The Local Dish: Five Favorite Grand Rapids Restaurants, Grand Rapids, Michigan

Grand Rapids, Michigan, is perhaps best known as a craft-beer lover’s destination, but take it from this local that our food scene is reason for visiting, too. Having lived four years in downtown Grand Rapids, I’m more than overdue to share a few of my favorite foodie spots around my West Michigan city. Let me tell you, it was pretty darn difficult to narrow this list down to only five eateries. Two of the restaurants on this list didn’t even exist when I moved here, and so many restaurants have opened in the past year I can’t even keep up. You may also be surprised to find that not a single brewery is on this list. Don’t get me wrong — our breweries serve delicious food, but I think this list proves that my city’s food scene has come into its own.

One of the two restaurants on this list to have opened within the past couple years, Luna combines Mexican cuisine with local West Michigan ingredients and flavors in a hip downtown restaurant. After hearing from a few friends that the margaritas were fantastic, my boyfriend and I dined here for a date night last winter. A busy spot on a Saturday night, we started at the bar with a pitcher of sangria to share. Once we were seated, we dove into this tray of crispy tortilla chips with fresh guacamole and a couple orders of tacos. We loved Luna so much I’m surprised we haven’t been back since, but I’m sure we will dine here again soon. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).