The Cosmos — Restaurant in Lansing

Stopped into The Cosmos on Saturday afternoon during a mini-roadtrip. This is a quick jaunt from the freeway that seemed to have good reviews and saw other reviewers posting a cool space mural that I was dying to gaze upon while dining.

Unfortunately for me, even though the place was empty of diners, upon entering into The Cosmos staff directed us down a dark hallway (walking right past all the empty tables, pinball machines, and past aforementioned gorgeous space mural, down a dark hallway and into what I can only describe as a dilapidated dive bar apparently called"The Zoobies").

So easily getting a single star for atmosphere on that one. I feel like I got 'bait and switched' Dirty black stained hardwood floors, paint chipped off the yellow stained walls (I suspect the original color was white and that time has taken it), horrendously cracked vinyl booth seats with little to no survivable padding (Nothing like old cracked vinyl seats on the back of your legs while you're wearing shorts on an 85 degree day)

Here's the thing: I had to give it four stars still, because the bartender at The Zoobies was an excellent waitress to us, and the food and drinks were delicious. But they are charging astronomical Italian Bistro prices ($18 for like 8 bone in wings, $25 for pasta) while you're afraid of touching anything in the place because it looks/feels like you're dining in a junkyard. Definitely a place better for carryout rather...

I wanted to love this place. They were very busy, but we are patient people. The waitress was nice and explained several times that they had called off 3 people because they thought it was going to rain. Needless to say, it didn't rain and they were packed. With that being said, the terrible food and cleanliness outside really was the issue. The beer was warm. It was a huge disappointment. It was a beautiful night, we were sitting on the patio, it's our anniversary and I just wanted a nice, cold beer. It took a little over a half hour to get a beer and water. Piss warm. The outdoor prep area was disgusting. Food and spilled drinks all over the the ground, sticky plates piled everywhere and the metal table top they were using didn't get wiped down once in the couple hours we were there. The wings were so dry. So dry, you had to peel them apart like a dehydrated onion. Like dry paper layers. The pizza... I know it's thin crust, but give me a break. This was paper thin. The "meatballs" on the pizza, weren't like any meatballs this Italian girl has ever eaten. They were mushy and I couldn't even tell you what kind of meat was used for them. We did get a free dessert. We brought it home and it was very good. 👌 This could be such a good, amusing place to hang out, but quality control last night, sucked. It breaks my heart to say it, but we won't be back. Just a PS, none of this was our waitresses fault. It was the bar...

I went here with my girlfriend, who is mostly vegan. I'd heard good things about the pizza, but we looked at the menu beforehand to make sure there were vegan options for her. It seemed like there were some things she could eat, so we decided to go.

The restaurant was cold and noisy. Not a big deal if the food is good. I ordered a pizza, the "Genoa Salami #3", and my girlfriend ordered a salad. My pizza and her salad came out at the same time. The salad was tiny! It had no lettuce and it cost $10 for a little cup of veggies. We assumed that for $10, we'd get a meal-sized salad (pizzas are about $15 for a 12" pie), but we were apparently mistaken. The waitress did not warn us about the small salad side, nor were there pictures or any indicators of the salad size on the menus. At least my girlfriend liked how it tasted.

I, however, did NOT like the taste of my pizza. This might have been my own fault, admittedly. The pizza had mozzarella, prosciutto, and pepperoncini, which are all things I like, but the sauce was a sweet orange chili sauce. The orange flavor overpowered everything else on the pizza, unfortunately. The crust was good.

My girlfriend ordered the doughnut holes, since she was still hungry after eating her tiny salad. They were good.

It's doubtful that I'll ever come back here, but if I do, I'll probably order their most normal-seeming pepperoni pizza and not bring...