Leña — Restaurant in Detroit

I'll start my review by saying that I love Spanish food. I've visited Spain many times in my life and Spanish cuisine something I never get tired of and when I heard that this restaurant opened in the Detroit area, I had to try it.

That being said, Leña does perfectly what I think a lot of "Spanish" style restaurants fail to do well, and that's deliver authentic flavors in newer ways to American diners.

Leña does not attempt to be a fully authentic tapas bar or pinxtos experience that you'd see in the streets of Madrid or San Sebastian. Instead, the team here aims to transport you to those places through food which they execute extremely well. Normally I'm dissatisfied by the way modern, Americanized Spanish restaurants attempt to elevate Spanish cuisine (overly expensive and unsatisfying tapas, or extremely seasoned and complicated foods that would otherwise be cooked simply in Spain), but Leña is able to capture its own culinary identity and keep the flavors of Spanish cuisine at the center of its dishes.

I was pleasantly surprised by their tinned fish spreads, and highly recommend it. The satisfying sardine taste with bread and olive oil immediately evoke nostalgia.

I also highly recommend the grilled pulpo as it is done in a way I have never had before: grilled and slightly sweetened and charred served over chickpeas.

Their entres are very strong choices as well and we ordered the pork chop and the bacalao, both cooked to perfection and again, subtly flavored and not overly seasoned or salted.

Dessert was interesting: the Basque cheesecake was delicious and virtually perfect, topped with olive oil and sea salt. I have never had it served like this before and was almost overwhelmed by how decadent a perfect Basque cheesecake paired with quality olive oil and flaky salt.

Overall, a wonderful experience with friendly, knowledgeable, and attentive staff. Drinks were delicious and reasonably priced and their selection of Spanish wines pair perfectly with anything you oeder. Looking forward to my next visit to try their chef's...

Decided to do date night with my wife during the grand opening week of Leña, and it was rocking!

The by the glass list was well curated, and the reserve bottle list was perfectly sized for a range of prices and a killer selection. We went with the 2021 Castell d'Encus Ekam a wild blend of Albariño and Riesling from Catalunya that paired perfectly with every course. Really racy acidity was what was needed as we ordered quite a few dishes but from dish to sausage to chicken this wine kept us spirited and refreshed.

I'd also like to take a minute and say Leña has Vichy Catalan, and honestly when I walked and saw an empty on a table talking in I questioned "would someone bring their own Vichy Catalan bottle?". Now I really need to know who is selling my favorite sparkling water because honestly I need a case, and so do you! So if you go to Leña don't skip it, you'll thank me later.

The whipped bacalao was beautiful, perfectly balanced citrus notes, airy, smokey, salty on the back end not much more you could ask for. The grilled prawns were also great, and I had the pleasure of slurping down the juice from both heads.

Jamon with Calasparra Rice was also a delight, though I thought maybe another minute or two on the rice would have really crushed it. The Hen stuffed with Chicken Chorizo was easily our dish of the night, succulent, well spiced and the textural component from the walnut adding crunch 🤌🤌.

We finished off with the Canas which were something like a cannoli, I honestly questioned why a cannoli shell hasn't been rolled in cinnamon sugar before?

All in all it was an absolutely delightful experience, and we're looking forward to seeing where Leña grows and watching its evolution! Thanks to the team for a great meal and...

I’ll start on a positive note. All food we had was delicious and the main course (Icelandic cod) was even exceptional. Cocktails were good. Slowly transitioning into a less positive part of our experience. We (a party of 2 people) ordered 5 Negroni cocktails on Hendrick’s gin - pretty basic type (not from the restaurant’s signature cocktail list though) and one cocktail from their signature cocktail list. Negroni ended up to be $18 in the bill while signature cocktail with MORE expensive market prices for each of its ingredients was $15. Because obviously for places who don’t care to build a long term reputation an order of something even pretty basic which is not on the menu allows this “fair and transparent” establishment to charge guests whatever. We were also charged for 2 cocktails (of course overpriced Negroni’s) which we never had. It was my husband’s birthday which we made our waitress Mar aware of. The candle was put in his dessert. I’ll be fair - we were not billed for the candle 😀. We were billed for everything else which we did order + 2 overpriced cocktails which we DID NOT order. Of course, it was fixed since we pointed it out.

Well, at the end it all left us with a pity for the place with a good chef and not that good management - obviously it is a management issue. Detroit restaurant scene is on the rise and pretty competitive at the moment, this kind of mistakes of work ethic which could easily be avoided with proper management will most likely...