Just One More Thing

One more post about WinStar and then I swear I'm finished talking about it. But I do feel compelled to mention our restaurant experience. There are some restaurants in the casino, but the premier place appeared to be The Grill, which is wedged in between the hotel and the casino. A reservation was required and they were fully booked before the show, so we made a reservation for after the show and had a snack to tide us over -- I had burn-the-roof-of-your- mouth southwestern egg rolls and Mark had overpriced ($10.99 for 8) hot wings. This was in the lobby bar/coffee shop area which really didn't offer much selection. In retrospect, we might have been better off to venture into the casino to one of the five or six restaurants there. But we didn't.

After the show, we arrived at The Grill for dinner. At check-in we'd been given cards for a free starter and a free dessert. We ordered the crab cake starter. Austin, our server was so delighted. He remarked that they were out of all starters except for the crab cakes and he was happy that he didn't have to tell us they were out of what we wanted. Well, that was short-lived. Steak was the house specialty and I was looking forward to having a filet. (For me, there is NO other cut of beef.) They were out of filet. In fact they were out of every steak except Ribeye and Porterhouse. That's OK. I'll have shrimp. They were out of shrimp. Actually, they were out of ALL seafood selections except for salmon and sea bass. (Did you guess that these two are not my favorites?)

We were talking about sharing the Porterhouse (there's more than one way to get a filet!) when Austin, let us know that there were only four of those left. Decision made. Porterhouse it is. We ordered a baked potato and mushrooms on the side. Another lucky choice because I heard Austin tell the folks at the table next to ours that they were out of broccoli and asparagus. We had creme brulee for dessert and all the food was excellent - well maybe not the mushrooms - but everything else. Our server was very helpful and personable. My only complaint is that they were out of so much. Whoever does the ordering should be able to check to see how many tickets they've sold to an event, and how many rooms the hotel has booked (sellouts on all counts) and determine how much food should be on hand.

The restaurant is the real loser here. The Porterhouse, (which we shared) was $40. If they hadn't been out of filet, I would have had that at $32 and Mark would have had the Ribeye at $28. Their loss!