LB's Bistro & Patisserie

Every year in January, my company holds a regional conference at the Sheraton.  And every year, as luck (or fate, or Tom Skilling) would have it, it snows that weekend.  Last year, was a blizzard, this year, was a dusting (that lasted all day).  Bottom line, I wasn't about to wait in line at the coat check to get my coat and trudge along to find something else when LB's was right there.

The lunch menu boasts some traditional as well as eclectic salads, sandwiches, and burgers.  Last year, I tried the Salmon BLT, which I was a huge fan of.  

Looking for something lighter this year, I opted for a house salad ($9) and french onion soup ($6).

The house salad was huge, which explains the $9 price tag.  I think it was just as big as some of the $14 and $15 salads that were coming out, but didn't have all of the fancy stuff (cobb, nicoise, etc.)  It's just a basic salad: baby greens, grape tomatoes, cucumber, and not too heavily dressed vinaigrette.

The French Onion, which, by all you know, is my mistress, was perfect.  I actually pushed it aside and ate the salad first so I could savor the perfection that was this soup.  There was just enough cheese, and it was perfectly melty.  The broth had a great, robust, deep flavor.  The sourdough crouton... it was all great.

So, for a $15 lunch without having to get wet or cold, I'll take it.  The server was a little miffed when he found out that I wouldn't be charging lunch to my room, but I wasn't staying at that hotel... so, sorry Charlie.

Not worth the money!  I went there for lunch and ordered a cobb salad.  I am already skeptical about hotel food so I ordered a cobb salad because I naively thought, how difficult is it to make a salad.  Well apparently, it's plenty difficult despite charging $14.  What I got was a few layers of whole lettuce with the usual cobb salad ingredients on it, with lots and lots of dressing.  I tend to put a lot of dressing on my salads but this was a ridiculous amount.  Plus, if I'm paying $14 for a salad, they better make an effort and actually cut the lettuce up for me instead of tearing some pieces off a head of lettuce and plopping it on my plate.  The servers were unprofessional as well, just standing around in the corner, laughing and talking while my husband and I were waiting for them to notice us and give us our checks.  The only redeeming part of this meal was the potato chips they put out as appetizers.

This is the in house restaurant at the Sheraton (located on the lower level). While it does serve breakfast, my review is only for lunch. The complimentary homemade chips were tasty. But the urth burger needed work. It was served with a salad on top of the patty and then the wrap didn't really come around the layers, so you need to eat it with a knife and fork.  The next lunch I had the custom salad option; you check off 8 ingredients to include. All the ingredients were fresh but the salad was pricey.

The staff was attentive and speedy, which was the point since I couldn't leave the hotel between meetings.