Rooms & Gambling Good; Dining & Drinking Bad
Written: Jan 22 '07 (Updated Mar 01 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Good value for the money, large rooms, cosmetically appealing, comfortable.
Cons: Restaurant quality and service lacking, slow check in.
The Bottom Line: The hotel and casino are top-notch for the money, best Downtown, hands down. For dining and drinking, head to the strip.
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| robbiehaf's Full Review: Golden Nugget Hotel And Casino |
My husband and I enjoyed our stay and plan do it again. The Golden Nugget offers a taste of "Old School" Vegas, located Downtown, with a touch of gaudy glamour. You can't beat the value for your money! For dining and drinking, look elsewhere.
Check-in to the hotel was slow, taking about 20 minutes, which is treacherous after 12 hours of travel. There are more staff members at one craps table than there ever are at the front desk. This makes no sense to me... The walk to the South Tower was a little long; no biggie. Security was tight, though, almost always requiring a key card to access the tower.
Our king room was very spacious, beautiful, and quiet. Between the table and 2 chairs, the recliner, and the vanity table, there was certainly enough seating to get comfortable in. The dresser and large closet provided space to unpack everything. Seems the lack of a coffee maker and mini fridge is standard in Vegas, but we did have a full size iron and ironing board. Our biggest problem with the room was the lack of good T.V. (no more than 30 channels, 2 of which are Spanish, 2 Keno, and 2 Vegas info). I know this sounds lame, but at the beginning and end of each day, one would like to have a little in-room entertainment.
The funniest thing about this hotel is that the gold/brass and marble are simply diversions from the fact that the place is falling apart. The switches on all the lamps are faulty, the toilets don't flush properly, the plumbing fixtures are loose and about to fall off. Granted, everything works, but just barely and not for long. I'll bet the entire place is like this.
Misc. room details: Internet access starts at $11 a day, but it was easy to access and a fast connection. Premium movies and erotic films are available for an additional charge, as well. Housekeeping was sufficient, but we did find a number of things in the room belonging to past guests.
The hotel itself is very appealing to the eye - clean, well kept, and fancy. The Tank, the new pool at the Nugget, was a beautiful centerpiece. Being a cold January, it was closed during most of our stay, but the sharks and landscaping were something to stop and look at. My husband was dying to take his turn on the waterslide that runs through the shark tank!
Though we visited many casinos, we always ended up back at the Nugget gambling. We found a few video poker machines that paid well and the drink service was great, except once it got busier on Saturday night.
Dining and drinking were hit and miss, mostly miss. We heard a lot of rave reviews about The Buffet at the Nugget, but were were only moderately pleased. The layout is awful and it's just not very big. The food however, was pretty good. Not good enough, though, to get us to go back (we went once for dinner, then gave it another shot for lunch). We stopped into the beautiful Lillie's Noodle House for dinner and received such poor service, we left after the first course and couldn't get out of there soon enough; we were simply enraged. Service at the bars, including RUSH Lounge, Claude's Bar, and the Int'l Beer Bar, was adequate, but most of the bartenders were rather unfriendly and matter-of-fact. We never had a bartender we really liked, so we bar-hopped around the casino to find a comfy spot to settle in; never found one. Carson Street Cafe was the only place we received good service and a good meal. It wasn't anything to write home about, but in retrospect, our best dining experience at the Nugget. We researched dining before our trip, so we skipped Vic & Anthony's and opted to dine at The Steakhouse at Circus Circus instead (which we highly recommend).
Another funny tidbit: At the casino bars, you'll probably get used to the faces of a few regular "Adult Entertainers". This surprised me at first (the fact that the bartenders didn't seem to mind), but I guess it's just a part of Vegas. It was entertaining to watch perspective Johns talk to them and walk away after they figured they couldn't afford it.
The hotel's location has its pro and cons. Situated in the center of the Freemont Street Experience, you have immediate access to multiple casinos and souvenir shopping. Night life is fun and safe. The casino odds and minimums are best downtown, so we enjoyed gambling here. However, the area itself isn't as big and fancy as the strip, so you'll want to head down there a lot. One-way cab fare from downtown to the strip is about $20. We eventually found ourselves buying all-day bus passes for $5 and taking the Deuce to the Strip daily. The busses are clean, but usually crowded and slow moving.
Freemont Street Experience http://www.vegasexperience.com/
Deuce Info http://www.rtcsouthernnevada.com/cat/routes/deuce/index.cfm
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
robbiehaf
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Member: Robbie Rice
Location: Dayton, Ohio
Reviews written: 36
Trusted by: 7 members
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