Cincinnati's much ballyhooed Horseshoe Casino opened monday as promised to much fanfare and fireworks and speeches by any and all! Bands played, people cheered, photogs flashed, newsies wrote furiously and thousands attended as planned. About twelve thousand, so they say. It was all the rave.
So the wife and i donned some of our sunday best, befitting such a glorious occasion, and drove the ten minutes to the new palace of entertainment in downtown Cincinnati the next morning to partake of some of the wonderment for ourselves.
The outside of the casino really isn't all that special. the front is glass with a one acre (not that big) event area in front that will host some sort of summer entertainment events. Amusing to me since this is no more than 30 feet from the Hamilton County Dentention Center (jail). It helps to have a sense of humor i guess. The rest of the building is just a beige sandstone looking building with landscaping and a bit of color enhancment here and there.
All the money was spent on the inside. The Horseshoe is by far the best looking casino in the area. Construction costs ran around $260 million on the casino itself and the result is one very nice looking casino inside. From the lighting to the flooring to the layout of the very roomy slot layout every detail is well thought out and designed for both comfort and beauty. I can find no fault at all with the interior of the casino at all. Most enjoyable of all.................its smoke free. The employees could not be more polite or helpful. They are all well trained and smiling and polite to a fault.
The restaurants are varied and reasonably priced except for the buffet. I think it is a bit pricey but the food and service is excellant, so that takes a little of the sting out of that. The buffet costs $28 on the weekends and it was $22 plus $2 tax last nite. Weekday lunch runs $17 or $18, i forget. That is where we had our dinner last night and as i said, the food was very good, as was the service.
As i stated in a previous post, i was really looking forward to a burger from Bobby Flay's Burger Palace that opened in the casino. I was not dissappointed. We had lunch there and what a treat that was. YUMMY! For a mere $22 the wife and i each a nice thick specialty burger, giant onion rings, sweey potato fries that were just to DIE for (and mnore than you could eat) and water. And again, super service. There is also a small italian deli, A very nice looking Binion's Steak House we are going to try next, then there is a large Margaritaville Restaurant and store (and bar) that is up for a visit later this week for some brewskies. I may have missed one or two more, not sure, but those are the main ones.
That's the good stuff.
Now the bad stuff.
Location, location, location.
We arrived at the casino around 9:00 a.m. We are early risers so this is pretty normal for us. We planned to stay for the day and have a couple meals at two different restaurants as stated above and really give the place a good look. First impression was good, but as the day wore on and more people arrived, the glow began to wear off. As it got later, the downtown locals began trickling in. It wasn't pretty. My first thought was that they now have a new place to get warm in the winter and cool in the summer. After all, how can they be denied admittance? Security is of course present but i wasn't real impressed by them. Almost all of them were old and overweight. I was also expecting to see the police around somewhere, at least outside. They were nowhere to be found. There was no trouble that i was aware of, but still.
First of all on a tues. morning i think $25 min. on blackjack is a bit much. Everything else was $15 except one Mississippi Stud table that was $10 min. I tried this and quickly lost $200 without getting a single winning hand. Oh well. The slot machines are ALL expensive. This is going to be a real problem for the Horseshoe in this market in my opinion. They lean toward the higher end monetarily. There are a good number of one and two and even five cent machines, but they are very high line machines that require a high minimum of play. A lot of them are dollar minimum to play. That is not going to sit well in this market for long.
They are also as tight as a nuns ass. Just about what you would expect from a casino being run by Caesar's.
For me, it is a choice of whether i want to drive ten mins. to the Horseshoe right here in Cincy, or drive 20 mins. to the Hollywood in Indiana. The rests. are better here and the place is prettier. However, i like the table limits (what i play) better in Ind., and my wife is MUCH happier with the machines, which are WAY looser at the Hollywood, so that is where i will continue to play.
Horseshoe lost me in one day.
We will dine there for lunch now and then since i have so many TR points, which is what paid for our meals yesterday, but other than that, we are gone . It's all about value!
So the wife and i donned some of our sunday best, befitting such a glorious occasion, and drove the ten minutes to the new palace of entertainment in downtown Cincinnati the next morning to partake of some of the wonderment for ourselves.
The outside of the casino really isn't all that special. the front is glass with a one acre (not that big) event area in front that will host some sort of summer entertainment events. Amusing to me since this is no more than 30 feet from the Hamilton County Dentention Center (jail). It helps to have a sense of humor i guess. The rest of the building is just a beige sandstone looking building with landscaping and a bit of color enhancment here and there.
All the money was spent on the inside. The Horseshoe is by far the best looking casino in the area. Construction costs ran around $260 million on the casino itself and the result is one very nice looking casino inside. From the lighting to the flooring to the layout of the very roomy slot layout every detail is well thought out and designed for both comfort and beauty. I can find no fault at all with the interior of the casino at all. Most enjoyable of all.................its smoke free. The employees could not be more polite or helpful. They are all well trained and smiling and polite to a fault.
The restaurants are varied and reasonably priced except for the buffet. I think it is a bit pricey but the food and service is excellant, so that takes a little of the sting out of that. The buffet costs $28 on the weekends and it was $22 plus $2 tax last nite. Weekday lunch runs $17 or $18, i forget. That is where we had our dinner last night and as i said, the food was very good, as was the service.
As i stated in a previous post, i was really looking forward to a burger from Bobby Flay's Burger Palace that opened in the casino. I was not dissappointed. We had lunch there and what a treat that was. YUMMY! For a mere $22 the wife and i each a nice thick specialty burger, giant onion rings, sweey potato fries that were just to DIE for (and mnore than you could eat) and water. And again, super service. There is also a small italian deli, A very nice looking Binion's Steak House we are going to try next, then there is a large Margaritaville Restaurant and store (and bar) that is up for a visit later this week for some brewskies. I may have missed one or two more, not sure, but those are the main ones.
That's the good stuff.
Now the bad stuff.
Location, location, location.
We arrived at the casino around 9:00 a.m. We are early risers so this is pretty normal for us. We planned to stay for the day and have a couple meals at two different restaurants as stated above and really give the place a good look. First impression was good, but as the day wore on and more people arrived, the glow began to wear off. As it got later, the downtown locals began trickling in. It wasn't pretty. My first thought was that they now have a new place to get warm in the winter and cool in the summer. After all, how can they be denied admittance? Security is of course present but i wasn't real impressed by them. Almost all of them were old and overweight. I was also expecting to see the police around somewhere, at least outside. They were nowhere to be found. There was no trouble that i was aware of, but still.
First of all on a tues. morning i think $25 min. on blackjack is a bit much. Everything else was $15 except one Mississippi Stud table that was $10 min. I tried this and quickly lost $200 without getting a single winning hand. Oh well. The slot machines are ALL expensive. This is going to be a real problem for the Horseshoe in this market in my opinion. They lean toward the higher end monetarily. There are a good number of one and two and even five cent machines, but they are very high line machines that require a high minimum of play. A lot of them are dollar minimum to play. That is not going to sit well in this market for long.
They are also as tight as a nuns ass. Just about what you would expect from a casino being run by Caesar's.
For me, it is a choice of whether i want to drive ten mins. to the Horseshoe right here in Cincy, or drive 20 mins. to the Hollywood in Indiana. The rests. are better here and the place is prettier. However, i like the table limits (what i play) better in Ind., and my wife is MUCH happier with the machines, which are WAY looser at the Hollywood, so that is where i will continue to play.
Horseshoe lost me in one day.
We will dine there for lunch now and then since i have so many TR points, which is what paid for our meals yesterday, but other than that, we are gone . It's all about value!
