Gaia House Cafe — Restaurant in Grand Rapids

As a regular customer of the original Gaia Cafe when I lived in Grand Rapids from 2005-2008, I’ve had mixed experiences at this reincarnated version. I’ve probably eaten there 3 or 4 times before this week, and it was fine.

On this visit, I stopped by Gaia House twice, on 3/10/2025 and 3/14/2025.

3/10/2025 After entering, the young woman behind the counter (who I later learned is the owner’s daughter) was friendly and engaging, and got me seated quickly. So far so good. I went to get some coffee but both coffee urns and the oat milk were empty. I waited for 22 minutes for the waitress, who never came to take my order. The owner’s daughter noticed that I still had my menu and hadn’t ordered. She apologized, took my order, and refilled the coffee and oat milk after I mentioned they were empty. The waitress eventually arrived with my food, but wasn’t terribly friendly and didn’t ask if I needed anything else. The food was just ok. When I went to pay, the owner’s daughter was apologetic about the wait, and also very friendly and engaging.

3/14/2025 I arrived at 8:40am and the place was closed. I double-checked Google, the website, and social media and they all had 8am as the opening time. I walked in at 9:02am, and the waitress looked startled when I entered. She bluntly asked me “Can I help you?”, like I was an intruder or someone who had stumbled into the wrong place. It was so off-putting that I wasn’t sure what to say. I said I was hungry, and she asked if I’d been there before. I said “yes”, and she guided me into the dining room and set me up with some cutlery and a few napkins, but no menu. I went to get coffee while I waited for her to come back with a menu. I started to fill a mug with coffee but the coffee was full of grounds. I had to dump the contents into a wastebasket and rinse it several times to get rid of them all. I tried to fill my mug from the other coffee urn and the same thing happened. I cleaned my mug again, and got about 1/4 of a cup of coffee that was mostly free of grounds, but only had one sip. The waitress reappeared, and asked for my order. I politely pointed out that I didn’t have a menu, and she apologized and got me one. A few minutes later she came back and I ordered my food. Two women then entered and were greeted by the waitress in an effusively friendly manner, almost like old friends or family. I noted the difference in how much more friendly toward them the waitress was. More patrons entered and were treated similarly. A man entered who I assume is unhoused. I had seen this man during my last visit to Gaia House, and when he wasn’t busy reading his pocket bible, he stared uncomfortably or stood and lingered very close to me for long stretches. This time was the same, except that he inquired about the book I was reading. I engaged with him and politely answered his questions until he turned away to cough and fart uncontrollably for a few moments. My food arrived and it was pretty good. Kudos for that. When I went to pay, I waited for 10 minutes. A couple lined up behind me, and soon started to look around for the waitress. Another man lined up behind us. I walked over toward the kitchen, and stuck my head in to look around. I saw our waitress busily chatting with a kitchen employee, who signaled to her that I was trying to get her attention. She emerged from the kitchen, thanked me for getting her attention (but did not apologize for making me or the other patrons wait). I didn’t want to cause a scene, so I said “yes” when she asked if I’d had any coffee, and I left a tip. I then left.

TL;DR

The food is still pretty good, but the service, at least from the waitress who served me, was pretty bad. The only bright spot was the owner’s daughter, who struck me as someone with a clearer sense of how to conduct herself with courtesy and professionalism than the waitress. My recommendation: give the owner’s daughter a pay raise and some management responsibilities, and consider replacing the waitress.

Will I go back? Maybe someday, but...

Man, I wanted to like this place! Cute interior neat paint job and brass fixtures, though there were no signs for the restroom which I thought odd We ordered a miso soup and the miso Caesar to start, I ordered the cashew pesto omelette and a side of med potatoes and my husband got the veg sandwich on beet bread, exclusively bc the house made bread sounded interesting. We waited 15 minutes to order (on top of waiting for a table) so we weren't optimistic that we'd see food in our near future but were happily surprised when the starters arrived very quickly. We shared the salad bc the soup did not come with a spoon. Oddly the potatoes came out an as an app too, not what I would've expected for a side. We finished the salad and waited another 5 mins for a check back to get a spoon. Soup was ok, potatoes were greasy, mildly warm and not crispy. The salad was great! Then 40 minutes passed. What arrived was terrible. The omelette was so over cooked, sulphuric tasting and no longer containing cheese bc it was cooked so long. Dry "sourdough" with no butter or jam and my husband's sandwich was also served on the seeded white they called sourdough as well. Huge disappointment. We asked after a quick check back for jam and wondered why there was no beet bread, she went to check. When she returned (with no jam) she said the chef told another table about the lack of beet bread and expected that to satisfy us, we explained it was the reason he ordered it. No apology, no acknowledgement. As she started walking away my frustrated husband asked it to be removed from the bill. I was beyond over being there and after receiving an inedible meal, I didn't even get a moment to ask for the same for myself. I went up to pay and not receiving a bill didn't know we were only comped 50% until I was texted my receipt. I did reach out to the restaurant in their own POS system Toast and have permission for them to contact me, so if I hear back, I'll update this review. But, I could not recommend to anyone as I will not be back myself. I will note that everyone that came in around the same time as us/after us were seated, served, ate and left while we sat and waited. Great for them, but even more infuriating being the...

Unfortunately I don’t have anything good to say about Gaia house . When we were sat down there was paint bubbling near us, probably due to moisture trapped behind the paint. And then a leak above. It’s not really an appetizing sight.

We were told that we wouldn’t be able to have espresso or lattes because the espresso machine was down. That’s fine. What I did take issue with was the self serve coffee station. For one, the way the glasses were stored was gross. The shelves were not clean. The cups were freshly washed. I could tell because they were wet, placed rim down. So that the dust and debris on the shelving was collected on the wet rims of the cups. And whenever you picked up a cup you could see the wet rim marked it left. These cups should be dry if you’re going to store them rim down. Drying them rim down traps the moisture inside (causing an unpleasant odor and taste), and damages the shelves, and is altogether unsanitary if the shelves aren’t even clean. Storing them rim side up would be a better option in this case . They are used often enough for collecting dust to be an argument for storing them rim side down. Sanitary conditions aside, for a vegan/vegetarian place for the only milk option to be whole milk was disappointing. Consider offering milk alternatives.

The food was even more disappointing . My guest ate his omelet , but I good not stomach my food. The cornbread French toast was incredibly dry, even soaking it in the butter and syrup didn’t revive it. The potatoes tasted fine but they were stale. Since it was the only semi edible thing available to me I picked at that instead of what I ordered. I only managed to eat half of one slice of French toast and didn’t want to take it home. We came out of our way to go here after seeing it on Instagram. So it was that much more...