Located inside the JW Marriott Grand Rapids, this brand new French bistro offers classic European cuisine with stunning views of the downtown skyline. Start your romantic date night with steak tartare ($15) or escargots à la Bourguignonne ($12), a salad course of Belgian endives with roquefort and white balsamic dressing ($12), and a main dish of trout meunière ($27) or short rib Provençale ($34). Brunch is available on weekends, and a special French lunch menu is available during the week. Explore the cocktail menu, which includes a Grand Rapids Sour made with Long Road Michigan or a Frenchman, with vodka, Lillet Blanc, horseradish-honey simple syrup, grapefruit and lemon juice, and Jamaican jerk bitters.

One of GR’s newest restaurants that opened in 2019, Pind offers elevated Indian dining in a sleek dining space with muted, understated cream decor. Go for a variety of items on their lunchtime buffet ($11) or order from the menu for dinner. To start, try a bit of everything with the vegetable sampler, which includes a samosa, a paneer and vegetable pakora, and a vegetable kebab ($9). Lamb, goat, and chicken traditional specialties like korma, tikka masala, and curry are great choices, but there are also seafood options not typically found in Michigan Indian restaurants, such as crab meat curry ($19) and seafood masala ($19) with salmon, shrimp, or scallops.

Eat with your fingers, using the spongy injera bread as your utensil during your Ethiopian meal at Little Africa, while you enjoy a platter with the people in your group. Start with a pot of seasoned tea or Ethiopian coffee as the flavors unfold before you: alicha (cabbage, green beans, green pepper), azifa (a lentil dish), gomen (spiced collard greens), tomato salad, and soy curry. In addition to being delicious in their own right, dishes are also all vegan.

Grand Rapids consistently earns its bragging rights to the Beer City USA moniker, boasting more craft beer per square mile “than just about any place on earth,” according to tourism officials. Fact check them for yourself by taking a self-guided (and delicious) tour of the Beer City Ale Trail, which includes more than 80 stops at craft breweries such as perennial favorites like HopCat or Atwater (where you’ll begin), or newcomers like Brass Ring Brewing Co., plus a splash of cideries, distilleries and meaderies. Just remember to drink responsibly and bring along a designated driver—or consider taking a tour through one of the local tour companies. 

This Middle Eastern restaurant founded by four brothers from Iraq has earned a lot of fans in Kalamazoo for its authentic recipes and cozy ambience, where you can choose to dine while sitting on pillows at an intimate low table. The restaurant’s name translates as “visit us” in Arabic, and the brothers use the restaurant as a vehicle for sharing their culture. Main dishes include spiced beef with figs ($15) and Lebanese lamb medley ($17). For a starter, try the Mediterranean street fries ($6), loaded with veggies and spices and topped with garlic sauce, yogurt, harissa, and cilantro. Belly dancing events are planned throughout the year for an extra treat.

Kalamazoo has a vibrant theater and arts scene, including the New Vic, Farmer’s Alley Theatre, Queer Theatre Kalamazoo, and Face Off Theatre Company, in addition to Western Michigan University’s theater department and Miller Auditorium, plus the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra. But the Civic, a whimsical building built in 1929, is a truly special place to watch a community theater production, and one of the largest in the country — even employing a staff of 35 full- and part-time employees to bring dozens of productions to life each year.

A mainstay on the Kalamazoo culinary scene, Food Dance has focused on sustainable craft food for more than 20 years, showcasing the bounty of Michigan farmers and artisans. The restaurant’s bright interior is punctuated with colorful artwork evocative of fresh produce. Go for breakfast, lunch, or dinner every day— there’s even a kids’ menu that ventures beyond the traditional mac and cheese, and a meat and cheese menu showcasing the outstanding charcuterie. Plates range from new American favorites like a cider-brined pork chop ($26) to the Food Dance pad Thai ($18) to gochujang fried chicken ($12).

During your visit to Michigan’s capital, meander through Old Town and REO Town, two trendy areas that bookend the proper downtown region with the capitol building. Old Town on the north end is well established with dozens of restaurants, shops, galleries, and bars with an artsy vibe. Meanwhile, REO (pronounced “Rio”) Town, recognizable by three power plant smokestacks located on the south side, is Lansing’s oldest community. It was here that employees known as “REO Joes” manufactured cars at the R.E. Olds Motor Company starting in 1905. Nowadays, this borough is expanding its cultural offerings with a brand new brewery, thrift and vintage shops, and the annual Art & Craft Beer Fest in January.

Soup isn’t considered traditional medicine, but there’s something about the love that goes into every bowl of house-made French onion, chowder and other rotating soups du jour at Soup Spoon Cafe that spreads warmth throughout your body and leaves you feeling revitalized. Can’t settle on one soup? Pick a flight of four, served with a chunk of French bread. Or visit for brunch, served Monday through Saturday and treat yourself to a specialty eggs benedict or a gourmet sandwich.

This window-service restaurant has two year-round locations in Lansing, a food truck stationed on Michigan Avenue, and a counter inside Tony’s Party Store on Cedar Street, and is a bit of a cult classic among Lansingites. This is as unfussy as it gets — with no tables, it’s an eat-over-your-lap-in-the-car type of arrangement. But the food is so good (and reasonably priced, with nothing over $8), you won’t mind. Order from a variety of authentic Mexican favorites, such as sopes, tamales, beef tongue, and tripe, plus burritos and homemade tortilla chips. Loyal Oasis fans also rave about the salsas — the green tomatillo salsa and spicier varieties are favorites. 

Michigan State University, lovingly called “Moo U” because of its roots as a state agricultural college, is now home to more than 50,000 college students when school is in session, infusing Lansing’s neighbor East Lansing with a young vibe. Get a taste of college life — literally — with a stop at the MSU Dairy Store on the university’s campus. Choose from 32 flavors at $3 a scoop, each made “from cow to cone,” as the Lansing State Journal once described the method that involves MSU students at every stage of the process.

One of Flint’s most popular food trucks has taken up permanent residence at Tenacity Brewing — and the craft beer and taco combination is a beautiful match worth a stop. Order up the Clucker (chicken), the Oinker (pulled pork), or the regular (with house-made chorizo), or any number of weekly specialty tacos featuring creative fixin’s (starting at $4), and pair it with a pint of Tenacity 2nd Shift IPA for the ultimate kick-back-and-relax experience in this proud, hard-working Michigan town.

Whatever you may already know about Flint, you’re likely to learn something new on a visit to the thriving Flint Farmers Market. A year-round destination that brings makers and growers of all kinds — farmers, bakers, fashion designers, florists, and restaurateurs — the market is open on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays and its success has been viewed by some as a symbol of the city’s rebirth. Start with a meal at Steady Eddy’s Cafe, MaMang Vietnamese restaurant, or B-Dogs for a hot dog, and then pick up some snacks for the road, like gourmet popcorn or fresh donuts and maybe a locally made souvenir or two.

Explore the impressive collections at Michigan’s second largest art museum, which added an additional 20,000 square feet of gallery and education space in 2018. It houses in its collections work from Dale Chihuly, Helen Frankenthaler, and Mary Cassatt, among other noted American artists, as well as galleries devoted to Pre-Columbian, Native American, African, European, and Asian art, and new Contemporary Craft galleries with glass and ceramic artwork representing the mid-20th century to modern day. The museum hosts an annual Flint Print Fair highlighting the work of contemporary printmakers, while the Palette Cafe makes a great stop for a snack, meal, or cocktail. Admission is $12 for adults; $8 for students and senior citizens.

Take a culinary journey through the memories of this restaurant’s diverse owner-chefs, who weave together elements of Indian, French, Cuban, and American cuisine. Opened in 2017, Dessous is decorated in billowy white drapery and comfortable, pillow-filled couches, creating a relaxed and intimate backdrop for a quiet dinner. Your dining experience begins with house-made naan slathered with curry butter. Order up a starter of duck confit nachos ($14), followed by a main entree of sweet and spicy halibut ($36) or wild mushroom spaccatelli ($26). Before or after your meal, pay a visit to Blue LLama Jazz Club next door to catch a jam performance and a cocktail.

This Kerrytown Korean restaurant is fueled by the passion of owner Ji Hye Kim, who built the menu based on her own family memories and culinary research, including perfectly prepared Korean fried chicken ($25) and tteokbokki ($14). The restaurant has a fair wage and optional tipping policy, meaning employees do not depend on tips to earn their living. Most visitors to Ann Arbor will advise you to pay a visit to one of the popular restaurants under the Zingerman’s franchise — and you definitely should, whether it’s Zingerman’s Deli, Creamery, or Candy Manufactory. Zingerman’s also serves as a business incubator for up-and-coming restaurateurs, and Miss Kim is one success story that resulted from that partnership. 

The University of Michigan boasts a collection of enriching museums — from art to archaeology and even a presidential library — but the Museum of Natural History is a brand new $261 million building that opened in 2019. This free-admission museum offers many ways for the public to learn about ongoing university research and even participate in an engaging, entertaining way. Stroll through galleries filled with dinosaur fossils, attend a lecture, take in a show at the planetarium, and peer through the window in the Biodiversity Lab to see researchers at work in real time.

Located in a former Taco Bell in Ypsilanti, the humble exterior belies the culinary treasure that awaits you inside. The sweet and spicy aroma of Moroccan cooking surrounds you the minute you walk through the door. Owner and head chef Abdul Mani welcomes you to the table with a collection of traditional dishes tinged with fruits and spices evocative of his North African home, including bastilla, a phyllo dough pocket filled with shredded chicken, almonds, and orange blossom water ($14), and tagines of various meats combined with couscous, raisins, vegetables, and savory sauces ($12-$17).

A new Mexican eatery that opened in southwest Detroit in 2019, Peso Bar is gracing the Instagram feeds of visitors with its impressive line of 20 margaritas (such as mango with habanero), some of them served in hand-painted clay cups with spiced rims and fresh garnishes. The menu is stuffed with flavorful soups, tortas, and burritos (all under $12) representing Jalisco favorites, such as ancho chile-braised birria and street corn mixed with ancho chile aioli, queso fresco, and onion ($5).

This African/Caribbean restaurant began as a pop-up restaurant and then a food truck, which won over so many fans owner Godwin Ihentuge zoomed through a crowd-funded campaign to generate support for a brick-and-mortar restaurant on Woodward Avenue. The food truck still remains, but the casual restaurant space now serves up North and West African flavors in hot bowls that you can fill with your choice of protein, including lemon jerk chicken and jollof rice ($11) and akara — hush puppy-style fritters prepared with black-eyed peas.

Detroit’s culinary scene is booming, as evidenced by dozens of multicultural restaurants opening in the last few years. Head to the Detroit Shipping Company, a collection of shipping containers that have been reimagined into buzzy restaurants and bars that are drawing growing numbers of visitors. Momo Cha, located inside the Detroit Shipping Company, is one of the only Nepalese restaurants in the area. Order up some dumplings (momos), filled with your choice of chicken, pork, or vegetables and prepared either pan-fried, deep-fried, or steamed, along with a side of chutney (priced at $12 or less).