Elbow River Casino — Attraction in Calgary

Update: Elbow Casino responded below but I never heard back from them after I emailed twice. Fail on the customer service again. Seems like they just respond to show people viewing reviews that they care but don't really.

Dim Sum at Elbow Casio was one of my favorite places but not sure if I will go back now.

First off, it was busy on Mother's Day so I was trying to be as understanding as possible. The waitress took our tea order but then forgot to bring it to us and walked by to reiterate what we ordered but it was incorrect. Then our food took over an hour to get to us. We had asked the tall gentlemen that worked there and he was very short when he spoke to us saying they had put everyone's orders at the same time (did not apologize for the wait). We did get some of our food an hour later but we were missing our plate of noodles. We had asked a waitress how long it would be and she said she would ask the kitchen. She never came back to our table but instead the tall gentlemen came back and said it will be here soon so I told him, can you check how long it will be because if it is too long we will cancel it. He gave us a look and said okay. Ten minutes later came back with our bill and said he cancelled the noodles. We never asked to cancel it as we wanted to find out how much longer but he did it anyways. His attitude wasn't great towards us and never apologized once. There was one Asian bus boy that was doing his best to serve us but the rest of the staff that we encountered should really work on their customer service. I usually tip at least 18% or more depending on how the service is and unfortunately I felt like even 10% was too much. My parents and I walked away...

Amazing casino to get card counting training.

Elbow River Casino, is clearly struggling as a gambling institution. Sure, the buffet, coat check, and comedy club are A class. However, the casino is patently doing quite poorly as often times tables are open with no patrons (despite the fact that they offer some of the best player odds of any casino on all table games). Even casual gamblers can have a good time! This makes it obvious why they would allow their doors to be open to the only players that may be able to gain an edge.

When I first visited in December of 2023 I had no clue how to play Blackjack and lost $80. I wrote it off as a "fun time" and didn't think much of it. However, the dealer Shayne hinted to me that there was an optimal way to make decisions at the Blackjack table called basic strategy. On other nights, the pit bosses would reference card counting and made it clear that it was fine to do. Naturally, I became obsessed with the concept and studied it scrupulously.

There was an obvious point in my play where the pit bosses started instructing the dealers to cut 2 decks into the shoe which of course limits the advantage of anyone trying to count cards. They made it obvious that they had a label on me, which convinced me that I had them beat! Even despite this, their communication is poor and sometimes I come back and a new pit boss is on duty and lets me get a good session in. Even in all of these situations I was never formally asked to leave or banned from Blackjack.

Of course it would be difficult for anyone to make any long term gains here. But to train yourself for some bigger fish, this place is a great...

I hardly ever gamble these days, so I'm only commenting on the restaurants.

One is in a comfortable airy and spacious (great for social distancing) dining room sided by a long bar. The other is a cafeteria and sandwich topping bar with fast foodsuper low prices.

Both exceeded expectations. Excellent food quality, service, menu selection and below average prices. The Chinese food from the full menu

Also, the first bar (in Calgary) I've seen stock Hennessy XO rather than only VSOP or nothing. A glass was a shockingly reasonable $23 when XO retails st over $300 a bottle in AB, which allowed me to sample this amazing cognac this one time celebrating Remembrance Day with a fellow vet*. They presented the bottle for inspection (on request) in the nearly forgotten traditional manner. Classic good manners!

They have a strange fetish for Grey Goose though, decorating the entire back side of their roughly 50' bar with identical unopened stacked bottles.

I guess they'll never run out of vodka, but it's odd that they've tied up that much money in inventory they're not selling. Perhaps the gamblers.

*As a general rule, I don't attend bars but for food or when living above one, but I make a point of asking after that and Scotch whenever passing through. There is one restaurant on the second floor of the only indoor mall in Edmonton Chinatown with Hennessy VSOP in their display window adjacent the entrance.

If any afficienado readers (or sommeliers) would comment on this review—particularly affluent ones—I'd like to know where it is sold uncorked. I'm guessing: places requiring that this shabby, 'poor boy,' see a tailor before...