2 MI Restaurants Make Elite List Of America’s Best By New York Times

Two Michigan restaurants are included in The Restaurant List 2026, an elite compilation of the 50 best restaurants in America by The New York Times.

A 16-person scouting team traveled across the country for the list, eating everywhere from small-town Wisconsin to downtown Manhattan. The critics made reservations, waited in lines and arrived unannounced, paying for their meals and accepting no freebies.

One Michigan restaurant that made the list is Detroit's Tacos Wuey, an authentic Mexican restaurant located along the Vernor Highway in Mexicantown.

The Times praised Tacos Wuey's unique birria recipe, which comes from the owner's, Eddie Vargas', father.

"The menu at Tacos Wuey, Mr. Vargas’s first restaurant, reflects Mexican cuisine’s often idiosyncratic evolution on U.S. soil," Brett Anderson of the Times wrote.

The other Michigan restaurant to make the list is Detroit's Roses, which is located

Chef Molly Mitchell originally founded the restaurant for its daytime brunch dishes, but has since shifted to a Polish cuisine-inspired menu.

The Times noted many of the dishes feature kielbasa, pierogi, and potato dumplings.

"Eating in this circa-1964 space, with its green walls and pink and orange curtains, feels a bit like having a meal in Grandma’s sunroom, but the wax-drenched candlesticks standing watch like peacocks and the colorful bouquets plucked from the parking lot garden out back keep it fresh and modern," Sara Bonisteel of the Times wrote.

The restaurants aren’t ranked, and none appeared on a previous edition of the annual list. The selections include places that opened only weeks ago as well as restaurants that have been serving customers for decades.