Detroit, MI - An evening out at the Whitney, well, it's going to be a very elegant evening with excellent food. The Whitney is a beautiful restaurant in downtown near Wayne State University. The ambiance is extremely nice and the food is perfect to go along with it.

We started with the salad called Tree Fruit. It is apple satsumas, forelli pears, topped and bottomed in a flaky pastry, pecans, bleu cheese, some salad greens, and roasted shallot vinaigrette. It was an excellent excellent dish to start the evening. The apples gave a perfect citrus flavor, while the bleu cheese helped to balance the flavor and help mild down the citrus and vinaigrette.

My main course was the sea scallops on top of mushroom peared barley and butternut squash, deep fried peppers, and beurre rouge. I would rate the dish as outstanding! The scallops were cooked perfectly, the mushrooms and butternut squash balanced the salty flavor the scallops, the rouge sauce enhanced the flavor of the two, and the peppers added the counter-texture to the scallops that finished the dish off very well. I could get this every time I'm there.

For desert, I had apple and brown butter cheesecake, wrapped in phyllo, and topped with rum raisin sorbet. Texturally speaking, it is a perfect balance between the smooth cheesecake, crunchiness of the phyllo, and the icy-shaving of the sorbet. The taste was a home run as well.

I also tried the Sweet Pleasure, layers of chocolate cream hazelnut, chocolate ganache, and hazelnut anglaise. The chocolate was decadent, but I didn't prefer the hazelnut. I usually like it, but I thought it was too much and had a stronger nut flavor than it should. Presented beautifully, but I would get it again. Enjoy!

West Bloomfield, MI - The only Israeli restaurant I know of Yossi's in West Bloomfield. Some of their dishes like their baba ganoush, no one compares. Well, their deserts are top class as well. Above are home made Israeli donuts. They are jelly filled, covered in powdered sugar, and with a drizzle of caramel. It's very sweet, but fresh and absolutely delicious.

Yossi's also makes banana pancake deserts. He also offers apple flavor, but I preferred the banana. It is a delicious pancake, sweetened, covered with fresh bananas and strawberries, then topped with ice cream. Yes, it's as delicious as it sounds. We didn't leave anything left on the plate. If you save room for deserts, definitely try these, they are outstanding.

West Bloomfield, MI - There's one thing that Detroit doesn't have a shortage of, and that's Greek restaurants. Detroit has them all over the place. It allows you to get very good Greek food virtually any time and any place around. This time I tried a place called Honey Tree with some friends. I had the Gyro Plate that had the gyro meat, typically lamb, fresh tomatoes and onions, Greek pita bread, gyro sauce (typically a yogurt base with either cucumber or garlic mixed in), and rice with tomato sauce on top. At first, I admit I didn't think the place was going to have a good gyro plate, but they proved me wrong. The gyro, veggies, sauce, and pita were excellent, but the rice was so so. It didn't have a ton of flavor and just a bit too bland for my taste. If I were to get it again, I would just get the whole thing minus the rice. The gyro, the main attraction, was definitely up to par, was deliciously prepared and seasoned well. Enjoy!

Ferndale, MI - Who would have known there is a little bit of France in Ferndale. At Josephines, you can pick up some really tasty crepes that almost transports you to the streets of Paris. After returning from Paris, I was hoping I could find a French restaurant that serves excellent crepes. Joesephines is pretty close to it. Above is a Banana and Nutella (chocolate sauce) crepe, one that is very famous on the streets of Paris among the street crepe vendors. It wasn't as delicious as the one in Paris, not surprising, but it was close enough. The combination of bananas and chocolate are perfect together. Add a nice little sweet crepe and whip cream, really, you can't go wrong.

After dinner, they brought out a little surprise. This is a Raspberry Port, dessert wine. However, the surprise goes even further because it's difficult to see, but it's served in a dark chocolate shot glass. After sipping this deliciously sweet wine, you get to eat the cup. Imagine dark chocolate with a slight flavor of raspberry port on it. I know, it sounds delicious. Enjoy!