| rev:text
| - Two-and-a-half years ago, I reviewed the MGM Grand Detroit in honor of Issue 3 allowing casinos in Ohio. Now with Cleveland's casino finally open, it's time to see how our city stacks up. Overall, I think Horseshoe Cleveland does the best it can with limited space and other restrictions and is a welcome improvement over many of the casinos in the region.
FOOD - In brief, the 2nd floor food court is overpriced: $13 for a Corky & Lenny's corned beef sandwich, $9.50 for a Rosie & Rocco's sub with 3 rather plain, regular-sized meatballs, and $5.50 for a NY-style slice of pizza from the same. Add to that the sparse available seating, and I wouldn't recommend the food court for workday lunchers looking for a place to sit down. Don't expect Las Vegas quality and selection from The Spread buffet in the basement, but it's miles above Presque Isle's pathetic attempt, arguably better than Seneca Allegheny's Thunder Mountain Buffet, but not as impressive as Palette Dining Studio at MGM Grand Detroit. The Sunday brunch ($22, including my iced tea) had the usual brunch buffet fare and was disappointing except for the bacon carving station and the Asian station with some decent fried rice, char su pork, and General Tso's chicken. Dinner ($24) had the heaviest food, but again, nothing remarkable. Like most buffets, you leave thinking about how much you ate rather than any particular item you had. The exception may be lunch ($14), which offers a decent value. Judging by the line to get in, many senior citizens of Cleveland agree, so expect to wait a bit unless you have a Diamond or Seven Stars Total Rewards card. The lunch offerings were similar to, but a bit lighter, than dinner, with one of the stations offering sandwiches and wraps instead of entrées.
CASINO - Structurally, I love the first floor with the big columns and large chandeliers, all adding a touch of classic elegance rarely exhibited in casinos. There are 6 craps tables with limits I've seen as low as $10 and as high as $50, usually settling on $25 at peak times and $15 off-peak. All the craps tables offer the major benefit of 100x odds, though you won't usually see anyone putting more than double odds behind the line. The tables are almost always full--the dealers need to start making room for those looking to play by moving the folks who are only spectating. The first floor also has some carnival games--3 and 4 Card Poker, Mississippi Stud, and Ultimate Texas Hold 'Em--along with blackjack (Hit Soft 17), which were all at $15 limits during non-peak times. The rest of the first floor is filled with plenty of 1¢ and 2¢ video slots. I spotted 10 very popular Quick Hit penny slots and some traditional $1 slots with terribly low progressives of $2,500 and $1,000.
The less impressive second floor looks fairly ordinary by comparison and is packed with machines. Again, lots of 1¢ and 2¢ slots, but also some Blazing 7's and similar variants with $2,500 progressives at 25¢ and $10,000 at $1. 8 25¢ Wheel of Fortune slots were very popular and continually occupied. Video poker is on the second floor, though all pay schedules were under a 98% return. There are tons of single-line VP machines: 25¢ 6-5 Bonus Poker (96.87% return), 20-12-10-4 Deuces Wild (97.58%), 8-5 Jacks or Better (97.30%), a row of 8-5 JoB Sequential Royal progressives (97.53%), 8-5 Double Double Bonus (96.79%), and $1 9-5 Triple Double Bonus (97.02%). Multi-play VP is tucked into a corner: 5, 10, and 25¢ 6-5 JoB and Bonus Poker Super Times Pay (95.26% and 97.14%), 3 50-play 6-5 STP machines, as well as 2 popular 100 play STP and 3 Double STP machines that I couldn't get a look at. Finally, the table games on the second floor mostly had limits at $25 with the addition of 2 mini-baccarat and 2 pai gow poker tables. Blackjack is still "Hit Soft 17" except for the $100 tables in the high limit room that did not permit mid-shoe entry (though one dealer said the table could vote). The high limit room also had slots ranging from $5 to $500, VP at $5 and $10, and 3 STP $1 machines. I liked the fact that the high limit room had at least a little bit of daylight peeking through the closed curtains along the perimeter walls.
The top floor has a 30 table WSOP-branded poker room with games and waiting lists conveniently accessible via the Bravo Poker Live app. The Diamond Lounge has some of the nicest furnishings I've seen among VIP rooms--better than the MGM Grand Detroit's Platinum lounge and even the Diamond lounge at Caesar's Palace. Unfortunately, the lounge does not have its own bathrooms and, due to Ohio law, the bar inside still can't comp alcoholic drinks.
I've tried to cram a lot into 5,000 characters, but the bottom line is that I found Horseshoe Cleveland (pleasantly smoke-free, by the way) better than Presque Isle, Seneca Alleghany, and even MGM Grand Detroit. I would still rank it below Harrah's New Orleans and the Atlantic City and Las Vegas casinos I've visited.
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