Pan-roasted salmon with sugar snap peas, dashi brotyh and a drizzle of yuzu is $38. (Photos: Facebook)
Celebrity chef Michael Symon opened the upscale steakhouse Roast at the Westin Book Cadillac hotel in 2008 when Detroit had a dearth of good restaurants and was fodder for late night talk show jokes.
Restaurant critic Mark Kurlyandchik of the Detroit Free Press looks at if the joint holds up and whether it's still relevant amid the boom of upscale restaurants in downtown and Midtown.
And he finds the answers are yes and yes:
Roast lumbers on, a full decade later, still packing in the suits during its still-beloved happy hour, which still rivals any in town, and is still the spot for the best burger-and-fry combo around.
With so many newer options in the area, Roast continues to draw a crowd, particularly on busy Friday or Saturday nights, when some 250 people might walk through its glass doors to celebrate an anniversary or a birthday or any old weekend night. . . .
Dry-aged ribeye (1 pound) with charred shallot relish and watercress is $58.
Where Roast was once lauded for its relative affordability, price points have grown alongside the economic recovery and now are in line with many of its neighboring hotspots. But despite the invisible “hotel tax”, dinner at Roast is about half the price of dining at the splashiest of its new steakhouse contenders, Prime & Proper, located just around the corner.
So yes, Roast is still relevant. And, at 10 years old, it's still fire.
