Restaurants, hotels, bars and wineries in Ann Arbor from the En Primeur Club guide.
Accolades in Ann Arbor
The Earle in downtown Ann Arbor has a 1,200-bottle wine list, and Spencer in Downtown Ann Arbor serves natural wine. Paesano Restaurant And Wine Bar, on the east side, has an Italian wine list.
The Earle serves French and Italian fine dining a la carte in downtown Ann Arbor, in an underground speakeasy-style room with live jazz. Its 1,200-bottle wine list has sommelier-led service, Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence and Star Wine List recognition.
Paesano Restaurant And Wine Bar is an Italian restaurant and wine bar on the east side, family-owned since 1984. It serves seasonal rustic dishes and has an Italian wine list with a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence (2026).
Spencer serves seasonal American fine dining in Downtown Ann Arbor, with a monthly rotating prix fixe of farm-driven dishes, a set menu, and small plates. It has a sommelier-led natural wine program and operates as a neighbourhood wine shop and restaurant.
Spencer serves a monthly rotating prix fixe of seasonal, farm-driven dishes. Miss Kim uses Midwestern seasonal ingredients, and Zola Bistro serves seasonal menus a la carte and as small plates.
Spencer in Downtown Ann Arbor serves seasonal American fine dining through a monthly rotating prix fixe of farm-driven dishes, a set menu, and small plates. It is a James Beard Award Semi Finalist (2025). The restaurant is also a neighbourhood wine shop with a sommelier-led natural wine program.
Kerrytown Korean restaurant serving small plates and à la carte dishes shaped by Midwestern seasonal ingredients and historical stories behind each dish. Its wine list and sake program give the room a defined drinks identity alongside the cooking.
Zola Bistro is an American bistro in Arbor Hills with Mediterranean and global influences. Its farm-to-table cooking includes seasonal menus served a la carte and as small plates. The space uses glass, marble, and steel, and the drinks include craft cocktails and beer.
The Earle in downtown Ann Arbor, Spencer in Downtown Ann Arbor, and Paesano Restaurant And Wine Bar on the east side have exceptional wine programs in our guide. The Earle has a 1,200-bottle wine list, sommelier-led service and Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence. Paesano has an Italian wine list with an Award of Excellence. Spencer serves natural wine with sommelier-led service.
There are no Michelin-starred restaurants in our Ann Arbor guide. The Michelin distinctions here are hotel selections: Weber's Boutique Hotel in Lakewood and Graduate by Hilton Ann Arbor in Old Fourth Ward each hold Michelin Selected (2025).
The Earle, Paesano Restaurant And Wine Bar and Aventura hold Wine Spectator awards, among seven awarded venues citywide in our guide. The Earle in downtown Ann Arbor holds Best of Award of Excellence (2026). Paesano Restaurant And Wine Bar on the east side and Aventura in Downtown Ann Arbor each hold Award of Excellence (2026).
Spencer in Downtown Ann Arbor serves prix fixe dining in our guide. Its monthly rotating menu features seasonal, farm-driven dishes, and the restaurant also serves a set menu and small plates. The cuisine is seasonal American fine dining.
By Emmett Haley · Updated October 8, 2026 · Editorial standards
Ann Arbor
Selected entries from the current guide for Ann Arbor.
Ann Arbor, United States
A gathering point on East Washington Street, Aventura occupies a stretch of downtown Ann Arbor where regulars and newcomers share the same bar rail. The room earns its place in the local circuit through consistent presence rather than headline-chasing, sitting comfortably alongside the neighbourhood's other independent bars as a place people return to rather than simply pass through.
Ann Arbor, United States
Miss Kim brings Korean culinary tradition to Ann Arbor's North Fifth Avenue, operating in a city better known for its European-leaning fine dining and deli culture than for East Asian regional cooking. The restaurant holds a specific place in the local dining mix as a counterpoint to the French and American-focused rooms that have long defined Ann Arbor's upper tier. For visitors exploring the city's food scene, it represents a distinct alternative to the usual reference points.
Ann Arbor, United States
A Washtenaw Avenue Italian restaurant and wine bar, Paesano occupies a corner of Ann Arbor's dining scene where wine-forward thinking and Italian-American tradition meet. The format suits leisurely dinners where the bottle matters as much as the plate. Worth knowing for its dual identity as a full-service restaurant and a wine bar serious enough to hold its own on either count.
Ann Arbor, United States
Spencer occupies a considered position in Ann Arbor's dining scene, where the question of sourcing is rarely incidental. Situated on East Liberty Street in the heart of downtown, the restaurant draws on Michigan's agricultural depth to ground a menu that rewards attention. For a city with a serious relationship with food, Spencer represents the kind of address that earns repeat visits rather than one-time curiosity.
Ann Arbor, United States
A fixture on Ann Arbor's downtown dining circuit, The Earle earned a White Star recognition from Star Wine List in 2022, signaling a wine program that positions it above the city's casual restaurant tier. Located at 121 W Washington St, it draws a crowd that comes as much for the cellar as the kitchen, making it one of the few addresses in southeast Michigan where the bottle list shapes the meal as much as the menu does.
Ann Arbor, United States
Zingerman's Roadhouse on Jackson Avenue occupies a particular position in Ann Arbor's dining scene: an American roadhouse format serious enough about sourcing and craft to draw visitors from well outside the city. Part of the broader Zingerman's community of businesses, it applies the same standards to comfort food that the Deli applies to cured meats and aged cheese. The result is a full-service dining room where the ritual of the American meal is taken at face value.
Ann Arbor, United States
AC Kitchen sits in downtown Ann Arbor’s hotel-adjacent dining lane, where breakfast, small plates, and cocktails serve the city’s mix of university traffic, conference guests, and local evenings out. With few public signals around chef, awards, or pricing, the useful read is contextual: judge it against Ann Arbor’s casual all-day rooms rather than destination tasting-menu addresses.
Ann Arbor, United States
Ricewood is the move for casual Ann Arbor barbecue with an Asian-Fusion angle, especially if takeout or a quick counter-service meal is the plan. Choose Maple for speed and York for outdoor seating and a livelier hangout feel; skip it for formal occasions or quiet, full-service dining.
Ann Arbor, United States
Zingerman's Delicatessen on Detroit Street has anchored Ann Arbor's food culture since 1982, drawing a cross-section of students, faculty, and out-of-town visitors to its Jewish-American deli tradition. The counter operation runs with the volume and conviction of a much larger city's institution, serving cured meats, aged cheeses, and hand-built sandwiches inside a space that functions as both community gathering point and serious food shop.
Ann Arbor, United States
Zola Bistro on Washtenaw Avenue occupies a corner of Ann Arbor's dining scene where the bistro format, unhurried, course-driven, convivial, still holds its original shape. Positioned alongside a cluster of restaurants that have helped define the city's appetite for considered cooking, it draws from a tradition where the meal itself is the structure, not merely the backdrop to an evening out.
Ann Arbor
Selected entries from the current guide for Ann Arbor.
Ann Arbor, United States
A Michelin Selected hotel on East Huron Street, the Graduate by Hilton Ann Arbor positions itself squarely within the university-town hospitality tradition: collegiate memorabilia, considered design, and a central address that puts the University of Michigan campus and downtown Ann Arbor dining within easy walking distance. For travelers who want character over corporate anonymity, it occupies a distinct place in the city's hotel tier.
Ann Arbor, United States
Weber's Boutique Hotel on Jackson Avenue carries a 2025 Michelin Selected distinction, placing it among a small group of Ann Arbor properties recognised for consistent quality. The hotel occupies a mid-city position between the university core and the western suburbs, with an on-site dining programme that has anchored its local identity for decades. Guests looking for a grounded, food-forward stay outside the downtown hotel cluster will find it a credible alternative.
Ann Arbor, United States
The AC Hotel Ann Arbor Downtown sits at 310 E Huron Street, placing guests within walking distance of the University of Michigan campus and the city's main commercial strip. The property belongs to Marriott's European-influenced AC brand, which favors clean-lined contemporary interiors over amenity excess. For travelers who want a design-forward downtown address without the operational scale of a convention hotel, it occupies a clear position in Ann Arbor's accommodation tier.
Ann Arbor, United States
The Frank Lloyd Wright Palmer House at 227 Orchard Hills Drive is one of Ann Arbor's most architecturally significant private residences, designed by Wright in 1950 for Dr. William Palmer. A rare opportunity to engage with Usonian design principles in a residential setting, the property offers visitors a direct encounter with Wright's late-period thinking on organic architecture and domestic space.
Ann Arbor
Selected entries from the current guide for Ann Arbor.
Ann Arbor, United States
Ann Arbor Comedy Showcase at 212 S 4th Ave has anchored the city's live comedy scene for decades, operating as a dedicated stand-up room in a college town with genuine appetite for the form. The venue draws both touring headliners and regional acts through its downtown location, making it a fixed point on the Midwest comedy circuit. Check the venue's schedule directly for current shows and ticket availability.
Ann Arbor, United States
Black Pearl occupies a prominent address on South Main Street in Ann Arbor, Michigan, placing it in the heart of a drinking and dining corridor that has grown more sophisticated over the past decade. The bar draws from a tradition that treats food and drink as a single, integrated proposition rather than two separate menus operating in parallel. For visitors oriented around the Ann Arbor bar scene, it represents a point of reference on Main Street worth factoring into any evening's itinerary.
Ann Arbor, United States
Bløm Mead + Cider occupies a distinct tier in Ann Arbor's drinking scene, operating as one of the few dedicated mead and cider producers pouring on-site in a city better known for its craft beer culture. Located on South Fourth Avenue, it draws a crowd that prefers fermented honey and apple-forward drinks over hop-driven alternatives. The format rewards curiosity over familiarity.
Ann Arbor, United States
On Monroe Street in Ann Arbor's near-campus corridor, Casa Dominick's occupies the kind of address where neighbourhood regulars and first-time visitors tend to overlap. The kitchen works within a sourcing-conscious framework that has made ingredient provenance a recurring subject among diners who track the city's independent restaurant scene. For a fuller picture of what the street and surrounding blocks offer, the Ann Arbor dining conversation starts here.
Ann Arbor, United States
HopCat occupies a prominent spot on Maynard Street in downtown Ann Arbor, positioning itself within Michigan's well-developed craft beer culture as a bar where tap count and selection depth are the primary draw. The format suits groups and solo drinkers alike, with a menu built around beer-friendly food. It sits in the mid-tier of Ann Arbor's bar scene, between neighborhood locals and the more cocktail programs elsewhere in the city.
Ann Arbor, United States
On East Liberty Street in Ann Arbor's downtown core, Mani Osteria and Bar occupies the Italian-American dining tradition with a format built around shared plates and a considered drinks program. The room draws a mix of University of Michigan faculty, local regulars, and visitors looking for something more deliberate than the strip's casual options. It is one of the more serious Italian addresses in the city.
Ann Arbor, United States
On West Liberty Street in Ann Arbor's downtown core, Peridot occupies a tier of the city's bar scene where craft technique and hospitality approach matter more than volume or spectacle. It sits in a small cohort of Ann Arbor bars defined by bartender-led programs and a deliberate drinks format, making it a reference point for the city's more considered drinking culture.
Ann Arbor, United States
The Blind Pig at 208 S 1st St has anchored Ann Arbor's live music and bar scene for decades, drawing students, locals, and touring acts to one of Michigan's most consistently programmed independent venues. It operates where dive-bar pragmatism meets genuine curatorial intent, making it a reliable first stop for anyone mapping the city's nightlife on foot.
Ann Arbor, United States
Korean BBQ occupies a particular niche in Ann Arbor's dining mix, and Tomukun at 505 E Liberty St has held that position long enough to develop the kind of repeat clientele that defines a neighborhood anchor. The format centers on tableside grilling, communal pacing, and the layered ritual of banchan, proteins, and wraps that makes Korean BBQ a social format as much as a meal.
Ann Arbor
Selected entries from the current guide for Ann Arbor.
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