Real Food Cafe — Restaurant in Grand Rapids Charter Township

This review is essentially for the INCREDIBLY rude waitress we had this morning. 2 stars only because the food is always great (my fiancé and I come here regularly, which is why I'm leaving this review about the waitress, because we've NEVER been treated so poorly).

Ash, as the receipt/ticket says her name was (on the shorter side, thin, dark short cropped hair), could not have been more rude. A group of us decided to come here for breakfast this morning since the Westsider was closed for repairs. We are all Shipt shoppers (that comes in later), and the first to arrive got us a table. I arrived second, followed very soon after by 2 more. The last of us was running a little behind due to an order she was on, so we all ordered and I was the only one done by the time she got there (ex-military, been a fast eater ever since). Prior to this, Ash had come up to our table FOUR times and asked when our last friend would arrive, all in the span of about 15 minutes, and the last arrived just a minute after that. During these inquiries, it was CLEAR that Ash was not pleased with the fact that she wasn't there yet, even going as far as to say "well you guys are almost done eating and we're filling up the restaurant" (there were MANY open tables at this point, and the other 3 were not even halfway through their meals). Her last time asking if she'd be there soon, she even had the gall to say "I'd think that you wouldn't keep your Shipt customers waiting like this". Wow. So I thought, okay, I'll order something else just to keep her happy , and started looking at the menu. The last person arrived and Ash TOOK THE MENU FROM MY HANDS and gave it to her. Absolutely appalling. That person ordered coffee, Ash came back in less than a minute and asked her for her order (she'd barely had time to look at the menu), and got huffy when she said she wasn't ready yet. 2 minutes later, she's back again asking. At this point, we're all really disgusted with how she's treating us and are debating asking for a new waitress because she's being so snippy and short and downright rude. I don't point this out to praise anyone, but I'm telling you for a fact that when you treat people who ALSO work for tips for a living, you think you'd be a little more aware of how your service directly impacts said tips. We all tip GENEROUSLY because we know what it's like, but when we're treated like dirt, that deserves what was given.

Needless to say, I will not dine here again if I see she is working. One person can take a LOT of business away from you , perhaps she needs more training in how to be polite to your patrons, from any...

Breakfast is a tough nut to crack. Menus don’t vary much from venue to venue, unless the chef is trying something really different. And, most people don’t expect much from the first meal of the day. Eggs, toast, bacon, coffee...that’s about it. Juliet and I are forever seeking an experience that’s at least a bit beyond the norm, not fancy per se, but worth our time and our money.

Real Food Cafe is on the corner of Eastern Ave and Alger St in Grand Rapids. It’s a nondescript storefront in a strip mall. There is a parking lot around back, as I find out later; we unwisely park across the street and Juliet has to disembark into a snowbank. So far I’m striking out and our moods aren’t necessarily improved.

Inside, the cafe is split into two sides: one has a few small tables and a grill counter, while the other looks to be a larger, newer expansion with more tables and a bench for customers who might be waiting. A sign bids us seat ourselves, and there are plenty of tables on the expansion side so we snag a two-top. Our waitress arrives in no time, taking our drink order (coffee and water for me) and delivering menus.

Although I had my heart set on the Nutella French Toast, I instead change gears and get the Wafflewich with a side of thick cut Applewood bacon. The bacon is $3.25 for 4 strips of what I would consider standard floppy bacon. When I think of thick cut, I imagine something a bit more substantial. I can’t taste any applewood or smoke either. It’s just underwhelming; I expected more for the price and description.

Expectations continue to decline when I’m delivered the Wafflewich. I was hoping for a kind of breakfast sandwich made with waffles instead of bread, but it’s way too big to pick up and eat. Inside is a plain cheese omelet and a couple more strips of that bacon. Powdered sugar has been sprinkled on top. I could have ordered waffles with an omelet on the side and basically had the same thing. It tastes fine, if a little plain, but it’s just breakfast, right?

I try a bite of Juliet’s biscuits and gravy. Black pepper assaults my taste buds, clearly overseasoned. Both the biscuit and the gravy are gummy, too. Yuck. Although the service was good and the decor of the place nails the diner vibe, the food was a far cry from anything we could have made at home with much better results. We haven’t had good luck lately with breakfast adventures. Might be time to whittle down to two...

I hope this was just an off day, but this place has some serious issues. It's a classic breakfast/lunch spot, but during our visit, it was poorly managed, the food was subpar, and there were numerous problems.

We arrived around 12:45 PM and weren’t seated until about 1:45 PM. While a wait is expected on a Sunday, it was clear they forgot about our party, as the hostess came out 45 minutes later to check if we were still there. During this time, we noticed several empty tables, but we figured it was just a typical Sunday brunch crowd.

We ordered drinks, and while the coffee was warm and tasty at first, I found about half an inch of coffee grounds at the bottom of my cup. Not a dealbreaker, but it does make you question the "freshly brewed" claim on the menu.

The waitress did her best, but they were out of both pancakes and cinnamon rolls, which was surprising. Pancakes don’t take long to make, so it was confusing.

About 20 minutes later, only two dishes—hamburger and egg whites—arrived. Four other items were still missing.

Another 10 minutes passed, and finally, my daughter'sFrench toast with her eggs arrived came out. We were still waiting on a waffle and two eggs Benedict. At this point, my oldest was sharing her fruit cup with the younger two, and she mentioned the burger was mediocre, but she was too hungry to care.

One eggs Benedict finally arrived, but by then, two of my kids had already finished their meals. The hollandaise sauce was a congealed, lukewarm mess—it looked like they didn’t even bother reheating it. Which not sure whether to applaud that or not...since they still served it

When everything was finally served, we sent the eggs Benedict back because it was cold, slimy, and on soggy English muffins. We finished up and left feeling pretty disappointed.

I really hope they can fix these issues, but this experience was just sad.

We did talk with the manager. And she gave us some...