Stratus Restaurant & Bar

As a Farmer, I am constantly trying to find more restaurants to work with, by supplying them with my produce. Stratus had a great menu online, so I took my mom. Finding the place almost empty on a Tuesday evening, I was baffled. Great atmosphere, new looking, with a swank bar, I couldn’t understand that. When the bartender, Marcus, doubled as the waiter: I was more baffled. I’d consider these red flags. However, more red flags awaited us. The first menus we were provided looked nothing like the online menu. Then we were told they were the lunch menus, and we were provided the dinner menus. Nowhere on the menus was there an indication for what meal they were. Anyhow, I soon realized they were not using the online menu at all. So, I went for some items I have eaten at other restaurants recently to compare: house salad; sweet potato fries and pizza. Mom had the Asparagus Salad. Just after finishing my salad, the timing was perfect when our entrees were presented. Great presentation on the plates, great service when my water went dry. I am still quite surprised how tasty everything was! All of the red flags gave me the impression that the meal would not be as good as it actually was. We were informed that the menu had changed to fit more of the foods their current clientele were familiar with. Too bad they don’t want to work with a local Farmer. Chef Hernan’s hands are tied by upper Management. Good job though! Impressive service and fantastic food!

I thoroughly enjoyed my experience here. Very fancy and exquisite tastes. The presentation of food was phenomenal. Highly recommend outside deck seating. The pricing is higher but reflects quality service and ingredients.

This restaurant is top notch. Our first night in town we got referred to it by our hotel. They ended up making a mistake on one of our meals but the way they handled was exemplary. The food is great and the staff ultra professional and friendly. Our second night we came back and they went out of their way to make us happy. Very respectable way to run a business. I highly recommend it.

Love this place, a little
Hidden gem at the holiday inn. Food is amazing and Roy the bartender is so awesome
And accommodating!

I came into the restaurant a few days ago on my lunch break. I told them that I was in a slight hurry due to the fact that I only had a short time. They completely respected my offer and made an incredible sandwich. During my wait, I was constantly attended to by Roy the server on staff (the only one it seemed like). He
had some of the best customer service skills I’ve seen. Coming from the service industry, its few and far between that you find someone who can handle almost all of the customers in the restaurant by himself and still have the composure that he presented. Flawless. Thank you for the experience.

Wow. This is probably the slowest and worst service breakfast place I’ve ever been to. I didn’t even care about the food after waiting 45 minutes for breakfast and seeing people sit down and get their food in 10 minutes. Never coming back.

I was the only one in the place at 1 pm. The food was average, the portion size was good and it’s a nice atmosphere. Service could have been better given I was the only one there and was sitting at the bar. Red Baron club sandwich isn’t anything special but a club is a club. Worth going to if you need a quick lunch.

I am not one to write negative reviews. But I am so disappointed in this place. It came highly recommended to us. My husband and I decided to end our once in a lifetime date night (without kids) at this place. We say for over 10 minutes without a greeting, menu, or any type of human interaction as more than 4 waiters passed us by. I had to go up to a waiter and ask for water. I then had to ask for menus, followed by hunting a server down for drinks and appetizers. It was a sad ending to our date night. Ambiance was horrible, service horrible, and appetizers were nothing better than the nachos 7 – 11 serves. Will never come back and hope no one else wastes their time like
We did.
My nachos were cold (meaning cheese).
My husbands poke tacos were stale and the poke was nothing more then ahi and mayonnaise. We never received our bill yet waiter offered (after 10 minutes of waiting after done with «meal.») to just charge our card. Um, no thank you. I would like to see my bill and what I’m
Being charged for.

Came here Friday morning around 10:15 for brunch with my coworker.
This place is inside the holiday inn. It’s really nice
They serve BF until 10:30. Then open for lunch at 11. We got there just in time.
The girl working was pretty nice.
Food was good & decent prices. I would come back.

I mistakingly gave them a 3* but they deserve a 5* primarily based on the awesome service provided by the bartenders!

Went in for lunch at 1:00pm. Figured it’d be less crowded and we’d have a timely lunch. WRONG! We weren’t greeted by either the reception desk or anyone at the bar. At one point, I got up and looked directly at the girl behind the bar thinking she’d realize we were there and would come bring us menus and ask us about drinks. WRONG! After waiting for 10 minutes, we up and left. We only have so much time for lunch before having to get back to work. On our way out, the same girl was standing near the hotel reception desk and totally averted her eyes. Unbelievable.

Really enjoy the food here. It’s good, quick and never super busy. Most of Carlsbad is a culinary black hole. These guys get it right with a good menu to pick from and its cost effective. ¹⁰⁄₁₀. I got the stratus burger, good bread, with avocado, pickles, mustard, ketchup, fried egg.

We live by the new restaurant called Stratus
They have a great menu and the food taste great
We were kind of upset because the meat loaf was taken off the menu
I hope they bring it back
Other wise the food on the menu is great and very tasty
The Chef can cook

I have been staying at the Holiday Inn attached to Stratus since July. I have yet to have any meal that wasn’t excellent. I especially love the meatloaf. The head chef and Kelsey Kelsey in the bar are extremely friendly. I highly recommend Stratus.

I have a family of 5 and our walls and baseboards had just gotten a fresh coat of paint so we booked 2 nights at this hotel.
Hotel — very nice and very new inside. I believe this hotel opened up in May 2015 so not much wear and tear and the rooms and carpets throughout still had the «fresh and new smell». Seems they cater to the business clientele more than families although there is a pool, basketball court and putting green. All amenities are shared with Staybridge suites which is on the opposite end of the lot and is more longer term stay that has amenities that cater to families.
Staff — front desk staff was super nice. Julian and Amanda were polite, professional and genuine. Jackson @ Stratus was a cool dude. He has an amazing story, cancer survivor and aspiring navy seal and is only 19 years old.
Food — breakfast was delicious. Jackson sold us on the burgers so we had to try them and we were not disappointed at all. Fresh ground meat, made fresh onsite, and very tasty and moist. I would definitely come here again for a quiet breakfast and dinner. Didn’t seem to busy when we stayed but it was the end of the summer break so their occupancy was relatively low.

Very surprised! I was not expecting something this nice in a holiday in!
Food was delicious (I had the sliders) and they had craft drinks. The waiter recommended an off menu item, it’s like a Moscow mule with fresh Apple. So good! The staff was very lively and fun! You could tell they worked very well together, it seemed like we had a ton of people taking care of us.
Will definitely go back and recommend.

I am not the best at giving an average review but I will try my hardest. I am giving the restaurant three stars and here are my reasons.
1. The restaurant is literally in the lobby of the Holiday Inn. When I first walked in I literally walked through the restaurant looking for the restaurant. My boyfriend said «here it is» and I replied, «no, this is just the coffee shop». The location is less than desirable taking into consideration there was a wedding going on and everybody just walked through the restaurant like it was the lobby.
2. The service was sub par. I realize there was a wedding going on and there was only one server. John was a nice guy but we had to ask for water four times before any was delivered. The busboy kept walking by multiple times when we had empty plates or empty water glasses on the table.
3. On a positive note, the food was good. My boyfriend had the shrimp scampi, I had a chicken fettuccine dish, we tried the Aki Poke tacos for an appetizer and had the bread pudding for dessert. All were acceptable not exceptional.
4. There is no hostess so you have to seat yourself. For a restaurant charging between $ 10 and $ 24 for an entrée there definitely should be somebody seating you, not just «pick your own table»,
I might try it again for happy hour if I could get over the fact that I was sitting in the hotel lobby with the reception desk right around the corner. I had the LivingSocial Groupon I had just purchased so it made everything little easier to swallow. ($ 17 for $ 40 worth of food).

Uh oh. I feel bad for the other 23 people who’ve purchased the LivingSocial deal for Stratus since yesterday. I bought one and used it to try them out for lunch with my husband that afternoon. we were the first people to redeem one. Our experience was pretty bad. I could say «horrific,» but hyberbole tends to thwart people from reading the rest of a review. Anyway.
The place doesn’t have prominent signage yet that makes it obvious that it’s Stratus, but I understand they’re new. It’s very nice, even though the booth-​like seats were placed quite far away from the tables. My 6’2″ husband had to lean in from the edge of his seat to be close enough to the table (which can’t be adjusted). I showed our LivingSocial vouchers to our server, Tabitha, and explained the $ 8 burger/​salad/​and soda deal we were buying. «I didn’t know we were on LivingSocial,» she said. So they forgot to tell their staff, no big deal. A bit puzzled, she asked if she needed to take the vouchers from us. I said yes, she would need them as a form of payment. I think she thought LivingSocial was a dating site.
My order: Stratus burger and thai peanut dressing for my salad
Husband’s: Stratus burger with cheese and blue cheese for his salad.
We added a side of Stratus fries.
What I got: Regular burger. a green, cilantro-​based vinaigrette
His: Regular burger (but did have cheese)
Our side was of regular fries, not Stratus (which are topped with parsley and feta.)
She asked if we needed anything else. I said silverware. Her reaction was more like «Oh Lord» rather than «I’m sorry about that.» I didn’t mention that I got the wrong dressing. I didn’t mention that the fries were regular w/​ketchup and not what we ordered, because we ate them anyway. The burger patty was served nice and hot (and it had a Mediterranean flavor) but the focaccia bread they use was too dense/​dry for the burger to only have Romaine lettuce and tomato inside with no other condiments or cheese.
We weren’t checked up on even once during our visit. An expressionless manager with misery in his eyes (Tomas?) was going back and forth between a meeting in the corner and a mother with her three children, but we had to flag him down for a water refill.
My husband asked Tabitha if we got Stratus burgers, because they didn’t have bacon. She went to check with the kitchen, but yelled to them before she was even through the door so that we could hear her. She came out apologizing that they had the burgers wrong, and offered us a free desert from the menu. I actually didn’t want anything, but my husband went with the chocolate cake. Again, Tabitha yelled to the cooks from halfway through the kitchen door, «They said they want!!!»
Eek. We’re not «guests who would like.» Apparently we’re a «they said they want.» Damn.
Time to saddle up. Oh god. She brought out the bill, flustered, saying she didn’t know how to tabulate our food to match the vouchers, so she just took off the drinks and the fries. I said «I hope you don’t get anymore people with LivingSocial deals then,» and she answered «I know cuz then I’ll be mad.»
I looked down and saw a check for $ 25+. I even started to sign it and tip when my husband was like «Wait, you already paid $ 16 for our meals, why are we paying $ 29 more? That’d be $ 45 meal!» So we had to wait for Tabitha to come back to explain that we had already paid for the burgers and salads, so we just need to pay for the fries. «Who did you pay?» she asked. LIVINGSOCIAL, my husband said. She was so confused. Eventually the Restaurant Supervisor came out and explained to her, in front of us, how it all worked so that we didn’t have to pay that check. They took it away and left us sitting there, sitting awkwardly wondering if we were going to get a revised bill for just the fries. We were even whispering to each other «Soooo do we just go now, or???» Normally they bring out a regular check, with an applied discount, so that we have the opportunity to tip. We asked Tabitha if we were going to be rung up again. She said she didn’t know, she said something about someone doing it for her, but «Yeah I don’t know. I don’t think so.» We said we had to get back to our offices. «Okay so you guys can just go. I think you can just go then.» Uhhhh, okay… By then, we were okay with that. By then, we were like JESUS GET US THE FUCK OUT OF HERE.

Finally a fun and hip place in our neighborhood. Nice interior design and good selection of food.
Service: very fast and efficient (John was excellent)
Food: Try the Ahi Poke Tacos with fresh ginger — very good.
I agree that this almost feels like a stand alone restaurant, not just a hotel restaurant. another great thing is that your kids can go out next door and play on the putting green.

I have been hoping for Carlsbad to finally get a place that is a little hip, with great food and is a good place to have a business meeting over a drink in a nice atmosphere. I would have never guessed that it would have been the Holiday Inn but they did it. They have created a cool and modern style hotel with great service (thanks Stephanie and John) and amazing food. The Ahi Poke Tacos were fresh and the meatballs were yummy and had a unique sauce (IPA-​infused mustard). Everything seemed fresh and not pre-​made. I am excited to come back and try some of the other food items like the Vintage Gourmet Board and the Southwest Meatloaf Sandwich.
The grounds are nice with a patio outside the restaurant that you can sit back, relax and watch your kids play on the putting course while you enjoy a drink.