Trade Restaurant and Bar

Stayed at the Omni Hotel September 6, 2015, which was not a great experience, but to make it up they gave us food vouchers. We had the breakfast buffet and it was not what I expected. The French toast are a must have along side the quiche. My children loved it and I will be going back any chance I get. I highly recommend their breakfast buffet.

Where should I start with this place? I should first start with stating the facts:
1. I had eaten all of one small meal in this entire 14 hour day before walking into Trade.
2. I was also very tired and did not want to try and figure out another option.
3. I know I shouldn’t expect anything from a restaurant that relies so heavily on a bar.
4. I know hotel restaurant food is usually just above par at best.
So I check into my room and am starving, considering whether or not to order something to eat or just go to sleep. I take a look at the room service menu where I clearly see multiple sections of the menu that clearly delineate options for vegetarians, vegans, and gluten freers. I also see the room delivery charge and 20% auto addition to the price and decide to take the trip down the the restaurant itself.
After being seated, I am told they have 1 vegan option rather than 2 as stated in the room menu and it would be pasta with garlic, roasted tomatoes, caramelized mushrooms, and spinach. I ordered that but subbed the mushrooms for onions because I love me some onions. 15 minutes later my plate comes with all that was said in the description with some really thin olive oil «sauce.» This dish had absolutely ZERO flavor. I mean if Flavortown was really a place on the map in the USA, this dish would have a home in Antarctica where no one visits because it is desolate of herbs and spices. The dish was literally just noodles and olive oil, if there was even salt, I could not tell. There was certainly no pepper, oregano, rosemary, thyme, basil, or any other herb that would make a pasta sauce remotely flavorful.
I then ask the waitress for some marinara sauce. The response, «You mean like just tomatoes, tomato sauce?» My response of course is a «yes, that without any cheese, butter, or milk added to it.» Another 15 minutes later, she returns with a bowl of diced tomatoes and says, «So the chef prepared these with a little salt and pepper, is that okay?» I say, «Of course, I am glad he could come up with something, this just doesn’t look like sauce.» I mix the plates and stir it with a bunch of crushed red pepper in the hopes that I might be able to at least see a sign for Flavortown.
Unfortunately, Flavortown must be visited another day. Honestly, the dish was barely edible. At this point, I have about a whole tomato that was diced and then put into a pot for 15 minutes with no sort of preparation other than a «little salt and pepper,» with a few roasted/​pre-​roasted veggies and some noodles drenched in some thin disgusting oil. Even though I like to eat reduced oil dishes, I am known to get the garlic, olive oil sauce sometimes. I like when the olive oil really stands out on its own and the garlic kicks you. Trade’s was like slimy water that just got worse with the «marinara sauce,» they gave me.
Now, keep in mind I asked for that marinara because the menu specifically states a create your own pasta dish with marinara as one of the sauce options. If that is what they give to their customers for that, I would be shocked.
At the end of the day, this is the second worst hotel food experience I have ever had. It certainly wasn’t worth the $ 19 and if I wasn’t so worn down, tired, and hungry from the long day, I would have returned it as soon as it hit the table. I forced myself to finish the dish after almost 40 minutes because I couldn’t eat it quickly. 1 star for sure, vegans, please stay away unless you want to waste your hard earned money of watered down oil sauce with no flavor or seasoning. Maybe next time Flavortown won’t be so hard to find…

I went there for breakfast and I got the three egg white omlet. It came with potatoes and bread. The omlet itself was incredibly filling so I would recommend going if you’re feeling like having a large breakfast. The potatoes were a little undercooked. Service took 30 mins even when no one was really there and we weren’t a large party.

I’m giving this bar/​restaurant 5 stars because of the great service. Everyone of the staff members was very nice. The drinks were tasty and the good was good too. I would definitely return if in the area.

This menu is top to bottom with great uncommon food like chicken lollipops & a grilled cheese with fig preserves on sunflower bread. You must flip in here & take it for a ride… You will not be sorry.

This place is located right in the omni uptown Charlotte lobby. I came here one night because I was staying at omni and didn’t want to walk far for food. I came here not expecting much because usually hotel bars/​restaurants are overpriced and average at best. Surprisingly this place is within reasonable price $ 15 bucks for a filling meal. I got their standard burger on the menu and it was well prepared and cooked (I like mine medium), the bun on the burger was very soft, and the fries complemented the burger to perfection :) OH YES they also serve you complimentary wasabi peas/​Japanese snacks as you wait for your main entrée.
Since I stay at the omni for work I will probably drop by here from time to time. enjoy!

This restaurant is tucked inside the Omni hotel next to the hotel’s conference rooms. The public can also get to this restaurant from the escalator leading to the 2^nd floor in front of the Starbucks inside the Overstreet Mall. I would never discover this restaurant if someone hadn’t told me about it.
The Trade offers a lunch soup & salad bar Monday — Friday for $ 6.95. I’m a big fan of this salad bar. Supposely, some of the lettuce served on the bar are grown on-​site on the hotel’s pool deck. (Chef keeps a small garden up there). [Someone please help me verify this information]. All the salad dressing are homemade. The mix salads are changed daily, and they’re hit & miss. The tomato basil soup is consistently good, but there’s always something not right about the other soup of the day. The featured dessert is always good but they always forget to bring out the small dessert plates.
Overall, it’s a lot of value for $ 6.95 lunch. However, the fountain drinks are $ 4 with free refills. So, it may send your lunch budget into overdrive if you really have to have a soft drink for lunch.

My family came in for a visit this past weekend and I suggested the Omni to them for their hotel stay. The hotel itself is pretty, and having this restaurant is a nice convenience for sure. We decided to try it for breakfast, and when we walked in were a bit confused… Do we seat ourselves or are we supposed to wait for someone? There were menus sitting in the entry way as you walked in that I think you could use for breakfast.
We stood there for a second and a woman walked up to us and said to sit wherever we’d like. We picked our table, and waited… she walked by and said she’d be right back. We waited some more. there was a buffet there, but I had seen the menus and I was wondering if we were allowed to just walk up to the buffet or what.
Our server comes back over and asks us what we’d like to drink. I order the sweet tea and it tastes AWFUL! My mom took a sip of hers and made the same face in agreeance. We asked for something else, and she brought it over quickly.
The buffet was $ 15 per person, and it was actually really good. If the review were based solely on the food, it would be a star higher. The pancakes were a vanilla malted concoction and they were amazing. I am not kidding when I say they were the best pancakes to ever hit my mouth. Yes, hit my mouth. they were so good I was stuffing them in my face hole… NOM…
Oh, but the service. The service was just very poor for such a «high end» type of place. She was more like a server you’d expect at a Golden Coral, and frankly I’ve had better service at some of those than I did here. I never got a refill, and she never came back to check on us till we were basically finished. Now I know that it’s a buffet and all, but man, you’d think that would make the service even better.
Our server was more entranced by the guy who was working there with her, as they just chatted away. She did tell us bye and to have a great day though… seriously Omni, I expected much better than this.