Small Plates - Detroit, Michigan

You need to be very careful in here indeed. It is tasty food but can quickly snowball into a huge tab for you. The reason is it is all appetizer sort of items and it will lull you into getting more than perhaps you realized. Plates can range from four dollars all the way up to seventeen, it adds up.

Small Plates is a cute little cafe on Broadway right around the corner from just about everything, including my work. It has quite a following and with good reason, the food for the most part is really great. The premise is fun as well, little plates of happy food to share. It's romantic. You can even dine al fresco and really feel the spirit.

A must get here is the Hand Cut Fries, served with homemade ketchup. I recommend you request the garlic aioli as well as it is absolutely delicious. I alternate dips myself. Not good for you but mmmmm. At four dollars a bargain for here.

The seafood here just all seems to be primo. The Garlic Shrimp comes with bread for dipping and is just so tasty. The Pan Seared Scallops have a heavenly brown butter sauce and are served over linguine. The Panko Shrimp are delicate with two delicious sauces. The Crispy Calamari are tender and are served with a perfect spicy aioli. You can even get a Garlic Shrimp Pizza or Fish Tacos, happiness indeed.

The other stuff seems a little more hit and miss. The Petite Tenderloin is spendy but quality with a rich sauce and crispy onions. I quite liked the Veggie Spring Rolls with three sauces, you have to love people who remember hot mustard. The Lettuce Wraps are not quite as good as PF Changs though, they need that great dipping mixed sauce to jazz them up. The Almond Chicken was also not impressive, good but not for that price.

The Broadway Baguette was crisp and sinful as were the Sherry Mushrooms in their cream sauce with baguette to dip. Way too much starch and fat but worth it. A bit spendy at eight dollars apiece.

The salads are quite nice and come in two sizes, great if you want to share. I like the Chop Chop but the Maurice is confusing as it has chicken instead of ham and adds tomato and olives. Any native Detroiter knows that a Maurice salad made the famous Hudson's way is shredded iceberg, ham, turkey, swiss, chopped gherkins and the creamy dressing, period. Just odd in a Detroit place where they should get it right. It's good but it is no Maurice.

Bottom line, Small Plates is tasty but spendy for what you get. Watch when ordering and if you are going to splurge do it on the seafood which is all good.