Clara's Lansing Station

WHAT HAPPENED???

I used to come here ALL the time growing up in Lansing, and I am really disappointed to have to write this crappy review.

I was interested in having a salad, and I asked for Italian instead of ranch. The response? "Oh, I think it's pre mixed". What the hell kind of place pre makes salads with the dressing IN it???? So then I was going to get a wrap and got the same response! What kind of shit is this? No thank you.

The calzone I ended up with was OK. Maybe it was pre made too, who even knows with this place.

Oh, not to mention she warned us it would be 45 minutes... Okay cool

This is a unique little gem in Lansing! Was a train station and has a little train car you can request to eat in as well. Atmosphere is an old charming restaurant with a lot of history on the walls. Has an upper story as well.

Menu options are huge! Menu is more like a book than a menu, great options for any time of the day and save room for desert!

Prices are very reasonable, service was attentive and personable.

Overall great place to grab a bite!

This place is more like a 3.5. I came here on a Sunday with The Bo and his cousin after waiting in line at Golden Harvest for 30 minutes. We were pretty much last in the long line, so it would have been 2+ hours wait. It was too cold to be waiting around for some breakfast food, as good as it may be.

We decided to try Clara's brunch buffet. I didn't know that it would be $19, but The Bo's sweet cousin paid for our meal. This meal was much needed after a night of drinking. Pathetic loss by UM football against MSU.

The buffet had a variety of items: Biscuits, gravy, eggs, sausage links, stuffed french toast, fried chicken, tomato sauce pasta, macaroni and cheese, turkey, honey glazed sliced ham, mini waffles with fruit & cream toppings, a salad bar, an omelette station, dessert table.

I did not like the following things:

Eggs which was dry, bland, and tasted like something you would get in a school cafeteria breakfast or a carton of egg blenders. At least use real eggs. It's a $19 brunch buffet.

Macaroni & cheese: Bland.

Everything else was decent to pretty good, especially the waffles, fried chicken, and ham. I wasn't in the mood to wait for someone to make an omelette for me, so I can't comment on the taste of their omelets. My dining companions said their desserts were wonderful, but I was way too full to eat dessert.

I couldn't help but compare this place to Weber's in Ann Arbor. I'm happy that I live closer to Weber's Restaurant so that I can binge on brunch food on Sundays since it is only $9.75 for the brunch buffet and of better quality than Clara's.

Overall, it was a pretty good first experience at Clara's. The place is beautiful and has a great historical atmosphere. As for the value of the brunch, I definitely do NOT think that this brunch was worth $19. It does come with coffee and some other beverage, but that still doesn't justify the pricing.

We eat here almost every time we're in Lansing. We know what we're gonna get, and it's fun to look at the tchotchkes.
The food is fine. The drinks are fine. It's just "fine."

I hate that I am writing this review post mortum. I liked Clara's. I really liked Clara's. The building was such a wonderful trip down memory lane for anyone walked through an old time train station looking in awe at the massive architecture. Not many of those old places are left as this throwaway society has left most to just memory. That a restaurateur not only saved a great example of a time mostly forgotten, but successfully turned it into an eatery that saved the feel of that time is pretty amazing.

I was in Lansing regularly for business from 2011 - 2014. I dined at Clara's many times & was never disappointed with the food or service. I thought the menu was nicely varied & I completely enjoyed everything I ordered. I will carry good memories of the times I spent at Clara's with some great people & a great dining experience.

R.I.P Clara's, you're missed...

Very cool restaurant! An old train station converted into a restaurant is a great idea. We ate in an old boxcar. It was nice and quiet when we went. There were 2 pages of alcohol drinks, ribs, soups, pastas, burgers, calzones, shrimp, salads, even quiches. Waitress was a sweetheart and right on top of things too. Food was really good, ill go again. Neat atmosphere!

This review is strictly for the Sunday Brunch spread, as I have never eaten off the regular menu at any other time.

Clara's is a unique place that's fun to frequent for Brunch with large groups who don't mind spending a bit more than the average Sunday breakfast. The interior decor and set-up is half the big draw to visit... I love all the clocks and eating upstairs! The seats are very roomy and comfy. ADVICE: Come really, really early... like, the second they open. Once this place gets busy, it can get kind of annoying waiting for hot waffles or omelets.

On that note, the food gets cold fast. Try scooping your food from the very bottom of the trays to get the hottest available. My favorite part about the brunch is the hot wings and the egg souffle.

I would definitely recommend Clara's, especially for those who have guests from out of town and are looking for something other than the traditional IHOP for breakfast/brunch. Just be prepared for the bill.

I would make two different reviews for Clara's based on my experiences but I don't have time.

I would give it five stars for the breakfast buffet experience, it's my favorite breakfast buffet in the Lansing area! I just love the old architecture and decor.

My last, lunch experience I would give it two stars. I asked the hostess if my daughter and I could sit on the train and she acted a little annoyed. Then she insisted I put the car seat my baby was in on an upside down high chair, even though it's completely dangerous. I ordered the half fajita salad and was pretty disappointed. It only had a couple pieces of lettuce and the waitress forgot the sour cream and salsa that was supposed to come with it.

The only reason Clara's gets 3 stars is for the cool location (and that accounts for 2 out of the 3 stars). Like most of the reviewers have said, the food is just mediocre. I wouldn't go all out ordering an expensive meal here. If I ever went again, I'd just go to get loaded and share an appetizer or something with someone.

I don't understand why the owner(s)/management would not want to capitalize on the allure / interest of the location by improving the food. I agree with the reviewer who said they should look into scaling down the menu and focus on quality instead of quantity. Unless you really know what you want, it can take awhile to narrow things down. I think our server was a little annoyed with me because she wanted to take our group's order ASAP and I wasn't ready due to scanning the vast selection.

It was cool to sit up on the 2nd level where you have a bird's eye view of the joint though.

My Uncle Mike lives in Holt, and he had us out to see a play at the Wharton theater on the MSU campus.

He suggested this place since it has the cool train car and everything. I was pretty stoked when we got here. It was 4 on a Sunday so we missed the brunch buffet.

The menu is so freaking ridiculous.. Like a book. WHY can't restaurants find their own identities anymore??? It literally took us over 20 minutes to decide what we wanted. Any time I see this it's a huge red flag. When you have that many choices, 2 things you should always be sure:

1. 90% of the food will be frozen
2. Most of it will be premade, and microwaved to your liking (or disliking)

I ordered the chicken tortellini, BF had the Mississippi spicy shrimp and Uncle had the plain fettucine alfredo. We also had french onion soup and cheese broccoli soup.

Soup was pretty ok. No complaints there. Waitress took 15 minutes to come back any time we needed anything, which was pretty dumb since the restaurant was a ghost town. We were one of two seated table in the train car.

Dinner was alright... nothing to write home about. No one liked the super greasy cheese bread, it literally soaked through the napkin I set it on. Gross.

BF's was just noodles in olive oil with a bunch of powdery spice on the shrimp, it was hot, but had no flavor really. Mine was ok, the prosciutto made it a little better. The tortellini are obvi frozen and were just mushy.

The dessert menu looked great, and maybe that's a better idea to try next time. They do have a lot of sandwiches and salads, so maybe they are better too, but the pasta was all just pretty bland. The alfredo sauce was broken. I thought that was only a specialty of Olive Garden, but I was proven wrong.

So in summary..... Mehhhhh.....


/Meh