Jolly Pumpkin — Restaurant in East Lansing

To be fair, this was our third try after finding 5 Guys closed and deciding we didn't want to wait 25 minutes for a table at what seemed like a not-very-busy Hopcat.

We were seated almost immediately at Jolly Pumpkin. Nice booth in the bar area. A little more than 5 minutes later, a waitress told us she'd be right back. Almost 10 full minutes after that, she again floated by & said something about "still" being right back. No water, no beverage order, no chance to get the kitchen to start working on our appetizer order. 22 minutes after arriving, she stopped and took our order. After we received our drinks at the 30-minute mark, I rushed out to feed the meter, knowing we would far eclipse or initial estimate. While I was gone, a nearby table who were seated after us received their appetizers. Same waitress. No food for us.

Slightly too long after this, we started getting things in a timely manner, and they were mostly quite good. Fries, good - dip them in their tasty ranch. Cheese bread/pizza, both good - the dough is a little dense and chewy with a nice gluten-y flavor. My BLT was fine - several interesting things other than B L and T included, but not much of an overall impression. Good bacon, tho.

We eventually relaxed and had a nice time. Had a conversation with the waitress about how the music they were playing kept stopping about 30 seconds into each song and then starting another. It was strange. She hadn't noticed, but when she asked the hostess she said the music player had a mind of its own, and it was driving her nuts.

So my first visit to a JP wasn't exactly a success, but we could give them another chance some...

Atmosphere was so cute. I've been wanting to try this place forever. My husband and I stopped in today. But sadly, it was a huge disappointment. I got a salad, he got a burger. We waited over 30 minutes despite there only being 6 other people in the whole restaurant. We counted 3 cooks, and 6 wait staff, so they weren't understaffed. Most of them were just chatting around while we watched our food set in the window for a bit. Cooks seemed more interested in hanging out than making food. I will say, our Waitress offered us a discount for the wait (which said on the receipt that it was the employee discount). So that was appreciated but unfortunately that wasn't the worst part.

When I did get my salad, the chicken (which I paid extra to add) was extremely thin and overcooked. Almost unedible. The avocados were brown and super mushy, it was missing the corn (for cobb salad), and after a few bites I noticed alot of the lettuce underneath was rotten. Not wilted. Brown, slimy and rotten.

We told the Waitress and was told "I'm sorry you didn't like it"... it's not a matter of like. The food was inedible.

My husband's burger was very dry as well. Fries were good but super salty.

Overall, we are extremely disappointed. Very cute place, but won't...

Food was ok ... For the price I expected better... Burgers should just come with fries....but it's an upcharge.... Then you get enough for 4 people (so if multiple people are getting burgers and fries only have 1 person pay the upcharge). Truffle fries were ok....I've had much better. Food was warm-ish but not hot.... Server was nice and attentive.

Final slap was adding 3 % service fee to the bill for credit card usage. I own a business so totally understand the credit card fees...but I haven't seen this at restaurants...just small time mom and pop shops which I understand more coming out of the pandemic.... This left a really sour taste as typically fees are under 3% too...so this is just added revenue for the restaurant. Those fees have been there forever.

So between increased costs at restaurants in general post pandemic, and the luke warm food then the 3% fees...it won't be a place I visit again...