If you go to a restaurant once and have a spotty meal and try it again and love it, how do you write a review? That’s what I’m struggling with after having one iffy lunch at The Electric Cheetah and another more recently that was nothing short of spectacular.

Since the restaurant was relatively new on my first visit, I’m going to chalk the average food and poor service up to an inexperienced staff and overwhelmed kitchen. My second visit to The Electric Cheetah, one of the new uber-cool restaurants that anchor a revived Wealthy/Cherry Street eating district, was excellent from start to finish.

And good for chef and owner Cory DeMint. For people who appreciate the care and love that goes into a great meal, The Electric Cheetah is the kind of restaurant you want to love. The restaurant is filled with warm colors and an incredible mural with beautiful flowers and roots wrapping around the open kitchen area. And on one visit, there was mellow reggae playing in the background that perfectly fit the vibe of the place.

But it is the food that gives The Electric Cheetah its growl.

DeMint is ambitious at every turn and the menu is exciting with a mix of ethnic dishes and old fashioned comfort food. I was thrilled by the choices. Small plates include dishes like cured salmon bruschetta ($3), baked soft pretzels ($5) and deviled eggs ($4). The inventive “Green Cuisine” portion of the menu included the interesting Thai Town salad ($8) with Napa cabbage, iceberg lettuce with a citrus-soy-peanut-ginger dressing. Options also included fried green tomato ($8) and a flank steak salad ($8). The restaurant touts its “certified fancy” soups. The saffron tomato bisque was excellent on my first visit. The vegetable soup on my second visit (a soup of the day choice) was delicious as well with fresh vegetables and just the right amount of flavor in the broth. Diners get one ladle of soup for $3 and two for $5.

My wife Stephanie and I had the pleasure of dining there recently for lunch. We started with baked soft pretzels ($5) off the small plate menu. The pretzel sticks, which we were told are made fresh daily are served with a selection of bold mustards. We love good mustards and were happy to find all three were spicy and delicious, though we would have liked a wider range of flavors (perhaps a mustard that is a little milder or fruitier). The pretzels were soft and very flavorful, though not exactly visually appealing the way they were plated.

Our waiter John suggested one of the soup, salad and sandwich combinations — any 1/2 sandwich, any small salad or a cup of soup (choose two for $8 or all three for $11). Stephanie picked the Greek salad and grilled cheese since she tends to eat mostly vegetarian. The sandwich comes with provolone, goat and cheddar with roma tomatoes and caramelized red onion on grilled sourdough with rosemary, sea salt and black pepper. She loved it, though questioned the skimpy portion of cheese. I went with the aforementioned vegetable soup and the sloppy jalopy sandwich. The sloppy jalopy includes house-smoked corned beef brisket and black forest ham, caramelized red onion, tomato, thousand island, Dijon mustard and Swiss cheese on grilled rye. It was a wonderful sandwich, one of the best I’ve had in West Michigan.

It came as bit of a surprise since I didn’t like my reuben sandwich on my last visit to The Electric Cheetah. I take my reuben sandwiches seriously and consider myself an expert on the sandwich. There are many places in West Michigan that have excellent reubens. My favorites are the Schnitz Deli on Fulton Street and Cherry Deli on Cherry Street. Since the ingredients looked so good on The Electric Cheetah’s reuben, I had high hopes. Unfortunately, the reuben was OK, at best. The meat was excellent, but there wasn’t much there. It was dominated by the caramelized red onions, spicy red cabbage and dill slaw. I didn’t like any of those three ingredients.

What a difference another visit makes. Our service during the most recent visit was absolutely perfect. John was helpful and answered all our questions about the menu. He was quick to refill our drinks and he was sincerely friendly, but not overly so. He was so good, infact, that I would ask for him to be our server the next time we visit. The first time I visited The Electric Cheetah, it was a different story. Our service, which started out strong, quickly deteriorated as the lunch crowd swelled. The place was slammed and they seemed to have no clue how to dig themselves out of the hole. That was then and this is now. The restaurant certainly seems to have ironed out all its service issues since opening.

Since we were too full to enjoy a desert at the restaurant, we decided to take one home. We picked the apple cranberry crumble pie ($4) from Phyllis’ homemade pie menu. Our children devoured the pie and I only managed one bite. It was fantastic with a perfect crunchy crumble on top and sweet apples that were complimented by the tart cranberries.

The Electric Cheetah shoots for the moon with its locally sourced food and eclectic menu and it is now hitting the mark. There are many items on the menu’s extensive list that I want to try, including chicken salad two ways, several styles of pulled pork, cuban, sloppy joe, grilled portobello and Creswick Farms grass-fed, free-range burger. I was tempted by the burger since I love Creswick Farms meats. I know the Creswicks and appreciate the care and love that goes into the animals they raise. All the sandwiches are $8.

When I first reviewed The Electric Cheetah, I noted that the most serious problem facing the restaurant is the competition nearby. The Electric Cheetah faces serious challenges from nearby Cherry Deli, The Winchester and Green Well. With that kind of competition, I wondered how The Electric Cheetah would fit in. After eating there a second time, I realize The Electric Cheetah can hold its own against any competition and compliments its close competitors. Grand Rapids is a much richer community for foodies with the addition of places like Cherry Deli, The Winchester and Green Well. And it just keeps getting better now that the spottiness has been wiped away from the Cheetah.

The Electric Cheetah (Rating: ★★★ 1/2)
1015 Wealthy St. SE, Grand Rapids
(616) 451-4779
http://www.electriccheetah.com
Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mon.-Sat.; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday
Ambiance: Hip, yet casual
How much it will cost you: Most items are about $8, but be careful about add-ons bloating your bill.
Credit cards: All major
Smoke-free: Yes
Reservations: No