Lou & Harry's Grill & Bakery — Restaurant in East Lansing

As a newly graduated MSU alumni, I am very familiar with how busy back to school bar season is and how frustrating it can be for bar staff, bouncers, customers, etc. I have attended plenty of welcome weekends at the East Lansing bars, even been robbed before, and last night at this establishment was by far the worst experience I’ve ever had at any bar downtown. I would leave zero or negative stars if possible.

We patiently waited in line for over an hour, expecting that it would take awhile. We did not harass or complain about how long it was taking because we knew before we left the house that there would be long lines. When we got to the front of the line, the bouncer who I believe was named Blake, noticed that I was wearing a birthday sash and asked if it was my 21st. I told him no, that it was my 24th, to which he responded by rolling his eyes at me, pointing at the line leap sign and directing me to pay cover via line leap. I never asked to get in for free and I certainly wasn’t acting entitled because it was my birthday? The blatant rudeness right off the bat immediately put a bad taste in my mouth, but we stayed in line because there was no possible way we were getting in at any other bar and we had already waited in line for awhile.

During the time we were standing at the front of the line waiting to get in, they started letting in groups of people who just walked up to the front and had not waited in line. There’s a whole other back door located on Grand River as well, so it was pretty shocking that they were just letting people in right in front of us and the other “skip the line” people who had paid $50 to even stand in that line. One of the girls got vocally upset, complaining that it was very unprofessional and unfair to do that in front of them when they had just paid $50 to even enter their establishment. The other bouncer was immediately nasty to her, basically asking why she’s still standing there and making fun of her for spending her money at their establishment. After she was eventually let in a short amount of time later, the bouncer proceeded to continue to talk poorly about her to other customers waiting in line.

They continued to let other groups of people in who had not waited in line, many appearing to be girls under the age of 21. The bouncers would have no idea though they were not asked to provide identification before being let in. If you take pride in spending your money at bars that don’t allow underage drinking, this is definitely not the bar for you.

Once it was eventually our turn to be let in, only half of our group was actually let in, so we ended up having to stand on the patio out front waiting for them for another 30 minutes before they only let another couple in. The last couple in our group was so upset that they had been waiting in line for nearly two hours at that point that they just decided to go home.

When we entered the bar, our group was pretty astounded because we were basically the only group dancing well after 11:30pm. We also heard many comments from others that they were surprised because it wasn’t nearly as packed as they’ve seen it before. I’ve only been to this bar one other time, but after seeing how little they care about their customers on a busy weekend where it’s likely a lot of students’ first impression of East Lansing, the blatant lack of professionalism as well as illegal underage drinking practices says a lot about how this business is run and my friends and I will not be returning again. If you have morals about where you spend your money, I urge you and your friends to do the same and go to any one of the more enjoyable...

This was our first time trying Lou and Harry's, and we were really impressed with the food! I had the falafel wrap as a combo with the salad and a drink. The falafel is crunchy but not dry, and there's plenty of sauce and veggies on the wrap to give it good flavor. It might've been covered by that, but I'd say the falafel is a little less flavorful than some others in the area, but for me personally, I'm fine with it being a little on the bland side if the texture is good.

I was also really happy to see the salad was large and tasted good. The combo was an extra $5 for a salad and a drink, and I was expecting everything to be small like it is at other places, but it was decent sized (a full plate, not a tiny bowl) and had tomatoes and cucumbers on it, as well as feta cheese. The feta cheese was crumbled up nice and small, so after I added the dressing it was well distributed throughout the salad. I'm not quite sure how to describe the dressing; it's not anywhere near as vinegary as the greek dressings from other restaurants and didn't have the kick I normally expect from a greek dressing as a result, but it was well-seasoned and went really well with the feta cheese to make the salad tasty.

Overall, I thought the price was good (I think it was $7.50 for the wrap and $5 for the salad/drink, so on par with other places and more food for the price than you get at some places) and the food was good quality. I'm definitely looking forward to going back and trying some of their other wraps, bowls, and plates...

I have eaten here a few times, and have been underwhelmed each time. It's a nice, clean place that gives you the impression the food will be much better than it actually is.

The gyro is the best thing I've eaten there, even though it's not close to being the best in town. The chicken strips are actually processed chicken meat, something that seems unnecessarily cheap (I mean, even the dumpiest bars will serve actual cuts of chicken breast for their strips).

The other day I stopped in and got a large Greek salad, which is basically a heap of iceberg lettuce with two olives, a couple green pepper slices, and such a light dusting of feta cheese that you don't even notice it. And it was very challenging to eat with the unbelievably cheap plastic cutlery they provide. I don't even know where you could find stuff this cheap.

I must admit, their Greek salad dressing is very tasty; however, for those who have purchased a bottle of it (as I did), you may have noticed that they make the dressing with vegetable oil and not olive oil. I'm pretty sure that's sacrilegious in authentic Greek cuisine.

I did have the opportunity to chat with the owner one football Saturday, and he seems like a very nice guy who cares about his business. I hope he makes a conscious effort to...