Restaurants

This thread is to be used to discuss restaurants and dining available at Silverton.

The bar at the Mi Casa Cantina at the Silverton is very nice. They no longer have .25 FP JOB with a progressive for RF and SF. It was very uncrowded the last time I was there. The bartender gave very good service and had no problem comping my drinks. Overall, a fun place to hang out and play. I have not eaten at the restaurants there.

I ate at the Mi Casa Cantina with a friend for lunch last weekend. It was very good. We ordered a pitcher of "Cadillac" Margarita for $35, which was made with Patron and Grand Marnier. It was possibly the best margarita I have ever had, and it was a generous pour. Ordered rock shrimp tacos, which were nicely seasoned and breaded, although I thought they could have used a bit more spiciness. We also got some seared ahi tuna, which was good. Friend got a beef taco, chipotle chicken wings and a ground beef burrito. Everything was decent to pretty good. The room is very nice, and it was uncrowded. Bill came to $95. We thought we had a comp but it turned out it wasn't good for that day. I would recommend eating here, and the prices are very reasonable. There is nothing over $20. Service was fine.

Quote: teddys

We thought we had a comp but it turned out it wasn't good for that day.

Any confusion over such comps can be a black mark against the casino's systems but its good to hear that the restaurant is good. Thanks for the Patron and Grand Marnier comment ... I will definitely store that for future use.

Ate at Twin Creeks Steakhouse. NOT impressed. The room is gorgeous, but the food less so. We went on a Saturday night, and it was busy. The seating was fast and efficient, even without a reservation, and the room is stunning, with color-changing walls and rock formations. We chose not to order wine, although they had a wine list that I did not look at for very long. The menu is standard, not very extensive nor creative. Typical steakhouse choices. I ordered the bone-in ribeye with bourbon-bleu cheese sauce on the side, and the broccolini and mac 'n' cheese sides. The sides were included along with a salad for a total price of $29. My friend ordered the lobster tail, with a la carte sides of broccoli and asparagus for $31+. We also got oyster and scallop appetizers. They brought a nice basket of varied breads like raisin and cheese which were pretty good.

However, almost nothing else from the meal was good. The oysters tasted funky and there were bits of shell in the oyster after they shucked them. That's bad. It can really mess up your mouth. The scallops were decent quality but the sauce was way too salty. They brought my steak with the sauce already on, and as I feared it would, it was too strong and completely overwhelmed the flavor of the steak. I thought about sending it back, but I didn't want to make a bother, and our waitress wasn't very attentive anyways (another problem). The house salad was the spring mix like you get out of the boxes at the supermarket. The broccolini was two stalks on a plate drowned in butter. The asparagus was the same, except for some reason they shaved the green part of the stalk off and left the white. (WTF? Why get rid of the most nutritious part?) My friend's lobster tail was at least decent, and big with lots of meat. The mac and cheese was just too much for me to eat, so I got it too go with the steak. We did not order dessert.

Total bill came out to about $85-$90, and we used a $75 comp. Unfortunately, I cannot recommended this restaurant for those paying cash. Even if you have a comp, the Mexican restaurant is better. There is also a tapas menu served only in the bar, with about 7 or 8 different kinds of tapas. I have heard good things about the tapas from others, so don't think this review covers that portion of the restaurant.

Silverton's food and beverage department back on track.

How back on track can an outfit be that takes 8 months to replace the head Chef ??

Quote: buzzpaff

How back on track can an outfit be that takes 8 months to replace the head Chef ??

Its a failure in basic business philosophy. If an Executive Chef leaves, everybody moves up one notch and the business continues. Many restaurants don't want that. They have line cooks who have no hope of advancement and they have a few "star" chefs or chefs who think they are stars who make all the money.
Why is the Silverton so worried about costing out the meal... you don't cost out the meal, you cost out the loss of your gamblers for being dissatisfied with bland food, long waits or poor service. You cost out the loss of continuity when you have untrained personnel who have not been groomed to move up a notch.
Now they've hired another "star" from Los Angeles who will want to put his stamp on the place and develop new this and new that. After a few months the kinks will be worked out and during all this time the Casino Manager will wonder where all his gamblers went to and why.
He will never figure out that skimping on quality food so as to pay the executive chef's star-salary is always an unwise move. Bring in a chef, not a star. Just a good competent chef who knows what he is doing and who sees that everyone in the kitchen knows their job and also knows the one above them. A good competent chef who stays within his budget and spends the funds that he has on good food rather than raises for chefs who want to be famous instead of good cooks.

AMEN .

Quote: buzzpaff

AMEN .

LOL. I guess its something that is not going to happen. That new guy will want to get rid of some folks and spend time training people to do things his way and more time will go by and more people will vote with their feet particularly since the M is real close has great parking and great food. I'd like to walk in to the office of the guy who hired the new "star" from California and ask him to name the restaurant's dishwashers. If he does not know them by their first names... I'd fire him! Dishwashers in a restaurant are critical for performance and timing. If he is in charge of how that restaurant is run but doesn't know the dishwashers he is spending too much time with spreadsheets and budgets and cost accounting and not enough time talking to his customers and to his dishwashers.

I am currently in Culinary Arts classes at Mesa State College. OOPS they kept getting confused with Mesa State in Arizon. Now I am in Colorado Mesa University LOL

The only difference between top chefs and Gordon Ramsey is a publicity agent. Hey, it's cooking food. Only the Colonel has a secret
recipe. It's management skills that make the difference. And some genius left the kitchen on auto-pilot for 8 months. DUHH

Don't get me wrong. Some of this "star chef" stuff would go over just fine at the Bellagio where they customers focus on such stuff. This is the Silverton. The hamburgers don't cost 200.00 there. Its supposed to be a pleasant meal, not an "experience in trendy dining with Chef Overblown Ego". At the Silverton, its a hamburger. Or its Macaroni and Cheese. Or whatever, but its got to be done right, not with flair or an artistic touch. Its a commercial kitchen preparing food not culinary gallery displaying the creations of particular chefs.

Eight months of Auto Pilot? Yeah bad. But its still going to a few more months of personnel changes and re-training. So its really ten months of deterioration. And then the casino manager wonders where his middle aged, middle income gamblers have all gone. Well, they went to places that didn't try to have Famous Chef Foo-Foo, they went to places that had an entire kitchen full of good cooks who knew their jobs and worked as a team to produce good food not to produce a famous chef or support his ego. The dealers in the casino all share their tokes because keeping a customer happy is a team effort and even dealers who are on stupid, dumb games are part of the team. Even those who only stand and wait are getting their share of tokes for standing there with an inviting smile all during their shift of no players and no tokes. Kitchens should be run the same way. Annual bonus money is distributed equally to all on the team, not to Famous Chef Foo-Foo with only pennies to everyone else.

Gamblers have the expression "shot yourself in the foot"... I think casino executives had better learn what it means.
Some of these policies about Time Share Hawkers, Reservation Incompetence, Housekeeping, Layoffs in lean times, ...this is what is making the bottom line in the casino so bad. You can't lay off waitresses in hard times and work the others to death. You can't do it to the valets, housekeepers or anyone else. Vegas is suffering because those darned MBA types focus on their own salaries and their own bonuses and the price of the stock; they are not focused on actually running the business properly.

Oh,, by the way: Those secret herbs and spices... its salt and pepper. That's it!

Returned to Twin Creeks for their Tapas menu in the bar. (Thanks for the tip, AHigh). After 8 P.M., everything is half-off, including premium cocktails. The waitress started reciting the specials, and my jaw almost dropped when she gave the prices. What a deal! Ordered about six dishes for $3-$5 each, including a glass of the house Cabernet, which was decent (Sterling, I think). The best thing were the mussels in marinara for $3. They also do a bangin' prime rib slider (barbecue or regular) for $5 for three. The meatballs were very good, although the calamari was just as weak. Some terrific New York steak skewers. A common thread was the copious amounts of salt in every dish. I prefer slightly less seasoned food, although I can understand the point of bar food/tapas is to get you to drink more.

Attentive service in a really nice room with a color-changing wall thingy. Bill came to $32 total. Will be back.

Yeah, it used to be one of the best kept secrets until this post. LOL.

On a serious note, there are some discussions on Yelp about the Tapas that are in line with your comments.

But it's ridiculously cheap for the quality level. I didn't try the Calamari but my favorite is the Prime Rib and BBQ sliders for $5. Those NY Steak Skewers were actually better, but I don't know if they always offer those.