I Heart Mac & Cheese - East Lansing, MI — Restaurant in Meridian Charter Township

I was hoping to like this place, and I did... but I can't go back!

The name and concept of this place intrigued me from the start. I mean who doesn't love good Mac and Cheese?

It's like the Subway or Qudoba of Mac and Cheese.

While an average of $15 for a 2 or 2.5 cup portion of Mac and Cheese might seem pricey, they make up for it with the options they offer for customizing it (create your own), and it comes out creamy and tasty. It's really good!

If that were all, I'd surely be back. However,

It's their container waste I just can't support. First, they put and mix all the ingredients in a round aluminum pan so they can run it through the 'cooker'. If that were it, and they could put a cardboard lid on it you could scrunch down for takeout or to take home your leftovers, it wouldn't be so bad. They could collect the aluminum pans (or I could take mine home) for recycling.

However, after 'cooking' it in the round aluminum pan, they pour it all into a plastic dish with a plastic lid for serving (heart shaped, which is cute, but still plastic) and literally throw the aluminum pan away. They don't even attempt to recycle it. Then of course, there's the plastic drink cups. Why do places feel they can't use waxed paper cups?

So, for a couple of scoops of Mac and Cheese, the environment gets (for eternity) a throw away aluminum pan, AND a plastic bowl and lid, AND probably a plastic cup, lid, and straw.

These will all be buried somewhere and remain intact long after we are all gone. That really bothers me.

So, while I like the food a lot, I'm just trying to be more conscientious of places that use too much container waste.

It gets discarded and will be around for a hundred years.

Restaurants: Please discontinue plastic, Styrofoam, and aluminum. Move to waxed cardboard cups and containers. They served us well for decades and decades before we even had plastic. It...

There were two people running the place, both very friendly.

There was a couple of people ahead of us that ordered and sat down. We took a minute to look over the menu since it was our first time there. I noticed the person taking our order was wearing dirty gloves using a handheld device to ring it up. Then, without changing gloves, grabbed a handful of noodles. I asked for a glove change and they apologized and dumped the noodles back into the container. This is a huge cross contamination issue, especially if you're advertising gluten free options like they are. Not to mention completely unsanitary. I noticed the other server was picking up pens and stuff without changing gloves as well.

There were spoons in some things, like corn, but meat was all picked up with gloved hands.

The kids grilled cheese should have used a different type of cheese or more than one slice, as the cheese was hard and not melty. The tomato soup for dipping was very plain, like it was made with water.

The mac and cheese was okay, and the tater tots weren't bad. But overall not a place we'd go back to due to the upfront sanitation issues,...

My mom and I stumbled upon this place and we were amazed with the food quality, the staff, the atmosphere, all of it! It's such a neat concept. Very comforting and nostalgic! I love the option for build your own Mac n cheese as well as the option to build your own grilled cheese! The cheese ratio was PERFECT in both the Mac and the grilled cheese. By far some of the best I've had. I ordered the lobster grilled cheese. In my experience this is a tricky thing to order at restaurants simply because sometimes the lobster quality and quantity isn't great, however, that wasn't the case here. The lobster was phenomenal! Some of the best lobster I've had believe it or not! I would 1000% recommend this place, and I will absolutely...