My girlfriend had a meeting at City Hall this morning and I tagged along to help her out. The meeting ended just before one o’clock and both of us were hungry, so we decided to try another downtown place. After two bad experiences, we finally had a good one with The Firm (review HERE), so why not try again. From City Hall, I could see the sign for Troppo and that’s been on my list of places to try. We moved the car a little farther down Michigan Avenue and made our way in for lunch.
Troppo can be kind of intimidating for the casual diner. There’s a massive sign on the upscale building on the corner of Michigan and Washington Sq clearly marking the establishment. You walk into a lobby area before you run into the hostess. Beyond the hostess stand and thru a curtain, you enter the main dining room. The space is gorgeaus. Red fabrics and a deep brown wood are highlighted by vintage photos of Lansing and small chandeliers. We were seated near the windows which look out to the terrace which has a beautiful view of the Capitol. From our table, the view was the roundabout and the Comerica Bank Building. Interesting thing about that building is the writing carved into the stone. It looks like it used to be the City National Bank and there’s a huge inscription claiming to be the oldest bank in Lansing.
Our waitress came back with our drinks. I got a Coke and my girlfriend got a Diet Coke. Instead of coming with a glass of pop from a fountain, she came back with two empty glasses and two 8 oz. glass bottles. This was a cool effect, but it prevented refills and 8 oz. isn’t enough for an entire meal. Those little bottles were two bucks apiece so I wasn’t interested in ordering another. From an atmosphere point of view, this is a cool idea, but I’m greedy and like a little more drink with my dinner.
The menu is small, but really packs a punch. I ordered the Capitol burger. The 1/2 lb. burger had a chipotle glaze and came topped with smoked applewood bacon, smoked cheddar and smoked gouda. The sandwich also comes with carmelized onions, but asked for those to be left off. Chipotle glaze in this case means barbecue sauce. I overlooked that on the menu and wasn’t expecting it so it was a nice surprise. The sandwich came served on a really soft bun which isn’t just the stock bun most places use. The smokey flavor and the sweet glaze made for a great combination. The meat wasn’t anything special, but the sandwich as a whole was fantastic. With the sandwich, you get your choice of soup, salad, or fries. I chose the fries. They were crispy and hot, but out-of-the-bag fries. There was a whole plate full and my girlfriend even reached over to snag a few. These were her favorite kind of restaurant fries.
My girlfriend went with the 1/2 soup-1/2 salad lunch combo. You get to pick any of their soups and any of their salads and you get a half order of each. She went with the roasted butternut squash soup and the Troppo Salad. She said the soup was nutty and sweet. Very sweet, in fact. While she enjoyed it, she mentioned she was happy she didn’t order a full order of the soup. When she got to the bottom, it got a little too sweet and overpowering. The salad came with roasted walnuts, crumbled gorganzola, sliced pears and avocados with a cherry vinegrette. She didn’t say much about the salad, but there wasn’t a whole lot left on her plate.
Dessert was tempting, but we passed. They have a chocolate menu on the table and everything on it sounded delicious. Our meals were both really filling and dessert would have been forced. The waitress came with the check fairly quickly after bussing our plates. With tip, we made it out of there for under $30 which was a little surprising to me. The atmosphere at Troppo is more of a business casual. Most of the other patrons around us were in suits and looked like they were discussing business. It was a great spot for us to have a nice lunch together for a good price, but still feel like we were doing something special for ourselves.
Mid-Michigan Dining 
You forgot to mention the cookies! They gave us cookies with our check- hot out of the oven chocolate chips cookies! So we kinda had dessert…
oh wow….I did forget the cookies. When the check came, the waitress brought out two warm, gooey chocolate chip cookies. Only a glass of milk would have made them any better.
Thank you.
I agree, Troppo is wonderful. I took my boyfriend there for his birthday. We loved all the food we had and the drinks were well made.
First off, the cookies are premade and don’t come fresh out of the oven – it’s a bread warmer. Secondly, this is hands down the lowest quality restaurant I have ever been to in my life. They don’t care about food and they don’t care about their staff. You will never see an employee from Troppo eat at Troppo for good reason.