Pizza House (East Lansing)
4790 S. Hagadorn Road, Suites 114-116I talked pretty in detail in my last post about L’s introduction to ice skating and the competitions that are going to be taking up a good part of our summer so I won’t rehash that totally here.
I’ll just say we were in East Lansing for the VanCamp Invitational at Suburban Ice East Lansing.
It was a long day. We got to the rink around 10:30. L’s first event was at 1:20 then she had a little over a four hour break until her second event.
Everyone was getting hungry. The arena didn’t have concessions and we had been running on vending machine candy and sweets from B and my’s trip to Mitten Raised. We needed some real food.
J and I lived in Lansing for a couple years back in the late aughts. We are kind of familiar with dining in East Lansing as far as the long time staples go. J suggested we leave the rink for a few hours and go grab lunch at Crunchy’s.
Crunchy’s was packed at 2:00 on a Saturday afternoon…but to be fair, it was during the first weekend of March Madness. Michigan State wasn’t playing but that didn’t seem to matter. The pub still had a 20 minute wait.
We weren’t going to wait and I had actually been wanting to go back to another of my favorites from our days in East Lansing. One that was actually right next to the ice rink.
Pizza House’s East Lansing location is on Hagadorn Road and Hannah Boulevard in the Hannah Plaza. This shopping center has several dining options across several different cuisines. We are pizza people and I remember Pizza House as being one of my favorite pizza places in the Lansing area…even if J disagreed with me at the time which is probably why she didn’t remember ever eating there when we lived in Lansing.
The host stand is right inside the door and there was a little bit of a line when we walked in. I could see some empty tables so I was hopeful there wouldn’t be much of a wait. We were close to the ice arena…within walking distance actually, so even if we got behind, J and L could walk over if they needed to to get back in time for L’s next event.
The restaurant is quite large. There’s a really nice, big bar area off to the left when you first walk in. Like I said, it was opening weekend of March Madness so the large TV wall had a couple different games going.
The other side is the main dining room. It’s actually divided into a couple of different rooms so areas can be closed off for large parties. We were seated in the first dining area. There was a pretty big bachelorette party in the room next to us and there appeared to be another group in an area next to the them.
We hit a bit of a rough patch at this point. Our waitress gave us menus and coloring pages for the kids. We thought it was taking quite a while for a waiter to come over and none of the servers that walked by us even acknowledged us sitting there. We had menus on the table for close to 15 minutes before J finally asked if she should go ask the hostess what was going on.
Turns out, the hostess forgot to put in to their computer system that she had sat us. The server didn’t know that he had a table and he wasn’t one of the ones that had walked by us to even notice someone had been seated in his section. He came over immediately after J talked to the hostess and apologized for the mix up.
We had been sitting there long enough to know what everyone wanted so we put our drink and food orders in at the same time.
I noticed they had Hopslam on tap and, surprisingly, I haven’t had a Hopslam yet this year. It was a little pricey but I ordered it anyway.
J ordered a Frozen Margarita. I believe it was Strawberry and all of their margarita’s are made with Cuervo Gold Tequila and Bacardia Superior Rum.
I really liked Pizza House for their Chicago-Style stuffed crust pizza last time I ate there (many, many years ago) but we didn’t really have time for that and no one else would eat it with me. Plus, J had me in a burger mood after she originally suggested Crunchy’s.
I ended up ordering the Bacon Cheddar Burger. This half pound burger is topped with “plenty of smoked bacon” and Cheddar plus the usual lettuce, tomato, onion. The sandwich was solid. There actually was “plenty” of bacon that clung to the melted Cheddar cheese. The burger was slightly pink in the middle and deliciously juicy. The sandwich came with fries. They were steak fries and there was a lot on the plate. I did not leave hungry.
J’s pick was the Baked Ziti. This plate of pasta comes topped with a marinara sauce and a thick layer of mozzarella cheese. It’s a simple pasta dish but she said it was delicious. There are also two slices of garlic bread served on the side.
J also ordered a side salad…but, that ended up going to L. I’ll explain in a minute.
Both of the kids ordered a Personal Size pepperoni pizza. I should have just ordered a small thin crust pizza for them to split but we did individual. B really liked it. L did not. The problem for L was the crust size. We typically do thin crust pizzas and I didn’t ask if we could do the personal in a thin crust. The pizza is really good though if you like the thicker, puffier, doughier crust. There’s a really delicious sweet and slightly spicy sauce on it. The cheese is cooked to a delicious, dark golden brown which also gives the crust a little bit of a crunch. Since L didn’t eat hers, I asked for a box and took it home. I ate it later that night as a bedtime snack.
Back to J’s salad. J took one look at L as she took a bite of the pizza and just passed the salad over. It was imperative that L eat something. She was getting cranky due to lack of food and she still had to compete in a few hours. The side salad was simple with croutons, tomatoes, and cucumbers on it. The dressing was an Italian vinaigrette. J said we could ask for ranch but L had already started eating (because she was hungry) and realized that she likes Italian dressing. She declined J’s offer to ask for ranch and almost licked the plate clean.
We got off to a rough start at Pizza House but it worked out well in the end. I think J and I were both pretty happy with our meals. If I had to do it again, I would order the kids a pizza to share and make sure it was a thin crust. That’s a them thing…not a Pizza House thing. The pizzas they had were pretty good. It’s just not how they’re used to eating pizza and you know how unforgiving kids can be when it comes to food different than they’re used to.
SW Michigan Dining 