Horseshoe Hammond Casino

The Horseshoe is okay, if you're into that sort of thing.

Depending on the time of day (or night) you go, who's working, and how lazy the cocktail waitresses plan to be that night, you can either have a great time or walk away broke and pissed at the lack of service you received.

Their cocktail "Ambassador" program needs to be shut down. It's impossible to get a drink on a friday or saturday night.

That said, this place is probably the most Vegas-like casino in the midwest. Whether that's a good or bad thing I'll let you decide.

Gambling was one of the few vices I didn't pick up. Why am I here? Sunday A.M. breakfast buffet. I was looking to stop in a bar on 106th St. that was a couple blocks from Indiana. It wasn't open, I had nothong better to do, so I headed east with no particular place to go.
   Horseshoe Casino. Close by. All casinos have food. Winner, winner...
   The staff is great. Other than the hideous bad acid trip inspired butterfly man emerging from a lotus statue in the front of the place, the room is beautiful, the buffet is extensive with mult-cultural sections as well as the carving & omelette stations, and there's a nice northern view of the Marina of Degenerate Gamblers.
   To get to the buffet you do have to traverse the roomful of glazed-eyed people slumped over or passed out at the slots but it's only 10:00 A.M. So nobody's passed out on the floor yet. There's also virtually no one in the buffet at this hour to bar your way to overindulgent eating.
   The salad bar selections were pretty light but I doubt that most here are concerned with their general health. The greens were crisp, there were eight dressings, and the additives were a decent general selection.
   The Italian station had a good subtle cold sweet & sour mushroom salad, great moist meatballs in scratch made tomato sauce with flat leaf parsley, and a good warm spicy Italian sausage salad with bell peppers & onions. The shrimp alfredo was flat and although the shrimp were cooked properly the orichiette were a little over done.
   The Latin station was a bummer. Fortunately it wasn't designated to a specific country so that a whole region could equally share blame for the quality of the food. Commercial guacamole, burnt refried beans, bland taco meat, and under seasoned (although relatively moist) pork loin. As for the beans the burnt part is something you find a lot of, not necessarilly burnt to the Be Jesus, but the faintly detected burnt that comes from not watching a pot of a very thick mixture closely enough.
   The Middle eastern items were hit or miss. The calamari were slightly rubbery but still crisp, delicately seasoned, and surprisingly unf*cked up for this type of food on a buffet. The lamb with garbanzo beans was a little dry but flavorful with a nice bite of cinnamon in the sauce. The skordalia was a sledgahammer to the palate of lemonized puree, something that could possibly turn your head inside out. I'm drawing a blank here for the dish's name but the spinach and puff pastry, while suffering a touch from sitting under the lamps was still rich and the crust miraculously still retained a lot of it's texture and hadn't become spinach-logged. Words fail me for the flavor of the baba ghanoush. Insect repellant comes to mind.
   Asian station. The kimchee and seaweed salads were pretty good, very subtly seasoned seaweed, but the edamame was wrinkled like post bathtub skin, and the eggrolls could've been used the same way you'd use a roll of quarters in a fist fight.
   Great ribs with tender meat that still had the right tug to it and a nice KC style BBQ sauce and good bitter greens with a hint of honey. The mac n' cheese was srerviceable with al dente pasta, the steamed broccoli was perfect, and the biscuits with pepper gravy were light and the pepper in the gravy bit but didn't overwhelm.
   I was too cashed in for omelettes and this review is too long for a room description.
   Eugenia was a doll. Great service, promptly removing empty plates, and little touches like placing a napkin over my beer glass while I was at the buffet. Now, off to Crowbar.

There's a fine line between the Horseshoe Hammond Casino's multiparous "free casino shuttles" and kidnapping. Let's compare our potential fates:

Horseshoe: Poor to non-existent cell phone signal.
Kidnapper: Contacts your family at no charge.

Horseshoe: VIP desk is not staffed
Kidnapper: You are the only VIP.

Horseshoe: Chef-boy-r-deeish buffet may be purchased for $25
Kidnapper: Drops complimentary food down a pipe into your residence.

Horseshoe: Smells like the inside of the Marlboro man's left lung.
Kidnapper: Varies.