Happy's Pizza on the corner of Cedar and Miller in Lansing.
What a miserable day. It hasn’t stopped raining since Friday and that’s made it hard to work up the ambition to do anything but lay on the couch and watch TV. Good thing there’s a NASCAR race on today. We had talked about going to Okemos to pick something up, but ultimately, we both decided neither of us wanted to do much of anything except lay around and be lazy.
We had been watching the progress at the old BP station on the corner of Miller and Cedar that was being turned into a Happy’s Pizza. Not being from Michigan, I had never seen a Happy’s Pizza before. They got their start in 1994 in the Detroit area. Since then, they have expanded a lot in Southeast Michigan. Currently, they’re heading west and even starting to look at expansion in Illinois, Ohio, and Indiana.
Lunch was becoming a problem. We were both hungry but too lazy to actually do anything about it. Earlier this week, Runs With Spatula put up a post about Happy’s opening. J and I talked about it all week. She finally suggested if I could reach my cell phone on the coffee table, we should order pizza. Grudingly, I got up and checked out the Happy’s Pizza website where I found a coupon for 12 wings,a 2-liter of Pepsi and a large pizza for about $16. Since I was already up, I grabbed my cell phone and called in an order.
Every one on the south side of Lansing must have had the same idea. I was put on hold for about five minutes. The girl on the other end finally came back and took my order. She knew what I was talking about when I mentioned the coupon. She took down the specifics of cheese only on the pizza and hot wings then told me it would be about 20-25 minutes. Not bad for a place that just opened. We had another errand to run anyway, so the 25 minutes worked out perfectly.
A large cheese pizza from Happy's Pizza
After running to Walgreens, we stopped to pick up the pizzas. I was right about them being swamped. There are about a half dozen tables in the small shop lined up against the wall. All the tables were full and the poor girl working the cash register was juggling phone calls trying to take orders and deal with the counter. She finally had a second where the phone stopped ringing and took care of me. Our pizza and wings were waiting. I paid the lady, grabbed my food, and ran like hell through the pouring rain back to my truck.
Happy’s Pizza is by far the best chain pizza in town. It’s not the best, but the definitely the best chain. It’s typical chain style pizza with a thin crust where the toppings are and a thick crust handle. The crust was more chewy than crunchy, but the sauce was really good. It reminded me of something, but I can’t say exactly what it was. Even J agreed this was probably the best chain restaurant pizza we’ve had since moving here.
A dozen chicken wings from Happy's Pizza
The wings were alright. They were definitely spicy which is a good thing, but they were kind of soggy. It’s the problem I run in to when I make buffalo wings at home. I’m a huge fan of Buffalo Wild Wings’ wings. I like the crunch they have. I know how they do it, but I’ve never been able to replicate it. Happy’s wings were more like what I make and more like how most restaurants attempt to do wings. They were a good size and the flavor was good. The texture was a little off, but I would probably order them again.
We were both pretty happy with Happy’s. The food was cheap enough. We’ll get a couple meals out of our order and it costs a little over $18 with tax. The south end of Lansing has it’s share of chain pizza restaurants, but I think Happy’s adds something that the others don’t. Besides the pizza and wings, they offer ribs (not smoked on site if they’re smoked at all), salads, subs, sandwiches, burgers, and fries. The menu is much bigger than at most places so even if you’re not in the mood for pizza, you’ll have options. I’ll say it again, Happy’s Pizza is the best chain pizza we’ve had since moving to Lansing.
Mid-Michigan Dining 
I’ve heard some good things about this blog. Remember to balance the pics with the text tho. cheers!
We also went to Happy’s on Sunday! We practically got the same things too…except we took advantage of their $5.99 two-topping large that looks like it only lasts through the month, and got 10 wings for another $5.99. I suck at calculating deals, but both of our deals were fairly similar. We did sausage and pepperoni for toppings…Ryan’s favorites, not mine. The sausage had an interesting taste I didn’t love, but didn’t hate. I’ll have to try it with my own toppings to properly review it. For our wings, we did have regular and have spicy. I liked both, but I was glad we got the regular because they did load on the sauce!
I’m just so happy the rain is over! 🙂
I’ve had the ribs from Happy’s in Ann Arbor and they were awesome! Even better they deliver at ridiculous hours–at least the Ann Arbor one does…
Boy, I don’t know. I’m kind of a rib snob. If they’re not smoked, I usually don’t like them. I’m not a big fan of commercial rib places that just slather the BBQ sauce on KC style.
I wanted to let everyone know about the bad experience I encountered at Happy’s Pizza in Dearborn Heights, MI. We received a flyer, so we thought we’d try it out. After the 3 bad experiences, we will NEVER order Happy’s Pizza again, from any location.
Last week, on Tues. Oct. 28th, we ordered 2 pizzas, the Happy’s Tuesday special, the woman that answered the phone was rude. I blew it off figuring they were just busy. Then I tried to call back a few minutes later to add a few items to our order. Guess what, the same woman put me on hold for over 15 minutes so I hung up. Maybe she shouldn’t be answering the phones? Our pizzas were later than the 45 minutes that was quoted. I thought “no big deal” as long as the pizza is good. Well, it was ok, not enough cheese, but at least it was warm.
Then last night, we tried again, Nov.5th. The same woman answered the phone and was rude again. I tried to be nice and joke around with her and still she was rude. We ordered and she informed us it would be 45 minutes and gave me a total of $47 for the Ribs feast for 2 and 20 wings. It should have been around $36. I thought that was a little high, so I called back and she had put in the wrong order. It was fixed and we waited for our order. After over an hour, I called to check if it was on the way, she said rudely “He’s on the way”. So we waited till 8:30, an hour and a half, twice as long as was quoted. He finally showed up. I only gave him a $5 tip since the food was so late. When we opened the food, everything was cold, really cold. The fries, shrimp and wings were soggy. The blue cheese dressing was rotten. The only thing that was halfway descent was the ribs but they were still cold and had to be heated in the microwave. I wanted to call right then but my husband and father-in-law said no it’s ok. The more I thought about it the more I wanted to let someone know about the crappy service.
I called this morning on my break at work. The same woman answered the phone again. I asked to speak to the manager. She asked if there was something she could help me with. I said I’d like to speak to the manager to make a complaint. She said “I can help with that”. I asked if she was the manager, she said “look we have 40 pizzas to make and a deadline, were really busy”, I said I’d call back later and hung up the phone. I was so mad at this point. I work in customer service, and that’s NO WAY TO TALK TO A CUSTOMER WITH A COMPLAINT! I don’t know how they train their employees, in today’s economy and with all the competition out there…that is no way to keep business. You have lost a customer and I will spread the word to EVERYONE I know. Happy’s Pizza is not very happy is it? I will still try to reach the store manager.
My thoughts…
1-maybe someone else should answer the phones
2-if they are that busy, hire more people/ drivers
3-train the employees better
4-get the food out on time
5-be honest, if you are too busy, I will order elsewhere
6-don’t put customers on hold and forget about them
Thanks,
Lisa
wow
The worst pizza in the Lansing area. Got the 2 pizza special, if you thing Little Ceasars hot and ready are chintzy wait till you pick these up, A tiny sprinkle of ceese on top of 5 pepperoni slices, my first and last experience here.
who writes these reviews, the store owners??
um…no. Do you think I own 200 restaurants in Michigan? The only time I’ve ordered from Happy’s, my pizza was good….but it was also right after they opened.
I just ordered from Happy’s Pizza today… This is only the second time I’ve had the pizza, and it was really GOOD!!
The first time, my friend had ordered it and I went over to her house about 30-45 minutes after she had already gotten it, so I hadn’t experienced it fresh from the oven. That time, I thought it was “okay”… nothing special. As someone else mentioned, the sausage had a “different” kind of taste to it. I don’t think I would order it. But the wings (regular) were REALLY good!
This time, my husband and I ordered some… A regular pizza with pepperoni, bacon, and pineapple… and some regular and barbeque wings… The pizza was EXCELLENT… And they delivered in 20 minutes as opposed to the 45 minutes to an hour time window they quoted me. The wings are also, once again, GREAT! I didn’t try the barbeque (My husband was the one who wanted those), but the regular ones are awesome!
I would definitely order from them again.
My boss and several other co-workers ordered Happy’s on 11/26/08. I have to say, out pizza’s were good! I’m not that picky of a pizza person but for the price we paid and the pizza’s we got, it was worth it!
(South Lansing’s Happy’s Location)
I just placed my order and it will be here in about 45 minutes. The last time I ordered I got catfish and my wife got chicken. They were both great. I highly recommend them to anyone looking for a different place to eat.
In Lansing, MI for business, from my hotel room I ordered a pizza from the 400 East Saginaw St location and the pizza was delivered 2 hours later. The delivery driver called me twice because he couldnt find the hotel (Marriott), I talked to the Manager at this location twice and he acknowledged they were busy and that my pizza was late in getting out. When I did finally get my pizza it was cold, I talked to the manager again and all he could tell me was “Im sorry sir, mistakes will happen”……Thats all ….very frustrating and I will never order from Happy’s again….
I got a carry-out from the Saginaw/Larch location about a week ago. Typical Medium Pepperoni as if they can’t do that right, I won’t order anything else from them. The pizza was tasty, but the toppings had all slid to the center with about 2″ of crust showing around the edge. This is the pizza maker’s fault for not properly placing the toppings closer to the edge as during baking everything will naturally shift somewhat center.
Will definitely order from them again, though if the pizza is the same as above there are other places that will take the time to do it right for the same price.
i don’t really like the pizzia, in fact nobody i no like’s there pizzia. but there shrimp and there ribs. my god .they where word, dog you no what i mean. i use’t . to go too the one in mt.clemens but now i leave out by new haven. and i wish they would get one out here . PLEASE
MAN,HAPPYS PIZZA,SURE CAN READ DIRECTIONS..LOL..
ORDER 30 HAPPY WINGS,>>>NO SAUCE…38 MIN LATER,
THEY SHOW UP WITH 15 PC,WITH SAUCE INSIDE OF HOT BOX,
NOT SURE WHOS REALLY WORKS THERE,YOUNG PEOPLE THAT CAN’T
READ,UNDERSTAND INSTRUCTIONS,OR WHAT…THEY REALL NEED HELP!!
[…] just down the street from us and we gave it a shot within the first couple weeks. My blog post on Mid-Michigan Dining actually became one of the more active posts on the site. It went from people really liking the […]
[…] ever had a bad experience at a Happy’s Pizza going back to our days in Lansing when the first Happy’s in that town opened right down the street from our apartment. The odd thing is we’ve never really […]
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