Hacienda Hotel and Casino In Boulder City Is A Fun Place For Locals

Click Right Mouse Button On Pic And Choose "Play" From The Menu To View The Slide Show

EDITORIAL UPDATE 05/03/2013:

Due to a review of current reviews of this property and recent personal bad experiences with the staff, I can no longer recommend the Hacienda Hotel to anyone for gaming, food, or lodging. I have kept the original blog entry below intact and will be updating my review on Yelp.

If I had only depended on reading the Yelp reviews, I would never have come here. But it does overlook Lake Mead and is near Hoover Dam. And I have always found the staff (especially the cocktail waitresses) to be friendly and courteous. And, big bonus for me, the food is very reasonable and mostly very good. And there are raft tours of the Colorado River that originate here. Also, for a price you can walk a short distance from the hotel and ride a helicopter to view the lake and beyond, including the Grand Canyon.

I have never stayed here, but I would imagine a room on the top floor of the tower would yield a wonderful view of the lake. Maybe we will do this over New Year's, since the room rates are so reasonable !

There is even a modern movie theater with two screens on the premises, so unusual for a small property.

There is free live music entertainment every Wednesday thru Saturday night. The quality of the entertainment is often surprisingly good, since some quality bands tour here from Arizona and California. Two fully stocked bars exist, one on each end of the casino, for those who care enough to pay for their drinks. (I never do.)

The casino is small, but has an interesting variety of slot and penny games and live gaming for a place of its size. The gaming club ( called the Matador club ) is quite generous, offering both free play and points for food, gifts and gasoline ( gas station is across the street ). I am not a big gambler, but on occasion I have accumulated enough points for a free buffet, with not that much expenditure.

So, Yelp is a good thing to read for pointers, but the way you experience a place is greatly colored by your expectations and tastes. After all, this is not the Bellagio. If the only reason I ever went to the Hacienda Hotel & Casino was to enjoy the fine dining at the Hacienda Steakhouse that would be enough for me. A good meal there, followed by a relaxing scenic drive through the Lake Mead National Recreation Area ( I have a lifetime pass ): that would be enough for me !

Personal Ad: Local Henderson Couple Looking For A Nice Meal Deal

My wife and I went over to the local Henderson Sunset Station Casino late yesterday morning with the idea of eating brunch. We had not eaten there for at least a year. My wife, who is a nurse, had a particularly brutal work week, and we were looking for a place to just sit and relax. My usual habit is to drop my wife off at the door closest to the cafe and then self park since the parking lot adjacent had plenty of available spaces.

As soon as I pulled up to the curb, I noticed that there was a sign for Coco's Restaurant. I thought: here is another example of a disturbing trend where the locals casinos have relinquished the management of their "cafes" ( I am old, and say things like "coffee shops" and luncheonettes :-) to national restaurant chains. So I called the casino from the curb to ask if they still had anything other than Coco's where we could order brunch. They verified that there was only a Coco's, and so my immediate thought was why should I eat at their Coco's when there are Coco's all over Henderson and The Vegas Valley ? So as I am talking to the hotel operator this bicycle riding security guard who looks like he could be an extra as a Nazi in some WWII movie, is tapping on my window ordering me to move out of the "fire zone". WOOPS ! Welcome mat is pulled out from under our feet --- and we drive away somewhat dismayed by the lack of their customer appreciation. No wonder these properties are always struggling...

Anyway, we drove a very short distance from the shadow of the immense Sunset Station sign, to the relatively tiny Gold Rush casino located just off Sunset & Marks. When we arrived there, conveniently parking within a few steps of the entrance, the small cafe was empty: no wait, friendly staff, decent prices, and as it turned out really good food. A bonus: low cigarette smoke levels because the casino was also relatively sparse of patrons before the Friday evening crowds arrived.

I enjoyed their Huevos Rancheros, and my wife had a really nice baked salmon meal, all for less than $20. I would advise going there when it is not too crowded; we just happened to hit their property at the right time and we enjoyed a nice relaxing meal together.

---

Recent Restaurant Finds

My wife and I love to find new places for breakfast, as we often travel to the nearby towns within a 100 mile radius of Vegas. We have written about this topic in the past, but are always on the lookout for unique ( and good ) places to eat breakfast or brunch.

Recently, we have found a couple more that we would like to recommend:

• DonKats Red & White Diner --- this place is perfectly located just off the "Highway To Pahrump" which makes it convenient for breakfast before we travel there, great food in an authentic 50's diner setting !!
• Southwest Diner --- this has become our favorite place to eat when we visit Boulder City !! You have to try it to appreciate it !
• Las Vegas' third Hash House location at the "M" Resort oh so close to where we live! When they build it ( opening early October 2010 ) we will definitely come!

Would be interested to hear from other Henderson and Vegas locals with their stories about favorite places to eat breakfast and brunch. We used to go to the Casino Monte Lago at The Lakes Resort, and we really miss it ! ( Comments can not be anonymous. Sorry, I had to up the security to prevent endless spam :)...

---

So, who knew ? Wildfire gaming, which manages the Gold Rush amongst other casinos is now owned by Station Casinos. A case of the big fish eating up the smaller fish? BTW and speaking of eating (!),with a player's card, the Gold Rush has a great burger meal deal: 1/2 lb. Burger with Fries & Drink for $4.99 :)

In Search Of Breakfast In Henderson

That free meal deal at Denny's on Tuesday advertised during the Superbowl did not really motivate me and my wife to run out and join the chow lines at the Fiesta Casino. But it got the lizard part of my brain thinking about food, sex, clothing and shelter --- you know, the kinds of survival things that lizard minds think of constantly, but at my age like Homer Simpson I think mostly about food and my favorite meal: BREAKFAST!. I am not going to blather about stocking water, weapons, or "Meals Ready To Eat" - yuk ! Or an alternate energy source off the power grid. What I am talking about today is why the f--k there aren't any really good and reasonably priced breakfast places in Henderson ( except the ones that my good readers will now suggest to me ! ). I mean, beyond the fast food places and the lower priced greasy spoons, there has to be a clean place ( with an A+ health rating !)that has meals reasonably priced ( maybe $20-$30 max for two people ? ), carefully prepared, with quality ingredients and great service? --- but not that expensive that you can only eat there on special occasions ( which I realize would be different for different budgets ). My apologies go out up front to the fortunate people that don't care how much they spend for a meal; and also especially to the growing numbers of unfortunate people who have succumbed to the current great recession-depression-"end of society as we know it", and can barely feed their family at home. I've been down and out myself during a few job layoffs in my life and I sincerely empathise with you.

Rather than listing all the places in Henderson that I have had breakfast and the reasons why I was disappointed and won't go back, I will merely list some places that I think meet all my criteria. There are none in Henderson. An exception would be the Tenuta Cafe at the Casino MonteLago at Lake Las Vegas. And maybe a few Mexican restaurants that serve Huevos Al Gusto that I have not tried yet. There are a few good places in Vegas like the Peppermill ( which I have not visited for years), but lately the prices have gone up and the deals in the hotels are almost non-existent. I've heard some good things about the Hash House (none in Henderson), have you tried it?

In my travels outside the borders of this valley, to towns within 60 miles of Vegas, I have found wonderful places that I wish were located on Horizon Ridge ( here in Henderson ). They have reasonably priced and carefully prepared breakfasts with great service that makes you want to return often. And we do, every time we travel there on my wife's business. Of course, these establishments would not survive in a lower populated area unless they created traffic and return customers. And, of course, most likely the rents for these places are lower, which theoretically makes it easier to pass the savings to the customer. Which makes me think why the higher quality local restaurants are failing: maybe people, both struggling and well-healed, are eating at McDonald's, Denny's and any place they can get a deal regardless of the quality. But, in these uncertain economic times, do you blame them?

Some Out-Of-Town Restaurants I Wish Were On Horizon Ridge In Henderson :-)

All highly recommended ...

Overton - Sugar's Home Plate

Pahrump - The Pahrump Cafe - no review available, but trust me, it's good and worth the drive !

Boulder City - World Famous Coffee Cup

A Couple Of Ho-Hum Offers From The Fiesta Henderson

Well, maybe we will use them ...

Also, I don't agree with the Las Vegas Review Journal poll of best breakfast places in Vegas. I don't like the IHOP or The Original Pancake House. Maybe a topic for a future blog post :-)