Fiesta Vallarta on South Cedar Street in Lansing.
I always thought it would be great if there was a sit down restaurant that J and I could easily walk to. When we moved here, the only choices were Ponderosa or Charlie Kang’s II. We put off Ponderosa for a long time (and with good reason) and we’re not into any Asian cuisine. When I saw work at the closed Charlie Kang’s, I had hopes that it would be someplace we might like. When I saw the building being painted orange, there was no doubt a Mexican restaurant was moving in.
For the last several weeks, we passed by hoping to see signs of life inside or at least a “coming soon” side. On Thursday, we saw the “open” sign lighted up and by the time we finished running errands, there was a huge “now open” banner on the side of the road. It was just a matter of time before we stopped in for lunch.
Fiesta Vallarta is on South Cedar Street almost underneath I-94. It takes the spot that used to be Charlie Kang’s II. I never went in that business, but I never saw cars out front. I’ve seen more cars in the last four days at Fiesta Vallarta than I did in almost a year at Charlie Kang’s.
I’m not 100% on the story behind the business. When I got home, I typed http://www.fiestavallarta.cominto my browser. What popped up was a website for a Fiesta Vallarta in California. The menu was nothing like this one in Lansing, but the logo’s were very, very close. Turns out, I typed the address wrong. It’s actually a .mx address, but it’s http://www.fiestavallarta.com.mx. So, I don’t know if there’s a relationship, coincidence, or an homage to the California restaurant.
We found a parking spot in front of the building, but there’s also parking in back and along the side. The door is accessible from both the front and back lots. When we got inside, we came to a waiting area with a cash register. There was a waiter who handed us two menus and told us to find a seat. That seemed odd. The next party that came in was shown to a table. The party after that was treated like we were. There was a pattern I’m not going to mention and just believe it was coincidence. Read the rest of this entry »
Mid-Michigan Dining 
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