Detroit Restaurants Ranked As The Worst In U.S.

By Christy Strawser, CBS Detroit Managing Editor
Detroit is at the bottom of the food chain in a dining out report from LivingSocial, an online deal company that highlights businesses, products and services across the country.

LivingSocial surveyed 4,000 adults in the top 20 media markets in the United States to reveal what some suspected and others won't believe: New York, Chicago and San Francisco are the top three dining spots, followed by Houston, Dallas, and Washington, D.C.

The worst? Seattle, Sacramento and – in dead last place – Detroit.

Results are based on opinion and perception, not centered in any hard data or culinary reviews. But it stings. And when people feel stung, they fight back.

"Obviously these people have never actually been here," said Carol Marshall Lundberg of Farmington Hills. "I'm literally walking distance or a five-minute drive from a diverse selection of cuisines at all price points...What are these people talking about? I bet the respondents in that survey eat at Olive Garden."

Grace Keros, third generation owner of American Coney Island in Detroit, was even more fired up.

"Anyone who says Detroit is a bad place to eat is screwed up in the head," Keros said. "It's not just my food that's good, and we've been chosen for awards at a national level time and time again. We ship coney kits out across the country.

"Go down the street from us and you've got Roast, with all the flavors there, Wolfgang Puck is at the MGM Grand -- these are unbelieveable restaurants. In New York, they eat hot dogs from carts on the street. Who wants to do that? It's just ridiculous."

See the full survey here. And tell us, are the LivingSocial folks right on about Detroit or woefully misinformed?