Bistro 128

I normally avoid hotel restaurants when traveling and today Bistro 128 reminded me why. Had dinner here tonight (because there is literally nothing else nearby) and it was a 2.5 star dinner on it’s own. The whole experience borders on a 1 star for the following reasons:
1) Service is terrible. We walked in, waited 3 minutes to be seated and then were not so much as looked at for a solid 15 minutes (no exaggeration here). It takes getting up and and asking the bartender if there is a waitstaff tonight to finally get someone to come by.
2) Food quality. The food takes about 15 minutes to come out (not a problem that’s fairly normal in a sit down restaurant) and when it does I am presented with a dry and cold (supposed to be hot) chicken sandwich, luke-​warm fries and… wait for it… CANNED mushrooms on the sandwich. There should be a disclaimer on the menu saying we use canned (nasty) mushrooms on our food… our $ 13 chicken sandwich our $ 25 pasta dish.
3) Price. Did I mention the food was mediocre at best yet the prices are outrageous. Any dinner item is $ 20 and up and the usual fare of sandwiches/​burgers are $ 13 and up. I asked for a side salad instead of fries, got the salad which was decent but the fries came out anyway and then the side salad ends up on the bill as a separate $ 6 charge! That’s ok if the food is REALLY good but… well see point #2 it’s not. So I ended up paying $ 19 plus tax and tip for a meal that was at best an $ 8 meal anywhere else in the country.
So in conclusion… order out and stay away from this place, it looks nice from the outside but the food and prices are bad bad bad.

While staying at the Sheraton, I had breakfast at Bistro 128. I had the breakfast buffet, which was pretty much your standard hotel breakfast buffet type of food — not bad, not great, but definitely a hit when you’re up early in the morning in a hotel and want some breakfast and coffee.
I’m giving them 4 stars because the F&B/restaurant manager was very friendly. He came by to make sure everything was okay, and after explaining to him that it took me forever to get there from CA, that I had to stay in the hotel due to arriving at Newark Airport very late at night, and that I paid for continental breakfast but didn’t get it due to a front desk issue (the front desk ended up giving me a comped continental breakfast coupon for Bistro 128, and the hostess let me know that if I decided to have hot food, not just continental items, I would need to pay an extra $ 1.50), he comped (the $ 1.50) my breakfast and told me to have a great trip. Now that’s great customer service!

I stopped in Bistro 128 for an early lunch with some colleagues prior to a networking event at the hotel. We were expecting bare-​bones hotel fare, but we were pleasantly surprised by the nice options on the menu.
We split the spring rolls and the peanut chicken lettuce wraps for our appetizer. The presentation of both items was exceptionally nice. For lunch, two of us had the turkey avocado open-​faced sandwich. The other two had the burger and the chicken Panini. Presentation-​wise, everything was fabuloso. We were surprised! The plates were nicely decorated. It was as if we were dining at an upscale establishment. Not bad for the Sheraton!
The only negative is that the French fries were very well done. That suited two members of our party just fine, as they like their fries on the burnt side. Who knew?
Service was really slow, so if you need to catch a flight, you might want to opt for the buffet instead.

Inside the Newark Sheraton Airport hotel, behind the lobby, down a long hallway, across from some ballrooms.
Had lunches here, ordered a 2 Chicken salad, Asian Salad and Salmon. Entrees ranged from $ 15 – 25 for lunch. Like they offered sweet tea. Beautiful presentation of your meal of colored plates. The staff was extremely attentive.
Also offered a breakfast buffet for $ 13. They extended the hours for our dance convention because there were so many who attended. The usual breakfast buffet fair, nothing outstanding.
Had a to go club sandwich, had to return to get ketchup for the fries. $ 11.
Next to the Trophies Lounge.