BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse (Lansing)
2515 Lake Lansing RoadWe didn’t necessarily need to stay in Lansing for this year’s Van Camp Invitational but we decided to do it anyway.
We spent most of the day Friday at the Biggby Coffee Ice Cube for the kids’ figure skating competition. My parents drove in from the Chicago area so they were going to have to get a hotel somewhere. L wants to spend the entire day at the ice rink and watch all of her friends while B is ready to go as soon as he’s done. Instead of driving back to Kalamazoo, we decided to stay in Lansing.
I got a hotel out near Eastwood Towne Center on Lake Lansing Road. I figured it was close enough to the ice rink but far enough away it was a little cheaper and there was plenty of places to eat and shop (if we wanted to) in that area.
We left the ice rink after both kids were done for the day. L wanted to go back and watch some of the evening skates but everyone was hungry. There are a lot of restaurants *I* would go to in East Lansing but I tried picking something a little safer in hopes that everyone would find something to eat.
I picked BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse on Lake Lansing Road. The restaurant is a standalone building in front of the Eastwood Towne Center west of the US-127 interchange. I thought the restaurant location looked familiar when we pulled up. J and I lived in Lansing for a couple of years and we shopped at Eastwood occasionally. We had actually eaten at this spot before when it was a Max & Erma’s. There’s been a little work done to the facade to update the look a little bit.
BJ’s Restaurant is a chain of casual restaurants headquartered in Huntington Beach, CA. They have 215 locations nationwide. There are five locations in Michigan including one in Kentwood I haven’t been to yet.
I chose BJ’s because it is a chain. You know I like to find the unique local flavor but sometimes it’s just easier to go someplace with a big menu and a standardized cooking process that has been successful across the country.
BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse looks like a chain when you walk in. It’s sectioned off in to three big dining spaces with high ceilings, wood floors and single bulb light fixtures hanging from the ceiling. The theme is sports bar which fits in with the area.
The space to the left of the entrance is the bar. There’s a big rectangular shaped bar with TV’s in the middle and pub tables surrounding it. They have a lot of their own beer on tap and a pretty killer drink list as well.
We were taken to a bigger table the outside wall of the restaurant. There were six of us because I actually got everyone to leave the rink to eat plus my parents.
The menu is huge. We started with the drink menus which are also pretty large. I was craving something hoppy so I ordered the HopStorm IPA. I got hoppy. And I drank it pretty quickly. It was a solid IPA and really hit the spot after a long, long day at the rink.
J’s order was Tito’s Lavender Lemonade. Man, this thing was bright purple. The drink is Tito’s vodka, Monin lavender syrup, lemonade, and a fresh lemon wedge. Did I mention how purple the drink was?
Both kids got specialty drinks too. They have mocktails…they both love a good Shirley Temple (or Sherlock Temple as B calls them), but they did something else.
B ordered BJ’s Handcrafted Orange Cream Soda. We passed this drink around the table. It was a delicious orange cream soda. B drank it all and asked for another…then we forgot the to-go cup on the table and everyone was mad because someone definitely would have drank more of that.
L ordered the Boba-licious Mango Sparkler. This alcohol free drink combines two of her favorite things. Boba and mango. She grabbed it so fast I couldn’t even get a picture until she was half done with it.
My parents stuck to water like they usually do so I picked up the slack and ordered a second beer. I picked the ‘Snice ‘N’ Hazy which is, as the name implies, a Hazy IPA. This is much more my style IPA but I didn’t go for this one first because I wanted a pint and the bigger IPA’s usually come in a snifter. That was the case here. This was a good sippin with a meal IPA.
I feel like I’ve written a full blog post already and I haven’t even started on food yet!
The wings were super tempting but I ordered the Hickory Brisket & Bacon burger. This sandwich has a “fire-grilled beef patty,” BJ’s Peppered BBQ sauce, smoked brisket, smoked bacon, jack and cheddar cheeses, red onions, mayo, and it’s served on a parker house bun. The sandwich had a lot going on but it was really tasty. The tangy BBQ sauce really dominated the flavor. The brisket was chopped and swimming in that thick, tangy sauce. The bacon provided a little bit of a crunch but all I could really taste was the BBQ and a little smokiness from the brisket itself. The sandwich came with fries which were pretty simple frozen fries. Nothing super fancy.
My dad also ordered a burger but he went simpler and got the Bacon Cheeseburger. He didn’t have much to say at the time but told me later everything was cold so he wasn’t super in to it.
J ordered BJ’s Classic Crispy Chicken Sandwich. If you like a lot of chicken, this one’s for you. The thick, crispy fried chicken is topped with honey mustard, lettuce, tomatoes, dill pickles, on a parker house bun and served with slaw and BJ’s signature sauce. The chicken was super crispy yet juicy all the way through. J doesn’t like thick pieces of chicken but powered through the sandwich because she said it was pretty tasty. She saved the last little bit for me. I like thick, juicy chicken. I thought the sandwich was good but I do see her point about it being a little tough to eat. Her sandwich also came with fries.
B ordered the Kid’s Chicken tenders. Like usual, he didn’t really want to eat much. We got him to eat I think one of the tenders and some of his fries. The tenders were much thinner than the chicken on J’s sandwich. We probably should have just swapped them out but I’m just now thinking of that. I ended up eating some of the tenders and the rest of the fries were split amongst the table.
L goes back and forth on kid’s menus. She’s 12 (although she doesn’t look like it) so she can still order off the kid’s menu. Usually she goes for a salad off the main menu but this kid’s menu had Kraft Mac & Cheese. She devoured the bowl and the fruit she got as a side then reached over to B’s plate to steal some fries and grandma’s plate to take some chips.
My mom ordered the Shrimp Tacos. She chose the blackened shrimp although she really had no idea what that meant. The two tacos came with shrimp, chipotle mayo, Santa Fe dressing, napa cabbage, carrots, red onions, cilantro, avocado cream sauce, and fire roasted salsa with tortilla chips and black beans on the side. My mom has really gotten in to shrimp and fish tacos which was never something she was into when we were kids. While my dad really didn’t like BJ’s, my mom made a comment as we were driving by the next day how much she liked and really enjoyed her meal.
Our bill for the meal was just over $120. I tried to give my mom some money since J and I both had drinks but she wouldn’t take it.
BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse is a solid chain restaurant. My dad was the only real complaint and that was probably because his burger sat there for a while waiting for something else to be made. It did take quite a while to get our food and they weren’t super busy. We couldn’t figure out what at our table would have taken so long.
I say it all the time, I’m not a chain guy, but sometimes going to a big chain is just easier. This was one of those instances and it worked out well. I got a couple of tasty beers and we all got a filling, delicious meal…except for B. I had to make a McDonalds run before bed, but that’s on him for not eating what we gave him.
SW Michigan Dining 