Atlantic City Dining Caesars Bad – Borgata & Tropicana Good
My recent trip to Atlantic City took me to a few different casinos to eat. The highlights were away from my home base at Caesars. The lowlights were the low priced dining options inside of Caesars. This is strange because room service was excellent and the food in the Diamond Club was ok.
The Good
Located in The Quarter at the Tropicana. I don’t gamble at the Tropicana much, but I eat here almost every trip to the Atlantic City boardwalk. Overall the service, the food….everything was excellent. I don’t tend to eat spanish food too often, but the desire for sangria helped me make this decision. Dinner started with a pitcher of sangria. A friend had one of the many mojitos.
The sangria was excellent, but not the best I’ve ever had. Our appetizer was a great sampler called plato cha cha cha. I don’t eat beans, but everything I tried was awesome. It was a nice tease for what I had in store for dinner which was another sampler. I can’t remember the name or find it on the website, but it had both pork and skirt steak. It was fantastic and a huge portion. I didn’t have any rice and was stuffed.
No dessert was needed. The meal was great and I will come back formore sangria and another sampling of food!
This was part of a fun night gambling at the Borgata. I visited Old Homestead on my last trip, but wanted to share the experience with some friends. Once again I started off with an appetizer of bacon. Again the bacon was great. Since the NY strip was so good last time I ordered it once again. Once again it was great. Mac & cheese and mashed potatoes were nice compliments but only tasted average. It didn’t matter. My steak was the star of the meal and that’s how it should have been. We all split some kind of banana thing for dessert, but I don’t even remember it. I’ll take a break from Old Homestead on my next trip because I prefer trying new places. However, both steakhouses at Borgata are keepers.
The Bad
I only went to La Piazza because Cafe Roma decided not to seat me. I usually don’t eat buffets, but there aren’t many options at Caesars during the day. I stayed at Caesars because I was RFB and would receive the meal complimentary. If I had to pay I would have gone elsewhere. Having said all of this, the service at La Piazza was good. I was seated quickly and served a drink just as fast.
After I sat and grabbed an iced tea everything was downhill. Nothing was good. The best of the foods was average at best. That was one of the unlabeled items from the carving station. I think it was turkey, but it might have been roast beef. The taste was non descript and the temperature was barely warm. Nothing was good, from the meatballs to sausages to everything else I sampled.
Maybe it was the early afternoon time I ate, but nothing was good and I’ll stay away in the future. I’d rather pay for a burger somewhere else.
The Ugly
I was hungry early and wanted a quick bite for lunch. The Diamond Club was closed so I headed over to Cafe Roma, Caesars coffee shop. The restaurant wasn’t fully open, but the service area had a couple open tables waiting to be cleaned when I walked up to the hostess. I patiently waited for a seat while people behind me peeled away one by one until I was the last person left in line.
After about 7 minutes I gave up and walked away. I would have been fine with the slow and unattentive service, but when something snapped when I overheared the hostess and manager speaking and one said “let them wait.” That is not the way to treat customers. I was peeved, but didn’t bother complaining to management. I’ll just take my business elsewhere.
This was the only blemish on a great trip to Caesars in Atlantic City and one thing like this can’t bring down a trip.
Honorable Mention
The Diamond Club at Caesars
I don’t really look to the Diamond clubs for meals. This trip was a little different since it lasted a little longer than most trips to Atlantic City. I usually just stop in for a couple of drinks and a snack. This time I paid attentiotn to the food because I had a couple of meals. There was nothing much above average, but the small sandwiches, random hot dishes and variety of dessets were a nice option in between meals or in place of meals.
The Diamond Club itself was a nice variety of cafeteria type sitting and lounge chairs and couches. There was a nice choice of seating depending on mood. I used both depending on why and when I visited. I had only visited once before and all I saw were the tables since I was there as a guest for lunch a couple of years ago. Overall, this club has moved up to my second favorite of the Diamond lounges on the Harrah’s properties.
