Cheap Eats: Uncle Cheetah’s Soup Shop offers changing 12-soup menu, grilled cheese for winter warm up

We’re searching for tasty and inexpensive meals in West Michigan. When we find them, we’ll share them with you here on Cheap Eats.

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Winter has arrived in West Michigan and it’s cold outside.

Fortunately, area residents have gotten pretty good at finding ways to stay warm. And one way to do it is with .

Those looking for a hearty, inexpensive meal on a cold day should look no further than Uncle Cheetah’s Soup Shop, a cozy eatery in Grand Rapids’ Eastown neighborhood that serves up 12 unique soups and nine variants of grilled cheese daily.

Opened by Cory DeMint as The Electric Eel in 2010, but rebranded as Uncle Cheetah’s shortly after, the small shop is a sister, or uncle, to the larger Electric Cheetah diner nearby.

On any given lunch hour, the shop will be packed with patrons struggling to choose between the ever-rotating array of made-from-scratch soups available.

I endured this struggle firsthand during my recent visit and found myself standing in the small dining room for several minutes trying to decide which soup and sandwich to order.

Soup options on this day included: Tomato saffron bisque, a bisque-style roasted red pepper, cabbage medley, chicken asiago summer squash, tomato gorgonzola, hot hominy, Texas red steak chili, turkey enchilada, vegan broccoli cheddar, Big Country (potato soup), chicken tomatillo and Cheetah bean.

Deciding was incredibly difficult and the wide variety of offerings, plus many more listed online that are available on different days, will make you want to return to Uncle Cheetah’s to try others. It’s also helpful that the staff is on hand to let you sample any of the soups before ordering.

Considering it was below freezing outside, and being somewhat of a chili connoisseur, I decided to go with the Texas Red chili, which, according to the menu is “perfectly balanced.” It’s beanless, with flank steak, a blend of chili peppers, garlic, tomato, & onions.

Every soup is served with choice of bread:…

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