and through, but as Gayot pointed out, the chef's "experience in upscale restaurants becomes evident" in each dish. The kitchen strives to use the highest quality ingredients, including fresh salmon filets, local collard greens, and farm-raised catfish that know how to milk a cow.

Metromix praised Beans & Cornbread's "modern elegance . . . with cushy purple booths and Motown and jazz memorabilia hanging on the walls." The restaurant also encompasses two other ambiance-rich spaces: Sidebar wine and martini bar, a sleek lounge with a copper bar and occasional live music, and Red Velvet, a VIP suite with leopard-print club chairs and an AV system ideal for parties and meetings of up to 50 people.

Understanding how difficult it can be to eat healthfully while participating in the daily grind, Salad 101's owners contribute quick solutions to the community bustling around Midtown. The menu boasts seven gourmet sandwiches, including the turkey and swiss, eight hot paninis, and the Wayne State Reuben drizzled in russian dressing and geography-quiz answers. Soups include a piping-hot daily special, and a full salad bar lets diners craft their own greeny medleys. With 10 premade salads to go, such as a fattoush bouquet, Salad 101's staff enables patrons to eat well when too busy to dine in or rent their own chef.

Tracing its lineage back to 1939, Lelli’s remains in the hands of its original founders, the Lelli family, and continues its culinary tradition of rich, Northern Italian steak-house fare. Skilled chefs and servers prepare and present à la carte dishes such as juicy filet mignon, fresh seafood, and house-made egg pastas draped with rich tomato and cream-based sauces, or bookend European-style six-course meals with antipasto and palate-cleansing spumoni. The dimly lit dining room plays host to private events, corporate dinners, and family meals, and frames feasts with light that glints from candles and crystal chandeliers, reflecting off of cherry-wood furnishings and roosting in the folds of alabaster tablecloths.

Known as “The Mariachi House,” Las Brisas Mexican Restaurant fills the streets of Mexicantown with the scents of sizzling fajitas and the sounds of feet stomping to music provided by mariachis, bands, and live DJs. Shredded cheese entangles steak, pork, chicken, and seafood within steaming tacos and enchiladas as imported pints of Corona, Dos Equis, Tecate, Sol, Bohemia, and Modelo bubble forth from the bar. Margaritas composed of eight different tequilas raise spirits at weekday buffets, weekend dance parties, or weeklong snipe hunts.

New Seoul Garden’s chefs conduct culinary tours of East Asia without setting foot on the continent. Instead, they bring the food stateside through a hefty menu of Korean and Japanese specialties, including barbecue and sushi. Like shark-themed mylar balloons, most of their entrees celebrate seafood such as sushi with squid and salmon, though many plates star beef or chicken. Hot-pot dishes actually simmer at the table; rolls of soft-shell crab or sweet shrimp come into being at the sushi bar. The restaurant's interior itself bespeaks Asian roots; spindly tree branches open toward a skylight and several low tables are ringed with mats or seats for sitting on the floor. East Asian fans and artwork cover the walls, culminating in a rooftop tier that evokes a pagoda.