Great food! Great service! Easy to talk. Loved our waitress April so much, we came back the next day. We visit family several times a year and will definitely be back! read more

Great food with excellent service. I enjoyed their selection of baked goods as well. I woukd recommend any of their breakfast items.

Always good food that is reasonably priced. The menu has a ton of variety. The staff here is very friendly. read more

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What a amazing breakfast!! Veggie hash with 2 over easy eggs and rye bread My sister made her own omelette and loved the flavor Our waitress was a sweetie Complimented us and was very attentive If you are still hungry they have a array of pastry cakes and cinnamon rolls read more

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Great atmosphere, wonderful food, and even better staff if you can believe. April was a treat, thank you so much for having us!

The food was amazing good portions and full of flavor, I. Had the east side scramble and my wife had the farmers omelet both were perfect, we split a cinnamon roll that was terrific, our waitress was great friendly and attentive, the ambience was cool too designed like a 50's diner read more

Food was very underwhelming, and coffee tasted water down almost like a K-cup. When we got in we got out at a small table with no silverware. We had to request silverware, or we would have had to eat with are hands. read more

I've gone here a few times now for brunch and some things this place blows out of the water like the kind service, the coffee is superb, and they have a killer bakery counter. The biggest drawback being some dishes definetly come out stronger than others, such as even though I'm a lover of the dish I wouldn't really ever recommend anyone getting the biscuits and gravy since it always ends up coming split and grainy, but certain dishes like their pancakes never miss. I just want everyone to understand the honest discrepancy between this being just a perfect brunch joint (still never bad). 3.5/5 read more

What a great breakfast place. Real food café is a fun little diner in Plainfield, Michigan. Why would anyone go to Anna's house?

Real Food Cafe was recently acquired by a local restaurant group, but I'm happy to say that so far the only noticeable (and very welcomed) change is that they now take credit cards after many years of being cash only! They still have an ATM on site as of February 2023 but taking cards will probably mean I will be more inclined to visit more regularly. Note that the menu states that there is a 3% surcharge added to all bills. There is also another location in Alger Heights, so if you're meeting your friends, be sure to specify which one! The Plainfield location has ample parking in a lot, as well as a large space for those waiting for a table. This is a popular spot, and you will have a wait on weekends especially after 8:30 am. We only waited about 15 minutes for our party of three at 9:30 on a Sunday recently, which was great. Our server was super friendly and attentive even though it was quite busy. I have never ordered anything but breakfast at Real Food Cafe, but they do have a full lunch menu available. My go-to is the monster quesadilla, which is a generous portion that you can definitely split between two people. They also have weekly specials - one savory breakfast option, one sweet breakfast option, and a lunch choice. The menu is big with lots of great items, and I appreciate the consistency as I typically order the same thing every time. If you're a breakfast lover looking for a comfortable, welcoming diner, Real Food Cafe will delight! read more

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We arrived at 10:30. We sat at the bar area. We knew they'd be busy... not a big deal... husband ordered lumberjack, I ordered the California Benedict. We had 2 Diet Pepsi's and an hour later we had to ask for refills for our drinks, and our meal hadn't come yet... they lost our ticket... and our meal was $37.63 and nothing comped ... no apologies until we paid and tipped. Last meal there. Good but not worth it. read more

Real Food Cafe - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Grand Rapids, Michigan

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I WANT to like this place having lived in the area for a while, and introduced to them when they were a few miles away. The menu has a big offering, the coffee is solid and the atmosphere is exactly what you want for a casual weekend breakfast. The staff is really top notch- very warm and genuine with smiles and service. Now unfortunately that's where I divert- their food is just...uninteresting. It'll absolutely do the job in "simple breakfast or lunch"- but my personal issue is that for breakfast potatoes, one option- Home Fries. They've got some adventurous (from the offering standpoint) things like HOMEmade chorizo. I was excited to try this only to find it bland and lacking salt. I don't normally salt my food- and I literally salted my chorizo here. I can't really explain that one... read more

A friend and I went to this Real Food Cafe for lunch after being happy with previous experiences at other locations. Slow service (pleasant server though when one arrived) as in we sat for quite a few minutes - seemed there was confusion as to who's section we were in. Ordered a Philly Steak Sandwich... when one receives this boring looking sandwich so starkly alone on a white plate my appetite flagged. Tasteless mystery meat, scant onions and peppers, half melted cheese, and a toasted bun - I'm not so sure. Requested au jus (not listed on the menu granted, but if a featuring an item such as this, I'd think it would be available) nope. Disappointment reigned supreme. My associate ate his cold French Toast in disgust. (When one puts room temperature butter on french toast and it remains the same in texture and appearance - the food is COLD). He did approve of the bacon however. Yeah, I know... should have complained. I find most of these exercises result in my feeling like a petty, crabby old man where the server takes the brunt of it. This situation is the fault of management and the kitchen, both of whom should have a much tighter reign on QC and service time. A little garnish would help, too. I go out to lunch with friends, family members, and associates a couple of times per week on a rotating-thru-Grand Rapids basis... Real Food Cafe on Plainfield Ave. will not remain as one of them! read more

What a great breakfast place. Real food café is a fun little diner in Plainfield, Michigan. We were greeted with a smile and seated immediately. Our waitress was very attentive with coffee in hand as we sat down. I chose to order the French toast, raisin bread with sausage. It was very good and my dining companion had a farmers omelette, which was very filling. He had enough for the next day. The restaurant is very clean and has some delicious bakery items for you to take home. It's a great little stop for breakfast. read more

Waited 30 minutes for a table. We ordered immediately and waited for 45 minutes and still no food and we were 2 tickets back per waitress. We left!! We have been coming Here for years and always busy but we NEVER had to wait 45 minutes and still no food. We won't be back read more

It's a nice diner. Was a little disappointed in the chicken avocado wrap because it had no avocado. I think they might have just forgotten my order and done the BLT wrap instead? The waitress made sure to let us know the lemonade had no refills with it, totally fine, but the lemonade just tasted like crystal light powder. They also have Coke products listen on the menu but only serve Pepsi products now. My family really liked the smoked chicken southwest wrap. read more

Real Food Cafe - chicken avocado wrap - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Grand Rapids, Michigan

Sadly when we were at real food in Alger we got our bill and there was 3% added. We told the wait person we were paying cash and we were told that it didn't matter. Everyone apparently has to pay 3%. Well we and several of our friends we were with last night will not be returning until this is corrected. We have businesses and understand credit card fees but 3% for cash. No way ! Food and service are still good read more

If you can handle the wait its worth it! Love the food and atmosphere Breakfast all day and amazing lunch menu too

Great service everyone is super kind The pancakes are so big and fluffy they're so good, they have so much food to choice from. The atmosphere is awsome makes you feel like your in an old diner. read more

I have been here a few times over the years...I've never been impressed. Wait staff is ok. Just that. Food is sub par. It's real. But, they don't cook with love - they just make mush. I got the northern scramble....I couldn't tell what was egg, bacon, potato...it was just a pile of mush. Who wants mush? I only ate like 3 bites and gave it back to the waitress - who still charged me for it. So BYE BYE RFC. - I don't cook for a living but I could cook circles around you. Hint - undercooked to raw bacon is not appealing. read more

The best breakfast spot in town. You will wait for a table on the weekend. That's a sign of a good restaurant so I don't mind waiting. The portions are large and prices very decent. Service is always good. read more

I was excited about going to breakfast at Real Food Cafe on Plainfield when someone I needed to interview suggested going there. I was so looking forwarded to some great Real Food breakfast food! When the waitress came to take our order and she just ordered a cinnamon roll, my heart sank. She was my guest, so I didn't feel like I could sit there and eat a breakfast while she just had a cinnamon roll. Disappointment #1. I asked the waitress what kind of scones they had that day. She said, "I don't know. Whatever was in the case when you walked in." Well...I wanted to order breakfast so hadn't taken inventory of the bakery case inside the door. She walked off, came back and rattled off a few scone flavors. I ordered one. She stood there with her pen on her pad, waiting for us to order more. When we didn't (I was more disappointed about that than she was!), she sighed loudly, kind of slowly dragged the menus across the table, and walked away. She brought our drinks and food, said nothing, and walked away again. She reappeared after I'd taken exactly two bites of my scone, and dropped the bill on our table. Said nothing. About fifteen minutes she came to our table and asked the person I was with if she wanted a refill. She said yes. The waitress turned her back to me and started to walk away. My drink was less than half full. I had to stop her to ask if I could also have a refill. She brought us each a refill. She never came back to our table. We sat there doing the interview we met to do, and I kept watching for her to come back for the check so I could pay our bill. She never did. Finally the person I was with said maybe we needed to pay up front. We pushed back our chairs and before I could even stand fully up, the waitress jumped at us, saying we paid at the table. I handed her my debit card, and she said, "We had a wait line! I almost asked you two to leave!" I said I was sorry (I was facing the front door and lobby, I didn't see one person waiting, and when she had dropped off the bill in such a hurry, I said to the person I was with she must want us to leave so she could turn the table. She pointed out there were open tables all around us, which appeared to be this waitress's section. Then the waitress snapped at us, making a snarky remark saying, "You sat there for 90 minutes!" I was taken aback. I have never had an experience like that -being confronted by wait staff as a guest in an establishment. I said, "I'm sorry, you never came back to take our check -" to which she said, "Well you were talking." Soooo.... if people at a table are talking a waitress doesn't approach in the course of 90 minutes? Does that make sense to anyone? It hasn't been my experience in all the years I've frequented restaurants. Out of the kindness of my heart I left her a $5 tip on a $15 check (33% tip), knowing we had been there a while and that servers don't get much of an hourly wage. Here's the thing... yeah, THIS TIME when I was at Real Food Cafe I ordered just a scone and a drink. Every other time I've ever gone there I've ordered a full breakfast or lunch. And I always tip well. Now what happens is the next time one of my friends wants to go there for breakfast or lunch, I'm going to have this bad experience in my memory and suggest going elsewhere - and taking our money with us to that other restaurant. So servers - I get you want to flip tables fast and have people run up bigger checks, because much or your earnings are tip-dependent, BUT the thing is, you lose long term big checks and big tips when you burn the customer if they one time come in and just order something light. Especially in a neighborhood-centered restaurant like the Plainfield location. Restaurants exist for people to have a place to go and get something to eat and drink - without that incoming customer flow and revenue to the business, you lose your job - and your wages and tips. read more

Real Food Cafe - a receipt on a table - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Grand Rapids, Michigan

The food at Real Food is sublime. The service is wonderful. The wait time and decor are not good. Unfortunately, by not accepting reservations, there are regularly a ton of people waiting to be seated. This makes large groups especially difficult to accommodate. Our group of 14 took about an hour to seat (first people arriving at 9:30). Accepting reservations would have greatly reduced the number of people just standing around waiting (they also don't seat partial groups; everybody has to be present). That said, once seated, everything went very well. Everybody was pleased with their food, especially the kids with their cute pancake. What they do is done with excellence; I just wish something could be done to make it easier on the front end. read more

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Personally I prefer the Eastern Ave location, for the vibes and the coffee is better... Bring cash to Real Food. Forgot to? Don't worry, they have an ATM across from the register. Your coffee cup will not get low, service is friendly and helpful with any questions. Every time I come here I try to get something different. This time I wanted a nice blend of sweet and savory, hence my ordering "The Loaded Pancake". It's a single (LARGE) flapjack withe sausage and bacon cooked into the batter, 2 eggs cooked to order on top, and syrup provided. It was AMAZING. Even without syrup the pancake was moist without being soggy. There's plenty of meat in the batter without it feeling like it's too much. Definitely come here for a tasty, diner style breakfast! read more

Real Food Cafe - The Loaded Pancake - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Grand Rapids, Michigan

I can't remember if I wrote a review already but either way it deserves more than 1 lol The food here. Ugh my goodness can't go wrong. Literally close your eyes and point- you won't be disappointed. Staff is nice- and they are always slammed so I give ya props and understand you can't be all smiles 100%. Be kind and patient while you wait, bc it's worth it. Had the breakfast burrito- not too big not too small- not too spicy. Cheesy with egg and big pieces of chorizo. Yum! Again it's always crowded- but it's your typical breakfast diner feel. 100% recommend. read more

Best place to get breakfast. The prices are cheap and the portions are large. The iced chai is also so good. The service is great considering how busy they are most times. The restaurant has a lot of seating but come early because there is usually a wait. read more

AMAZING Breakfast Monte Cristo breakfast sandwich on french toast! Fast & friendly service! This restaurant is CASH ONLY but there is an ATM on site. read more

Real Food Cafe - Breakfast Monte Cristo - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Grand Rapids, Michigan

This has been a favorite restaurant for us for years. Great food, great service. Last two times there have been a disappointment. They no longer sell Coke products and portion sizes are no longer consistent. Used to be a scramble required a box to take home leftovers. I had a California Benedict last visit and it was barely warm. Recognized none of the staff. Hmmm.... No hurry to go back. read more

Great breakfast and a good price. They have a nice variety of the classic breakfast dishes. The corned beef hash is homemade, which is a major plus. Many places will tell you to your face it's homemade before serving hash that clearly came out of a can. It's nice to have a place that actually makes it. One of the best parts about this place is that they will cook the eggs any way you want from scrambled to fried to sunny side up to over easy to poached and even basted. I can count the number of places in Grand Rapids that will cook a basted egg on one hand. This place truly knows how to do breakfast. read more

The food is solid but the servers are some of the rudest I've ever met. I have been going here for the past year and all of the nicer servers are gone. What's left is rude and apathetic service. It was a good run but I'm done with paying a premium meal price for down right rude service. I'll never walk through the door again due to the poor attitudes and rudeness of the wait staff. read more

First experience: On my way to Anna's but wait there it was Real Food Cafe. I mean i had always seen the one on Eastern sitting opposite side of the Old Goat. So yes I stopped in. It was very early and we (Hubby and I) sat down and ate. I ordered the and Asher ordered. The food was good and the portions were plentiful. The only complaint, I would have is that the waitress, made me feel weird after she brought me my food. She just kept looking at me, but never came over. She just kept looking and never asked if I needed more coffee, not sure why? It was a weird ending. Second experience: Passing by again, headed towards Plainfield to Anna's with my parents, and I said hey do you guys want to go to the restaurant. My dad asked "are they any good?". I said "yeah, plus I wanna see how this visit turns out.." they just kind looked at me,I didn't tell them about the last visit, I didn't want them to be discouraged and say no. So my dad ordered the pecan pancakes which were bigger then his head and bacon with some sausages on the side. My mother ordered a and I ordered the strawberry cream cheese french toast. The french toast was on the cream cheesy side, not to sweet. I also ordered corned beef hash, that was delicious. I actually ate couple bites, and then I took the rest home for lunch. Everyone, meaning my dad and mom enjoyed the food. The service was really good too. We had a male waiter and he was really attentive and just treated me normal. No weird vibes this time, plus the lady wasn't there. The other staff. cooks, and the young waitresses were all swell. I also stopped in to buy 2 pieces of cake- coconut cake and chocolate cake. Both were absolutely delicious. This is a great place to order a great breakfast despite what happened before to me. read more

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This vintage style American diner is a great spot to eat breakfast or lunch. The interior is designed with a nod to the 1950's- clean lines, red bar stools, white tile. Almost like stepping into a time machine. The waitresses are all extremely friendly. One of my favorite parts about Real Food Cafe is the people working there. You immediately get the vibe of a place that works hard to bring you great food and service, with no frills and no buts about it! I like to get the veggie hash without eggs. It's a cheesy mix of delicious veggies and some potato. Usually a veggie hash is 80% potato and 20% veg. Real Food's hash is more veggie than potato! I love this because they're not skimping on me here. The English Muffin Toast is my favorite and I like the Sourdough too. Real Food Cafe keeps up the vintage trend by requiring patrons to pay with cash or local checks. I don't mind this because it's never an expensive meal and they have an ATM on property in case you forget to bring cash. I envy you if you have the willpower to settle your bill without grabbing one of the delicious fresh baked goods at the front register! The cakes, cookies, scones, brownies and bars all look amazing. I had the peanut butter bar- YUM! You can always rely on Real Food for quality meals, top notch service, and no excuses. I advise others to avoid the extremely busy weekend hours- notably Saturday mornings and the after church rush on Sundays. read more

Real Food Cafe - Veggie Hash with English Muffin Toast. (I subbed out mushrooms for broccoli) - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Grand Rapids, Michigan

We have been going to Real Food since the Plainfield location was on Northland. The last couple of times we have gone, our food has been so salty, almost to the point of being hard to eat. I got the Northland scramble yesterday when I went with my daughter, and the amount of cheese in it + the salt was too much. I felt like they dumped a full cup of cheese in it! Our waitress was wonderful and the service as quick as usual. I'm wondering it they sold recently, because they were so much better a couple of years ago. read more

This is a solid 3-4 star breakfast every time and I think that's exactly what they'd like to be. It's not the quality that you'd find at competitors like Anna's House, but it's good. It's missing the small wow factor things that would take it to it's full potential. You won't find high quality homemade breads here, no chef quality experience in flavor. Only simple eggs and bacon style American breakfasts. They have no real steak, which is very frustrating. Don't call it a steak-philly and use ground meat. Don't name anything "steak" that isn't. The other big knock I have to let everyone know is they do NOT take a credit card.. yeah I know. It's 2019 and they don't take a cc.. pretty pathetic. I know a grandma who knits scarves and can manage to figure out square reader for her iPad. Unacceptable in today's world. read more

Real Food Cafe - Waffle with blueberries (acceptable), eggs, bacon and toast (well done), and this breakfast scramble (pretty damn tasty) - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Grand Rapids, Michigan

Love this place! Have been here for brunch many times over the years. I like the way they are so consistently fast, friendly, and the food is always fresh and delicious. I always leave with an extra treat from the bakery counter. I do wish they would accept credit/debit cards. I plan ahead and bring cash, and there is an ATM in the waiting area, though. read more

Breakfast as always was great. Service was amazing. Our server Katie is an amazing server. She is efficient, fast, provides great service. They need to give her a big raise. read more

Real Food Cafe has good food and large plates for an affordable price. This is a true diner experience - complete with bottomless coffee and all the diner staples. We went for lunch around 1pm on a weekday, so we were able to be seated right away. We heard there can be a wait for breakfast on the weekends. We saw signs that asked people to wait outside to enforce social distancing, and the benches were roped off to prevent indoor waiting. Real Food is cash-only but they have an ATM. I got the "Tuesday Breakfast Special," even though it wasn't Tuesday. The Michigan Cherry Pecan pancakes were delicious. As other reviews have mentioned, the pancakes are huge! My husband got the breakfast burrito, which was also huge. He thought it was a bit cheesy and didn't love the tortilla, but again, good food for the price! My grandma thought it was weird that the omelet was cooked plain with the fillings stuffed inside after the omelet was cooked separately, but overall, my grandparents liked their meals. Everyone left full! There is plenty of parking in the lot. Service could have been friendlier, but we were also with a challenging group of older people. The servers seemed a little tired and annoyed with us, but we just tried to be as nice as we could. read more

Real Food Cafe - The Tuesday Morning Dried Michigan Cherry Pecan Pancakes Coffee - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Grand Rapids, Michigan

Even here a couple times now and both times had quite a wait to be seated due to how busy it was. They did however get food out pretty fast so the wait could have been longer. We both decided to get the monster omelette with toast. The omelettes were good. Not as good as I thought they would be, but they were good. My toast a tad bit burned on the edges. Not bad enough to send it back though. I will go back and try something else again. I don't like the fact that they don't take credit or debit cards. Cash or local check only. I don't carry cash on me at all. They do have an ATM inside that you can get cash for a $2 fee. I guess when I remember to get cash ahead of time is the time I may try it again. read more

So good! Had an absolutely great breakfast and our server was pleasant and attentive. Will definitely add this to our rotation of Saturday morning breakfast stops. read more

Just went here this morning and my breakfast was really good ! I ordered the smoked chicken skillet it was delicious! My brother and sister in law ordered the eggs Benedict. read more