Detroit: Midtown’s Oak & Reel
Your favorite Realtor here (The Food Dude) back with this weeks Fun Food Friday adventure. This week we are featuring a newer restaurant we have been wanting to try since it opened in Fall of 2020, during the height of the Covid craziness: Oak & Reel, Hour Magazine’s 2022 Restaurant of the Year.
Oak & Reel (do not mistake them for the chain Hook & Reel) is located in the Milwaukee Junction area of Detroit just east of Midtown at 2921 E Grand Blvd. The Owner/Chef Jared Gadbaw, a Garden City native, trained at the French Culinary Institute in New York. His work experience has taken him around the world, opening many premier restaurants, and he quickly made a name for himself as a premier chef and leader in the industry. His most recent accomplishment, before moving back to Michigan, was the Two Michelin Star Restaurant Marea in NYC. Marea was awarded a Michelin Star in its debut year. Following the debut year, Chef Jared earned and maintained a two Michelin Star ranking for nine straight years. Not an easy task!
Enough about the chef, lets get to the food. Oak & Reel is a contemporary Italian restaurant with their primary focus on seafood . . . hence the word Reel in its name. The Oak in their name comes from the open wood burning hearth in their kitchen. The space is open and welcoming. Not overly intimate, which was fine by our standards. We don’t like it to be too formal. Their menu has something for almost everyone’s tastebuds. There are a couple meat and vegetarian choices, but the primary focus is seafood. We opted for the 4 course prix fixe menu which, unlike a tasting menu, you get to choose your 4 courses 1 primi or starter, one pasta, one entrée and one Dolci or dessert. This gave us the option to choose a nice selection of Primi’s, Pastas and entrees to share. There was a slight upcharge for the steak and you can substitute out a dessert for a 2nd pasta for a small charge.
We started with the Crostini, Octopus and Fritto Misto. We loved the octopus and Fritto Misto, but my favorite was the Crostini which had clams, fennel, ricotta and chilis on it. Super simple, yet super delicious. For the pastas we had the Bucatini, Mafaldine and Caramelle. The consistency and flavors of all 3 we superb but I think I enjoyed the Mafaldine the best. It had lobster, fennel sausage, tomato and finished with cream. For the Entrees we had The Scampi (shrimp and sepia which is similar to cuttlefish or calamari), Swordfish Milanese (which was breaded and sautéed) and 30 day dry aged Eye of Ribeye. Loved the Scampi and Swordfish but the steak was just OK (like I mentioned before it is a seafood influenced restaurant) but I did enjoy the sides with the steak. We finished with an olive oil cake with lemon pasticcios, strawberries and a slice of Basque style cheesecake. I had never had a Basque style cheesecake before which is known for its burnt top and rich creamy filling, it eats more like a custard than a cheesecake.
Bottom line is we loved it! It was a great dining experience. There are not a lot of opportunities to eat a Michelin Star chefs food locally, so it’s definitely worth the trip. Oak & Reel is open M from 5-9, Thurs-Sat 5-10 and Sun 4:30-9…they are closed on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Until next week…Live Well, Eat Well! Enjoy Life!
- Keith & Teresa Becker