Mid-Michigan Dining

• 1017 E. Grand River Avenue
• East Lansing, MI 48823-4526
• (517) 507-3002
• Website (Jukebox Grill Website)
• Menu

O'Neil's on Grand River Avenue in East Lansing.

I’m not a morning person.  The fact that I’m even up for breakfast means there was something else going on that caused me to get up.  I was at DeMartin Stadium for a soccer game on a Sunday morning.  J told me to call her when I got my lunch (breakfast) break and she would meet me somewhere in East Lansing for breakfast.  I was released for lunch at 9:00 and I called J and told her to meet me at the Jukebox Grill for breakfast.

I know you’re confused by now because I just called it The Jukebox Grill, but the title is O’Neil’s.  I’m guessing they just changed the name to O’Neil’s very recently.  The menus now say O’Neil’s and we were given a coupon that says they are now called O’Neil’s (formerly Jukebox Grill).  The outside of the building still says The Jukebox Grill, but there’s also a sign in the window that says O’Neil’s.  So, since everything said O’Neil’s, that’s what I’m going with.

O’Neil’s sits right on Grand Avenue with no parking in front.  We found parking behind the restaurant.  When we walked in, we didn’t realize there was an entrance around the side for those parking in the back.  We walked all the way around the front.  We walked in and found a booth near the front.  There are a handful of booths, a couple tables and a lunch counter.  It’s not a very big place.  The booths are all big enough you could probably fit six people in them.  The walls are painted a light yellow color and there’s a big, old fashioned jukebox in the middle of the dining room.  The place has a real homey feel to it.

J found right away something that sounded good to her.  I was so tired I just ordered off the a la cart menu.  J found the cinnamon chip french toast.  The bread was from Great Harvest and it was delicious.  Before our meal was brought out, the server put a squeeze bottle of syrup on the table.  Great idea.  I use squeeze bottles at home all the time and it makes things so much easier.  With the syrup, you didn’t have a sticky mess of syrup getting stuck to the serving dish or dripping.  The squeeze bottle made for easy syrup control.  J was impressed by this.  With her french toast, she also got a side of bacon.  She’s very picky when it comes to bacon.  She doesn’t like it too fatty and it has to be crispy.  This bacon was perfect for her.  It was nice and crunchy and there wasn’t much fat on any of the four pieces.

I ordered two eggs, two pancakes and an order of bacon.  I never know how to get my eggs, so I just ordered them over medium.  They came out more over easy, but that’s fine.  I like the runny yolk, but I ended up leaving so much of it on the plate.  Probably better for me that way, but the yolk’s the best part…just like everything else that’s not good for you.  I already said the bacon was perfect and the pancakes were a pretty good size.  They were really good, light and fluffy cakes.  Butter was served in this little disposable packages and again, there wasn’t really enough.  The squeeze bottle syrup came in handy again.  I could just lift up the top cake and squirt the syrup in between. 

Our bill for breakfast was $15.20.  I mention an exact price this time because I need to throw in a little story about the waitress.  I have no doubt that it was done on purpose, but still, we come back to waitressing 101.  J paid cash for the meal.  She put $20.20 with the bill expecting to get five singles back so she could leave a tip.  The waitress brought back the little black book and when J opened it up, there was a five in there.  I don’t think they waitress was fishing for a big tip.  She seemed a little timid during the meal like she just started.  She was fine as a waitress.  Not overbearing and our order was right.  We got out of there fairly quickly and everything.  She just acted a little nervous.  No big deal, I just assume that’s why she came back with the five.  She didn’t even think about the tip.  Fortunately, I had some singles so we didn’t have to embarrass her and ask for singles nor did we have to leave a huge tip on a $15 meal. 

O’Neil’s was a great spot for breakfast for two people that don’t normally eat breakfast.  It was a really nice laid back atmosphere near the MSU campus.  I only had an hour for lunch and we both had a hard time getting there do to a walk or a marathon or something going on in East Lansing that shut down roads.  O’Neil’s is tucked into a strip of road that is really commercial due to the students, but they keep that down home atmosphere that’s so important when you’re looking for a good meal.