The People's Kitchen — Restaurant in Lansing Charter Township

I love dining experiences where I find myself closing my eyes on the first bite of a dish so that I can block out all but the wonderful flavors. This happened recently when I had the pleasure of eating at People’s Kitchen (PK) over Valentine’s Day and my stomach is very grateful

In my experience, Valentine’s Day “menus” tend to be overblown, overpriced, and I usually avoid them. But for PK this week I made an exception. The reason for doing this was that I have come to realize that when it comes to tasting menus, the PK cooking staff (led by Chef Dan) take things seriously. The meal I experienced was memorable, creative, and simply delicious. Not too long ago I went to a 2-star Michelin restaurant in NYC, paying around $250/seat + tax and tip. There were more memorable bites of food in this 5-course PK dinner than in the entire 14-course dinner I had in NYC. And at a price point that more than matched the quality of the ingredients and the talent behind creations. Allow me to elaborate:

The first course was a perfectly cooked langoustine with shallots, lardon (a kind of bacon), mushrooms and celeriac. PK tasting events are big on flavors. Getting the “perfect bite”, a bit of each on the fork, proved worth it as the combination was really just perfect. The saltiness of the lardon, the sweetness of the tender langoustine, the earthiness of the mushroom, and the celeriac/shallot simply worked well together. I really enjoyed it, and the dish was an awesome start to the meal.

Dish #2 consisted of sous vide pork rubbed with black garlic. The pork was super tender with great mouthfeel. But what really surprised me was the parsnips with marcona almond “pate’”. One of the things that make me think I am in the hands of a very talented chef is when food I know (think?) I don’t like is transformed into something I truly enjoy. This happened three times in this meal. The mushrooms in course #1, the parsnips here – they were tender and perfectly paired with some type of marcona almond pate’ & vinaigrette, and the beets in course #4 below. I was really surprised. And happy.

The third course was comprised of melt in your mouth halibut cheek and scallop, cooked “en papillote”, with mustard, fennel, tomato, and assorted herbs. The halibut and scallop were literally perfect, melting in my mouth. And the best part was the precise pairing of the sweet seafood and the acidity of the mustard seed. The picture is not great (which is a shame – but what can you do with a cell phone?) – don’t let that throw you. The first bite of this made me moan a little inside .

The final savory course was a beautifully presented duo of beef tenderloin medallions. What really made this dish shine (besides the very tender beef) was the perfect combination of horseradish and smoked beets. I don’t like beets. Not at all. But I found myself slathering my beef with the horseradish and smoked beet puree to get that “perfect bite” again and again. This was simply a great course.

Dessert was warm, fresh, and light. The zeppoli was warm and matched perfectly with the semifreddo. If I have a complaint about the dinner, it was here in that I felt there was too much rosewater in the honey. Too much for me at least as I find that flavor quite strong and I like it in small doses.

All in all, I was really impressed with the meal and enjoyed every bite. There was not a wasted ingredient or bite during the entire dinner. I can’t wait until I get to attend another of these multi-course events. ...

This place was really good! A bit overpriced, but the vibes are real fun. I got the really fu%#ing good pancakes which were the second best pancakes I've ever had and my fiance got the shrimp and grits which he is still obsessing over days later. The raspberry Daiquiri was not very good, but our mimosas were amazing.

Edit in response to the owners feedback: I gave 4 stars for a variety of reasons I did not include because I didn't want my review to deter other customers. I'm personally a vegetarian, I ordered what I did because it was the only thing I saw on the menu that could accommodate to my dietary restrictions. I would love to see the menu be as inclusive as the environment. While our server was super friendly, we barely saw her. I wish she would have stopped at our table one more time to make sure we were doing okay. But it was super busy and I've worked in the service industry so I totally get it, and do not hold anything against our server. But also coming from the food service industry, I was more than alarmed when I saw another server in a different section violate numerous health code violations including handling food with bare hands, not having her hair secured, handling dirty dishes then immediately handling plates that just came from the kitchen without even washing her hands. I also was not a fan of the raspberry Daiquiri because it was not a traditional Daiquiri as I was expecting and it was strong. Not sure if the measurements were off or something, but the flavors were fighting with each other. But that is just my preference, I'm sure someone else...

We decided to celebrate our wedding anniversary with Peoples. We walk on and the hostess was nice and let me know there was a 20 min wait with up to a 45 min food wait. We decided to wait it out. It was out first time and had heard nothing but great things about them. The atmosphere had a nice noise level with music playing in the background. My goodness the TOTAL wait time was T E R R I B L E!!!! We were sat at the bar, no biggie. Our waitress/bartender was very nice and attentive. My husband ordered the eggs, meat, toast with a pancake. I ordered the frittata that came with home style fries and toast. I got coffee, he got a glass of OJ. We knew it was going to be up to 45 min wait time so we got comfy, chatted with our seat neighbors, laughed with one another and plate watched.45 minutes came and left. We had such a long wait time that after an hour in, the bartender was apologizing and offered a blueberry turnover, which we declined.. Our seat neighbors were as confused as us. Although we ordered 2 minutes before them, they recieved their appetizers AND food well before we did. One hour and 10 min later we FINALLY got our food. The frittata was tasty, the potatoes too salty and the toast nice and buttery. The scrambled eggs with cheese were runny and flavorless, the sausage was nice and pancake huge, fluffy and had great flavor. Thankfully the food was decent or else this would have been a 1 star for sure. We paid 38 bucks but were far from satisfied. Unfortunately we wouldn't recommend unless you don't mind...