Amanda L.
Yelp
Syndicate is a fun spot in Ferndale, a bit tucked away off of the central intersection of 9 Mile and Woodward. It's located across the back alley from Imperial and is its own standalone building that is very understated. They have an outdoor patio space area with all these individual tiny house style huts for you to dine in all year long, a small back room of the restaurant with several billiard tables, and then a larger space for the main area of their restaurant.
There's a lot going on in this building, but all of it looks very inviting and interesting, so I know there's a lot of various occasions for which you could come here to dine, play, or snack.
The vibes in here are very sophisticated, especially in the restaurant area. All the waiters wear black and gold, which fits in style with the ambiance of the restaurant. There is definitely a lot of intentionality throughout the space with what they have used to design and it continues even throughout the bathrooms.
The food and drink is really fun here. My favorite dish was the appetizers of a flight of deviled eggs. All of their deviled eggs were prepared in unique and incredible ways that I have never tasted, and they all worked really really well! My friend who also got the deviled eggs said they might have been the best deviled eggs she's ever had, and I might have to agree with that!
The drinks are pretty awesome as well, they had a great selection of mocktails and the one I got came with cotton candy, which was fun, but ultimately the drink wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be from its description. But I really appreciated that everyone's drinks were so unique and came with very unique mini garnishes. One friend's drink came with a small cone of pretzel sticks clipped to the side of his glass with a mini clothes pin - how fun! Things are very creative here and you'll definitely have a very entertaining time.
For my main, I got their salad, which was not the greatest. It was very basic and unremarkable, but there was a good quantity, they used good ingredients, and it was an okay balance of all the ingredients.
Overall, things are definitely on the pricier side at Syndicate, so make a note of that, but it's definitely worth a trip and a splurge in my personal opinion given how unique the experience can be.
Finally, I will note that I came with my service dog in training and I know how strict Ferndale is with their dogs. I know that the Syndicate is a dog-friendly outdoor patio space, but given that my dog is a service dog in training, I have taken him to a lot of restaurants and other establishments throughout downtown Ferndale with minimal fuss. But Syndicate was by far and large the place that questioned me the most about my service dog being inside. The manager asked a lot more questions than are appropriate to ask given the laws we have in place with service dogs in Michigan, if I'm being completely honest. But ultimately, they allowed us to dine, but I could feel the manager keeping a really close eye on our table throughout the entire meal and that definitely impacted my experience quite a bit, so I wanted to make sure to include that as a word of caution to those coming here with their service dogs and service dogs in training.