The Bistro

My department (approximately 40 people) stayed at the Courtyard Solano Beach. The Bistro is located within the hotel by the pool area. The hotel provided each of us with a voucher for a «Grab and Go» breakfast at The Bistro which was pretty much continental breakfast items from prepackaged muffins, yogurt, bagels, apples, bananas, coffee, and juice. I really had no complaints for the breakfast as the choices were typical for a continental breakfast.
However, I’m really downgrading them on the boxed lunches they provided.
They were originally going to charge us $ 12.95 per person for sandwiches and wraps. We thought this was pricey for sandwiches and wraps and were already looking into other alternatives. Our administrative assistant was able to negotiate the price to $ 10.95 per person, but drinks WOULD NOT be included. We stocked up on drinks and packed them in coolers on the bus so we were okay on the drink situation.
Our Choices for our Boxed Lunches were the following:
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Sandwich/​Wrap Choices — Ham, Turkey, Roast Beef, or Vegetarian
Toppings: Lettuce, Tomato, Onion, Mayo, Mustard, Cheese
Bread: Sourdough, Wheat, Flatbread
Salad: House or Caesar Salad
Side: Chips or Whole Fresh Fruit
We were traveling north and made a stop in San Clemente to eat our lunch. The one positive I can say is that they wrote our names on each boxed lunch.
The food was not up to par at all. We were also missing a lunch so two people ended up splitting a sandwich.
One of my coworkers ordered a Vegetarian Wrap and it consisted of crumbly flatbread, lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise. Her response was «What is this? A mayonnaise wrap!?» Lettuce and Tomato were from the «topping» choices so where’s the rest of the veggies?
My other friend ordered a salad and it consisted of wet romaine lettuce. There were no other vegetables or other ingredients in her salad, no tomatoes, cucumber, carrots… nothing. The lettuce didn’t even fill up the container. I ordered a Turkey Sandwich on wheat bread with lettuce, tomato, cheese and mustard. My sandwich was really dry with no flavor. I had to put a lot of mustard on it to be able to eat any of it and ended up throwing most of it away. I also got a side of fruit (which was supposed to be «Whole Fresh Fruit» and it was 1 piece of dried up pineapple, two grapes, and a piece of crunchy honeydew. There was a consensus among most of us that we did not enjoy the lunch at all. (I totally forgot to take any photos.)
What they gave us was so not worth $ 10.95.
Last year we also catered boxed lunches and I had a turkey sandwich but in comparison, that sandwich was 100 times better.
I’m glad we packed extra snacks on the bus, I ended up filling up on a chocolate chip cookie from Free Birds from the day before, Cheetos, and Arizona green tea since the lunch was a total fail.
I really wished we had used another establishment for our lunch, but used The Bistro based purely on convenience. I don’t think The Bistro is known for its catering, but if that’s not what they do then they shouldn’t have told us this was an option and we could have gone somewhere else.
¹⁴⁷⁄₁₀₀ Reviews for 2015

They have assorted pastries, coffee & tea, snacks and also serve beer & wine. It’s good that you don’t have to leave the hotel for these items if you want them while you stay here.