Metro Detroit's best restaurants of 2025 are led by immigrants and cultural foodways

Imagine what your favorite restaurant might look like without immigrant workers.

If the snap of your fingers vanished each foreign-born employee, what would you see? An eerily empty kitchen. Water left running by the dishwasher who spontaneously left his post. A shattered bottle dropped from the hands of the sommelier who disappeared while pouring your glass of Chardonnay and reservation pages flipped from the breeze that swept away the maître d’.

Without the immigrant restaurant operators who share their culture with us through the language of food, we might have to travel thousands of miles for a taste of Filipino breads. We’d be without the first-generation Haitian Americans bringing heat to dishes with pikliz, a spicy pickled slaw.

Some will not have to use their imagination to envision the impact the loss of immigrants would have on the restaurant industry, because on Feb. 3, roughly 100 businesses across southeast Michigan participated in a Day Without Immigrants. Dozens of restaurants closed their doors and immigrant workers took the day off in protest of the federal government's hardline stance on immigration. It was the second protest of its kind, following a Day Without Immigrants in 2017 during President Donald Trump’s first term.   

The impact of losing immigrant culinarians is immense. What we gain from them is paramount to the depth of our food system.

Metro Detroiters are proud to be a part of a melting pot of cultures and flavors. There’s a delight in our proximity to Canada and its exports like poutine. Our palates have been refined by the Levantine flavors of Dearborn and Yemeni and Bangladeshi staples in Hamtramck. We’ve become fluent in the language of tacos from lessons in Mexicantown, and can distinguish the intricacies of noodle varieties across Asian traditions. And then there's the coney. The very dish that represents Detroit on a national stage was brought to the city by a Greek immigrant.

The restaurants that have shone a spotlight on Detroit and contributed to the city’s reputation for a flourishing food scene are largely operated by immigrant chef-owners. In 2003, the Japanese chef Takashi Yagihashi was the first metro Detroiter to take home a James Beard Foundation Award in nearly 20 years. Algerian pastry chef Warda Bouguettaya would be the next, almost 20 years later, followed by Japanese chef Hajime Sato of Sozai in 2024.

Our own programs, the Detroit Free Press/Metro Detroit Chevy Dealers Restaurant of the Year and Top 10 New Restaurants and Dining Experiences list, are consistently topped with immigrant-led establishments and restaurants inspired by ethnic cuisines. In 2022, Baobab Fare took the No.1 spot. The East African restaurant is run by Hamissi Mamba and Nadia Nijimbere, the husband-and-wife duo who fled Burundi and sought asylum in Detroit.

Last year, Noori Pocha, the Korean gastropub slinging Korean fried chicken in Clawson came in at No. 2 and Alpino, with its dairy-forward menu inspired by The Alps, was named Restaurant of the Year.,

My friend and predecessor as Free Press restaurant critic Mark Kurlyandchik wrote about the immigrant community’s significance to metro Detroit’s food industry in 2020.

“So many of us were immigrants at some point along the way — and it's our beautiful cultural tapestry that makes America great,” he wrote. “Let's celebrate it.”

Five years later, we’re still celebrating.

Tomorrow, March 31, we will begin unveiling the 2025 Top 10 New Restaurants and Dining Experiences, culminating with the Restaurant of the Year on Wednesday, April 2. Of the 12 establishments being recognized, at least half are led by culinary artists who come from immigrant families. They cook with passion and generosity, each dish an act of hospitality for diners to fall in love, not only with their food, but their heritage.

Additionally, what makes our food scene so bountiful is its diversity. It’s the camaraderie between the Latin American restaurant and the Southeast Asian farmer growing its cabbage, the Caribbean restaurant and the retro diner that bring varying options to a single neighborhood.

While diversity, equity and inclusion efforts are also subject to the White House’s chainsaw, our list honors diversity in leadership, format, price point and cuisine. 

The 2025 class of honorees is largely comprised of minority-operated food businesses. They're run by women, LGBTQ+ food professionals and Black and brown cooks. 

The list is a reflection of metro Detroit’s wonderfully diverse food scene and the country’s food scene at large. It represents what's always made America great.

Stay tuned for the reveal of this year's Top 10 starting Monday, March 31.

For a chance to win five $100 gift cards to dine at restaurants on the 2025 Detroit Free Press/Metro Detroit Chevy Dealers Top 10 New Restaurants & Dining Experiences list, visit chevydetroit.com/community/giveaways/roy25.

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