Sapporo Ramen & Noodle Bar — Restaurant in East Lansing

My partner and I tried this place out for dinner, and we were not disappointed! Per the recommendation of the server, I tried the veggie shoyu ramen. I couldn't believe how flavorful it was-- when it comes to Japanese noodles (at least in the States), vegetarians often get ripped off. But these noodles were amazing: the broth was complex, there was a great combination of bok choy, nori, bean sprouts, and scallion, and several different types of mushrooms, which gave it a 'meaty' body. I tasted my partner's noodles, too, the Sapporo miso. I was surprised to find that I actually preferred the taste of the veggie shoyu broth, despite there not being any meat in it. But my partner definitely enjoyed his, 'cause, ya know, meat. If you're a carnivore, you can't go wrong with chashu.

We'll definitely be going back here. If you decide to go for dinner, consider going early-- we took a walk after dinner, and on the way back (only an hour later), we discovered that Sapporo had closed an hour early because they had sold out of noodles! I noticed while we were sitting in a window seat that they get a lot of (well-deserved) foot traffic. Something to keep in mind if you decide...

I have really tried giving this place a chance several times, but today was the last straw. After being in several times in the past year the customer service has gotten progressively worse, accompanied by equally worsened portions. The staff pays no attention to the customers whether it’s dine in or pick up I always have the sense of feeling rushed to leave. Today, I did pick up since I’m sick of the environment in there and let me just say. CHECK YOUR FOOD BEFORE YOU LEAVE RESTAURANTS. My $11 udon had 4 bite sized pieces of meat and maybe a quarter of a container worth of noodles, my fried dumplings were steamed instead and the ramen I ordered with roasted pork belly was completely fat… I called once seeing my order was completely wrong and I was robbed portion-wise and whoever the guy is answering phones for them said I was welcome to leave a review and to deal with it. When I said “is that really what you want me to do after you just gave me basically nothing for $11 and messed up my order” his response was a simple “yea.” No offer to speak to anyone or correct my order was made. their management needs to either retrain on customer service or rehire staff...

Had the Brave ramen, pork bun, and steamed dumplings. Pork buns were amazing. The Brave was supposed to be very spicy, I personally eat very spicy food and did not think this was that spicy. If you don't normally eat spicy food this might be on the higher end, but if you are a capsacin freak it is not that hot. I have since learned of an extremely spicy challenge they offer and will definitely be trying that. The menu is small but it has great variety between broth and ingredients in the Ramen. They did have Gluten Free offerings as well. After you order the Ramen you can add other items to the bowl a la carte (dumplings, fish balls, sprouts, imitation crab, etc) which was nice.

Service was great, we went for lunch and it was empty. (Likely due to COVID and the fact that students are not in school at MSU). The server did note that it is extremely rare for them to have so few diners. So expect a wait during normal business. There were a lot of delivery drivers picking up orders so that...