Oak & Reel — Restaurant in Detroit

Oak and Reel in Detroit is the kind of restaurant that leaves you speechless, an absolute marvel of culinary artistry. With its large space and perfect vibe, it's no surprise that I believe this restaurant is the best in Michigan. Although to the eye it’s pricey, the Oak and Reel experience is completely worth every dollar spent. The service is absolutely top-notch, and the 6-course chef’s tasting menu is a Michelin-star-worthy experience that will make you forget everything you thought you knew about food.

Here’s how I rated the dishes:

Focaccia with olive oil (10/10) - This is complimentary with dinner service. The bread is crispy on the outside and light and airy on the inside. It's served with a side of olive oil to dip in and is so good that I even asked for seconds. Perfectly seasoned, leaps and bounds better than restaurants who charge for ordering bread to start dinner service.

Crudo (raw fish) Trio featuring Oyster with spruce tip mignonette, Hamachi, and Snapper (10/10) - The oyster was served on a bed of salt and presented immaculately. The flavors were perfectly balanced, making it one of the best oysters I've had. Hamachi and Snapper were extraordinary fresh with beautiful sauce compliments to the profile of each fish.

Scallop with cannellini beans, gremolata, and charred chicories (10/10) – This was the most beautiful and flavorful scallop I've ever had. Absolutely perfect the sear on the scallop. The beans added a tremendous texture and a unique flavor profile to the dish, while the gremolata was zesty and the perfect pairing with the scallop. The luscious celery root puree was filled with flavor, and I could have had more of it on the plate.

Strozzapreti pasta with crab, basil, parsley, and bottarga (9/10) - One of the best pastas I have ever had. You can tell the pasta is homemade and perfectly al dente. The sauce was rich, and the Dungeness crab was extremely fresh. There was a unique breadcrumb-style garnish on top of the pasta that added great texture. If the sauce was sold in a bottle, I would buy it! The presentation could be more whimsical and welcoming.

Veal Agnolotti with black truffle and taleggio fonduta (10/10) - A unique take on agnolotti (this is different than ravioli as agnolotti is differently shaped, and thicker), with the perfect al dente pasta filled with velvety veal and so much flavor. The black truffle garnish was thoughtful, and the taleggio fonduta was an amazing creamy sauce to compliment the pasta and flavor profile of the veal.

Sablefish with pommes puree, savoy, chive, smoked mackerel, and bagna cauda (9.5/10) - Full of flavor, with the perfect cook on the fish. The bagna cauda sauce was a playful sauce with a welcomed garlic taste, and the pommes puree was the hidden star of the dish and could have used more. Not the biggest fan texture of the savoy with the dish, but this was an overall pristine dish. I typically am not a sablefish fan at all, but this dish made me change my mind.

Chocolate buttermilk cake with moelleux, gianduja, and berry compote (9/10) – A ideal choice of dessert. The addition of hazelnuts gave a beautiful nutty flavor, and the decadent cake was balanced by the berry compote but could have used more to balance the compote to cake ratio.

Oak and Reel is a must-try restaurant that will leave you wanting more. I highly recommend the 6-course chef’s tasting menu which is fish forward. The reservation list is long, so make sure to book at least a month in advance. The owner, who used to be a head chef at a two Michelin star restaurant in Manhattan, has created a dining experience that is truly magical and brings the high-end NYC culinary experience to Detroit. The magic that happens in this restaurant is worth the wait, and it's no surprise that it is already attracting national attention. Will...

Went in to celebrate our 6th anniversary with my partner and were so excited to try out Oak & Reel as we had heard nothing but good things.

We arrived a little before our 6:45 reservation and were seated quickly despite arriving early. We sat for 10 minutes without being greeted or even acknowledged by a server or server assistant.

Then we meet our lack luster server Dave. We had some questions about the chef's tasting menu and he essentially tried to talk us out of doing it saying "it's a special experience." We were there for a special occasion, and we enjoy doing tasting menus together since we're both in the industry. I have a severe squash allergy so we asked if chef would be willing to accommodate a replacement dish, if not we'd just do a la carte. He kept trying to push a la carte before even checking with chef if it was possible. He said we'd be "missing out" if we did chef's tasting menu instead. Weird. Why would a server not want to sell an instant $117 per person? Then Dave moves on to beverages and really tried to push them on us. I'm 6 months sober so I politely explained we'd most likely add on some extra desserts at the end.

Bread course hit the table fast and it was all down hill from there. 16 minutes between bread & crudo. 22 between crudo and scallop. After the scallops Dave finally comes back to the table and asks how food is? The food was great but I was starting to notice the drag between courses and so was my partner. I just figured it was a fluke and would get better. Then 28 minutes between the scallop and risotto. At this point I'm starting to get upset because this is dragging on and my partner and I are both noticing. This was supposed to be a special experience, per Dave and it was lackluster at best. Dave comes by and I ask "what's the timing supposed to be between courses?" He says "12 minutes" I let him know it hasn't been 12 minutes once. He then ADMITS "I did notice its dragging." So maybe he's just a bad server because he noticed and did NOTHING to course correct and save the experience until I said something.

Dave comes back to the table and tells my partner all the managers have been made aware but no manager ever touched the table?

The smoked trout ravioli came out quickly, the duck also dragged. Then Dave dropped the check before we even got to the dessert course because we had to hurry up and get home to relieve our babysitter. We didn't even get to enjoy the other desserts we had planned to order because we were just flat out robbed of our experience altogether.

Positives for food: the scallops, bread and olive oil, smoked trout ravioli and duck were great.

Negatives for food: the plating of the scallops and risotto were just weird and didn't look right on the plates. Having scallops with buerre blanc on an entirely flat surface just kind makes it flat. It was a beautiful dish and the most perfectly cooked scallop but the plating took away from that. The risotto looked like it was just thrown onto a flat plate with zero finesse. The halibut in the risotto was also slightly over cooked. The liqueur in the lady finger dessert was definitely not cooked off and tasted like straight booze so my partner ate mine.

Overall, a terrible experience. It could have been saved with a better server, a present manager who actually cared to touch a table and proper timing. That chef's tasting menu has potential to be amazing IF it's executed properly and it wasn't. Our whole experience was a flop and left us feeling robbed of $300. What was supposed to be a memorable night was ruined and there wasn't even an...

A year ago this was 5 stars for sure. Recently it seems like some things are slipping. Overall the restaurant is still clean and well-maintained. Worth it for pasta and drinks but I would skip the steaks, salads, and the downstairs bar. Oh and be prepared for children running around everywhere.

The pasta continues to be absolutely outstanding and delicious, truly wonderful. I would keep going here just for pasta. Dessert is very good, if you like Cannelle/Ochre, then you'll like this. I love the chocolate tarte and Italian donuts with rosemary sugar. Drinks are worth the price with great flavors and presentation. Our service was attentive as the waitress and bussers did clear our plates/cutlery and wiped down the table between courses.

However some major things are slipping and not worth it. The salad was pretty lame. Presented like a tossed salad you'd get at a fast-casual pizzaria.

The steak and potatoes dish was disappointing: for a center filet cut, it was tough and served a bit cold. Not like the inside was cold, like the whole piece of meat had been cooked, plated, and then forgotten about. A medium-rare filet shouldn't be tough. My friend at the table is a bona fide steak fiend and she even remarked hers was tough. Definitely not worth the $60 per steak charge.

The vibe is slipping. I remembered this place as an upscale, fancy-ish restaurant, great for a date or swanky dinner celebration. This time, for whatever reason on Friday night at 8pm, multiple people brought children with them, who were screaming or just wandering around while everyone was dining… not the vibe. And I like kids! But has always been a loud and expensive restaurant, leave the kids at home! Doesn't seem to be any dress code, which doesn't bother me, but it was weird to see people incredibly dolled up on dates next to someone wearing sweatpants.

After dinner was over, we waited over an hour to go to The Upright, their brand-new downstairs bar. I was advised by the hosts that we were not able to put our names on the list for the Upright while dining. Apparently we needed to be done with dinner before we could be added to the list? I felt like that was arbitrary and didn't make any sense. If we were already there, and almost done with our meal, why could we not be added to the wait list? I didn’t really want to go to the Upright after that but we went anyway. Sunk cost fallacy, because…

The Upright was cute, has a bunch of pictures of old Detroit stuff on the walls, which I liked. The margarita was good, not stunning, but good. Lots of classic drinks with small twists on the menu. For a very small downstairs bar it was also very very loud down there. I mean REALLY loud. Like shouting to be heard three feet away from each other loud. In a small basement room. With no soundproofing or anything on the walls. You also have to walk through a portion of the basement where I assume they clean and gut fish for the restaurant, because walking through the hallway smelled like an old bouy or catch basket someone just scrubbed down with bleach. I not bother with the Upright unless you are already drunk and don’t care about your...