Tiffany T.'s Profile

Cafe con Leche is a charming new coffee shop across from Clark Park on the southwest side. It's not pretentious, and it's a great local business stepping it up in this thriving (for Detroit, positively teaming with people!) close-knit neighborhood.

The interior is comfortable, with community-created art. No fancy tricks here.

Coffee prices are really great, that is, on the low-end. Avoid mochas here as they're made from Hershey's syrup which is a cardinal coffee sin. Tea is limited to a few low-quality options.  Brewed coffee is just fine, as are lattes, though they've got less syrups on hand than some shops. Mexican hot chocolate and a few flavors of Jarritos add at least a little Mexican flair.

They've got ridiculously tempting sweets on display up front, too. So here's what's up. You grab a friend, come down to Mexicantown, and get some coffee and a slice of cake. Viva local business!

Wifi is free with purchase. Open 8 am to 8 pm Monday through Friday and 10 am to 6 pm Saturday and Sunday.

Nestled behind the Michigan Citizen office (a bad-ass Black newspaper), newly opened Le Petit Zinc is accordingly bad-ass.

The dining area is very intimate and bright. The food - french staples - is solid. The goat cheese crepe is really good. The lattes are cheap - for $3 you get a steaming coffee in a huge, handle-less mug. Fresh espresso is $2. The menu is reasonably priced. Sandwiches come with actual greens. Delightful.

Cash only for the moment, and our receipt was written on notebook paper, but a great lunch spot--assuming you can get a seat once this place heats up.

Sala Thai has a welcoming cool atmosphere with lovely raised-platform booths. On Russel, near Eastern Market, it's one of the Detroit city staples for decent but probably not the best Thai you've ever had. Before last night, I would recommend it readily.
Then I was served the most disgusting sushi platter I've ever had. In fact, it gets the worst meal of all time award.
Just don't order their sushi specialty rolls. If you do not heed this advice, my stomach-churning experience will be for naught. We ordered the Sala Thai Crunch roll, a shrimp tempura roll, and the Bagel roll (avocado, cream cheese, salmon).
The Sala Thai Crunch roll came out completely covered in mayonnaise.
MAYONNAISE. ALL OVER IT.
On top of the mayo, there was a ketchup-y looking sauce.
For some reason, we soldiered on. My dining partner ate a piece and, trying not to gag, stopped eating. Having never seen him halt mid-meal, I was very curious. So, I tried a piece.
It was huge, and sloppy, with two huge crunchy pieces of artichoke and a huge piece of Krab, even scrapping all the mayo off, it was soaked throughout the roll, combining in with everything.
We started talking about the roll, but then realized that we were both very close to puking. We didn't discuss the roll until our stomachs settled nearly 1 hour later.
Being the easy going gal I am, I would still go back. The Thai food smelled good, and the other diners seemed happy. I am a glutton for punishment.

When I first moved to Detroit, Duly's was a novelty. No-back round red stools line the bar, in a tiny, narrow space on Vernor right off of Junction. We pulled up to the bar and ordered what is possibly the worst coffee I've had in Detroit, the kind that can't really be brewed from beans, rather a syrup. If you want milk, you get it ladled in from a milk crevice in the food prep counter. It's delightful, still. I can't really come to terms why I might crave a Duly's coffee...maybe it's the atmosphere? It helps if you consider it something different than coffee - like a warm, brown drink. Mmm...brown drink.

Food is cheap-Coney-bar cheap. A few bucks will get you a coney, or eggs, hasbrowns, and toast. It may be smoky, there may be cantankerous customers, but the folks behind the counter are usually fun in a gruff sort of way.

I recommend choosing Duly's when you've done everything else in the city, are in a bad mood, and want an adventure to shake things up. Bring a friend to have some sort of crazy conversation to mark the occasion. Politics, like I chose, or maybe current events. Or legos. Just have fun.

Street parking on Vernor is a gamble depending on what's going on and what time of day.

Bring cash.

Outside the traditional stomping grounds of Mexicantown on Michigan Ave on the way to Dearborn, if you know Senor Lopez, you know the Senor (and he's often there during the day).

$3.50 lunch specials. Three very important words. I work within walking distance, and the thought of Senor Lopez pulling out of the 'hood makes me want to cry. So, please go there.

The chips and salsa are always fresh, and the hot salsa has a roasted flavor that I haven't tasted elsewhere. What's most important to me, and my vegan friends, is that their beans are whole. Yummy, fat, whole beans swimming in sauce. Not everyone's thing, maybe, but perfect to me.

Horchata's usually available, Jamaica, once in awhile. Lopez has a liquor license, with Tecate and Dos Equis in bottles and Tequila tucked away somewhere.

The dinner prices hover lazily around $5-$7, and you will be full if you don't take something home, you dirty, dirty pig.

Best of all, this is not the place for the cheese on everything heart-attack Mexican served up to Gringos like me. The menu is simple, ingredients simple, and it's all simply good.

Open to 11pm most nights. Go try, I dare. Avoid the 1 pm to 2 pm hour, there aren't that many tables and I'll be real mad if you take my spot.

I give Como's an immediate 4-star for being gay friendly and having Italian food. I'm a fat queer, it's just how it's got to be. There are rules.

Details, you say?

Como's pizza and pasta dishes have never disappointed me on their own, in fact I've really enjoyed everything I've ordered--until it comes to the bill. Especially when you're sitting in a plastic chair, eating on a plastic table, and sipping wine out of a plastic cup, it's really irritating to pay Como's prices.

I took my sister, fresh to metro Detroit, to Como's last summer and got hit with a $5 charge on our bill. I asked the waitstaff who sassily said it was a charge to cover the increasing cost of cheese, which was listed on the menu. The notice was completely unreadable, of course. Sister was not impressed, coming from a small-town where paying more than $20 for a pie and pop is uber frou frou. Oh, her frown! It bore into me!

I'm saving all my Como's bucks for summertime, when the spacious patio is open, which is really fun, and has been the spot of me re-finding my "I love Detroit (er...Ferndale)" energy when I'm down.

Women's night first Wednesday also a draw for the girl-loving-girls in your life. Get there early, I've never seen so many ladies in one spot!

My first time at Mudgies, I was real pissed. Real pissed that I wasn't already a regular. Everyone's doing sandwiches, but this place is doing them in a way that forces you to remember them. This would be better weighted if I could remember the name of the thought-provoking vegetarian sandwich I had, of course. But names don't matter, taste does.

My dining partner and I shared a turkey salad, quite possibly my favorite salad in Detroit proper. Real greens, a salad for people who actually like salads.

The dining room is small, cozy, with mostly two-tops. The main feature is a fully-stocked cooler of hard to find sodas and juices, which with all of its colors and new or nostalgic labels, pleased me, even if I usually avoid drinking them.

The waitstaff was nice and perfunctory, though overly-busy during lunch rush.

The Fudgie Mudgie, a fresh and warm brownie made on a waffle griddle was novel but dry taken to-go. This is definitely an in-house, with ice cream, treat.

Prices were good, menu varied, decor fun. A solid five-star, and worth the trip into the back-streets of Detroit's Corktown.

Call for hours, I'm hearing rumors this once lunch-only place is now open for dinner--I wonder what they're serving?

Located in such a sleepy town, Lil' Chef pretty much has the corner on the diner market, being the only 24-hour joint around. Just the smell of the place reminds me of college. If a sociologist wanted to study the late-night habits of the Midwestern small-town college student, grab a plate at Lil' Chef.

Coffee comes in brown urns left on your table, which you pour into old-school heavy brown mugs and drink with the abandonment of youth, unconcerned, thus far, of the negative effects so much caffeine will have on you at 3 am.

Regular working folks dig the joint, but so do the students and geeks pouring over homework or sci-fi novels and so do all the frat-boy drunks, who sometimes fight and have to leave.

This is a restaurant, so food reviews might be in order, but like a previous reviewer said, you already know what's on the menu and how it tastes. Diner. Burgers, breakfast, fries.

And speaking of the fries, I'm still not sure how this is possible, but Lil' Chef has the best fries I've ever had. This is not a nostalgic reward, it's objectively true that the fries are perfectly crisp.

I can't get anyone to go with me anymore when I visit, "Ew...Lil' Chef?!?", but I still want to pull in. And I might, next visit. I'll sit with the nerds and read a long book into the middle of the night and revel in the Midwest.

I echo the previous reviews that Red Star's main pull for me is a full menu made vegetarian with mock beef and chicken--a real treasure in metro Detroit.

Red Star's medium-sized dining area is hardly ever full, and whoa, the carpet makes my head spin. It's homey, if you come from a real tacky home like me. Ambiance is not a pull for this restaurant--I bet takeout is big business. And what Chinese joints offer smoking? These are my people.

Prices are a bit on the high side for this cheapskate, though portions are full, and include thoughtful vegetable-turned-flower garnish. Again, I've never tried their traditional meat dishes, but the vegetarian EVERYTHING is amazing. A must-do, regardless of anything else I say.

I went to Red Star this week, but unfortunately, walked out without ordering. A huge group of rowdy young guys, whom we were seated next to, were harassing and demeaning the female server (nothing like hearing a 20-something boy use the word "toots" to an older woman while they all snicker).

We walked out furious at the punks, wondering what we could have done. The always-friendly guy working the front apologized and said their parents were friends, which made the whole situation worse. If you own a restaurant and feed your friend's kids in huge groups, get some respect for your staff and make sure they don't run off customers.

I will be back for fake-meat goodness, but only once I'm done being pissed, which will be awhile.

I admit I wasn't pumped about Woodbridge from the get-go, too absorbed with assumptions that another mostly-white hipster place was gonna go up (in this case, real close to Wayne State on a slow strip of Trumbull, near the Woodbridge neighborhood). The food would be overpriced, the clientele 21 and would know way more about indie rock than me. But, I'd reluctantly like it and keep it in my tier 2 stack of Detroit proper restaurants.

All true.

I love the deep bar of dark, shiny wood. A simple thing, but it's a really relaxing way to grab a bite. The food is $8-$9 for that 'sandwich I could of made a home' fare, but solidly good. The BBLT is bacon-y goodness. The bread is thick and huge, and the sandwiches are grilled and...greasy. I was wiping my hands after every bite of this gigantic sandwich, a fun part of the experience.

Service has never been quick, just showing up as the "where's our food?" worry lines showed up.

The chicken cherry walnut salad is a stable choice. The cream cheese sandwiches are good, but who really wants cream cheese on a sandwich? Sandwiches are served with sturdy kettle-cooked variety potato chips.

My friend got the mushroom burger, which he did not give high reviews, but we went back the next week: enough said.

Woodbridge has got a good beer spread, including Michigan brews, but no tap (or nothing good on tap, I can't remember). The men's room is a converted freezer room, showing off that old-time legacy in an entirely practical way.