Detroit, MI — While at work on Tuesday, I noticed that Yelp published its 2024 list of Top 100 places to eat across the United States. I often look forward to this annual lengthy list as an avid traveler and foodie for recommendations when I’m out adventuring near and far. However, after scanning the length of the entire list, I was a bit shocked and saddened to see that not a single eatery in Michigan made this year’s list.

These lists are compiled by Yelp’s data science team, which analyzes the app’s user submissions and determines top restaurants by ratings, number of reviews, and volume of submissions per place. According to Yelp, the data team then finalizes rankings by consulting their Community Managers. I’m curious if behind the curtain ANY Michigan restaurants were being considered for this year’s list since several places around Metro Detroit made last year’s list in 2023.

I was thrilled with 2023’s list, which featured three places in Michigan, one of which was Baobab Fare in Detroit. Last year in March, I met Baobab Fare’s Owner and Chef, Hamissi Mamba, to interview him for my station, CBS Detroit. I was really inspired by Mamba and his wife, whose goal is to share their East African cuisine and culture with Detroit while raising funds for two Detroit-based organizations: Freedom House Detroit and Burundi Kids. If it weren’t for the Yelp 2023 list, Baobab Fare wouldn’t have initially been on my radar. Not long after the list came out, Mamba went on to compete on Chopped — and won!

FULL SECTION: MI Foodie Adventures Blog

Several Metro Detroit chefs were also nominees for James Beard awards in various categories in 2023. Take Omar Anani, the Chef and Owner of Saffron De Twah on Detroit’s East Side. He was not only a nominee for Best Chef in the Great Lakes region, but he also went on to win an episode of Chopped as well. The restaurant industry’s awareness of Michigan’s talent is there, and based on my own foodie research, I have seen the surge in fantastic eateries and chefs across Metro Detroit and Michigan as a whole within the year and a half that I’ve been back. So, to say I’m a little disappointed that not a single place in Michigan made this year’s Yelp list would be an understatement.

Over the years, I noticed several restaurants that made the list back-to-back or multiple years, like Cocina Madrigal in Phoenix. I often consulted the annual Yelp list for recommendations when I lived/worked in Phoenix and ran the food franchise for Arizona’s Family 3TV/CBS 5 as the Arizona’s Family Foodie. And believe me, eateries like Cocina Madrigal deserve recognition for their food and overall operation, just like I’m sure there are newcomers on this year’s list that deserve to be featured and highlighted as well. It just seems odd that suddenly one year later places previously recognized in Michigan completely vanished from the list. Especially at a time when Michigan, and Detroit in particular, have been on the rise and in the national spotlight — a.k.a. GO LIONS!

I’m not entirely blaming Yelp for missing the mark against the Mitten state’s multitude of worthy mom-and-pop restaurants or highly regarded eateries scattered across Michigan. Still, I can’t help but feel we got left out a bit this year. I could sit here and suggest dozens of worthy places across Metro Detroit and West Michigan alone that all have hundreds to thousands of reviews of 4.5 and higher out of 5 stars, but instead, I’ll propose a challenge for Michiganders: let’s aim to get our restaurants and eateries the recognition they deserve on next years list!

Even against the national competition, I believe our burgeoning food scene around Metro Detroit and community staples across the state are more than up to the challenge. With the upcoming NFL Draft in downtown Detroit, a lot of folks will be coming to our state for several days, during which they’ll get to explore our numerous restaurants, bakeries, and food trucks. This will be great for our local economy and provide a great boost for our culinary scene on the national scale.

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I encourage you to get into the habit of leaving reviews after dining out or trying food from a new eatery. Anytime people visit our state and look for places to eat in unknown environments, reviews can help guide them. Reviews and public feedback can be great tools for restaurant owners and chefs to learn what’s working and what’s not and can go a long way in providing positive reinforcement for all the hard work that goes into their profession. Let’s help our restaurants and chefs get the national recognition they deserve and be the best they can be. If we show up for our restaurants and chefs, the top list mentions and awards for them will follow!

To read Yelp’s full Top 100 Restaurants list for 2024 (because there are still plenty of phenomenal places and recommendations contained within), click here.