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    The Whitney

    3.5 (761 reviews)
    Closed 11:00 am - 2:00 pm, 5:00 PM - 9:00 PM
    Updated 2 months ago

    Services - The Whitney

    Venue rental

    The Whitney Photos

    Business Info

    THE WHITNEY ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Romantic
    Upscale
    Classy
    Quiet

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    Recommended Reviews - The Whitney

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    Reviews With Photos

    Entrance
    Andrea D.

    I love The Whitney! Now that I know about the garden parties I love it even more. Nice menu options for the garden parties. Lots of seating. If you're going for music on Thursday nights, you buy your tickets and then you're assigned a table near the entertainment. Even if you don't, you'll be further back but you'll still hear the music and enjoy yourself thoroughly. The outdoor menu is good. Love the Caesar salad and lobster bisque.

    Ghost bar
    Lindsay G.

    The Whitney is of my favorite restaurants downtown. I've experienced their delightful Sunday brunches and teas to the exciting paranormal Halloween tours and elegant dinners. Their gorgeous ambiance with unique architecture and history makes it such an iconic experience for any occasion. The entire staff is extremely hospitable and Joel entertains and serenades you with his beautiful music talent the moment you walk in. The Grand Premiere Tea was a culinary experience of a lifetime. I've been for dinner twice on my birthday and I highly recommend the surf and turf. Phenomenal meal and plate presentation! Be sure to check out their PPSC program, which is greatly impactful for maintaining the grounds and upkeep of the mansion. The membership includes a complimentary surf&turf birthday dinner (almost the value of the membership itself), $25 dollar gift card, and SO much more!

    scones
    Tiffany S.

    While the ambience here is incredible and worth a visit to see the historic Whitney Mansion, the overall high tea experience itself just OK. Our sever was fantastic, but a couple misses on high tea itself unrelated to the service: *no choosing your tea?! We all were given an Irish Cream Black tea - very good tea, but would be good to have the option to choose! *scones were served fresh but with butter and jam? Where's the clotted cream at? The scones were good enough to eat on their own though. *I enjoyed a good tea tower but half of them were misses -- good curried egg salad, good cucumber sando, good deviled egg. However the caprese cracker was very stale and the smoked salmon was a bit fishy. I did appreciate that they had NA sparkling, so that our friends who don't drink alcohol could partake or just have a different option! We sat in what used to be Mrs. Whitney's sitting room - I appreciated a more intimate space as it was quite loud and bustling with all the events going on - from baby showers, birthdays to business gatherings. Valet Parking is $10 & there's only one way in & out so it can get a little trickier. Easier to find street parking and walk in!

    Exclusive beer.
    Alex T.

    Had an amazing dinner here to celebrate our first wedding anniversary. The Whitney is a classic Detroit establishment, set inside an absolutely stunning historic mansion. We grabbed a drink at the Ghost Bar before dinner. The cocktails were excellent. After being seated, we were surprised to see the menu custom printed to say "Happy 1st Anniversary" for us. We started with the calamari which was perfect. We ordered the butternut squash soup and a salad to start. Both were excellent. For our main course, we both had their signature beef wellington. It was so good and the potatoes that came with it were just how I like them. For dessert, We had a delicious blackberry lemon tart with house-made marshmallows. The service was stellar from start to finish. The pianist even learned our first dance song on the spot and played it for us. The mansion is absolutely stunning and is an amazing setting for a special celebration. It was so fun walking through it and seeing all of the different rooms and amazing stained glass windows. Skip the trendy new spots that are a dime a dozen and all look the same. Come to the Whitney for something unique and one-of-a-kind.

    Filet Mignon
    Arturo F.

    Had a yummy meal here for my wife's birthday. The filet mignon is one of the best in town. The building is obviously beautiful -- one of the best date night settings in Detroit. That said, they seemed to not know anything about wine, and the server almost ruined a special bottle of classified 1989 Bordeaux that I brought in. She was about to just take a regular corkscrew to the bottle (she didn't even look at it, which is weird considering I was paying corkage), but I stopped her and asked her if they had an Ah-So or a Durand (special wine openers for old corks) -- I would expect any nice restaurant to have a good way to open old bottles, but she had no idea what these even were. There wasn't a sommelier on-site, either, which was surprising and disappointing. Ultimately, the manager had to help open the bottle -- as expected, the cork crumbled, so he had to strain and decant it. He was very helpful once he to involved but, again, I would've expected better wine knowledge at a place of this caliber.

    2nd level of 3 floors. One of the dining rooms. Bar and live piano player on main landing.
    Bella B.

    Logistics. Downtown Detroit, located on northwest corner of Woodward and W Canfield. Vibe. This is one of the OLDEST restaurants in the city. It is a mansion of 4 floors. We were sat on second floor since the first floor was having a wedding. In the room we sat were full of couples with wine bottles, celebrating birthdays or anniversaries, and then a random table of 4 guys for the Autoshow event that happens in January. Music was live pianist that really loves performing. They try to create romance with the candles and low lighting. Offerings. See pics. Hospitality. Friendly, knowledgeable, professional. Of Note. Private, gated parking lot across street for $5, otherwise there is ALWAYS valet. Loo was beautiful. See pic. I do not know if I would come for the dinners, but want to check out the bar and apps. Overall, good.

    Rachel D.

    For me, The Whitney was definitely about the experience. The food was very mediocre. Although, I'm not sure a Grilled Chicken Caesar salad can be too exciting. I chose it because the options on the group tour meal were limited. It was small, the dressing wasn't anything special, and the chicken was kind of tough. Definitely the best part of my meal was the creamy mushroom soup and it wasn't anything spectacular. However, I'm glad I got to experience the Whitney and all of its glory. It's definitely a majestic building was lots of beauty on all three floors. We had a very large group 30+ and they were prepared for us, so our service was good. Overall, an experience but don't care to visit again.

    Mj J.

    This review is for a Cityfest event I attended in September. Wow! What a "bee"utiful dinner and supporting Bees in the D nonprofit. The setting was spectacular, located in the garden, the weather was absolutely perfect. We were greeted with glasses of champagne and strolling appetizers, chicken and waffles with a hot honey drizzle!!! We were seated at long tables to socialize with those around us. After a quick presentation, bring on the food!!! Every dish was skillfully curated and paired with a Traverse City wine. It was simply a memorable experience and I can't wait to come back next year.

    Nicole E.

    Had high tea with my mother last month. Limited Valet parking, paid parking nearby on the streets. The high tea experience wasn't what I had hoped for at $125+ for two people. :/ We didn't get to pick our tea flavor at all, house tea was okay, but not what either of us would have preferred at all. The scones were maybe two small bites at most and quite minuscule. The cranberry and blueberry scones were okay, just itty bitty. The condiments for the scones were butter and jam, my mother and I were thoroughly disappointed with the spread. My mother's two favorite reasons for high tea, R. Claudette, cream and lemon curd, neither were present for our tea. Utter disappointment for mom and me. The tea sandwiches looked decent, but the breads were all dried out. The cucumber finger sandwich was really bland. The chicken sandwich itself was OK, but once again the bread was dried out and crusty. The pumpernickel for the smoked salmon was also dry and crusty. It seemed as if these finger sandwiches had been out for many hours or even made the night before. The deviled egg was super plain and boring and nothing special at all. The small caprese had a dried and steel piece of toast or crostini. The strawberries and cream was okay. The desserts were so-so. Nothing was carb worhy to either of us. The execution, taste, flavor, texture, staleness of everything was subpar for what I would expect of the Whitney. Our server, along with the others, timed out all their food runs to our tables around the same time. It felt like a cafeteria style dining for our high tea experience. Thoroughly disappointed in the experience that I waited for a couple years to schedule with my mother. We've been to many high teas all over Michigan and out of state in New York and Chicago and this was the most disappointing high tea. I've been to thus far.

    Alcohol free champagne toast
    Monica A.

    The Whitney does not disappoint. My book club dined here for a Sunday brunch. Valet is $10 (reasonable). We were a party of 12. They sat us immediately without the entire party being present. Big points for that. Staff deserve was excellent. We had a private room and Liz was our dedicated wait staff. She was excellent. The food was excellent. The chicken sausage was mouthwatering. Salads, fruit, various meats and egg dishes. It was outstanding. The cost is higher $79/person but does include champagne and we did mimosa flights w/ oj, pineapple and cranberry. My two young people had alcohol free champagne. Their cost for brunch was $34/each. It's worth the cost. The ambiance, service, and food is excellent. You can also order from the bar. I don't think they offer off the menu during the brunch time.

    Grilled Bone-In Ribeye Steak
    Kesha S.

    One of my favorite places to dine! Food is always delicious! And the service is absolutely fantastic, Christina was wonderful I highly recommend her as a server. Once you finish dining go on your complimentary history tour of the house. This is probably one of the last places you can get beef Wellington. The witching hour drink was soo delicious.

    We went for Easter Brunch which was advertised as including a visit with the Easter bunny for the kids. There was no Easter Bunny. There was no mention of this prior to arrival or when we arrived. Our kids were very excited and assumed we would be told more about when/where we could meet him further into the brunch, but when it didn't come up, my husband went to go ask. Initially he was told "that was yesterday" (they did have an Easter event the day before too). I told him no, it says very clearly it is today as well. He asked again and the second time was told the Easter bunny got sick. That struck me as odd that the reason changed, which makes me think it wasn't the case. Regardless, we are from out of town. The only reason we booked this brunch was because we had ticketed events every other day of the weekend and it was the only event we could find on Sunday that had Easter bunny pictures. It really ruined the mood and I lost my appetite completely so can't really say much either way for the food. Trying to turn it around, I went and asked if they were aware of anywhere else that had an Easter bunny that day (again we are from out of town) and were told no. I asked if there was anywhere nice we could take pictures and were told anywhere the doors were open. The place was understandably crowded for brunch so taking pictures felt really awkward and like we were in the way of people trying to walk. I thought maybe we could have used whatever area they were going to have set up to take the bunny pictures that would be out of the way, but apparently not. So after feeling like she was annoyed at me for asking questions I just went back to my table. The positives were that our server was nice, the man playing piano on the first floor was great, and the people serving the food at the buffet tables were very friendly. I'm sure they could tell I was annoyed as we got one of our kids' meals comped. But really it wasn't about the money. If we had known ahead of time the Easter bunny wasn't going to be there I would have cancelled and tried to find something else before we even left our hotel. We had a 9 hour drive back home after this and our car full of all our luggage so trying to find something last minute wasn't an option. Hearing ahead of time would have been nice so we could have figured something out before even leaving our hotel.

    Natasha V.

    The worst food I've tasted in decades. Any turkey tv dinner is heads and shoulders over what was served. The Whitney should be ashamed of themselves for intentionally cooking undeniably the blandest, worst texture, visually dull Thanksgiving meal to unsuspecting diners. I can't sit on this information. The Whitney as a destination is a historical mansion in Detroit, a rich ornate Romanesque $10 million dollar mansion. Our bill was $420.00 for four people. We had zero alcoholic beverages. The choice was a minuscule salad w/o any dressing OR soup, turkey (turkey loaf maybe from a can,not sure what it was) , stuffing (tacky, sticky, nasty nasty tasting) , green beans (fine) and a tiny trio of dry-bland desserts. Dear Whitney, I implore you to feed your family what you served Thanksgiving Day, 2024. I will never be back to eat one morsel. You took advantage today of people by luring them to your beautiful mansion, just to serve them inedible food, not even fit for a dog.

    Espresso Panna Cotta

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    I was so disappointed. Brunch was awful and cold. We were rushed and no dessert offered.

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    Page 1 of 20

    Ask the Community - The Whitney

    Does the restaurant have a dress code?

    If you wear flip flops and jeans you may get some strange looks and possibly be turned away! I would say anywhere from business casual being the most casual, but I've also seen people super formal there! As long as you look put together and aren't… Read more

    Do you offer halal creekstone steak?

    Hello Hanan, Thank you for reaching out. Yes, our beef is Creekstone and halal. We look forward to your visit.

    Is the restaurant handicap accessible?

    The Whitney has a ramp in the back for easy entrance into the Whitney. There is also handicap parking in front of the ramp area. An elevator is inside if needed. Terrific restaurant with outstanding service, and food! It is very beautiful. A… Read more

    Seems like valet is $10 but there's also street parking nearby? Which is easier?

    Typically I always valet when going to the Whitney. You can park in Zone parking on Woodward, but sometimes that is full. If it's nighttime and you are bringing friends and/or family spend the extra money to valet. Also, keep in mind the weather.… Read more

    Do you need a reservation for lunch?

    Hello G.M., We currently serve Afternoon Tea at 2:00 each day, and Brunch on Saturday & Sunday, but no weekday lunch. We will resume lunch service for the Holiday Season in mid-October. Give us a call at 313-832-5700 with any additional… Read more

    Don’t See Your Question? Ask Away!

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    I hadn't been home in three years, and I probably hadn't been to The Standby in five or six years…read more. and let me tell you, it's still just as amazing as I remember. Downtown Detroit definitely feels different now, and the crowd has shifted a bit, but none of that took away from what The Standby is. That alleyway magic is still there. Walking in honestly felt like a little blast from the past, and it made me really happy. It ended up being a highlight of my trip home. The food was phenomenal. The crab was so buttery, the waffle situation was amazing, and the overall execution across the menu was impressive. We ordered a lot, basically half the menu and everything hit. * Short rib plate: delicious, rich, and comforting * Chicken schnitzel with curry mustard: WOW. Juicy, crunchy, fresh, perfectly seasoned. The curry mustard was everything, and that little pepper on top? 10/10. This was hands down my favorite dish. * Drinks: They had brand ambassadors for Wild Turkey, giving out free Old Fashioneds, which was honestly the perfect touch. We also had a small ounce pour of a mezcal that was beautifully smoked, super aromatic and smoky in the best way. Service was great too, we had two different servers, and both were attentive and kind. The only miss for me personally was the pastrami salmon toast. I wanted to love it so badly because I love salmon and I love smoked fish, but it just wasn't for me. I actually sent it back (which I felt bad about). I think the slight sweetness, (possibly from the tomato jam)threw it off for my palate. I was craving something fully savory with a bit of acidity. I think a thicker, crunchier toast and a more umami-forward, citrusy or pickled element might have taken it where it needed to go. That said, I know pastrami-style salmon is a thing right now, it just didn't work for me. Everything else? Truly amazing. The Standby will forever be a place I come back to when I'm home. I'm excited to return, see what's new on the menu, and relive that magic again. Highly recommend. 10 out of 10. Will absolutely be back.

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    The Conservatory - Tea & Sherry cocktail, glass of Rioja, croquetas de jamon, patatas bravas, and tortilla española

    The Conservatory

    4.0(11 reviews)
    0.5 miMidtown

    I'm not usually a "hotel lobby bar" kinda person, but we were looking for a place to have drinks…read moreand some bites after a show at the DSO and decided to walk here. I was very pleasantly surprised! The space is beautiful, classy, and airy. We sat at the bar and had a nice chat -- the music was at a good volume. I only ordered wine -- their wine list is alright. Not bad for a bar that's clearly not wine-focused. My wife and a friend had cocktails and they both were good, particularly their espresso martini. For food, we shared patatas bravas, tortilla española, and croquetas de jamon, and they were all delicious. I'd legit come back for a full dinner. My only reason to not give this 5 stars is the drink service was very slow, even though the place wasn't busy. The two bartenders seemed friendly enough but weren't communicating very well, and kept forgetting to take and/or bring our orders. We also asked for the check and they kept forgetting to bring it until we asked again. Overall, it was a positive experience and a nice surprise, but I hope the odd bar service was just a one-off blip.

    Unfortunately the staff was in a tough position when we came to try the Conservatory, as there was…read moreonly one person in the back and nearly half of their menu was unavailable. They could have been upfront about this, but our waiter didn't tell us until after bringing us drinks, letting us see the menus, and after he started to take our orders. We essentially had to ask---what *do* you have? One pet peeve of mine is that they give everyone low ball glasses for water with no ice and a single, narrow carafe of water for the entire table. We had to continuously ask for more water. I tried the espresso no-tini ($11), a mocktail. It was good, but came in cordial glass and was essentially just a shot of chilled espresso. The setas ($14) were listed as a local wild mushroom blend with garlic and lemon. It was probably about a half cup of mushrooms, grilled, and served in a saucer. Finally, the charcuterie y queso ($21) was meat, cheese, sourdough, mustard, pickles, and honey. Everything was very salty and with no variation. It needed balance with a soft cheese, spice, or more sweetness. My charcuterie plate didn't come out until about an hour plus after we ordered, after multiple asks. It's hard to justify the delay when it's just hard cheese and meat, they didn't have to cook, and there were few other customers. (Essentially, we forgot). I still had a wonderful time with my friends in a beautiful space, but I wouldn't come here to eat again. The menu is elaboratey described dishes that come in very small portions and with ingredients that don't live up to the names.

    Photos
    The Conservatory - Bar at the AC Hotel Detroit at the Bonstelle.

    Bar at the AC Hotel Detroit at the Bonstelle.

    The Conservatory - Espresso martini

    Espresso martini

    The Conservatory

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    The Whitney - newamerican - Updated May 2026

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