Stages Bistro & Lounge

I came here during Dine out awhile ago and all I can say is this place is just borderline okay. The atmosphere was pretty nice, the chairs were pretty comfy so I felt pretty relaxed while with my friends and it was an enjoyable experience. The food however, ehh it’s a different story. For the prices, the food was pretty average in my opinion, and the portions were pretty average as well. For $ 18 we got 1 appetizer, 1 entrée and 1 dessert. The food wasn’t too bad but as I stated earlier, it definitely didn’t live up to the price in my opinion. Maybe it was just the dine out menu and other things at this place are better, but after this I most likely wouldn’t be returning, I’d rather try something different to try and find another gem that’s better than this place.

It goes against my religion to give a hotel bar this high rating but when you offer beer specials for $ 5.50 — take a breath — for a pint! You know this is the best deal in town, if not for the whole province!
A real pint, as in 28 ounces.
Located inside Holiday Inn, after a league game, we have dropped in an hour before they close 11pm. Believe the daily specials are just on weekends but that’s when to get hammered, right?
And a renovated lounge too in past year or so.
Amex cool too.

I spent 5 nights at the Holiday Inn and has breakfast in Stages as well as the occasional room service. Overall it was an underwhelming experience.
It was pretty obvious that they preferred for guests to eat at the buffett instead of ordering off the menu. Ordering off the menu usually resulted in hastily prepared foods (pancakes that were still beige), forgotten items left off the plate and occasional wrong item served. The portions of the kids menu items were decent for my preschoolers as was the portions for the adult menu too.
The good thing is the hotel’s location is within walking distance of over 10 food places

I had the lunch buffet here a few weeks ago and again last week. All these work lunches are providing me with the opportunity to check out some of the delicious eateries along Broadway. Tuesdays are Asian themed and Thursdays are comfort food including fried chicken and potatoes. Decent buffet with lots of options, pretty good dessert and it’s usually fairly quiet midweek. Can’t really comment on the price since I didn’t pay either time but I would recommend this for a quick and decent lunch.

Inside a local Holiday Inn, Stages both try to feed the hotels hungry guests and invite it neighbors for Hotel Quality food service. With Dine Out Vancouver going on we decided to take advantage of the promotion. I stated with a crab cake in wasabi mayo served some salad greens. Salmon served with Shrimp sauce and winter root veggies was inspired. The cheese cake they served last nice was the real thing no taste of fillers and you can see the flaks of vanilla bean. The server that took care of us last was great really made effort to make us happy.

I have walked by this spot for ages, knowing about their weekday lunch buffet, but the timing was never quite right.
Well, I happened to have some time on a Wednesday and I was very pleased with the quality and variety of food for the pretty hefty $ 13.95 pricetag. The Holiday Inn obviously has a good solid old-​school chef managing things during the week.
Wednesday is BBQ day. The buffet is very nicely done with a wide variety of standard, old-​fashioned salads that you might find in the New York Times original cookbook, all homemade. The hot buffet included a variety of different BBQ style meats that were wonderful to try including spicy and savoury ribs and shank, and a few styles of potatoes including au gratin scalloped, roasted, as well as rice to choose from. The desserts were also old-​school, but really good, fruit tarts, pies, cakes with a bowl of fruit salad, and puddings too.
The room is quite large, with very comfortable chairs and lots of space between tables, mostly quads on an angle. The service staff were nice but not very attentive on the day I was there, taking their time to chat and slowly work the room leaving dirty plates on tables and not clearing up until the bill was delivered.
If I have a chance for a leisurely lunch on a weekday in the VGH area, I’ll definitely stop in again either for the BBQ on a Wed or for another themed day just to try it out.

This is a work spot. We go to lunch or sometimes to the lounge after work for drinks. I saw they have new lunch specials which include an entrée & salad for $ 8. The entrees are either pizza, sandwich — I can’t remember the other two choices but there were 4. Each entrée & salad choice changes daily.
When we go for lunch we have the buffet. They have different themes, but today, Friday is Seafood. It’s $ 12.95 & includes a drink of either coffee/​tea, iced tea or pop (all are bottomless). You can just do the soup & salad bar too — which would be plenty, but I’m not sure of the price for that one. My friend suggested it’s only a couple of bucks cheaper so you might as well go for the whole shebang.
The salad bar was quite good. Had asparagus, whole grilled mushrooms, prawns w/​cocktail sauce — nice & horseradishy, mussels, potato salad, caesar salad, cheese, salami, grilled eggplant, bean salad, etc. etc. Everything was fresh. There’s a soup station with dinner rolls. Soups today were Boston clam chowder & chicken vegetable.
Hot station had scalloped potatoes or rice. Veggies — (sauteed zucchini) or veggie lasagna. Prawns in garlic butter or popcorn shrimp. Turkey schnitzel with mushroom gravy (I know — weird on a seafood buffet, but it was good actually). Basa (Mediterranean style) & whole salmon with a creamy dill shrimp sauce.
Desserts are cakes, pudding, fresh fruit & cheesecake. These were below average, though the fruit was fine.
The food is not gourmet! However, it is edible & not bad tasting. BUT, like any buffet, the food looks better than it actually tastes. The stations are looked after well. A good value for the money really. Sitting in the lounge is nicer than the restaurant part. It’s a nice splurge on a Friday. Thank goodness I’m walking home cos I’m soooo stuffed! I had to write this review for fear of nodding off to sleep at my desk!