MIDWEST
The Best Restaurants in Grand Rapids: These Spots are Defining The City Right Now
By Jamie Dutton | Oct. 17, 2025
Grove
AUTHOR BIO: With family spread across the Midwest and a job that has her in airports almost daily, Jamie Dutton finds herself across the center of the U.S. regularly. She’s partial to BPTs a Bell's.
I travel to Grand Rapids so often for work that the bartender at the brewery in GRR greets me by name.
And at some point during all these visits, perhaps way back in the Mapquest days, I started keeping a Grand Rapids list on my phone—a running tally of the restaurants worth the detour, the ones that make another week on the road feel less like work. That list became a kind of personal treasure map, updated after late dinners, shared with coworkers, guarded like a secret recipe.
Over the years, I’ve watched the city’s food scene shift from dependable to genuinely exciting, with chefs turning out menus that could hold their own in Chicago or Detroit. Grand Rapids doesn’t just feed its locals anymore; it demands a visit.
So before I think better of it and hide this list again, here are the 15 restaurants that prove why Grand Rapids has become one of the Midwest’s most surprising dining cities.
Allora
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Allora brings coastal Italian energy to downtown, where Michigan-bred chef Luke VerHulst sends out precise pastas like radiatori cacio e pepe tartufo and linguine al nero di mare. The room reads clean and modern, with just enough warmth to keep it from feeling staged. I stopped by on a Thursday recently and half the room looked like they’d come straight from an art opening.
Best for: Coastal Italian, smart date nights, seafood + pasta
Bistro Bella Vita
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Bistro Bella Vita delivers modern French-Italian cooking with house-made pastas, brick-oven pizzas, and rotisserie meats that reward patience. The gnocchi is the kind of thing you order once and then spend a week thinking about. The room still buzzes like the city’s unofficial dining room—polished but never overly so.
Best for: Business dinners, pre-show meals, classic Euro comfort
Butcher’s Union
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Butcher’s Union is the city’s loudest love letter to red meat and brown liquor, and it deserves the noise. The bar’s a cathedral of whiskey, the steaks arrive smelling like smoke and ambition, and the crowd always looks like it has somewhere better to be but decided not to go. I’ve come for a quick drink and stayed through dessert more times than I’ll admit.
Best for: Steak-centric nights, whiskey lovers, celebratory groups
Donkey Taqueria
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Donkey Taqueria proves tacos can be taken seriously without losing the fun. The kitchen turns out barbacoa and fried-pescado tacos that somehow taste like a trip to Baja, while the bartenders build mezcal cocktails that could make a weeknight dangerous. When the patio’s open, it’s the most reliable place in town to accidentally stay for three rounds.
Best for: Mezcal cocktails, modern Mexican, lively patio dinners
Garden District GR
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Garden District GR channels New Orleans in a way that never feels far from Bourbon Street, even if it is a thousand miles away. Raphael and Jessica Jones serve shrimp and grits, gumbo, and red beans that don’t taste like an imitation—they taste like memory. I’ve left this place smelling like cayenne and not caring who noticed.
Best for: Cajun-Creole dishes and weeknight energy
Gin Gin’s
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Gin Gin’s might be new, but it acts like it’s been here for decades—the kind of downtown steak-and-seafood room where the martinis arrive faster than small talk. The ribeye comes seared like they mean it, the scallops are cooked with the kind of confidence you can taste, and the lighting flatters everyone. It’s Grand Rapids with cufflinks, but not a tie.
Best for: Martini hour, steak + pasta, dressed-up dinners
Grove Restaurant
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Grove Restaurant is the city’s showcase for ingredient-forward American cuisine. Chef Devin Cook’s kitchen shapes each campaign around single ingredients sourced seasonally, and the beverage program is helmed by Tristan Walczewski, an Advanced Sommelier. I’ve sat for the tasting and watched couples whisper duck confit, sure that no dish could at once feel local and also global.
Best for: Tasting dinners, special occasions, ingredient-forward dining
Mangiamo
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Mangiamo doesn’t feel like a restaurant as much as a secret passed down between generations. Inside the old mansion, pastas like risotto and conchiglie al pesto land on white tablecloths under candlelight, and suddenly everyone’s speaking in lower voices. If you head downstairs to Mo’s Cocktail Lounge after dinner, you’ll understand why nobody’s in a rush to leave.
Best for: Romantic Italian, cocktails at Mo’s, celebratory dinners
Mertens Prime & Rooftop
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Mertens Prime & Rooftop pulls off something rare: a steakhouse that feels timeless without feeling tired. Downstairs, the filet au poivre and lobster tail keep tradition alive, while upstairs, the rooftop crowd drinks like they’re auditioning for summer. I’ve eaten here in a pantsuit and in sneakers, and both made sense.
Best for: Classic steaks, tableside flair, sunset views
Scholar
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Scholar sits on Ionia Avenue like it’s been there forever, a downtown restaurant that manages to feel polished without any of the posture. Chef Taylor Boeschenstein cooks with a nod to America’s culinary roots, turning classics into something that feels both familiar and deliberate. I like it best at the downstairs bar, which feels like an old-school private club, with lighting that makes everything look better.
Best for: Modern American, refined nights out, confident service
SILVA
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SILVA is the restaurant you book when you want dinner to be an event. The space sits inside a renovated warehouse, and the night unfolds somewhere between fine dining and performance—cocktails, lighting shifts, and maybe a show. What it’ll be depends on the night and just might include bocce ball tournaments, a stilt walker with a lasso rope, costumed performers, or a full-on talent show. I came expecting gimmick and left thinking more restaurants should take this kind of risk.
Best for: Dinner with a show, or perhaps a show that includes dinner
Stella’s Lounge
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Stella’s Lounge has been a downtown fixture since 2010, headlined by burgers stuffed and topped with all manner of cheeses and ingredients. But the 250 whiskies on the drink list and arcade in the basement are what keep people there. I’ve ended more than one night trying to beat Galaga and losing track of both time and judgment.
Best for: Burgers, whiskey, late-night nostalgia
Terra GR
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Terra GR leans into wood-fired cooking and a Michigan-first mindset, with pizzas, seasonal pastas, and a rotating dinner menu that changes weekly. The kitchen sources from local farms and builds its menu around them, like a squash risotto or burrata with grilled peaches and prosciutto.
Best for: Wood-fired pizzas and dinner that depends on the season
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