GRO Cafe

Have been trying to eat here for a while and finally found them open. I had the Spiraled Zucchini Noodles with a Thai almond & sesame sauce — they were pretty good and the serving size was good. It all went downhill from there. They were out of onion rings — one of the main things I was excited to try, so I got the Terra Burger and a small hot chocolate. The Terra Burger was just ok. I liked the condiments on it better than the burger itself, although the bread was good. The hot chocolate was good. My friend got a piece of Apple Cake with Vanilla Coconut frosting — ick, not good. Then I got a piece of Key Lime Pie to go — I love Key Lime Pie. It looked really unappetizing, but I got past that and when I finally tried it, I was hard pressed to taste any lime in it whatsoever — seriously nothing about it tasted like lime anything. Sadly, the woman behind the counter said this was the best thing on the menu. I like Key Lime Pie that makes you pucker… this did not. So, all in all, I spent about $ 28 to have some pretty good zucchini noodles and hot chocolate. I do want to point out that this is not my first experience with raw food, but was by far the worst. It makes me really sad, because I SOOOO wanted to like this place. One thing I was impressed with is that they offer spring water that they gather at a local spring and carry into the restaurant.
I also have some qualms with the staff… not only have they been closed in the past during posted hours to be open, but today I witnessed something that bothered me. We were eating our lunch and it was approximate 2:35. They close @ 2:30 and we were the only ones in there. Two women showed up and they refused to serve them. It took them all of 10 minutes to make our meals, I would think a new restaurant would be going out of their way to take care of the people that make a point of visiting their restaurant. Also, the woman working got very confused about our bill and tried to charge us twice for the same dessert. No matter how many times we tried to explain it to her, she just wasn’t getting it… that was very frustrating it. I think people should be smart if they have to work with the public.
Again, I am very sad this place is not better — I was so excited for Portland to get a raw restaurant. I may go back, just because I was really excited to try the onion rings… or I may just keep eating @ Silly’s and The Green Elephant. Unless things change — the food preparation, the prices and the way they treat their customers, unfortunately I do not predict a long life for GRO café.

This new raw food place is good but not the best I’ve had (see my review of Live in Toronto, ON). The prices were reasonable. The lemon gingerade was amazing. We had a veggie ball sub and the burger (I can’t remember the exact name). They were both pretty good but could have had a little more flavor to distinguish from each other. It’s definitely worth a visit if you’re in Portland though!

GRO= Grass Roots Organic
The most astounding thing about GRO is the insanely low price point– for ORGANIC food no less! I felt it was my civic duty to Unilocal a business that is trying to find the magic threshold of the lowest possible price they can pass on to the customer, while staying in business (actually talked to the owner about this!).
Coming from San Francisco and Ithaca, New York, I can say this place is on par with the best that raw food has to offer. I was especially pleased by the amazing raw chocolates– some with orange, some with pepper, really wonderfully silky and moist. I think I like raw chocolates best!
GRO is a great place to go with a friend and sample a variety of small plates. I went with my friend/​future-​sister-​in-​law who is entirely raw vegan and everything was up to snuff by her standards, which says a lot. When you’re raw organic vegan you’re sort of forced to be an inventive chef yourself since that kind of meal is hard to find while eating out.
Please give GRO a try and keep Portland on the raw food map! (Also, it’s the only place I’ve ever seen serving goji berries!)