By Linda Jones
Shamrock Cafe
The Shamrock Café in Fitzgeralds Casino is predictable – predictably good, filling dishes, friendly service and reliable that will keep bringing you back again and again. Since Fitzgeralds opened on Main Street, the Shamrock has not altered appreciably. Why mess with a winning formula? Diners return because the variety of choices fills our needs – from quick and light to hearty and filling.
The Shamrock is cozy, with three dining areas. The servers are uniformly quick to fill diners’ drinks and well trained. The menu has been tweaked over the years but the appetizers, salads, soups, sides and entrées are all popular.
My companion ordered his favorite for lunch – the leek soup, which is warm and filling. The bowl this is served in can only be described as gargantuan, and he followed with another of his favorites, the BLT. I know from experience the soup alone fills me up, so I ordered a salad, with no regrets. These greens were fresh and crisp. For my entrée I chose the fettuccini with Italian sausage. This was a new dish for me and I’ll order it again. The marinara was wonderful – studded with veggies – and the sausage was spicy – yum.
Canyon Grille
The Canyon Grille in the Canyon Casino is full of comfort food favorites and everyone in the place is helpful and pleasant. Breakfast is served all day, but we had a hankering for Mexican food and ordered a chicken Verde burrito and chiles rellenos. We were privileged to have Alex as our server. He recommended the Hungarian goulash soup on the soup and salad bar, and his taste buds rang true – it was flavorful and tasty. Friends had passed along recommendations for the Canyon’s juicy burgers, crisp fries and green chili. The green chili was a great recommendation and my burrito was surprisingly filling with large chunks of white meat. A confession – we found room to sample the fries and they’re winners.
We learned from Alex that the daily soup on Friday, Saturday and Sunday is always their popular French onion, but weekday soups are varied, but always homemade. The Monday, Wednesday, Friday special lunches in April will be smoked burgers on Mondays, pulled pork sandwiches on Wednesdays and choice of shrimp or chicken stir-fry on Fridays, all for a mere $2.99 with a Canyon card.
We all but licked the plate under the chocolate cake. The cake was as buttery as Alex had promised, accented by not one but two mounds of whipped cream, one topped with caramel sauce, the other with a dark cherry sauce, and the cake frosting was creamy yet light.
Riviera Buffet
The Riviera Buffet in the Riviera Casino offers the ultimate in a wide choice of good food at a reasonable cost. The dining room is airy and soaring and the buffet offers carefully seasoned entrées and sides. The salad bar is huge, with lots of appealing choices, and the selection of soups is always enticing. The day we dined the ham, sausage & pepper soup tempted us and was every bit as good as it sounded.
The American buffet displayed traditional entrées and sides plus some unexpected dishes such as Brussels sprouts in cheese sauce and wild rice and mushrooms. The serving station featured a juicy pork roast and the grilled-food buffet along the back offered several choices, including the crisp fried onion rings my companion raved about.
The Asian buffet has remained a popular choice all these years because it offers well-prepared perennial favorites. The rich and satisfying entrées, sides and sauces here lure diners back time and time again. The dessert buffet displays every possibility imaginable – cakes, puddings, cobblers, pies and a variety of mouth-watering pastries. My ice-cream loving companion topped his cherry pie with a tall tower of ice cream and declared we have to come back soon.
