Clara’s Lansing Station Restaurant

Mediocre food and poor service. The waitress didn’t take our order until we were there for at least 30 minutes. My food (Stromboli, or was it a calzone?) was fine, but I don’t need to eat it again. Won’t be returning! It is a neat atmosphere though.

Clara’s is the place that you keep finding yourself wanting to really, really like, but always find that it’s just decent. They have an extensive menu, most of which is good, but nothing to grab you and say «This is the place to go to get [X]!» Portion size is very good, and prices are reasonable. I love the décor, as it is the old train station, and sitting in the dining car a nice, novel experience as well.

We had lunch here at the recommendation from a clerk at the children’s museum. Walked in and asked the hostess if we could please sit in the train car and she acted annoyed at the request. Curtly told me that there was no room in the car even though we could clearly see many open tables, turned her back and apparently we were supposed to follow her to our table. We were seated and our waitress was Shelbi. She did not introduce herself or explain what was on the brunch buffet, I actually had to ask her to bring us menus. Waited probably 30 minutes for our meals and they were ok– not bad by any means– blt and salad were good. My review is based on our waitress and her lack of attentiveness or overall caring attitude about someone who normally would leave a 50% tip for great service.

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.»

Just wandering around Lansing for dinner on a Thursday night and came about this cute restaurant. Pulling up you can tell it has character… I mean come on it has a train car attached to it! Anyways walking into this restaurant is just as interesting as the outside. Looks very historic and you can tell it has been around for a bit. It will take you awhile to actually figure out what you want to eat because the menu is HUGE! Definitely something for anyone to find. I decided to get the Santa Fe Chicken Salad and I thought it was really good. Very simple salad with corn tortilla pieces, spicy ranch, beans, corn, grilled chicken (which was amazing), Pico de gallo, and lastly we can’t forget the main item… romaine lettuce. I ordered the small size and was stuffed after eating the whole thing. My cousin came with so she ordered the vegetarian sandwich they have and ordered it with a side of fries and guacamole. She really liked it. Only complaint I have with this restaurant would be that they are a little over priced with alot of their menu but you get alot of food for what you pay for and I would also say that the service is not the best. We always seemed to be waiting around for our waitress to come back and we kinda got frustrated. All in all I was happy with this quaint and cute restaurant. Definitely want to try something on the dessert menu next time or even come for their breakfast buffet!

The ambiance is wonderful and the building is beautiful. However, I was very disappointed by the brunch buffet. For the $ we paid, I expected more of a variety and better upkeep for the buffet. We will not be coming back for brunch.

Ambiance was awesome– loved the old building. Only offered a buffet for breakfast– $ 18 per adult. Was ok, not great.

They ruined our wedding dinner didn’t matter they had a 3 month heads up our guests waited up to 2 to 3 hrs for their meals some left hungry because it was getting so late they had to leave to put their children to bed thank God tacobell was still open. And When They Did GET THEIR food it was under cooked or over cooked Management was rude and after meeting with the owner he turned out to be no better. We asked for a far compinsation and got no satisfaction. Customer service totally fell to the wayside. I’ve lived in lansing my whole life and always felt clara’s to be an awesome place and landmark. .it still could be under new ownership. .shame on the owner for not being willing to right such a horrible wrong

My favorite restaurant in the Lansing area so far. Wonderful atmosphere, and a lot to look at with all the old antiques. The food has been nothing short of amazing every time we’ve visited, especially the carrot cake, which is to die for! A little on the pricy side, but so long as it’s not a weekly visit, the price is worth it.

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 décor.
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.

This place at one time was great. The building is the only thing appealing now. The food is over priced and bland. The staff is interesting to say the least, our waitress literally apologized for screwing up our order because she was «too stoned to be doing this now»…

Decent atmosphere, terrible food. Everything we ordered was bland and nearly inedible. The kid’s pizza was reheated, low quality frozen pizza. My wife’s tortellini was crusty and flavorless. My chicken and cherry salad was a bizarre mix of ingredients. And my parents ribs were completely dried out. Even my two year old would barely eat the food. We will never eat here again.

Took the family to Clara’s for Easter Brunch. It was terrible. $ 135 for 5 people and really truly mediocre experience and just bad food. Convoluted set-​up created bad traffic flows. Seriously, much better food for a much more reasonable price could have been obtained at IHOP or Flap Jack Shack or Denny’s. I have lived in the Lansing area for 25 years. I’ve been to Clara’s several times. The physical setting is truly historic and beautiful. The food has always been mediocre. Find someone who can manage the kitchen, Clara’s.

Went here for Easter brunch with my family, and I was very disappointed. While the idea of eating in a train car is very neat. The food was terrible, you are forced to eat from the buffet. For 25 dollars a person you definitely do not get what you pay for. The food is of terrible quality and more of something you would be able to get from your local school cafeteria. Will not be coming back here.

Disgusting food. It’s all frozen gordon food junk. Tasteless. Oily. 20 dollars per adult for a brunch buffet? I was in shock. Never again. The environment does not make up for it either. Sweet building, but I rather have the ambiance of a bustling diner… or drive out to the middle of nowhere and find a real country-​esque buffet.

Ok food. great Environment… won’t leave a lasting impression for food… type of place you bring out of Towner’s that are country folk and old people… good place for basic taste buds

Cute place. We ate in the train car, which was great. Service was lackluster and super casual. Food wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t great, either. I’d go back once more and see if the experience we had was typical or not.

This place was cool and holds special value to me because my parents took me here on my graduation day.
First of all, you get to sit and eat inside a train car! That is cool enough. The food is good, large menu, nice drink menu, you have your space… it’s a fun experience and not all that pricey. We had a real good waiter as well, but maybe that was because the place knew people were booking left and right for graduations. (It’s hard to find places to eat for thousands of people.)
I recommend going at least once, just to say that you ate in a train car. It’s pretty good if I say so myself.

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

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.