A Thanksgiving Dinner That I'll Never Forget

Disappointment at Another Restaurant Where Quality Has Deteriorated Since Covid

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First and for most, I'm not degrading Station Casinos, because everyone knows what that would bring to someone doing so. Station Casinos is a wonderful organization and runs some of the best Hotels, Casinos, and restaurants I've ever visited. And I visit them often... This is about a particular small casino (Wildfire Sunset) owned by Station Casinos and the cafe that resides within.

The casino is one of the worst in Henderson, NV. You walk in and there are 2 atrocious smells that smack you in the face like a like a cold blizzard storm. The smoke is so heavy in there that you feel like you are actually smoking a cigarette. Sometimes there is a visible haze inside this place from the smoke being that thick. Second is the sewer smell. This has been going on for a few years and I don't understand why its not rectified. There is nothing worse then trying to enjoy yourself, be it bar top gambling, having a drink and watching a game, video poker or whatever, and then you get a whiff of this sewage smell. What could the landlord have over this casino that allows this to go on!!!

The Cafe. Use to be great food served there and we'd go often and even ignoring the negative aspects of this casino. The Cafe has a wall and on top of the wall is a glass partition that does NOT go all the way to the ceiling to isolate it from the smoking area (sports betting lounge). So, while you are trying to eat, you occasionally get a lung full of second hand smoke. Makes for a wonderful dining experience.

Main reason for this bad review is because of a Thanksgiving Dinner served there this year. Normally I'd just post a negative review on Yelp & Google Maps and forget it. But this experience is too large to explain in those social medial posts. I need more space to vent on this awful dinning experience. All told, it has ruined my excitement of a Thanksgiving meal. Something to which I look forward for an entire year. There's nothing like a good, joyous, and delicious Thanksgiving meal to kick start that holiday spirit within. And because of this horrible event, I actually am not looking forward to another Turkey meal for a long, long time.

A little history about this meal. We had gone to this cafe a few years back and had the most wonderful Thanksgiving meal we have ever eaten at a restaurant. From that first meal, we promised to visit this cafe every Thanksgiving for this special meal. But COVID hit and this cafe stopped serving the Thanksgiving meal. We waited a couple years and low and behold, in 2024 this cafe is once again serving its Thanksgiving turkey meal. We were anticipated going there again and enjoying a wonderful meal.

The first red flag was the price. $16.00 for a complete Thanksgiving meal. Sounds a little on the cheap side, but we figured that this was a special promotion because of Station Casinos is such a large organization, they can afford to give back a little of my money that they take from my gambling hobby.

I'd gone to this casino a few times in 2024 for a quick bite, fast service and decent food. But the quality of the dishes in 2024 kept getting worse and worse. It reached a point where I told myself to stop going there because its just not what it use to be and does not appear to be coming back from the COVID slump.

Here is the skinny on this Thanksgiving turkey meal.

Turkey

Dry... Not freshly cooked... Had that leftover refrigerated taste.. ( you know that taste of meat left uncovered, overnight in the refrigerator )

Gravy

Brown, tasteless watery paste ( what ever happened to real made gravy with dripping and giblets? ) and it was slather upon everything, stuffing, mashed potatoes, turkey...

Mashed Potatoes

Come on, how can you ruin the preparation of such a basic food. No butter flavor, no milk flavor, no salt and pepper, nor any other flavoring...

Stuffing

Stove Top box special, but way to much water. The consistency of this so called stuffing was that of some gooey paste ball. Again it was not special, had no giblets in it. Two bites was all I could handle. Don't get me wrong, I like Stove Top stuffing when it is not prepared by a six year old...

Cranberry Sauce

Fresh out of the can... Unbelievable..

Vegetable

The vegetable was string beans. Okay, I like string beans, buttttt these string beans were room temperature and lather on top with Campbell's mushroom soup, which was also room temp. I can tell you this is a first for me, string beans mixed with mushroom soup. Just could not eat them.

Candied Yams

Okay, this was cooked in house. But they were not candied, just some brown sugar mixed with them. Would have been okay if they would have thoroughly cooked the yams, they were hard on the inside...

Pumpkin Pie

Okay, how can anyone mess this up??? Well they did. The filling tasted okay. The whip cream did not look right so I scooped it of and dared not to try. Here's the kicker. I could tell they actually made this pumpkin pie in house because the bottom of the pie crust was not completely cooked...

And the plate and portions have gotten smaller. Guess that is another reason it was only $16.00...

After thought, for $16.00, I could have bought 4 frozen TV turkey dinners and all 4 would have tasted better than this Thanksgiving meal

And this is my review of the worst Thanksgiving meal I have every tried to eat.

Nokie Says: WTF is happening to this small casino? How does this cafe stay in business?

Nokie Says: Video slots are way too tight. Could not win if your life depended upon it.

Nokie Says: Staff at this casino are great, very nice people and I feel sorry for them having to wok under such conditions.

Nokie Says: All of the above bitching, complaining will not stop us from again trying out this location in a few more months. We live in Henderson and will always support local businesses.

Nokie Says: We'll be back for a drink and some video slots but not to eat another Thanksgiving meal...

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