Roma Bakery Deli & Fine Foods

I visited my favorite italian deli and bakery today and bought some sub rolls and italian deli meats and fresh ground parmesan cheese. I also bought Mena’s cookbook as I cant make a decent meatball to save my life. I followed the recipe almost to the T. Finally I have made some awesome meatballs! I added half a grated onion and ground fennel seed to the mix. OMG! I love Roma Bakery. It is so nice to have right here in Lansing. Every time I go, I discover something new.

Moved away from Lansing about 10 years ago, but was back recently … Revisited Roma Bakery to pick up what USED to be one of the best ‘artisanal’ breads in the area … their ‘rustic’ Italian bread — which I can’t for the life of me remember what they call it at the moment. Although the store and staff hasn’t changed even the tiniest bit in the past 6 – 8 years, the bread was long gone — the name was still on it and it looked familiar on the outside, but the inside is now just a bland white bread, with no character and little flavor. Unfortunately, I bought two loaves to bring back to Wisconsin. Of course I will eat it, but I will be very, very disappointed.

Roma bakery.
Yum.
I give this place a 4 for food, but like a 2.5 for service. So average that out to more than 3 stars.
You just have to go in prepared. It actually reminded me of when I lived out on the East Coast. They are just very… no-​nonsense and that’s the type of service you get here.
I went in on paçzki day (aka Fat Tuesday) so perhaps it’s not a fair assessment of their service, since it’s arguably their busiest day of the year. But the feel of the place is get in, get out and on your way, so don’t come expecting a warm bakery vibe and everyone will be on the same page.
Now, the baked goods. So I got a dozen bc … you know, everyone is religious on Fat Tuesday. I always just thought donuts are donuts… how different can a baker’s paçzkis be? But listen, this place is good. Like fluffy, buttery, melt in your mouth good. Like its not just straight up grease that leaves you feeling nasty, rather a pleasant, delightful experience kind of good.
Even though you don’t get a warm, neighborly reception I will definitely go back and try their other stuff.
I’ve also heard good things about their café foods, but haven’t tried it myself.
In summary, its worth checking out yourself.

What a cute little bakery to stop by at to fulfill your needs for a Fat Tuesday in Michigan. They have a bunch of flavors to choose from so I decided to get 2 and my cousin got 2 different ones. I got the classic Bavarian crème and lemon because that is my ultimate flavor in any type of pastry. My cousin got a cherry which she said was good and got her favorite flavor which is raspberry. So far the lemon and Bavarian crème win my approval and it’s not even Tuesday yet ;) couldn’t help myself but figured I’d get my paczki the day before so I don’t have to wait in extremely long lines. They have a calling number set up so service is actually quick. If you are in the Lansing area this place is worth checking out!

Based on a recommendation from a friend of a friend we went to get some paczki’s… but I also heard they make great cannoli’s… but I saved that for another time! Their pricing is geared towards bulk. $ 2/​ea or $ 7 for 6… don’t recall what a dozen cost. So we opted for the half dozen knowing we’d probably get some duds.
paczki winners:
Ricotta — all around different and not overtly sweet. It’s creamy and everything you’d want.
Vanilla Cream — light and refreshing, but not really vanilla…
undecided paczki:
Prune — no prior experience has me holding my judgement… texture was nice
paczki losers:
Raspberry — gross generic pastry filling eerily similar to apple pie filling from a can
Chocolate — reminded me of pudding
Apple — canned pie filling
In short go for the fringe items you know are going to be good. Avoid the exotic and get things that are no brainers. I.E. if it’s filled w/​artery clogging goodness, get it… if it’s a fruit or should be ‘fresh’ just avoid it. Duh.

Everything in made there! This place is awesome. The owners are truly amazing people! One of the owners just came out with a cookbook! Oh don’t forget every Wednesday is b.o.g.o on the bread!

Cute, little grocery/​deli/​bakery. Just returned from my first visit there. I got some cookies and cannoli, which were pretty delicious. There were tons of cookies and pastries, including baklava. Roma sells homemade stuff on their shelves too, that they bottle themselves… like dressings and sauces. Haven’t tried any yet. I didn’t get a chance to look at everything… I knew as soon as a walked into their little foyer, it would be lovely and it was.

Super tasty pizza and sandwiches, cheap in a unique atmosphere. The grocery section has some good stuff and I’ve always had pretty good service.

A LOT of variety of what seems like stuff that was thawed or came out of a box. Try the cupcake shop Whipped in Old Town instead.

I had training nearby and visited here at least 2 – 3 times. sugar buzz central. my chocolate croissant was cold & sticky. I figured maybe it’s a downstate thing. idk. Well, my other chocolates were good, pastry with caution, soda mostly flat. Serves me right, I shouldn’t drink the stuff!

I have been going to this market since I moved to Lansing in 98′. Always fresh desserts and I love the selection of specialty meats and bread. My wife and I would stop in a couple times a month and pick somethings up. Our wedding cake was made there! I would give this place 5 stars in the past, however, one day I had my family visiting from out of town mother, sister, brother in law, nephew, wife and myself, so I wanted to stop in a show the place. And this is where is gets odd, you see like i said, my wife and I have been coming here for over a decade, and every time we would have coffee the they would freshly make, and we always thought it was free, because they would see us drinking it and carrying it around the store, like Horrocks, and never charge us for it? But of course on this day, every member of my family grabbed a cup of coffee, and guess what, for some reason after having a least 50 free coffees from this place, I had to pay for everyone on that day! So, the nice italian family that owns Roma’s, lost a regular shopper and a good recommendation. Oh, yeah, remember when I said that my wedding cake made there? The geniuses in the bakery put our $ 80 flower cake topper on another couples cake on our Wedding day and the the Owner argued with me about replacing it? I couldn’t believe it, a place that displays pictures of wedding cakes and married couples and Mr Roma himself doesn’t have the decency to fix the mistakes of the people who work for him, thats a shame. I think I will just go shopping at Horrocks and drink some free coffee, maybe pick up some olive oil, olives and an Italian loaf of bread. Cheers.

Great desserts. This place is fairly over priced, but no where around has the same items. The desserts are always very good, except for the «flan» fruit cake. This is not flan, but tastes like a thick cake. Today I was there for spanakopita, which again is over priced, but worth it. A woman came around with samples of a dessert, which was very good. It seemed a bit odd though that she was giving every one a sample, but only had ONE 8″ cake left of what she was giving out.

It’s the real deal. Go get a Paczki NOW

I’m giving up on finding a good Italian bakery in MI. First this place is totally disorganized. There is no number system so whomever speaks up first gets waited on; if that is what one could call it. Extremely slow to begin with. Finally help was called out of the back because there was only one person in bakery-​one person on the deli side. would guess i waited 15 minutes to get service and i was next in line. half way through my order the deli lady tells my salesperson to go up onto the cash register. my order is half done and i am again waiting for the other bakery person to finish their customer who came after me to finish my order.
First their «Italian» bread is nothing more than plain white bread shaped to what one would expect that named bread to look like. Its all the same soft white Wonder bread style — no crunchy crust, no chewy inside with great developed flavor. If you know the least bit about how italian bread is suppose to taste, DO NOT come here.
bought a half lb. assorted cookies — almond paste, butter, etc. some of the almond paste were decent others totally uneatable which i threw out. They ran $ 15 a lb.
rugelach also $ 15 a lb. i ask for quarter of a lb. and found i got half a lb instead — thats one way to make more money isn’t it. It was just OK.
cannoli were almost good, using ricotta cheese but thought a little sugar would have made them much better.
pecan baklava was fairly tasteless, pistachio more flavor but still not stellar.
all in all i consider it a wasted stop and a waste of money — $ 32 worth.

This is my mom’s favorite place for cake. I came here for the first time to get her a rum cake for her birthday, which is also the cake she had at her wedding.
First rate bakery. You will not be let down

This is my son’s favorite place to go for lunch — we love the pizza. And it reminds my of my grandma’s kitchen.

I love their meat and cheese counter. They have great pepperoni that we always get for pizza and good service. The deli sandwiches make great lunches and the salads are always fresh!
This is a great shop in the Lansing area.

I love Roma’s. They have amazing sandwiches, great desserts, and the best pazaki’s in town come Fat Tuesday. They also have a large selection of European candies and other fun food goodies.
I can’t believe no one here has mentioned their frozen pasta selection! I don’t know if they make them on site, or bring them in, but I can tell you I don’t care. Their lobster ravioli has nice chucks of real lobster in them, and are to die for. Om nom nom!

In my attempt to try some local businesses — both old and new — I stopped into Roma Bakery. I immediately felt like I was back in one of New York’s old school Italian bakeries, except there was more room to move around. The lady behind the pastry counter was lovely and patient as I hymned and hawed over what to get. I wanted a ‘black and white’ cookie, but there were none to be found. I ended up going for a mini chocolate chip cannoli and a mini pistachio cannoli. They were already filled and just needed to be shoved into a box, whereas I prefer mine filled when I order to avoid soggy cannoli shells, but to each his own. They were alright cannolis, but not the best cannolis. There wasn’t even much difference in taste from the chocolate chips to the pistachio, both were pretty bland. I also picked up a couple of items from the grocery section.
Overall my visit was alright. However, Roma is falling into a category that all too many Lansing businesses are falling into… establishments with misinformation on their business cards! For the love of Pete, businesses need to check and double check these things. On their business card, their web address is listed as
, when that web address doesn’t exist. In actuality, their website is

Where there is a beginning there is an end — — this is inevitable. I am sorry to say that our 23+ year relationship with Roma Bakery has finally come to the point where it’s just not worth spending our hard earned money to support a business that does not appreciate it.
This review is for a horrible experience my mother recently had at Roma’s with 3 of their employees — who have worked there for many years. Ironically, this is a repeat issue which has been escalated to the owners but seems to fall on deaf ears as nothing has changed or improved. Since then, we’ve gone out of her way to only deal with the employees who provide good service and exemplify professionalism. In the end it’s just not right if a loyal customer’s valid complaints about horrible service go ignored since we’ve been supporting their paychecks for over 23 years.
My mother went to pick up a cake she ordered and provided her name at the counter so they could pull the order. The employee asked my mother (rudely) three times in a row: «what is your name?!?» (I assume she did not understand her). My mother was somewhat frustrated, but she does speak clearly. The employee finally pulled the order and left the cake on the counter and never said anything else.
That’s fine, perhaps the employee was having a bad day. But the other employee chimed in and yells (yeah — — YELLS at her) at my mother three times: «you don’t like black people, do ya?!?» (that’s a direct quote). My mother was completely shocked and couldn’t believe what she had just heard. This lady continued to yell at her, which caused a scene, and prompted (Roma’s) owner’s husband to come out from the back to check out the commotion. Instead of trying to de-​escalate /​resolve /​apologize for his employee’s horrible behavior, he simply looked at my mother and said (rudely): «Just pay and leave!».
Again — my mother was quite shocked. Had the cake not been for a special occasion that evening, she said she would have walked out and said her goodbyes, but instead she pulled out her purse, paid for her goods, and left the store for the last time. We will ever set foot into this bakery again. And to be completely honest here, I was never really fond of their quality in the first place. I’ve had much better rum cake from other bakeries, and their pastries are just — — meh.
Customer service. Being professional and treating your customers w/​courtesy and respect. That’s how business is supposed to be conducted, and that’s how you become successful and sustain customer equity. We’ve been supporting this bakery since 1986 as repeat customers, but it’s reached a point where the product is not worth the inappropriate and deteriorating quality of customer service within the past few years. The owner chooses to value these unprofessional employees over loyal paying customers.
That’s just too bad, but unfortunately it is what it is, and we will be happy to support another bakery who will appreciate our business. As I said mentioned before, they are not exceptional bakers here — — there are others in town that make a better quality product.