The safest bets to be found among suburban Chicago’s riverboat casinos are in their restaurants.
If you’re looking for a ton of food at a bargain price, belly up to the buffet. If you’ve got damn-the-expenses, pamper-me dining on your mind, you can find that, too.
The casinos aim to bring a touch of Las Vegas to the Chicago suburbs, and by and large they succeed. There’s the gambling action, of course. The casinos also do a pretty fair job of approximating Vegas’ larger-than-life glitz, albeit on a much modest scale. (So far, the area’s casino properties don’t include a single exploding volcano or re-created sea battle.)
It’s pretty much the same thing with the food operations. Las Vegas is best known for its huge, all-you-can-eat buffets; the riverboat casinos offer similar bargains at its buffets, where you can eat surprisingly well for about $12-$17.
A lesser-known but growing part of Vegas dining are the upscale restaurants that cater to high-rolling gamblers — who are such valued customers that their meals are generally “comped,” or free.
Well, there are no high-rollers on Illinois riverboats; strict betting limits preclude that possibility. But regular customers of the riverboat casinos can find themselves eating fancy — and free — just the same.
That’s because each casino has a system of rewarding frequent gamblers. Each system involves lots of variables (number of bets, amount of money bet, type of games played), but the upshot is this: If you belong to a casino’s frequent-player’s club (and enrollment is free) and gamble regularly, eventually you’ll accumulate enough points to get a free dinner or two in that casino’s fine-dining restaurant.
(Not including alcohol, of course; state law prohibits casinos from offering complimentary or discounted alcoholic drinks.)
Now, gambling more frequently to get a comped dinner is about as fiscally sound as flying first-class for the free champagne; the amount you spend is going to be much greater than the value of the reward.
Not that you have to be a gambler to dine at any of these restaurants. All the restaurants are in the main building of each casino, not on the riverboats themselves. You can drive up, park free or at most, cheaply, dine in luxury and leave without coming close to a slot machine.
The question before the house is this: Are the fine-dining rooms in the casino restaurants worth visiting?
The answer: A qualified yes. After eating at each casino’s top-line restaurant, I can say that, in many cases, the food quality and the creature comforts are first-rate. None can compare to Chicago’s finest restaurants — say, three or more stars on my scale — but the culinary experience probably comes close to the two-star level, and that’s not bad at all.
What are casino restaurants like? The closest approximation I can make is to that of a good, but not great, hotel dining room. What hotel restaurants deliver, and what casino dining rooms offer, are rather similar. Both are free to function without turning a profit; they are viewed as amenities in operations that make their money in other ways (room charges and private functions for hotels, losing bets for casinos).
Free from the burden of profitability, and lavishly funded to boot, hotel and casino restaurants can offer a level of luxury that a free-standing restaurant would be hard-pressed to match. Luxurious decor, fine flatware, delicate stemware, crisp linens, plenty of servers in attendance — you’ll find all this and more.
You also will find the menus just a bit predictable. Maybe very predictable. The big-ticket highlights are all in attendance. Veal chops. Lamb chops. Steak. If there’s a fish, it’s probably salmon, perhaps tuna. Lobster, of course. You’ll find an original thought on occasion, but for the most part this is conservative food for a presumably conservative clientele.
If hotel and casino restaurants diverge anywhere, it’s on the pampering scale. Schmoozing is second nature to casino operators; they know how to make anybody feel like a VIP.
However, this luxury comes at a price. A la carte entrees of $28 or more are common; spending $150 on dinner for two is pretty easy to manage.
One reason prices are so high is that most patrons are eating free, or at a substantial discount — a reward for frequent gambling. At the Empress Casino, Empress Club cardholders get a 15 percent discount at any restaurant or gift shop; Empress Club cards are free for the asking. The lesson: These places are for regular gambling customers who have earned some comps, and for people who are happily paying for a Big Night Out.
Alexandria Club
Hands down, the most gorgeous casino dining room in the area is this faux-Egyptian wonder, part of the Egyptian-motif Empress Casino in Joliet (708-345-6789). You enter via a series of narrow doorways (passing cunning bas-relief wall sculptures) that reinforce the notion that you’re exploring an actual pyramid. This gives way to the dining room itself, which is modeled after a private British club for Egyptologists.
Patrons sit in an area whose walls and floors look like massive stone slabs. Egyptian artwork hangs from the walls; some is carved into the walls. Decorated support pillars and realistic-looking palm trees soar to the high ceiling. Linen-topped tables are scattered among the columns and trees; the best tables are in the comfortable booths, the seats heavily padded, with loose back cushions.
The theatrics extend to the menu, whose pages resemble ragged-edge papyrus glued to thin pieces of wood. Ditto for the wine list. Though the menu is but two pages, it’s heavy and a bit unwieldy.
The pampering starts early. The host takes your name before seating you (we walked in midweek; reservations are recommended on weekends); when we ordered a bottle of wine, the same host delivered it, greeting us by name. A complimentary nibble begins the meal; this night it was chilled salmon mousse, piped into a peapod. Bread arrives at the table in an ornate gold-colored box.
Good starters include a free-form crab cake with portabella mushroom, both touched with a bit of basil oil, above an understated lemon-vermouth cream; some slivers of deep-fried root vegetables add crunchy texture. There’s also a fine salad of smoked duck breast, topped with Parmesan cheese crisps; and a luxurious wild mushroom soup that tastes like pure mushroom essence in a cream base.
For entrees, a rack of lamb, coated with the spice harissa, features excellent-quality meat. An accompanying terrine of eggplant squash and red pepper, topped with a blanket of cheese, is clumsy by comparison, though the flavors are acceptable. The veal chop offers excellent quality as well, and with better companions: good morel mushrooms, Italian sausage and a bit of polenta.
The wine list bears an Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator; it’s not a bargain-hunter’s delight, but knowledgeable patrons will find some very good bottles here.
Buckingham’s Steakhouse
The Grand Victoria Casino in Elgin (847-468-7000) is Illinois’ newest riverboat casino operation. It has one very large riverboat; nearby competitors each feature two smaller boats. Consequently, the main building is either a flurry of activity (the half-hour before and after each cruise) or dead calm (once a cruise begins). Time your arrival/departure right, and parking and coat-check are a breeze.
Buckingham’s Steakhouse, the casino’s top dining attraction, looks like a classic steakhouse from years gone by. Leather-clad booths line the walls, and decorative touches include dark wood, brass, fresh flowers in cut-glass vases and delicate oil lamps.
The host shows you to your table with all due deference to your presumed importance and alerts a waiter to your presence. The waiter arrives in a hurry, but busboys already are pouring water and serving bread. You could get used to this.
The menu includes steakhouse standards of 20 or more years ago. There’s a shrimp cocktail (actually appealing, three enormous shrimp served on a platter), oysters casino (you just knew there’d be something casino in here) and other faves. Plump crab cakes are a good bet, topped with a citrusy mayonnaise and a spicy corn relish.
The steaks and chops are first-rate. Lamb chops are served off the bone, with traditional accompaniments (mint jelly, asparagus spears, stuffed mushroom); the large filet mignon, a 16-ounce monstrosity, has better-than-average flavor and comes with vegetables. Potatoes and such are a la carte; avoid the insanely sweet creamed spinach.
Buckingham’s also offers a sit-down brunch on Sundays. For $11 you get entree, fresh fruit, juice, pastry and coffee.
Cafe Harlow
The Hollywood Casino in Aurora (708-801-7000) names its restaurants after Hollywood royalty: Cafe Harlow after Jean Harlow, and Fairbanks Steakhouse after Douglas Fairbanks.
By virtue of its top-quality steaks and seafood, Fairbanks is the more expensive restaurant. But Cafe Harlow, which hosts special wine dinners and occasional cigar dinners, is the more ambitious.
Check in at the host stand at Cafe Harlow, and the maitre d’ whisks you to a table. He summons a waiter and introduces you by name. For the rest of the evening, it’s Mr. Smith this, Mr. Smith that.
The restaurant has a glitzy nightclub feel, with its thick carpeting and dominant colors of gray, black and purple. A glass wall overlooks the common areas below; you can watch the hoi polloi on the buffet line while you dine luxuriously.
And luxury is the word, embodied by the grapefruit sorbet that’s served with a splash of Dom Perignon. First courses include a fine chilled pasta with chunks of smoked chicken, baby tomatoes and cilantro; and grilled quail, nicely done over a soft bed of polenta.
The Kansas City strip steak is in fact a New York strip, but it’s very good, served with roasted vegetables. Pan-roasted sea bass is plated with a pernod-scented lobster broth; the broth is a bit wimpy but the sea bass is wonderful.
This is perhaps the noisiest of the bunch, but a comfortable place nonetheless.The wine list is small, but prices are very friendly.
Buffets
All the casino properties feature buffet dining as well. Generally these are simple in structure but offer conspicuous value.
Harrah’s Casino in Joliet (800-427-7247) features the Fresh Market Square buffet. Tables are arranged around artificial trees with tweeting mechanical birds. The dinner buffet is $12.95, $15.95 on weekends; it’s a pretty good price, but the food is strictly for refueling, although the Mongolian beef is pretty good. This spring, the casino will open The Range, a top-level steakhouse.
Elsewhere, Hollywood Casino’s Epic Buffet’s dinner is $11.99, and features prime rib and shrimp. Grand Victoria’s buffet is $12.99; load up on the lobster claws, shrimp and fried shrimp for best value. Empress Casino’s Cafe Casablanca offers a $16.95 dinner buffet as well as a full-service a la carte menu.
All buffets serve breakfast and lunch, at even lower prices.
