GR Food Scene Is Underrated

I’m not from Grand Rapids, so my experience is mostly outside of our city. I grew up in Detroit metro, lived in DC for a few years, traveled a lot and spend a ton of time in Chicago with my wife’s family.

Simply put, I see a lot of people shit on Grand Rapid’s food scene, but in my opinion, I think it is actually quite strong for a city our size.

When I go out to eat, I prefer over ambiences and what I perceive as high quality food/service, so admittedly my experience is less with “authentic” hole in the wall type places.

But for that middle-to-higher end level, I’ve had really good experiences with Grove, Mangiamo, MDRD, GinGins, Maru, San Chez, Bowdies, Leos, Butchers, Linear, Cafe Mamo, Real Seafood Co, Reserve (pre-reno), Post (Ada Hotel) and Soverngard.

That’s not to mention solid middle-tier or unique options like Luna, Zivio, Max’s Seaside, Bistro, Little Bird, Rockwells, Scholar, One Bourbon, Roam or 123. Even our chains like Ruth’s Chris and Tupelo aren’t bad. None of this even mentions our breweries (which aren’t really my speed)

Is Grand Rapids as good as most large cities, of course not. But it’s also not like our city is full of shitty chains or places that only focus on quantity over quality (like the metro Detroit suburb I grew up in). The 30 or so restaurants I named above (and I’m surely missing more) are a testament against that. A few above, such as Grove and GinGins, have service and food that rival some of my favorite high-end DC experiences. And contrary to some opinions, I find Maru fantastic (although we should definitely grow our high quality sushi and poke options)

As someone who has traveled a lot and eaten in a ton of US and international cities, and ate out twice a week in DC for years, GR hits solid above its weight and I’m quite satisfied with our cuisine given the size of our city and metro.