Joseph’s Restaurant at Sheraton Greensboro

Ready to dive into some grub, I was dramatically torn between walking about 200 yards across the street to Bone Fish Grill (which I can say from experience that it is delicious) or give the main hotel restaurant a chance. Given that it was cold and rainy and I was feeling particularly lazy, I settled on Joseph’s Restaurant.

I wandered into the huge restaurant which had a decent amount of ambiance. Despite being close to empty, there was nothing awkward about this one. The theme is very generic New Orleans / Anytown, Europe with its broad iron decorations and low, bistro-style lighting. The windows of the restaurant open up to a long corridor of the hotel, further emphasizing my theories about their Vegas-style attempt.

Looking over the menu, there were all the very typical cater-to-everyone hotel restaurant choices. Burgers and sandwiches all day for $11-ish. Tuna, salmon, trout, crab cakes, chicken, pork chops, omelet, squid/calamari, shrimp, pastrami, catfish, corned beef, skirt steak, filet mignon… you name the protein and they’ll cook it up for you.

They had a good beer selection for around $4.75 each.  All the usual suspects plus a few less common but delicious imports (Hoegaarden, Pilsner Urquell) and a few crafts. I spotted the Great Lakes Brewing Co.’s Edmund Fitzgerald porter (a craft beer with a 96% on beer advocate ?! Well done, Sheraton) and thought it was great.

I ordered the SEARED NORTH CAROLINA MOUNTAIN TROUT ($21.50) served over smoked bacon and shrimp risotto, haricot verts and a Dijon hollandaise. At first, the trout tasted fresh enough and the skin-on preparation put me a bit more at ease.  But after a few bites, I realized how dry the trout actually was. The Dijon hollandaise was mild and mainly just a decent buttery sauce. The super cheesy risotto was delicious with a great bacon flavor and a hefty portion of salt. The green beans were, again, very well salted (not salted well, mind you) and coated in enough butter that they couldn’t possibly have tasted bad. I genuinely started off liking all of the food, but then realized that, when you overcook the proteins and overuse butter and salt, it’s not a sign of good food, it’s the sign of using crappy ingredients and not very skilled chefs.

Sheraton Greensboro at Four Seasons

Price: $144/night. They don’t seem to play the AAA discount game here. I even tried Gov’t/Military rate and had no luck. I guess if you’re coming to a conference here, Sheraton knows they’ve got a captive audience and might as well juice ‘em for as much as possible. Your next best bets are the Double Tree ($135) or Hampton Inn & Suites ($118) — both are a drive away so, if the Sheraton is your destination, you’re better off paying a just a little extra be near all the action.

Location: Right next to Four Seasons Mall in Greensboro, so there’s plenty to keep most people busy there. It’ll take about a 12 min/5 mile drive to get to downtown Greensboro, so it’s not very close if that’s your destination.

Amenities: Big plus: Free parking and free internet. This makes the SPG Gold/Platinum amenity choice an easy one–go for the 250 extra Starpoints. There’s also a large indoor/outdoor pool.

Room: My room was quite spacious. It absolutely has signs of being dated, but they’ve just announced a $30 million renovation that was underway during my visit.

The bathroom was a little grimier than the rest of the room–I hope a large chunk of that $30 million ends up here

Very convenient: a second sink outside of the main bathroom

Lobby/common areas: This hotel is massive. When you enter, there is a giant lobby area complete with customer service desks, restaurants, a cafe and even a fountain of water. Compared to any other Sheraton hotels, it’s so “grandiose” that it almost feels like a Las Vegas hotel. You’ll nearly get lost weaving around the brightly carpeted hallways.

BOTTOM LINE: For $144/night the service was fine, the rooms big but dated (with renovations on their way) and plenty of on-site drinking/dining choices.

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