Blue Cow Cafe

Ordered the Greek salad with grilled chicken. They brought me undercooked chicken and when they took it back to the kitchen, it came back 10 minutes later exactly as I sent it back!

Always yummy! A consistent experience!

My husband and I have been looking for a restaurant that has both great food and great prices. We found it here, we can’t wait to go back! The desserts are ALL Amazing! Great food! Great staff!

Phenomenal place to have some local upscale eats. I had the Champagne Chicken and it was excellent, so juicy with best parmesan risotto I’ve ever had. Came with hubbard squash (never had that before) that was incredible. Listened to the cooks fight as I sat at the bar. It was the whole great chef as seen on tv experience LOL… Felicity was my server and was friendly, talkative, and helpful… lead me directly to my delightful meal.

Anytime I go here, I’m grateful that Big Rapids has such a great option to eat locally. The croque monsieur is my favorite entrée, and I love their bruschetta appetizer. The menu is a little on the pricey side, but it’s definitely a great option for date night or a special occasion. Oh, and GREAT wine list!

Been looking to try this restaurant for some time after seeing it featured on Michigan Under A he Radar. Not disappointed. The appetizer special was Brussel sprouts with bacon and pecans. To die for delicious! Friend ordered the burger with bleu cheese and an egg on top. He thoroughly enjoyed it. I ordered the ribeye with bleu cheese sauce, medium rare. The steak was more rare than medium rare, although quite tasty. The bread with garlic butter also good. Would be 5 stars if not for the potatoes gratin. Didn’t understand this side dish. Seemed, to me anyway, that nutmeg was a little heavy handed. Will be back though. Also, served with a sweet potato mash. Shouldn’t be 2 starches on the plate.

My wife and I were out color touring in the Big Rapids area and found ourselves in town about lunchtime. I wanted to try Blue Cow after reading all the great reviews and the timing was excellent. Since it was early enough in the day there were only a few other people there, and we got excellent attention from our server.
I really liked the atmosphere throughout the Café, and although we stopped for lunch, found this would be an excellent choice for a nice dinner. Props to whomever designed the layout and did the decorating.
I thought the beer choices were excellent and got a nice mixture with a flight for my meal. I did find it a little odd that we could not choose from the ‘Sandwich’ portion of the menu, even though it was lunchtime. I mean, don’t they eat sandwiches for lunch in Big Rapids? Seemed strange.
Anyway, it worked out for the best anyway because I ordered the Beef Brisket/​Egg Skillet. It was fantastic, and had an excellent flavor! So glad I got to try that. My wife had the Duck Montmoreney and it also was very tasty. Add to the fact that we had a super enjoyable appetizer of Smoked Salmon Crostini to start things off, it was a homerun all the way around. I enjoy visiting places that put a priority on seasonal and local products, and we were both very pleased to say the least with our visit to Blue Cow! We will definitely stop again if we find ourselves in the area for lunch or dinner.

We thoroughly enjoyed our dinner at Blue Cow. We began the meal with the Smoked Salmon Crostini… crisp toast with traditional, well balanced flavors of salmon, dill, and capers… a wonderful appetizer. For the main course, I ordered the the Duck Montmorency from the seasonal menu. This dish was an absolute delight. The duck was flavorful, cooked with the fat, and the cherry compote complimented the meat without being too sweet or overpowering. The grilled polenta on the side was likewise the perfect texture and flavor.
Keep up the good work! We will definitely be back.

Excellent meal, good service and nice atmosphere. Visited on Sept 12^th for my don’s 18^th Birthday Dinner. Black and Blue Tenderloin was very well done and pumpkin cheesecake was yummy. Will definitely visit again.

I have eaten here a couple of different times and each time has been great food. For the most part.
Pros:
1. Champagne Chicken with parmesan risotto is so good. The best chicken dish I’ve ever eaten, hands down.
2. Cheesecake is so good. I’ve never had such fantastic cheesecake.
3: Atmosphere of the restaurant is great. I love being in there — it’s inviting, comfortable, and is just great to be at.
Cons:
1: Croque Monsieur was hard as a rock on the edges, yet soggy in the middle.
2: Servers either seem to be indifferent to the customers (ignoring our drinks, leaving us to wait for 45 minutes for lunch).
3: Servers really aren’t that knowledgeable about the menu and drinks. There was a lot of «I can ask».
4: Tables are wobbly, both outside and inside.
I’ll definitely be back. It’s just that for a single mom and her 11 year old daughter, we won’t be eating here as often as we’d like, given the prices.

This is a great restaurant. It is clear that the Blue Cow was born out of passion for good food sourced as locally as possible.
The burger I got was made in house from trimmings of the steaks and was unbelievably juicy and delicious, even though it seemed to be cooked a bit more than medium. My wife ordered the Udon Noodles which were hearty, flavorful, and immensely satisfying.
We are in the process of moving to Big Rapids and are sure to become regulars!

Tried the Cow again
Waited to long at the bar for a drink,
No bread with our mussels.
Love the atmosphere severe and lack. of Manger sucks.
Wants to be upscale but is not.

Excellent menu choices! The Black and Blue steak dinner is perfection on a plate. Everything is fresh and delicious. Excellent wine list and crafted beer selection.

I’ll start by saying that this place was highly recommended to me as a «farm to table» type of establishment. It was easy to find as we passed through Big Rapids, and not too busy for a Tuesday night. The mixed drinks were very reasonably priced as well. That’s where the good pretty much ends.
Service is key in a place like this — I expect the server to know about the menu and suggest pairings to us. Insofar as the menu changes often (per the website), this is key to a good dining experience. Our server was terrible and essentially ruined our meal. A few examples:
1) I asked if the mussels were fresh or frozen (a logical Q given that the menu prides itself on local and I don’t know of any local mussels) — she had to go ask and returned with this pearl — «they are local and fresh.» I ventured to order them anyway despite the clarity. They were either frozen or overcooked and had lots of broken shells (kitchen, please never serve these)
2) my friend ordered the chef’s choice wine. She delivered it without knowing what it was. «I’ll go find out.» (this happened a lot, can you tell yet?)
3) my mussels were delivered without the bread the menu promised. It took about 15 minutes to heat and was only about 5 small slices. I was done anyway by the time it arrived.
4) someone asked what the well gin was (…let me ask) and she didn’t even know the other options.
5) she was clearly unable to multitask. We counted 4 visits to the table NEXT to us where she never even looked at us to see our empty drinks. I had to go to the bar to order my own drink.
Like I said, I’d heard good things and was excited to try the Blue Cow, but the horrible, unqualified and vapid server ruined our experience. It’s sad — the menu looked great, the place looked great, and I’m sure there were some gems on the menu that a good server would have steered us to… but not this one :-(

It was great service and wonderful presentation and amazing food and if I were you drive to the blue cow café right now to get some of the amazing food.

The champagne chicken with Parmesan risotto is to die for!!! I get it every time I go. I love the bread and garlic butter. White wine sangria and the mojitos are great! Also if you save room for dessert which isn’t likely because the portions are great, try the cheesecake it’s so good! Not a normal boring cheesecake either, it tastes like there is ricotta cheese in it! Service is always great and environment is very peaceful and fancy.

Went on a Sat, lunch time. 4 stars only because we waited about 15 minutes to order as they were having trouble with the beer tap system. Hubby ordered beer and instead of taking our order then dealing with the tap system, the waiter dealt with the beer issue first. Besides us, there were only 2 other customers in the entire restaurant so they weren’t very busy at all. Food was great at least. Had the scallops, Thai curry, Creole jambalaya & goat French toast-​all highly recommended.

If I could give 3.5 stars I probably would, but I’ll round up to 4.
This place has a great atmosphere– there’s a fireplace near the bar and overall a relaxed sort of vibe, which we enjoyed.
The appetizer that we had — goat cheese with a fruit compote– was totally delicious. Sweet fruit with honey, slightly salty chèvre on a super crisp crostini; good stuff. My wife had the salmon which was cooked and seasoned well. I had a burger with French onion soup, all of which was pretty mediocre. My burger was over cooked and I didn’t care for the odd grind of the meat. My French onion soup contained very little soup; it was all bread and cheese. Bread and cheese are delicious, but I like a good balance of components in a French onion soup. All in all, however, it was a nice dining experience and I would go back and try something else on the menu.

Okay, I just think this place is so poorly named. When my friend said, «Want to go to the Blue Cow?», I responded, «You want to go out for ice cream?» «Blue Cow» does not equal french food in my book.
That said, it was cute. Service was fine. I loved my blueberry salad, and my companion enjoyed her french onion soup. She also got the smoked pork chop, which was huge (splitable!) but saltier than she enjoyed. Still, if I find myself in Big Rapids again, I’d go back.

The blue cow has a great menu with some really creative offerings on the weekends when they have their specials. The weekly menu is very good and easily has the best steaks in the area.
The drinks are unique and the bartenders are always willing to experiment and make something off the beaten path. The restaurant also brews its own beer and infused vodka with hot peppers for wonderful bloody marys.