Dirty Dog Jazz Cafe

Food, service and ambiance are top tier. Country club level. Civilized. Refreshing. Very happy to have finally enjoyed a meal with a friend at the Dog. Looking forward to returning to enjoy good music. Just seeing the real estate allocated for the musicians is telling that they are highly respected

This experience was fun... drinks were good, music was incredible, ambience was wonderful! However, service and food were lackluster. Spending $30+ on a meal I'd expect it to be pretty darn good, but instead I was met with dry salmon and way oversalted fries. My table didn't even eat the fries because of how grossly salted they were. Normally I'd feel comfortable with the server to ask for new ones, but after one of the 7 drinks of our table took 15 minutes longer than the rest to come out... I wasn't sure if the fries would even be worth the wait to fix. More on the salmon... it was a salad, but all of the dressing was poured in the middle and the salmon was placed on top of the dressing spot. The salmon skin then soaked up most the dressing and did not allow any extra to cover the rest of the leafs. Normally I'd be fine with the hefty price of an establishment like this... but I'll have to remember to eat before hand next time. Sitting at the bar and just enjoying the drinks and music would likely yield a 5 star experience.

I came here for a late lunch on a Saturday and I was happy with my dining experience. There was only one other group there when we arrived so service was quick and the food came out fast as well.The atmosphere of this place is great. Pretty cozy and they have a lot of cool jazz related decor on the walls. I would love to come here when they have live music going on. For my meal I got the Hudson Chop Salad and a side of duck fat fries. The salad was super good. I opted to add chicken onto it and this was a good choice. The chicken was seasoned and cooked well. I'd never had mixed greens for a chopped salad (usually romaine or something more crisp) but this was a welcomed surprise as I prefer salads with dark leafy greens. The duck fat fries were good -- I didn't really notice a difference per the "duck fat" part of the fries. It was served with spicy ketchup and malt aioli. I didn't really taste any spice in the ketchup but the aioli was super good. The 2 other people in my group seemed to really like their meal as well! I thought the pricing was pretty fair. I'd like to come back and try something from the main plate portion of their menu.

Trying new way of sharing the tour by posting pics with captions. Scroll away.Overall, superb. Today, they earned their stars. Fine establishment, soup to nuts. I (hand over heart) truly wish Rochester Hills downtown had a jazz club. Band lead all to sing Happy Birthday. Totally exceeded expectations of making birthday celebration quite special without solicitation, just inquired when making the reservation. They said they do not do anything for birthdays, but they pleasantly surprised us. We will definitely be back because of the excellent music; everything else added to the lovely, fun experience.

We had a wonderful anniversary dinner on a Wednesday evening. The pianist was wonderful and the food was pretty good.

I had a very tender and rich short rib dish on seasoned mashed potatoes and roasted carrots. My sister had excellent lamb chops and other sister perch on a nest of finely shredded potatoes with a buree blanc sauce with capers. We were demanding of our server and he was resposive. Lovely Ceaser salad as starter which was good as it took awhile for the entree. But wonderful live jazz music which was one of the reasons we went there. But they did change cover which they disclosed from the start. $20/person but quality live jazz band.

It's very disheartening to have to leave a one-star review for a once-supportive live music venue in the community, but alas, that seems to be no more. The DDJC was one of a few Detroit restaurants and clubs that had live music most nights of the week. It was the entire reason to visit the establishment. While the food could be hit or miss, the live jazz was always a hit. They are cutting back the live bands to only Friday and Saturday, and apparently piping in music the other evenings, under the guise of "live-steam jazz." Which amounts to turning on the radio, for free, I suppose. They also wrote some tone-deaf social media posts "celebrating" this depressing change of course, including making a "party" out of one of the regular bands they fired last performance. It's all in very poor taste, in my opinion. Maybe they should rename it The Dirty Dog DJ Cafe, (where DJ stands for "Digital Jazz") or the Dirty Dog No Jazz Cafe. Because any fan of jazz knows it's a live art form. Just listening to recordings can be easily done in the comfort of your own home over a pizza. This place used to be a patron of the arts, but no longer. So if you are looking for an atmospheric night of fantastic food, along with fantastic live music, you are going to have to head elsewhere. I know downtown's famed London Chophouse, has music every night, as well as Eddie V's in Troy, if you are over on the west side. Please support live music and the businesses that do the same. The Arts need patrons, as do the artists behind those tunes; let's keep the music playing.

The ambience is definitely a vibe. The live entertainment is definitely worth the visit, but the food on the other hand taste Buffet ish, prepaid and not very flavorful. Service was also pretty slow. But I would return for drinks and vibes

This is definitely a great place for a special night out! For me it's a little too pricey to justify going on a normal Friday night though. For three of us the bill came to $337 which included cover, our four course meals, gratuity, a beer and a bottle of wine. You definitely get a lot for your money! They started us of with a complimentary cocktail which is a perfect way to begin any meal! The food was great! They accommodated my vegetarian diet too! Our server was so sweet and polite. The music was so beautiful and entertaining! Highly recommend for a memorable evening!

We attended the preview event for the Detroit Jazz Festival. The jazz was absolutely amazing! Our meal was a 3 course meal. Our Amuse-bouche was crab toast with a pesto. It was very good. The 1st course was soup or salad. We all had the salad, and it was nice as well. The 2nd course was filet, salmon, short rib, or another option I can not remember. I had the filet, and my wife had the short rib. Her short rib was very good. My "filet" had fat on it. I've never had fat in a filet as there should be no fat on the filet. The final course was chocolate lava cake or crème brûlée. The lava cake didn't ooze but was very tasty, and the crème brûlée was ok...not great. The service was decent. Our party of 4 split the bill in half. We tipped and left (asked to leave quickly after the music was over. I hoped she was joking, but it didn't seem like it. 15 minutes wasn't a long wait). When we got home, I realized they put a 20% tip on the bill automatically. We were not told that, but the itemized bill did show it. Thought that was pretty cheesy. I would go back for the jazz, but many other aspects of the experience might cause me to second guess.