Uptown Grand Rapids Restaurants: Wealthy Street Eats

Uptown Grand Rapids restaurants gather along Wealthy Street and Cherry Street: a family kitchen serves Bosnian food with Turkish, Greek and Central European influences, a neighborhood bakery sells pastries and bread, breakfast diners serve omelets and a cafe serves homemade breakfast and lunch in an older building. Walk the street and pick one meal.

This page covers the Bosnian kitchen, the bakery, the breakfast diners and what else is nearby, with a plan for an Uptown walk. Hours and menus change, so check before you go.

Which Uptown Grand Rapids restaurants should you try first?

Start by deciding on the meal. The Bosnian kitchen is a dinner and weekend brunch choice. The bakery suits a pastry stop at any time. The diner and the cafe suit breakfast and lunch. All four sit in the Wealthy Street and Cherry Street area, so a day here could cover three of them. Mornings are the easiest time to walk the street, and a dinner reservation for the Bosnian kitchen is worth making if you want a weekend table.

If you can only go once, choose the Bosnian kitchen for something you cannot find everywhere in the city.

Where can you find Bosnian food in Grand Rapids?

A modern European restaurant on Wealthy Street SE can describe its cuisine as Bosnian with Turkish, Greek and Central European influences. Look for cevapi, small grilled sausages, a spinach and feta pie, shakshuka and a gyro in flatbread. Order a plate to share, such as cevapi with flatbread, and rate each part.

Menus change, so treat those dishes as examples. Ask the server what the kitchen is proudest of.

What does an Uptown neighborhood bakery sell?

Bakeries on Wealthy Street sell artisan pastries, breads, sandwiches, pizzas and coffee, and some offer gluten-free items. Ownership changes, so check that the current menu matches what you expect. Ask what came out of the oven that morning.

A bakery is the easiest stop in a walking day. Buy a loaf and one pastry, and eat the pastry first.

What is an Eastown diner like?

Breakfast diners at Wealthy Street and Lake Drive are known for omelets, eggs Benedict and a signature plate. Some have two dining rooms, one with a lunch counter, and feel like neighborhood breakfast joints. Order the omelet or the Benedict and go early on a weekend.

A European-style cafe on Cherry Street is the other breakfast stop, known for eggs Benedict and alcohol-free mimosas.

What else is nearby?

Uptown has more to find: Caribbean and Creole cooking, a taqueria, hot chicken and an old-fashioned hot dog stand. Ask about the days and hours of any you plan around.

How do you plan an Uptown walk?

Park once on Wealthy Street and walk. Breakfast places open early and some close by mid-afternoon, so go in the morning if you want two of them. For dinner at the Bosnian kitchen, ask about days, since small kitchens vary.

If you are with children, a bakery stop and a diner are the easiest choices. Ask whether a place takes cards or prefers cash before you go, and bring a layer in winter, since a walk between stops is outdoors. A good rule is to leave room: if you plan three stops, order small at the first two. If friends are meeting you partway, agree on one stop as the meeting point, so nobody is waiting at the wrong door. If you are vegetarian, ask about options at each; menus change, but Balkan kitchens often have a vegetable pie or a vegan gyro.

What is Balkan cooking, and what should you expect?

Balkan cooking draws on Bosnian, Turkish, Greek and Central European traditions: grilled sausages, flatbreads, savory pies, stews and yogurt-based sauces. Cevapi are small grilled minced-meat sausages served with bread and onion, and a pie of spinach and feta is a popular vegetarian choice. Share a few plates, ask which dishes are cooked fresh each day and note in your rating what you would order again.

Bring a sweet tooth and a sense of curiosity. Neighborhood bakeries often sell something unusual in the morning, such as a filled pastry that is gone by noon, and the person at the counter will tell you which one to try first. Take it to a bench, eat it warm and write down what it was before you forget.

How do you track Uptown food with Mosey?

Rate the dish as well as the place. In the Mosey app you can name the cevapi or the omelet, add tags such as Group Dining and attach a photo. A line like "cevapi, grilled well, shared" helps the next diner more than a number.

Start a list called Wealthy Street and add one stop per meal, then send the invite link to a friend. Follow friends to see what they rated and saved, and use the Friends' picks layer on the map to see where they have eaten. The ratings page explains rating by the dish.

What else should you read?

The Grand Rapids brunch guide covers weekend mornings across the city, and the Grand Rapids food guide covers downtown. See the Grand Rapids page and the US food guides.

Before you walk Wealthy Street, download the Mosey app and rate each dish as you eat it.