El Barzon
3710 Junction St, Detroit, MI 48210
The Shooki Review
El Barzon is the Southwest Detroit spot that refuses to pick a lane — chef Norberto Garita runs a full Italian menu and a full Mexican menu out of the same Mexicantown kitchen, and somehow neither feels like the side project. Handmade pastas on one page, serious moles on the other, and a family-run dining room that's been a Detroit celebration default for years. It's slow-food territory, so settle in on a packed Saturday.
Now, the restrooms. This is where El Barzon quietly shows off. The reviewers who bother to mention the bathrooms here don't just call them fine — one blogger described the ladies' room as so clean you could eat off the floor, and a TripAdvisor reviewer singled out spotless bathrooms as the detail that mattered most. That tracks with everything else about the place: a kitchen this careful with its mole isn't letting the restroom slide. Expect the same upkeep that goes into the tablecloths — clean, maintained, and clearly on somebody's closing checklist every night. Not enough bells and whistles for a perfect score, but comfortably top-tier for a Detroit dining room.
Come for the double-menu flex, stay for a restroom you don't have to brace for. El Barzon lands at an 8/10 on Shooki.
See where El Barzon ranks among Detroit's top Mexican restaurants.
Accessibility & Amenities
- Wheelchair-accessible restroom — unknown
- Step-free entrance — unknown
- Gender-neutral restroom — unknown
- Baby changing station — unknown
- Key or code required — unknown
What Google Reviewers Say
4.5 on Google · 1,178 reviews · Read on Google →
Reviewers come to El Barzon for something genuinely rare: chef Norberto Garita cooking refined Italian and traditional Mexican as two full menus under one Southwest Detroit roof, and executing both. The handmade pastas, moles, and wood-fired pizzas each have their own devotees, and the warm family-run service makes it a celebration default. The main caution in reviews is pace on packed nights — this is slow-food territory, so settle in.