Tru Cafe

Being a Kearney native, I love spending my money at small local businesses, and I will always do this over spending my money at a chain. However, I’ve given this spot several chances, and am always so very disappointed. The customer service is awful, to say the least. I was treated as an inconvenience.

Love the fresh, unique options on the dinner menu and the family who runs it is so charming. Always have a great soundtrack on, great art on the walls, and wonderful cocktails. I’ve been less impressed with lunch choices, but the quality of the choices is still good.

What a great find! I am in Kearney for a convention, and asked at the front desk atttendants at my hotel if they could recommend a local coffee spot. They told me about Tru Café, so I headed over about 9:30 am and ordered a cup of coffee and a warmed berry mufffin. I enjoyed a little alone time. The coffee was very smooth and rich, and the muffin tasted yummy and homemade (I didn’t ask if it was homemade). I visited with the owner a bit, and he told me they would have live music tonight. So, I invited 2 of my co-​convention-​goers, and we enjoyed very unique and delicious dinners and listened to pleasant music by a sweet couplet that played marimba, trombone, and sang. I ordered the Curry with chicken and tofu, and it was the best I’ve had. One of my friends got the BBQ Bison pizza, and he loved it. Our other friend ordered a steak sandwich (I can’t remember the exact name), and she raved about the steak and the bread. If I lived in Kearney, this would be one of my regular stops for coffee/​lunch/​dinner, alone or with friends!

Stopped by to have some coffee and brunch before I headed back to Lincoln with my friend Ada. We seated ourselves and got help right away. I really enjoyed the look of the place and I felt so comfortable even though it was my first visit. The waitress said that the chicken salad wrap was the most popular and the apple and cheese was her personal favorite so we ordered that and some drinks. In my opinion, the Apple and cheese wrap was a lot better than the chicken salad wrap. I got an iced white chocolate mocha and Ada ordered a chai latte. Felt very refreshing and loved how they had lots of healthier options.

I go here sometimes for coffee. Today, I had occasion to meet owner Mark. He invited me to dinner specials, which run thur-​sat. Being Thursday, wife and I went and had a wonderful food experience. I had the beet/​goat cheese salad. Wife had a standard dinner salad. Both very good/​tasty concoctions. We had a bottle of Reisling wine. Just right. Dinner choices were vegetable lasagne and a BBQ Bison pizza. Both very good, but I would have liked a thinner, cracker-​type crust better. Was quite good anyhow. Then had a dessert of… some kind of pie. Did not have much flavor, but was pretty good anyway. I would not order that again however. Overall… a pleasant and fun new experience in dining local. Thanks folks. Well done.

Awesome food and super friendly staff. Great atmosphere to grab some wholesome food with friends and family.

Came for lunch. Limited lunch menu, mostly sandwiches and soup of the day. GREAT atmosphere, super cool feeling place. I love that they’re family owned and do everything they can to source natural ingredients locally. I had the Apple and cheese sandwich, it wasvery good. The tarragon and fennel spread on it was delicious. Humus was also good even if it was a little thick. Took off a star for the limited menu at lunch. I’ll have to come back and try the regular menu.

What follows is a mixed review. I used to love this place and most of me still does! This place is really a hidden gem and is unique for K-​town. I normally always go for the turkey wrap, which is consistently delicious. I now live in CA (UNK alum and from GI) but try and come back here when I visit family and friends. This visit, however, left me disappointed. What caught me off guard was the podium and sign to seat yourself. I missed the order-​up-​at-​the counter set-​up! And with the self-​serve coffee, I still feel that arrangement makes more sense. Plus, it made the place feel much more formal and less relaxed! It’s nice to have a server but not here (although the staff is great and our server was friendly). Lastly, I ordered a latte, which tasted more like milk-​flavored coffee than a latte. So I did sub it out for their delicious coffee. Oh and I brought my significant other here for the first time, and he was disappointed by the wrap, which he thought resembled fibrous, pliable cardboard (I disagree, but he does suggest warming the wrap, adding a spicy mustard or more cheese or [fetching the tossed spice rack –see other Unilocal review] or other item to jazz it up. Also, turkeys are large birds, so why the dearth in meat for the price [which beat SF-​area prices]?). Lastly lastly, I should’ve gotten soup today, because I am still hungry — the soup kicks ass if they aren’t out of it and goes well with their bagel. I’ll be back for sure and will save room for dessert next time.
I do wish this place would catch on with the college students and Kearney in general. The downtown rocks — get your asses here, people.

My girlfriend is vegetarian and we stopped here based on other Unilocal reviews. Tru Café is a nice place in what I believe is the old downtown section of Kearney. It has a nice atmosphere with some local paintings and a hodgepodge of tables.
We ended up ordering the Mediterranean salad and a veggie pizza. The salad was good, maybe a bit heavy on the spinach, but the flavors were good. The pizza was tasty, though it is really thin. Really thin. If you’ve ever eaten St. Louis style pizza, think of that, but even thinner. I like thin pizza, but this was even too thin for me. Again, the flavor of the pizza is good though.
They also had what appeared to be a pretty decent beer and wine list. Being lunch and having to drive, we skipped the alcohol.
As for price, it’ll cost you $ 10 – 20 per person, obviously depending on what you order.
If you’re driving through Kearney and want to skip Subway or any other fast food place, I’d recommend Tru Café for a good meal.

We were very excited to try this place out — it has a super cool ambiance, the coffee was fine, we were planning on coming back for sure. But when we walked in, we weren’t greeted. It was super awkward as he didn’t talk to us at all as we ordered. Just not a friendly/​hospitable vibe.
I brought my husband there for his birthday and had two cupcakes. After we bought our coffee, we asked for two forks, and he refused to give them to us because we weren’t allowed to eat anything not bought at their café. As it was his birthday, it left a very bad taste in our mouths — especially since we’ve been allowed to bring food into multiple other coffee shops.
We won’t be back. We highly suggest Sweetwater Mill at the opposite side of downtown Kearney. Super friendly, warm environment with great coffee and treats inside.
*Obviously there are mostly good reviews, so maybe we just had a bad experience, but there are enough other places we love to keep us from ever going back.

Wonderful, mostly ORGANIC café in the middle of Nebraska. Who would have thought Kearney would have such a nice, healthy, and contemporary eating option?!
My father and I had the «House Bread», which is an appetizer of freshly made, organic garlic buttered bread with Thyme, and dipping oil and vinegar to go with it. Superb.
Then, we had the Gyro, which I remembered to take a picture of. We actually split the gyro, it comes with two of them. That was excellent as well.
The hot chocolate we had after a cold night watching the Sandhill Cranes take off. Spectacular hot chocolate, no chemical aftertaste in that whipped cream! It was the best.
If you’re passing through Kearney, and looking for an organic place to eat, this is the real deal. Go for it, you WON’T be disappointed! :)

Wide selection, lots of natural/​organic options, and great coffee and tea. Adorable location, too. Excellent stop not too far off the highway.

I live in Kearney, and have been wanting to try it since I moved here. But, it was open for only lunch. Now it is open for dinner too, so a friend of mine and I decided to try it out tonight.
Atmosphere:
No complaints here. Not anything spectacular, but unique for Kearney. Lots of artwork on the wall. They had a couple of people playing music, and they were okay. Again, nothing was wrong with it and it was unique, but not something I would go out of the way for.
Service:
This part was good. Our waitress was friendly, engaging, and took care of us.
Food:
Selection was very limited. I know previously it was more of a coffee shop, with a limited lunch. But now that they are open for dinner and advertise as a full service restaurant, I was expecting more of a full menu. I ordered the pork sliders. They were good. Pork had good flavor, and it was topped with a very simple coleslaw. My disappointment was with the quantity. The 3 sliders were all very small, and there were no sides. I would have expected them to come with some type of vegetable or side, but nothing. I can’t imagine very many people leaving satisfied after that meal. Also… they said the special drink was mango iced tea. I could not detect any mango in it at all. When I asked the waitress, she said that the mango was very subtle. More like non-​existent to me.
Overall…it wasn’t a bad experience… but not much to get me back there.

This is a cute little place in downtown Kearney. I’m on the road a lot and usually end up with no options other than greasy quick joints, so the healthy fare here was a refreshing find.
The food is a little bland for my taste though. It’s like someone decided to toss the spice rack in the garbage and just serve everything au naturale. I guess my biggest complaint would be that the portion sizes are tiny, esp. for the price. (I know I eat a lot, but the entrees were tiny even for normal folks.)
That said, I would still come here again should I find myself in downtown Kearney with some time to spare. They’ve got live music from time to time as well and it’s just a chill place to .well…chill.

I suppose five stars depends on what I’m rating on.
The coffee was great. Pastries — great. The shop was so adorable and pretty nice for working although they had some live music going on in the afternoon that was quite loud and wouldn’t have been able to make phone calls or anything. But great atmosphere and place to chill.
However — I wouldn’t recommend to do lunch here. Don’t get me wrong, it was delicious, but there really was not a wide choice. The menu was pretty limited to a couple sandwiches and their soup of the day. I’d find somewhere else if you really wanted to do lunch.
Everything else is great and loved the art gallery they had — very interesting. Very friendly and kind staff too.

Very impressive for the middle of Nebraska! Great atmosphere, wonderful, attentive, and tactful service, yummy fresh food. I was shocked at the drink selection available. Food was very fresh and healthy which is nice in a relatively healthy whole food desert.
I am excited to see the local artwork available for sale. I was very happy to find a coffee shop that roasts their own beans. I am very interested in the music and tapas in the evenings– I bet the atmosphere is wonderful! Shocked and impressed!

On a trip from Chicago to Glenwood Springs, CO, we stopped by this place for lunch. First impression, neat design, cool artwork, piano out front. Then the food and drink. Amazing stuff, all of it. They try to make your meal as healthy as tasty as they can, and succeed. And they even have an art gallery and various artistic creations for sale (like hand-​knit scarves). I’m looking forward to going here again on the way back.

I came here based on previous Unilocal reviews. Finding something healthy to eat in Kearney can be difficult. The owners were kind in explaining what their bakery items were and sandwich selection. While the selection is limited, the quality more than makes up for it. Healthy and Tasty, what more can you ask for?!
I haven’t tried their coffee yet, but I will next time I’m feeling sleepy.
Can’t wait to come back again!

Most certainly worth a stop when travelling cross-​country. Nice people, nice place. Decent coffee, great food.

This place was a TRU find! I was on a road trip across country and stopped in search of a cup of joe… ended up finding this place and it was the greatest! The owners were kind and hardworking. The place was artsy, all the food was baked there by the owner (!!), and they had a schedule for live music. There were also local handmade products for sale along with the drinks and munchies. I was so happy to find this place and hope you get to enjoy it too if you’re ever in Kearney.