Echelon Kitchen And Bar

We were lucky to be able to try dinner at the bar here on a Sunday night. Every staff member we encountered was very kind and welcoming. The main door opens to the bar side on the left, which has a couple of tables next to the window. We overheard our server telling some other patrons that they've been very busy since they opened last week, and when that's the case, the dining menu is not an option at the bar. The dining room looked very nice. I appreciated the attention to detail when it came to the thoughtful ambient lighting throughout the restaurant, and in the display areas around and behind the bar. Our drinks were delicious, and so was every single bite we had. The menu isn't marked for dietary restrictions, but our server knew it well enough to be able to tell us which options were gluten free, and went back to check with the kitchen to make sure another item he wasn't sure about would be safe for me to eat. We ordered the Vegetable Salad, which was reminiscent of a Vietnamese goi, and had great flavor infused throughout with fun contrasts in texture with the crispy onion bits on top. My boyfriend got the house bread with compound butter, giardiniera (I loved the fresh and spicy jalapeños they used), and muhammara, which he enjoyed very much. The Baby Carrots were a recommendation we overheard the server make to some patrons nearby, and they were absolute perfection; the candied hazelnuts made the dish so special, and the carrots were cooked perfectly. The Scallops with Risotto Nero was perfectly portioned and the scallops were some of the best we've had in a while.Throughout our dining experience, there were so many staff members buzzing around to make sure we had enough water, our dirty plates were never in front of us for long, and to replace our place settings for every single course. It was nice to see a team work so well for a restaurant that's just opened; very impressive!We absolutely loved our entire experience, would definitely recommend this as a top place for a dinner that doesn't disappoint, and will definitely be coming back soon!

What an experience! I booked the chef's tasting online, and was thoroughly impressed. It felt like it should cost more than it did. When we arrived, we were immediately greeted and had our jackets hung up. We were welcomed with some bubbly and greeted by numerous staff members. There is a som on site to help with any drink choices. We had 6 creative, beautiful, delicious courses. I don't wanna give any of the dishes away, but they were all a hit. My husband, who doesn't normally like tasting menus, agreed that this one was one of the best ones we have had. What a beautiful addition to Ann Arbor.

Sampled 7 different things from the menu and nothing blew me away. Everything was solid but nothing crazy. The carrots and the cabbage dishes were probably my favorites. The ambiance is very good vibes and had a lot of energy on a Sunday night. Our service was okay but could've been better.

Just wow! We were here this past Sunday and were very impressed! When we walked in we were immediately greeted and checked our coats. We were a little early so sat at the bar and perused the extensive drink menu. We settled on a delicious white wine that the bartender helped us choose. Perfect choice. We were seated at a comfortable table for 2. The set up is phenomenal. You are not right next to another table so even though the place was full you didn't have to hear other people's conversations. There was music in the background but at the perfect level. The decor is beautiful. We were able to taste 4 dishes. The filet was perfectly cooked and was a flavor explosion. We also had the duck. I have never tried it before but it was so flavorful and delicious! My favorite dish was probably the bucatini. Wow! The service was impeccable. Our water glass was always filled. They just made you feel so pampered. Even the bathrooms were well thought out. There are 4 individual bathrooms that had an occupied and unoccupied designation when you lock the door. No anxiety about people knocking! We tried 2 desserts and they were delicious! people! You NEED to make your reservations and have a wonderful experience here. I promise you will NOT be disappointed! I can't wait to come back. I want to try everything on the menu.

Great service, food, and cocktails. What a wonderful addition to Ann Arbor. Best meal I've had in this city and I've lived here nearly 20 years. Bravo

One of the best restaurants I've been to. Echelon is everything you want in a fine dining restaurant: beautiful atmosphere, delicious food (truly, everything I've had in my 3 times there has been delicious), and most importantly excellent service and hospitality -- thoughtful touches everywhere, kind staff, and just overall high quality. All of this, yet it doesn't feel stuffy or pretentious. Awesome restaurant and great addition to Ann Arbor!

This is my new favorite restaurant in Ann Arbor! Every dish was great, but highlights included the cauliflower, crudo, octopus, and duck (and I normally don't like duck). The service was excellent all around. Our server Aaron was very helpful and knowledgeable. Taylor, the sommelier, was outstanding!

This review is mainly from a vegetarian perspective. The tl;dr is I had an ok dinner here as a vegetarian but I wouldn't really recommend it to other non-meat eaters in general because there wasn't a good "main course". If you eat meat you'll have way more choices. The service was great and we liked the decor. It got a little loud when the restaurant was full but we could still talk without yelling. There was comfortable seating, and very nice staff. Longer version: I went with a couple friends as it's new and we wanted to try it out. I'll try and give a lot of detail so people can decide if they want to go considering it's very expensive, as I mentioned. First, they state they're "vegetable forward," but there is nothing that really serves as a main dish for vegetarians -- all the vegetable dishes were more like side dishes or something you'd share. I still had enough to eat because we ordered all the vegetable dishes to try.We had:-Bread: Parker house rolls with some butter, sauce, and pickled vegetables. We thought it was an odd choice to have the rolls instead of a flatbread type bread but they were good. -Carrots: very good, loved the combo of flavors -Cauliflower: this was ok, interesting combo of flavors -Flatbread: interesting, you need to really like preserved lemon to enjoy it. Not much goat cheese, had a lot of other stuff on it. The beet was sliced super thin so even if you don't like beets it wasn't too overwhelming. -Cabbage: two preparations of cabbage were served on different plates. The first was a wedge of grilled cabbage coated in some sort of seeds and spices and a different cabbage dish that was much tastier but it was just a small dish. The wedge of cabbage had something spicy on it also, so just FYI if you're spicy averse. -Chicken: my friends had the chicken and they liked it. It came with crepes and a plum bbq sauce instead of traditional side dishes. There's a note on the menu that said to allow 45 minutes for it to be prepared, FYI. -Drinks: friends had a couple cocktails that were ok/good and wine with dinner. I had sparkling water and I liked that they refilled it instead of having just a bottle of San Pellegrino or something to the table. Water refills were constant. There were tons of workers everywhere doing things, taking plates, refilling water. -Desserts: One friend got the grapefruit panna cotta which tasted good but wasn't amazing. We probably wouldn't get it again. I had the chocolate dessert which was very good with three triangles of a double layer chocolate mousse cake thing, and the second friend had a disappointment with the ice cream which was the tiniest third of a scoop of ice cream in a tiny dish. The hazelnuts were burnt (which we mentioned to the server) so that ruined the flavor, my friend had to take them off to eat the ice cream. She said the ice cream was good once she removed the hazelnuts. The thing that surprised me the most was the seemingly random mix of flavors: muhammara with the dinner rolls, tahini with the cauliflower, plum bbq sauce with the chicken, Asian (???) spices with the cauliflower. All in all, we had fun but I don't know if I personally would go back for dinner unless someone else strongly insisted or the menu changed in the future.

Ann Arbor just upped its restaurant scene. The cocktails were excellent. Small and medium dishes made for fun sharing. We especially loved the scallops and risotto. So flavorful. Kudos to the pastry chef with the mix of textures and colors and flavors. Bravo all!