As in the past several years, metro Detroit's restaurant community grew exponentially in 2017. A crop of young, talented chefs launched their rookie efforts around the region. Several established and decorated chefs and restaurateurs returned to Detroit to ply their trade in their suddenly hot hometown. Some of the area's biggest names opened or announced new projects, while a few underrated cooks did their thing at pop-ups or in food carts. We not only saw all that in greater downtown and the burbs, but also in the city's outer neighborhoods, where minority and immigrant chefs started getting some deserved attention.

Here are the best dishes we found along the way while traveling through metro Detroit bite by bite over the last 12 months.