King of the Grill
4400 N. Grand River AvenueWhen J and I lived in Lansing, there was no BBQ. That’s not the case anymore. It seems like every time I get sent to Lansing for work, I find more BBQ. We couldn’t eat BBQ when we lived there, but I’m now on a mission to eat at every BBQ place in town when I go back for work.
My last trip took me to downtown Lansing again. I was going to repeat at Capital City BBQ on MLK and Saginaw, but I decided to do a search and see if anything else came up. Whadya know? Something did.
King of the Grill is my latest Lansing BBQ find. It’s on North Grand River Avenue in an old Burger King right next to the entrance for the Capital Region International Airport.
The building’s former life is painfully obvious. Nothing much was changed on the inside or outside. It really looks like a 90’s style Burger King…but when it comes to places like this, aesthetics aren’t what’s important. It’s the food that really matters.
I couldn’t find a menu online anywhere, but they advertised Texas-style BBQ, so I knew there’d be something delicious. The menu is in the old BK menu board behind the counter. It’s a little confusing at first. It’s not in list format as most menus are. It’s kind of a picture menu, but there’s also some figuring out that goes into it as well. A large portion of it is just pictures of the various mouthwatering meats.
I chose the three meat option so I could try as much as possible. The meats I picked were the brisket (duh), flank steak, and pulled pork. The other options are ham, turkey (not available on my trip), and chicken.
The meats come with choice of two sides. The only one that caught my eye right away was the mac ‘n cheese, so I said that out loud while I was deciding on something else. The lady putting my meal together asked if I wanted double mac. That seemed like the best option for me, so I went with it. The cost of my meal came out to just a little over $11 and it was ready in less than five minutes. All of the meats and sides are kept in warming trays on the counter, so it doesn’t take long for the food to be packaged up.
On my way out, I grabbed some napkins and a fork so I could eat in the car. I would have grabbed some sauce, but they don’t make their own. There were two big GFS bottles of Sweet Baby Rays and something else. That could be a little bit of a turn off to some people, but I’m going to go with the theory that they believe their meat is so good it doesn’t need sauce so they don’t waste their time on it.
When I got back on the highway, I popped the Styrofoam container open and was faced with the challenge of where to start. The sliced brisket was the closest to me, so that’s where I began.
Brisket is usually my favorite BBQ meat and this one was quite delicious, but it wasn’t quite my favorite in the box. The brisket was very tender and had a salty outer crust. I got mostly fatty pieces which I’m fine with. I actually really like that part of the brisket as long as it’s mixed in with something a little more solid. There’s a lot of flavor in that fat when it melts in your mouth and there was in this particular pieces of meat.
The next meat in the line up actually turned out to be my favorite. The flank steak was unbelievably tasty. The meat was fairly thinly sliced and it was so, so tender. It had the same salty crust as the brisket did and writing this a week later, I can still imagine the taste of it. It was so good and not at all what I expected.
The third meat was the pulled pork. Like the beef pieces, the pork was very tender, but little on the dry side. This is the one I could have used a little sauce for. It had a different dry rub on it which wasn’t quite as salty, but equally as tasty.
While the meats were all delicious, the macaroni and cheese left a little to be desired. It was fine, but didn’t pack much flavor. The cheese sauce was kind of bland and didn’t really bring anything to the party.
King of the Grill is another great BBQ option in Lansing. The flank steak was unbelievable. By far, that was my favorite part of the meal. The location is a little out there…when we lived in Lansing, I think I can count on one hand how many times I actually drove to that side of town, but if you’re craving some good Texas BBQ, it’s a drive you just might want to take.
Three Meat Plate
Sliced Brisket
Flank Steak
Pulled Pork
Macaroni and Cheese
SW Michigan Dining 
