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So last April my wife and I were able to cross the Shreveport casinos off our bucket list, and this April we're gonna check out the Omaha/Council Bluffs area. The Horseshoe wasn't available, but we were able to get Harrah's comped, so we'll be there from Mar.31 - Apr.4. I requested advice last year about Shreveport, and this board came through big time, so I'm hoping the Council Bluff faithful can do the same!
While this is first and foremost, a gambling trip, I still like to take in the local fare and see any nearby places of interest. I've checked a few sites, but haven't come across any must-see places or restaurants.
We'll rely on Uber for most of the trip but will rent a car for one day. Our plan as of now is to drive up I-29 to Sioux City and visit Blackbird Bend, Winnavegas, and the Hard Rock. If there's a better way to spend a day in the car, I'm open to suggestions, but we do like to visit as many casinos as we can. (I'm not sure we'll hit those smaller casinos in the northern part of Sioux City. They don't seem that appealing.)
So any tips on shuttles between the three casinos, airport transportation, which buffet to try, what perks for Diamond card holders, or a room at Harrah's to request would be appreciated. Thanks if you're still reading, this went longer than expected!
I live just southwest of Omaha and I'm at either the Horseshoe and/or Ameristar about once a week or so.
For gaming, the three are all about the same, but Harrah's is TINY after the remodel. It use to be on a three-story boat but the boat literally wore out and after the rules were changed they moved it all (not really all) into what was their convention and meeting space. I seldom go there.
Horseshoe has taken out many of the machines I like so if I have a free weekend evening I'll often do Ameristar if I want to do a casino. It also seems to be the most busy of the three.
As for buffets, lately Ameristar seems to be the best for food quality, variety, and ambiance. Horseshoe food quality and variety has slipped at the buffet. To say that the ambiance of the Horseshoe Buffet "sucks" is to compliment it. It's wide open and brightly lit, kind of like a high school cafeteria without 2000 kids yelling and throwing things. I have not been to Harrah's buffet for some time.
Horseshoe's redeeming feature is that they have a band on Saturday. Ameristar does too but it's not in the casino so it's not convenient for taking a quick break from gambling every so often.
As for nongaming things to do, Omaha is not exactly a prime tourist destination but I might recommend the zoo and the Western Heritage Museum, both somewhat convenient to the casinos.
Blackbird Bend (nee' Casino Omaha) has been totally re-done since it was under water during the floods a few years back. It's nice but small. There are some machines there you don't see elsewhere. I have not been to Winna Vegas for some time and have not done the HR in Sioux City yet.
Great timing on this post, as I'll be spending a night at Harrahs CB soon on an LA to Chicago drive.
Wondering specifically about comp drinks....ive read that, although Iowa is one of a handful of states that do comp drinks, this is only extended to diamond and 7* players.
How strict are they on this? I am diamond, my gf is not. If we are playing on machines next to each other, will they need to see diamond cards from both of us?
How about the diamond lounge? Are drinks only comp for diamond in there as well, or do non-diamond guests also drink for free?
Thanks dmr! Nice to hear from a local there...and a fellow Counting Crows fan!
We tend to like Aristocrat slots, and their slot finder showed a few hard to find ones at BBB, Winn, and Hard Rock, so we'll check em out. If we wanted a steak, should we stick to the casinos, or venture out to The Drover, Mahogany, or a better option?
Wondering specifically about comp drinks....ive read that, although Iowa is one of a handful of states that do comp drinks, this is only extended to diamond and 7* players.
Diamond lounge at both properties give all benefits to guest also. They also have food available at lunch. Don't know about drinks at slots, I only do table games
Wondering specifically about comp drinks....ive read that, although Iowa is one of a handful of states that do comp drinks, this is only extended to diamond and 7* players.
They CLAIM that it's illegal to do free drinks in Iowa but any idiot who aspires to one day become a moron can easily see that's total bovine doodoo! Diamond and above get them at Horseshoe and the equivalent level (I'm far from it) at Ameristar does too. They occasionally have free drink evenings but not recently.
LOL, far be it from me to try anything like this, but a cow-orker (who is Gold but wife is Diamond) CLAIMS to get free drinks at the bar with his wife's card and CLAIMS he has never been questioned or carded. I do know they card comps quite often as a couple weeks ago I did a buffet with points (I am Platinum) and they carded me at the time.
I am diamond, my gf is not. If we are playing on machines next to each other ...
I've been as a guest a number of times. They swipe both of your cards when you enter the lounge, then it's AYCE and AYCD while in there. The food is hit and miss but sometimes it's very good. They will not let you carry a drink in or out of the lounge.
Drover is very good. Ditto with Anthony's, a couple of miles south of Drover on 72nd. However (comma) from a local perspective, the best steaks (and very reasonable in price) are at some of these hole-in-the-wall steakhouses in those don't-blink-or-miss-it small towns just outside the metro area. Pink Poodle in Crescent IA (google it) is maybe 10 minutes away from the casinos via the expressway and has excellent steaks and prime rib. Farmer Brown's in Waterloo, NE (google it) is even better and is probably a 40 minute drive from the casinos (use I-80 to I-480 to the Dodge expressway).
Checked out The Pink Poodle and it looks right up our alley (good variety for the wife, prime rib for me), plus we pass it coming back from Sioux City.
Do you have any experience with a place called The Diner in the Old Market District? It's supposed to have some amazing bacon. We like bacon.
At Horseshoe - you can take drinks out of the Diamond lounge, you will be limited to a drink every 20/30 minutes at the machines. As mentioned earlier, a guest will need to present a TR card to enter the Diamond lounge. The Omaha zoo has been rated the #1 zoo in the world.
Have stayed at Harrahs a couple of times in the last few years. Regular rooms are comfortable enough with fridge and coffee maker. I think the only difference is that the premium rooms have a (genuinely pretty nice) view of Omaha and the Missouri river. Might be worth it for a longer stay.
Casino is small. Tag bar is a fairly fun place. Diamond lounge is small but comfortable. Diamond and above get free drinks in both Council Bluffs casinos. And you can place a drink order from the machine you are playing.
The buffet at Harrahs is uneven but cheap. Last meal there was good. Have not tried either the steakhouse or snack bar. Buffet at Horseshoe is bigger and better. So is their Diamond lounge. Shuttle will take you back and forth for free and runs about every half hour. Have actually had good luck at Horseshoe and the casino there is bigger and better
Downtown Omaha is pretty cool for just walking around. The zoo is great and have heard good things about the brewery and their beers.
People are just super nice here and want to take care of you so, if you aren't an ass, you should have fun!
We love it at Harrah's CB. We always stay there (The Horsehshoe has hotels around it which the casino uses) -- as said, the rooms are decent sized, comfortable, and clean. The shuttle runs every half hour between the properties, and it's only about a seven minute drive. Horseshoe is quite a bit bigger, and drink service we've found to be good at both. We enjoy the cafe at Harrah's, and although we've not been to the steakhouse upstairs, we've had many tell us it's very good.
I second the zoo and Old Market for things to do. Have fun!
I had initially planned to give a detailed report about our trip to Council Bluffs and thank those in this thread for the great information, but I kept putting it off and putting it off and before I knew it, it's almost June. I'm truly sorry about that. To make up, here's an abridged version.
Hotel
We stayed at Harrah's - 2 queen, non-smoking. Check-in was a breeze and the Atrium is very welcoming and clean.
Room was very acceptable, nothing extraordinary but certainly not a dive. We were on the 2nd floor facing the river with a direct view of the Stir Cove outdoor stage and Omaha in the background.
The parking lot did have a Diamond/Seven Stars area that could only be reached by swiping a card you got from the Diamond Lounge. Speaking of which...
Diamond Lounge
We've been to just about every Diamond Lounge in the country (still need to hit Reno, Tahoe, Ak-Chin, and Southern Cali), and I was very impressed with both Diamond Lounges in Council Bluffs. I realize most, if not all, lounges prepare meals on a nightly basis, but local Diamond members here get a calendar at the beginning of each month with menus for the entire month mapped out. Offerings are buffet style and I believe there was a salad bar as well. And if you just want to pick rather than have a full meal, there's a popcorn machine, cookies, and an ice cream machine. There was also a self-serve drink station with sodas, coffee, etc. The bartender at Harrah's was fantastic, while the service at the Horseshoe was ok. My only real gripes with either lounge would be a poor beer selection/lower shelf spirits plus the fact we couldn't enter the casino with our drinks at Harrah's.
Casino
I thought my local casino (Harrah's Cherokee Valley River) was small, but Harrah's Council Bluffs' casino is TINY. The slots were mostly older with a few of the newer Aristocrat games (Game of Thrones, Buffalo Grand). There weren't many tables, but they did have Pai-Gow so I parked it there for while. There were also two VP bars, the TAG bar (below) at the front and then a smaller one in the back corner.
The Horseshoe was much larger and had a much bigger crowd. Things got lively over at the Whiskey Roadhouse, but unfortunately, the WSOP was in town and took up most of the space. So much for live entertainment! Again, the slot selection was older, but they did have the new Zorro, which gave me one of my few winning sessions. As you can see, the Horseshoe is pretty roomy.
The best selection was actually at the Ameristar, but there was just too much of a crowded, smoky riverboat vibe here. We were happy to finally play the new Elvira game, and it's a freaking riot! Definitely play it if you get a chance! Harrah's shuttle ran like clockwork and we had the pleasure of one the more colorful drivers (I think his name was Ed), who had no problem arguing with over-served riders.
Food
With the exception of one night, we ended up playing through dinner time and not eating until everything was closed except for Backstage Grill. The reviews for this place weren't that great, but we thought it was excellent for a 24/7 grill. The charbroiled buffalo wings were tasty, as were the patty melt and hot dogs. I wish I had tried the 360 Steakhouse, but I was fine with Backstage. I did, however, get a picture of the view from the 360 restaurant.
I'll post again (soon) with a report about Omaha, Sioux City, and the casinos in between.
If memory serves correct, the awesome bartender's name at the Harrah's Diamond Lounge was Paula. And there was an older patron there who was apparently a fixture there named Lucy that we really enjoyed talking to.
Omaha
Being in Georgia, we really don't hear too much about Omaha. When I think of Omaha, I think steaks, Creighton basketball, and Wild Kingdom with Marlin Perkins. So I didn't really know what to expect. Well it turns out that Omaha is much more interesting than anticipated, and the people are extremely friendly. I felt like I was still in the South! We hit the Old Market District our first day there and loved it so much we returned two days later. The first go-round we had to try this famous bacon at The Diner.
It's a tiny establishment that stayed packed. The above photograph was taken at the only time there wasn't a line outside. I got the bacon cheeseburger and a chili while wifey got some breakfast special with a little of everything. Both meals were outstanding, and the bacon was possibly the best we ever tasted. From the picture below, you can tell how small it was.
Don't let the long wait deter you! The Diner is worth it! Afterwards, we did the tourist thing and checked out the Underground Passageway and being a huge music fan, I was pleased to find a couple solid record stores. I even found an old Joy Division shirt I'd been looking for at a place called Drastic Plastic.
Then we got ice cream at a kitschy shop called Ted & Wally's. The ice cream was ok, but the origami decor was pretty cool.
Our second trip to Old Market was more about beer. We hit the Upsteam Brewery, which I have to give props to irishdave and dmr for, as not just the beer, but the food was excellent as well. I told our waiter I wasn't much of a hophead, so he brought a Firehouse Red to the table that went really well with the pretzel cheese curds.
Here's the inside:
Next stop was the Omaha Taphouse where we spent most of Happy Hour sampling a few of the taps you see below:
And this wasn't even all of them...
With my favorite being the Devastator Double Bock
Beer porn's a thing, right?
I'll wrap up on my next post with Blackbird Bend, Winnavegas, Hard Rock Sioux City, as well as the highlight of the trip (and it wasn't in the casino)!
I would advise against the Pink Poodle. I pass through Omaha often. Over the years PP has slowly declined in value and quality. And I say this with remorse, because they used to be one of those great whole in the wall gems. A couple of months ago I dined with relatives and our waitress used a walker half the time that night!
Sullivans in downtown Omaha would be a great meal.
Ya know, as long as I have lived here (30-some years) I can never recall that Diner ever appearing to be open, let alone packed. (Hours?) Really. I will pay more attention. I'm not in the Market area regularly and the times I've been have usually been on weekend evenings.
We hit the Upsteam Brewery, which I have to give props to irishdave and dmr for, as not just the beer, but the food was excellent as well. I told our waiter I wasn't much of a hophead, so he brought a Firehouse Red
The significance of the "Firehouse Red" label is that the building that houses the original Upstream Brewery was originally a firehouse.
The view above (ca. 2008) shows the original fire truck doors.
When I moved here, the building housed the Firehouse Dinner Theater, which featured semi-professional stage productions and a singing server troupe known as the Firehouse Brigade. The last performance I remember seeing there was Driving Miss Daisy and the theater closed quite abruptly IIRC.
Alas, some "Improvements and Updates" that blogger made broke the full-size images on several of the pages and I have not figured out how to fix it without reloading all of the images, which is a project for some long rainy Thursday.
We may have to agree to disagree on that! I've been there recently, multiple times, and it's always been great. I will admit that the prices seem to have gone up over the past 5 years or so, but the food has been as good as ever. The steaks and prime rib there put all of the newer contemporary "ala carte" steak places to shame, and the prices are still lower.
In between days to the Old Market District, we wanted to check out the other casinos in the area. So we headed north on I-29 to Onawa where Blackbird Bend is hidden way out in B.F.E. We seriously abandoned all semblance of civilization and trusted the GPS to locate this paradise among the pastures. After several miles off the exit, we eventually dead ended into our destination.
I wouldn't call Blackbird Bend a dive, but it's very remote and small. The cars you see in the picture must've been for the employees because we were two of maybe five customers in the place. But it did have some games my wife wasn't able to find elsewhere like Sons of Anarchy and Icarus the Journey, and I was happy to find Monster Jackpots. There were a handful of tables, but as you can see below, there wasn't a whole lot of action.
And let's not forget the poker room....err table.
I'm a player's card collector with ambitions to one day place them all under a glass coffee table for the Man Cave, so we signed up for the card, played for about an hour, and headed north. It was nearing lunchtime so we stopped off in Sloan and found the B & R Pizza Post.
Despite being a "pizza post," the menu had a wide variety of stuff, including this broasted chicken that I heard so much about. While I'm usually a sucker for regional favorites, I skipped the broasted chicken and split a pizza with the wife.
We swear we did not order extra cheese...
Somewhere under that sea of cheese lies pepperoni, mushrooms, and sausage...not that we tasted any of those toppings. The crust had a cardboard thing going as well, so not the best pizza. I should've went with the broasted chicken after all!
Our next stop was Winnavegas, which like Blackbird Bend, was off the beaten path, but that's where their similarities ended. Winnavegas is an actual resort, complete with hotel, golf pro shop, bingo hall, events center, etc.
The gaming floor was much larger as well and definitely livelier. We didn't play the tables, but did hit a few machines including Walking Dead 2 and the new Betty White (by Bally's, I think). Par for the trip, I did terrible on Betty, but I did see a few people winning and having fun playing it.
If you do go to Winnavegas, make sure you keep going left past the Kasu Cafe towards the Bingo Hall. There's another room full of Multimedia slots before you get to the hall, and there's a decent snack bar in the hall itself. We got a food comp for being new members, but were still full on cardboard and cheese. Fortunately, the snack bar allowed us to use the comp on candy bars and chips to take with us.
Candy and chips were the only thing we won at Winnavegas, but we both agreed we'd play here again, and even stay if offered. So we got back in the rented Hyundai Elantra, which I should give props to the Hertz in Bellevue, NE for a very quick and smooth transaction. I would recommend them whole-heartedly.
Next stop was Sioux City.
The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Sioux City is right off the exit, so easy to find, but not so easy to navigate through (at least at first). It's nestled in what appears to be a nice, mixed-use area that's still being developed. Anywho, we finally found a parking spot not too far from this entrance:
The Hard Rock was our first near-Vegas experience (if that makes any sense). The lights, the noises, and all the action were there along with games we were more accustomed to seeing. We had previously used the Aristocrat slot finder, so my wife knew this would be her only chance this trip to play Britney (which seems to be fading out). I finally got to play the new Breaking Bad machine, which took my $100 faster than any other machine this trip (which is saying something)! Tired of losing, I spent the rest of my time at the $0.25 DDB. No picture worthy hands were dealt.
We said goodbye to the Hard Rock and I took one more shot of the exterior:
So we headed back south towards Council Bluffs to what my wife and I both consider the absolute highlight of the trip. I know, it's not ideal when you go on a gambling trip to six different casinos in three days and the best part of the trip was DINNER. But thanks to an excellent experience at the Pink Poodle, that's how this trip went down.
The Pink Poodle is a hidden gem in the tiny town of Crescent, Iowa just north of Council Bluffs. From the outside, you wouldn't know if this was a dive, or a steakhouse.
The interior doesn't really scream out super-fancy awesome steak dinner either:
But an awesome steak dinner is what we got. For not a bad price at all, we were served a very good ham and bean soup, a salad with five choices of dressings, a meat, and a potato. I ordered the much talked about prime rib and my wife got the filet:
All prime ribs I have from this point forward will now be compared to the Pink Poodle. In my 45 years of carnivorous habits, I can't recall a better prime rib than this one. While I was raving about my prime rib, my wife was having the same experience with her filet. We've been to several steakhouses on the Strip and she said this was "the best steak I ever had." (That's a direct quote.)
So a HUGE thank you to dmr for recommending an excellent steak somewhere in middle America!!!
And that wraps up my first Omaha experience. While I don't think Omaha will join our every year rotation with Vegas, AC, and the Gulf Coast, we definitely intend to come back hopefully sooner than later. The area, the people, the Diamond Lounges, and the Pink Poodle are just too good to only see once! I just hope that trip report will come with at least ONE win worthy of posting! Thanks to everyone for reading!
I've been there recently, multiple times, and it's always been great. I will admit that the prices seem to have gone up over the past 5 years or so, but the food has been as good as ever. The steaks and prime rib there put all of the newer contemporary "ala carte" steak places to shame, and the prices are still lower.
Well as you can tell from reading above, this was the experience we had. Again, thank you for recommending the Poodle! And thanks for the history lesson as well! I don't recall The Diner hours, but we went on a Saturday morning around 10:45. It's typical diner fare, but the brown sugar they add to their bacon really does make it special.
where Blackbird Bend is hidden way out in B.F.E. We seriously abandoned all semblance of civilization and trusted the GPS to locate this paradise among the pastures. After several miles off the exit, we eventually dead ended into our destination.
Blackbird Bend (nee' Casino Omaha) has kind of an interesting history.
When native gaming was legalized in Iowa, the Omaha tribe had some unused legacy tribal land on the east side of the Missouri River, legally in Iowa, and built Casino Omaha, what was once considered to be the classiest casino in the Midwest. For several years in the 1980s and 1990s it was the Tribal Gold Mine, literally! It was PACKED day and night. This was, of course, prior to "civilian" gaming being legalized in Iowa. They were technically in competition with WinnaVegas (see below) but there was more than enough business to go around.
The only problem with Casino Omaha is that the native land is waaaayyyyyy out in the toolies, on a flood plain with little connection to the rest of the world. You noticed the serpentine trek from the highway to the casino and the awkward turn from the long-standing curve in the county road to the road that leads to the casino. That road was the best and only way to connect that tribal exclave to the rest of the world via paved roads.
You may also have noticed on the way back that the road approaches, but does not connect to I-29. During the heyday, they had plans (dreams?) of financing an interchange at that location to make more of a direct connection from the highway to the casino.
Then Iowa legalized "civilian" gaming in the form of floating full-service casinos and landlocked racinos. Two of the former and one of the latter were quickly constructed in southwest Council Bluffs, a stone's throw away from downtown Omaha.
Business at Casino Omaha tanked overnight!
They then thought that the saving grace was to build a full-service truck stop at the casino and cash in on the countless truckers who traversed I-29. They built this directly south of the casino on the south side of the dead-end road. The idea was to attract the truckers with cheap fuel, cheap food at the buffet, and, of course, some machine and table action during their dinner break.
The only problem was that truckers, who are usually paid by the mile and thus by time, had no desire to drive five miles from the highway through a twisty little maze of roads to spend an hour or so off the clock futzing around with penny slots and such! Needless to say, the truck stop majorly laid an egg! It remained (hold that thought) for a while and served as the bait of a cheap fill-up for the remaining local-area gaming customers.
You can see the remains of the truck stop as you exit the casino parking lot. That is if you really look for it. Not much survived.
Then the race track came. Auto racing of some sort. I never figured out what type, but I learned the hard way not to call it "drag" racing as the track is oval and not straight. The track still exists behind the main (new, only) casino building. Racing never really caught on.
Then the Great Flood of 2011 hit! (You may now release that thought.)
The view above is not Casino Omaha, nor a swimming pool, but the north parking lot of the Ameristar in Council Bluffs. We can assume that the entire Casino Omaha grounds was similar.
They did eventually rebuild and rebadged the thing Blackbird Bend, the name of the bend in the river just to the west.
I wouldn't call Blackbird Bend a dive, but it's very remote and small. The cars you see in the picture must've been for the employees because we were two of maybe five customers in the place.
The new casino is smaller than the original Casino Omaha. It does a fair business on weekend evenings and a so-so business on weekday evenings.
The buffet is small and "ok" but nothing to go out of your way for, and to get there at any time by any means is indeed going out of your way.
Our next stop was Winnavegas, which like Blackbird Bend, was off the beaten path, but that's where their similarities ended. Winnavegas is an actual resort, complete with hotel, golf pro shop, bingo hall, events center, etc.
The big advantage WinnaVegas has is that it's an easy straight shot (mile or so?) directly west of the highway. It's also much closer to the Sioux City metro area.
The Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska (no connection to Winnebago motor homes and shirt-tail related to the Winnebago Tribe of Wisconsin) had some legacy tribal land that straddled the Nebraska-Iowa border. If you stand outside WinnaVegas on the west side and drive a golf ball westward, it will sail into land that's politically in Nebraska but geographically on the Iowa side of the river. The casino is, of course, east of the border.
WinnaVegas began as a quonset hut with slot machines just after Iowa legalized native gaming. It expanded aggressively during the 1980s and early 1990s heyday.
WinnaVegas survived the advent of civilian gaming far better than did Casino Omaha and now dwarfs it, both in size and in patronage.
