Central Kitchen + Bar — Restaurant in Detroit

I went here a while back but never reviewed this place. Recently, my friends and I were discussing restaurants and I remembered my experience here, and hence the rating. The owner wanted some more detail, so I will detail my experience to the best of my ability.

When we first arrived here, the place was jam-packed. We waited a bit for seating, which was fine. The waitress took our orders, and she was clearly busy, so we understood it would take a while. We got our waters in a timely manner, but not much else. After half an hour, we tried flagging down the waitress, to ask how long it would take. No dice. She nimbly weaved through the crowd and managed to avoid us each time. We tried this several more times, with an empty table between us, which surely all the staff saw as they walked by us. We assumed the waitress would check in with us at least periodically, especially as we sat there waving our hands when we could spot her. At some point, we made eye contact with the waitress, raised our hands and tried calling her through with all the noise and din going on, but she did not approach us. Several groups that had been seated after us got their plates, and over an hour had passed.

At this point, we finally managed to flag down our waitress, who asked for our orders yet again after checking in with the kitchen. We were frustrated by now, but gave her our orders again. She reiterated that it was busy, and it would take some time. We knew this obviously, and acknowledged it. After maybe another half hour to 40 minutes of waiting, we finally got the food. And the sides were missing. One of my friends was extremely disappointed, as she said she'd really enjoyed the truffle fries that she had here before. We weren't gonna flag the waitress yet again, so we just ate our meals. We had come here on on this friend's recommendation, but left extremely dissatisfied. The food wasn't even enjoyable anymore, though I'm sure it would have been otherwise. We understand it was busy, and we still tipped the waitress pretty much the requisite amount, despite the abysmally poor service. Needless to say, we agreed we wouldn't be going back there again,...

Not What Expected at All!

Unless management changes, I highly suggest one visit another venue then Central Kitchen. The wait we had for food was horrendous and once arrived was bland.

Upon arrival, my guests and I noticed a table of patrons that appeared to be looking for wait staff. This should have been enough warning to turn around. My son being a Detroit Foodie, and he having previously visited the locale with an aspiring Floridian politician, was convincing enough, that we stayed. As you can see in the photo, the restaurant appears to be an appealing mix of old charm. However, their were areas in the restaurant that had thick mats of cobwebs, that should have but brsdt there.

Once seated, our waiter was very pleasant and he and a buser made it a point to have our water glasses filled. The order was placed and the wait began.....5 minutes go by, and nothing for the adjacent tables and ours.... another 5 minutes, one table is served but appears to have issues with order..... another table served....another 5 minutes 3rd table served, more issues and management comes over to assist them.... another 5 minutes, nothing.... finally partial order arrives (salad, chicken sandwich, turkey burger) missing fries. Minutes pass and waiter comes back, no fries, but we need ranch dressing and sirachi to make sandwiches consumable. Waiter comes back no fries. Management comes over to pick up plates, I tell him "This Place Sucks." Waiter arrives, still no fries, tell him forget them and ask for bill.

There are too many restaurants downtown with better food and they're appropriately staffed. Management would have been better served by sharing with patrons the wait was going to be be long and allow them to choose to stay or not. To hear "I'm not going to wait another 35 minutes for you to replace my...

Stopped in late(ish) last night. We had to visit a loved one at HF and stayed till visiting hours were over so it was about 8:15 when we headed out. Not a ton of options at that point in the evening. Happily we found this restaurant. We walked in about 830 p.m. and I was worried we would be those annoying people coming in just before close to order but they were so sweet when I asked if it was still okay to order. "Oh yeah! Plenty of time". We sat at the bar (our preference) and the bartender immediately came over to give us water and take our order. I had a Stella and he had Titos and soda. My beer was so cold! It was so good. I haven't been served a beer that cold in a long time! LOL All of the servers were prompt and friendly, great service.

We ordered the tenderloin tips, central kitchen wings and heirloom zucchini. They came out lightening fast and looked very fancy. Then we dug in, WOW. Everything was so good. I was pleasantly surprised. A lot of times new trendy places open up and don't quite live up to the hype but this food was so good!

The tenderloin tips were so good and the sauce was amazing, grilled olives, cucumbers and onions were the prefect pairing for the meat. The zucchini was also perfectly paired with some greens and some kind of sauce and butter beans. I can't say I've had butter beans very often but they were a great taste combo with everything on the plate. I was unsure what the sauces were but they were both great. LOL And those wings, so tasty! The sauce was full of flavor. So good! I will recommend to my friends and try to go back to try some more of...