Went there for happy hour! Happy hour starts at 4;30 and goes til 6:30. They have a 5, 6, 7 deal on drinks and appetizers.. the deal is great and the atmosphere is comfortable .. who would think that a Holiday Inn bar would be such a great spot for cocktails and apps! Looks like they are doing their happy hour seven days a week! Service was great too! Ask for Patty or Dee! read more

Good food and drinks. All freshly made in their kitchen. Service was friendly and quick.

They have limited hours in the evenings, from 5:30--9:30pm. We ordered the Ceasar salad and it was good. We had the Hamburger and fries. The food was good and well prepared. The waiter was quick and did the job well. Light foot traffic and a nice environment and nice services. I didn't like the 18% gratuity added to the bill.... I thought that gratuity starts at 15%, but ok. I have eaten here before and it was good then too. read more

Day 1:The food was delicious. But...basic sanitation before this covid nonsense was to wash your hands between cleaning and touching anything a customer puts in their body. Having to wear gloves because of covid doesn't change that, change your gloves before touch the inside of my coffee cup often cleaning up someone else's table, disgusting. The manager was quick to correct that behavior when we brought it up. I still recommend the eggs Benedict Day 2: The food was still delicious and served promptly. Staff went out of their way to make us feel special. Everything was clean and handled appropriately. read more

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Great Place to Unwind. Breakfast is Pretty Good but could be better. Spent 4 nights at the Holiday Inn Carlsbad CA last weekend and this is a review of the Restaurant/Bar inside the hotel. Pretty much set up as a Sports Bar and the first night the Large Flat Screens were giving good coverage to the Panthers/Steelers game. Not really interested in that but it was a good place to have a great conversation with my Daughter and her Husband and for my Grandson to show me his Pokemon Card Collection Good selection of local Craft Beers and other Beverages and the service is excellent. Breakfast needs a bit of work though. I had Huevos Rancheros for breakfast the next morning. Used to a good Picante on top but totally devoid of heat and had to add additional from other condiments on the table. On another occasion, I had a Breakfast Sandwich and while I had a choice of meat, not particularly outstanding Still it is a good place to meet and talk. Not overly noisy and they respect their customers while providing good service without being overly intrusive. Good place but if they would take another visit to the menu and the food preparation, could be a great place. read more

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Stayed at hotel for three days. Breakfast skillet was great. New dinner menu. Citrus Soy Salmon was cooked perfect. Spicy Chicken Bacon Ranch was great. It had three whole pieces of real bacon on it and the chicken was thick and juicy. Service was great at both meals! read more

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STRATUS RESTAURANT & BAR (at the HOLIDAY INN in BRESSI RANCH) is a depressing place for date night -- filled with loud, traveling salesmen who drink too much, whine incessantly about their shitty jobs and argue amongst themselves about sports and politics. hanging out with the sans-a-belt and hair gel crowd, unable to escape their feeble attempts to appear witty and charming to the harried servers, is not exactly the tone you want to set for a romantic evening. the MOSCOW MULE, which arrived in a lowball glass, was not very good. my ISLANDTINI was way too sweet and had all the exotic charm of cough syrup. the follow-up GRAY GOOSE DIRTY (with blue cheese olives) was pleasant enough, in a less toxic atmosphere with better food i would even say it was pretty good. why do kitchens grill the quarter-sized, slider patties four times as long as regular-sized burgers ??? i'm not really a potato chip guy but their "PUB CHIPS" which came with the sliders are the only reason i'd give STRATUS two stars -- they were damn good. read more

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Typical hotel restaurant/bar at the holiday inn. Service is excellent, food is good, and the decor is classy. Stayed here during a weekend visit to San Diego and was impressed with the quality of food and service at the restaurant. Ordered the chicken penne pasta which was delicious. Next night had a bacon cheddar burger, which was just okay since meat was over cooked but otherwise the food quality was fresh. Would definitely come back again when staying in north San Diego county read more

Stratus Restaurant & Bar - Bars Near Me - Carlsbad, California

I had the Start Fresh Wrap for breakfast and substituted regular eggs instead of the eggs whites. It turned out as a delicious and healthy breakfast burrito with mushrooms and spinach. They also had a freshly made salsa on the side. I was surprised to have such a delicious meal at a Holiday Inn hotel restaurant, and I will be back here just for this breakfast wrap even though I'm not staying at the hotel. read more

I decided to try this place out after reading some of the reviews. I ordered the chicken sandwich with fries, burger with onion rings, and tomato burrata salad for about $41. The person who took the order was very nice and the menu has a decent amount of choices. Unfortunately the food was underwhelming. I ordered the burger medium and it was closer to well done. Somehow a lemon wedge made its way under the bun and on top of the burger. I hope that was just a mistake. The fries were over salted but other than that, they were ok. I moved on to the chicken sandwich, it was burnt on the ends and overcooked, but the flavor was ok. The onion rings did not taste like onion rings that I have eaten before. At least the tomato burrata salad was pretty good. read more

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Bottom Line: Much sexier than you'd expect from a Holdiay Inn Bar. What I like about Stratus, located inside the Holiday Inn, is that there is plenty of parking, it's relatively quiet, it's a full bar, the food is decent and they have a good happy hour. If you are more focused on quality conversation with a pal or two than wanting to be seen or bustling action, Stratus is a good place for that. The happy hour bar menu is definitely bar food (nachos and lots of fried options) but they also have a full menu with salads and healthier entrees. Overall I think Stratus is good enough to be in the happy hour rotation in 92009. read more

Great spot, amazing bar food. Friendly and attentive service, good atmosphere. Great place for a few drinks and a quick bite to eat. Nachos and hummus and pita were fantastic. The staff at the Stratus is really top notch. We stayed at the Holiday Inn for five nights and made it to the bar/restaurant every day or night. We repeatedly had fantastic service. All of the bar/wait staff was continuously fantastic. I really can't say enough good things. read more

Stratus Restaurant & Bar - Hummus & Pita app - Bars Near Me - Carlsbad, California

This is the second time staying at this hotel when we come in town. Overall the hotel experience is average, no complaints or issues. However, today for breakfast my family and I had an excellent server/waitor name Roberto. He went above and beyond even with the place packed and busy on a Saturday morning. He checked on us multiple times, clear our table and refilled our drinks without us having to wait or try to flag him down. There was one other server there but she wasn't very welcoming and didn't have good customer service like Roberto did. He was very professional and kept a smile on his face as he ran back and forth in the restaurant, he did not slow down once. I genuinely don't leave yelp post unless it's an awful experience but I felt the need to give Roberto a shout out. Nowadays in my personal experience, good customer services is hard to find, especially when you are supposedly required to leave a minimum of 18% or 20% tip even with terrible service. Thank you Roberto for making our dining experience amazing with your excellent customer service, we greatly appreciate it. read more

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). read more

Stratus Restaurant & Bar - Shrimp pasta - Bars Near Me - Carlsbad, California

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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. read more

Stratus Restaurant & Bar - California omelette - Bars Near Me - Carlsbad, California

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Had breakfast at the Stratus Restaurant and enjoyed it. Our family sat on the sofa style tables, and I loved how comfortable it was. The food was great (they even had sourdough which is my favourite bread), and the service was excellent and attentive. Food selection is what you would expect at a restaurant inside a Holiday Inn - good eats, but nothing to get worked up over. read more

Great place clean, lovely people!! Respectful had your drinks ready when you needed them. Even though today was a crazy day cause of these soccer tournaments. They work hard to keep us all happy! read more

Stratus Restaurant & Bar - Beyond grateful with this place the bartender Dee is the best in town!!! She had a great smile!!!! Servers are amazing!!!! - Bars Near Me - Carlsbad, California

Went in there early on a Sunday morning. Our food order took 25 minutes before we got the food and the 3 people behind us got their food before us. They didn't even apologize for the delay. read more

We are Hotel guests and we were told that this was a restaurant to eat at in the morning. So we came down to eat breakfast. The waitresses were really nice and told us that it was buffet style and to serve ourselves and they will bring us our drinks. The food was ok, but not worth $14.95. It is all you can eat but there was not that much variety and the food was bland. We will not be going back to this establishment, I gave it a 3 star because the waitresses were very nice and attentive. read more

Service here sucks ass. Honestly the worst service I've ever had. The waiters and waitresses either have a problem with people who aren't Caucasian or just happened to not care to check up on their customers if refills or anything else was needed. (They honestly only seemed to check in on white customers). The waiters and waitresses made no effort in checking in for refills or extra orders. I had to call them out to let them know I would like a refill or a check. My friend and I waited for 30 minutes so they can get us a drink. This shit happened 2 nights in a row. read more

I thought their food was good but it was so packed with people , good for them bad for us , no social distancing everyone arm to arm and standing around , I think I'll wait until after COVID to go back read more

Ordered nachos with beef. I've had nachos from a major fast food restaurant that were better or at least a value. These nachos had nacho cheese sauce, movie theatre quality, not what you would expect from a sit down restaurant. Barely enough chips, that were also so thin they were soggy. Canned jalapeños and the beef, not seasoned, just plain cooked ground beef. Even the over zealous serving of sour cream and bland guacamole could not save this cafeteria monstrosity. read more

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

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. read more

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 read more

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. read more

This restaurant is awesome. Great food, great service, out wider was great. We have young kids, and they loved playing in the courtyard while we ate, they loved the putt putt golfing. One of out new local hangout places. Very family friendly. The wings were great, we actually met the head chef at Costco, and he told us everything is made from scratch, awesome. We also had the stratus fries and sliders. All were great. read more

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. read more

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. read more

Yes there is a stigma for going to have lunch in a Holiday Inn.. I know it. but truth is, this is not the Holiday Inn you stayed in when you went to Orlando when you were 8. This Holiday Inn just opened 3 weeks prior to me staying there. It is modern, it is sleek and it could be a boutique hotel. That being said. Stratus complements the hotel extremely well. The food is amazing. I've been a road warrior for the past 15 yrs. I know what it means to travel and your last option is to eat in the hotel restaurant. LET ME TELL YOU, I ate at Stratus for 90% of all my meals, and the bottom line was, I was happy to! Food to eat, the Fruit Napoleon for dessert! and the pilot wings are amazing as well! caeser salad, awesome, the commodore for breakfast (eggs benny on foccaccia instead of english muffin) really awesome too. I wish I worked near there, just so I can stop in for lunch! The last dinner I had there, unfortunately caused it to lose 1 star. I treated myself to the rib eye steak, and expected it to be awesome. I asked for medium rare, and was served medium well. :( One meal did not distract me from the wonderful service by Daniel and Louis. It would not hold me back from still eating there every day.Till next time! read more

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. read more

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

Great food, drinks and ambiance!!! You need to check this new restaurant and bar. The food is unique and you should try the Spinach Artichoke Eggroll, jalapeños fries and Grilled Corn on the cob. It is amazing. read more

Stratus Restaurant & Bar - Spinach artichoke egg rolls - Bars Near Me - Carlsbad, California

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Service is good depending on who you get as a server. Bartender Liza is great, makes some good margaritas. Great server to have, will make sure that you are having a good time, and very fast when it comes to service. On our 2nd day there Stephanie was out server for breakfast, very fast service and checked up on us regularly. She made sure we felt welcome. Now on our 3rd day we had Bonnie as a server. I don't know if she was having a bad day but service was awful. Brings out our coffee with no milk or half and half, brings us half and half and no spoon to stir. Aren't these things a standard to bring out when serving coffee? She took forever to take our order. There was a table that got there after us and took there order first. I mean come on, did she not receive any training ? We felt very disrespected by her. Her attitude towards us wasn't what you would expect from someone who chose Hospitality as a career. Other than this bad experince hotel stay was ok :) if all 3 servers would have treated us the same I would have given this place 5 stars. read more

Nice place, got a pizza, the dough was good, but didn't seem like a standard pizza margherita to me more like a cheese pizza with some chopped basil on it. The bread I got before was very good, drizzled some olive oil on it it was very tasty. read more

This was the worst restaurant I have ever eaten at. We went for brunch. There was a sign at entrance that listed the price, $12.99 pp. There was no one to seat us so we went in and found a relatively "clean" table. We had to get up and walk around the restaurant to find silverware and bring it back to the table. The sign listed the price, but did not indicate that it did not include coffee. Also, there were no scrambled eggs in the buffet container and despite waiting and asking, the eggs were not replaced. The fresh fruit looked like it had been sitting out for a long period of time and re breads were stale. When we got our bill I noticed that we were charged for coffee even though it was not listed on the signage at the restaurant's entrance. On the way home to LA I thought more about the almost $70.00 we spent and got increasingly upset with the poor service, lack of information about the true price, the poor quality of the food, and the lack of it. I was going to write a Yelp review, but decided to call the manager first. I called the next day and spoke with Dan, the manager, expressed my concern and my desire for the situation to be made right. I was told that he would speak with his supervisor and get back to me the next day. That was two weeks ago and no return call so I decided to post this review. I would not recommend going to this restaurant. It was the worst brunch I have ever had. read more

Went here after work for happy hour drinks and a small dinner. It's inside the holiday Inn hotel, which is kind of a plus since they keep the inside very clean and classy looking. The drinks were great price (happy hour) and the food was a little expensive for what it was but then again it was inside the holiday Inn. The service was okay, not very attentive to when things started running low, but overall wasn't horrible.The greatest part is if you drink too much just get a room, I would recommend trying it out and if anything just go for happy hour and have a great time. read more

If you have a lot of time on your hands then Stratus is the place. We wanted a simple lunch because we stayed at the adjacent hotel. The restaurant is a bar/ lounge/dining combination with a couple of large screen TVs. We were told we could find our own table. We did so by the window. After several minutes the bar tender comes over, he is also the main server. He suggested the soup and salad bar, it consisted of three soups and lots of salad choices and toppings. He brought the drinks we ordered, but then disappeared. After about 15 minutes, I looked toward the bar area and motioned we are ready. He came and we ordered the signature hamburgers with the Grub fries. Another 25 minutes go by and again I had to find eye to eye contact with the bartender. Finally we got our food, the burgers were great, juicy and tender and just enough seasoning and tomato, onions and greens. The Grub fries were just thick sliced potato chips and I would not order that again. The server apologized for the delay and brought me another glass of brew. The reason for the three stars is mainly how long it takes for the service and the kitchen being slow to prepare our food. Stratus does otherwise fulfill a need for travelers staying at the hotel a place to eat. We would explore the shops and restaurants nearby the next time. read more

Ok place. Open late so that helped. Mediterranean? Not so much. They have a hummus appie but no gyros lamb or other dishes you may associate with the genre. If it's late at night and you're in a pinch then check it out. read more

Ordered the very expensive salmon served on a bed on sand and gravel, oh I mean coos coos. I love Salmon and this was the WORST salmon I have ever eaten. Way over cooked on the entree and sides. read more