Mid-Michigan Dining

• 1585 Lake Lansing Rd.
• Haslett, MI 48840
• (517) 339-3880
• Website
• No Menu Online

I had to run some errands in the Okemos area one Saturday and had been looking forward to trying Mark’s Watershed.  Unfortunately, when we got out there, Mark’s looked closed and no one answered when we called.  I kept going down Lake Lansing to turn around and saw a brick building with a sign outside that said Mayfair Bar.  We figured what the heck.  The sign had a hamburger on it, so they must serve food.  We parked in front and ventured inside the dark bar.

When I say dark, I mean dark.  It took my eyes a few minutes to adjust.  My girlfriend just grabbed my arm and told me to find a table because she couldn’t see anything.  The bar is set-up into two rooms with a bar in the middle.  We found a booth near the bar and right on the dance floor.  There was just one waitress/bartender working the whole room.  She noticed us right away and came over with menus.  There’s not a whole lot of options.  Some hamburgers, appetizers, and sandwiches.  Some of the appetizers looked really good.  Fried ravioli.  Fried mac ‘n cheese wedges.  Some really unique options for a bar like this.

The menu boasted best burgers in the area.  To me, that is always a challenge, so of course, I ordered the bacon cheeseburger.  The burger was better than most bar burgers.  It tasted fresh and was still a little juicy.  The bacon was nice and crispy and the bun was soft, but tosted.  The disappointing thing was fries were an extra $1.50.  I would be alright with that if they were something special, but these were just out of the bag crinkle cut fries and there wasn’t a whole lot of them.  The meal was served on real plates that were actually pretty fancy with a fine china-like feel and design.  Best burger?  Like every other place that claims it, it’s just didn’t knock my socks off.  It was good, but I’m starting to get the feeling the bar is going to be pretty low for best burger in the area.

My girlfriend ordered the Dirty Bird sandwich.  I was real close to ordering that myself.  The grilled chicken breast was topped with lettuce, tomato, bacon, ham, ranch and BBQ sauce.  She opted to leave the ham off.  The sandwich lives up to it’s name.  It was a mess.  The ranch and BBQ made a pretty tasty combination.  Unfortunately for this sandwich, the chicken was way over cooked.  It was dry and very tough.  My girlfriend ate about half and the fries (which also cost an additional $1.50) and passed the rest of the chicken to me.  I was just going to eat the chicken because I wasn’t all that hungry either.  I had a hard time cutting the chicken with the plastic fork and then when I just picked it up and ate it, it was really hard to rip apart.

The space at Mayfair is awesome.  This is definately the kind of place I can see myself hanging out at at night.  The waitress really did a great job of taking care of both the bar and the dining room which is not always easy to do.  There are a few big screen TV’s in the dining room area and a couple TV’s above the bar.  The funny thing was the TV’s above the bar were turned to the Food Network and there was a handful of guys watching Giada DeLaurentis while playing Keno.

From the outside, The Mayfair Bar doesn’t look like a whole lot.  On the inside, they have a lot to offer as a bar.  The food was interesting and better than pub food.  Had the chicken been cooked right, that would have been an incredible sandwich and probably completely changed the tone of this review.  It was good, but Mayfair is not a destination lunch spot.  Now, a destination night spot?  That’s another story.  The location right off of Lake Lansing is great for boaters and beach goers.