Dakota Inn Review & Bathroom Guide
17324 John R St, Detroit, MI 48203
My favorite bar in Detroit, and the restrooms are the price of admission. A German beer hall since 1933, where the stall upstairs has no door.
Reviewed June 2026
First-hand Shooki editorial
Shooki’s Review of Dakota Inn
By Shooki · Reviewed June 2026
My favorite bar in Detroit, and the restrooms are the price of admission. A German beer hall since 1933, where the stall upstairs has no door.
Wie geht's. Where do I even begin with the Dakota Inn.
It sits in one of those rough-around-the-edges Detroit pockets where every friend or family member I've brought has had a where-the-hell-are-you-taking-me moment on the way in. Then you walk inside, settle in, and realize that's the magic.
As an Irish-German, this place hits something deep. It feels like an old-school gathering hall, a church festival, a Knights of Columbus night, an ox roast, a family party and a German beer hall all somehow living under one roof. The building feels almost untouched. Historical, weird, alive. Depending on the night you might walk into full German songs, dancing, beer flowing, all ages and all walks of life taking a minute to forget whatever nonsense is happening outside.
That kind of vibe is rare. The only place that comes close for me is the Gaelic League.
Beer, German side approved. Food, some of the best German grub in the state. Craic, for my Micks, mighty. The only thing missing is a Guinness tap, and yes, it hurts me deeply. Downstairs there's more beer, a younger crowd, and German wines if that's your thing.
Staff is great too. Tony behind the bar is a legend, so tip well.
Best for
- A beer hall night with sing-alongs and a stein
- Big groups, all ages
- German food done properly
- Anyone who wants the warmest old room in Detroit
Less ideal for
- Anyone who needs a stall door
- Guinness drinkers
- A quiet night
- Anyone who needs an accessible restroom
The Shooki Bathroom Review
First-party restroom record · Reviewed June 2026
Restroom verdict
Four rooms across two floors, and the one I'd send you to is downstairs. The upstairs men's stall has no door, which caps the score hard.
- Restroom inventory
- 4 total — 2 men’s restrooms and 2 women’s restrooms
- Review coverage
- Four rooms, two on each floor, split men's and women's on both. I reviewed the upstairs men's and one of the two downstairs.
- Room reviewed
- The upstairs men's room, plus the downstairs men's
- Reviewed room fixtures
- 1 stall/toilet · 2 urinals · 1 sink
- Why this score
- A doorless stall in the reviewed men's room sets the ceiling. The 5 is what's left after the downstairs rooms, which have doors and are in better shape, pull the score back up.
- Layout
- Upstairs: pink tile, two urinals, one wall-hung sink under a mirror, a window, and a toilet behind a partition with no door. Downstairs: blue tile, a urinal and a toilet in the open, a wall-hung sink and a steel towel dispenser.
- Capacity
- Four rooms across two floors, which is the saving grace on a sing-along night — the downstairs pair takes the pressure off the two upstairs.
Observed accessibility limitations
- None of the four rooms are accessible, and the stall in the upstairs men's has no door on it.
Not accessible is the owner's own first-hand finding across all four rooms, not a compliance assessment of the building.
The downstairs rooms are the move. They're about ten times better than upstairs, mainly because they actually have doors.
The one I reviewed down there is blue tile top to bottom, with a urinal and a toilet sitting out in the open, a wall-hung sink and a steel towel dispenser.
Upstairs is a men's and a ladies', and the men's feels about as old as the building. Pink tile, two urinals, one sink under a mirror, a window, and a toilet behind a partition with no door on it. I don't blame them for keeping the history intact. I do have to knock the rating way down for a stall you can't close.
Every room here is a men's or a women's, and none of them are accessible.
Restrooms might be shyte. The bar is still the best you'll find in Detroit.
What Google Reviewers Say
4.5 on Google · 875 reviews · Read on Google →
The piano player is the single most-mentioned thing about the Dakota Inn, named in sixty reviews, with the sing-alongs close behind at fifty-four and Oktoberfest at twenty-six — reviewers describe rooms full of strangers singing together. The kitchen gets its own list: potato pancakes (22 mentions), pretzels, German potato salad, spätzle and mushroom gravy, with the Jäger schnitzel a repeat order. Live music runs through sixteen more reviews, and the downstairs Rathskeller wine cellar is singled out as its own experience. Of its 875 ratings, 642 are five stars.
German, Irish, and gathering-hall Detroit rooms Shooki reviewed
Other Shooki review pages selected as useful comparisons. Neighborhood is shown for context, not as a distance ranking.