Belterra Park Cincinnati — Attraction in Anderson Township

I am by no means an expert in casinos. In fact, this was my first time at one. As a casino virgin, I wasn't sure what to expect. That said, here is my opinion of this one.

Appearance wise, this place was very impressive looking on the outside. It almost looks out of place at the Kellogg Avenue location it sits on. Inside, it was clean, very big, and thankfully not as loud as I thought it would be. Granted, I did go on a Sunday evening.

The interior is huge. Countless gaming machines filled a cavernous room. People of all sorts milled about like bees in a hive. Though it all seemed chaotic, most people seemed single minded in mission: to skip some money into blinking machines with clever names with the hope of making a profit. I actually felt more in place there then I had tonight. The atmosphere was more casual and forgiving than I had thought.

Throughout the gaming room, cashout ATMs were available, as were complimentary soda fountains and coffee. Wait staff were available for more custom drink orders. The staff who I did interact with were pleasant.

There were some downsides, however. First, I had never used a gaming machine before (for the record, I did not check it the gaming tables such as the poker and blackjack tables), had no clue what was going on. With only the instruction of my girlfriend, I initially started out by wasting a few bucks on penny slots by mindlessly pushing buttons. That kind of sucked, until I figured out what was going on. Without a little bit of help, I found this to be extremely frustrating that there seemed to be no indication as to how the games on the particular machines worked. After all, most aren't just a regular old slot machine. Those were ready to figure out. It's the ones that had 8 columns and convoluted rules that were frustrating.

The biggest gripe, however, was the buffet. I have been looking forward to trying a casino buffet for years. Sadly, I was very disappointed. The buffet room was extremely large and looked promising. It wasn't until we got up to the food itself did we note that more than a few offerings just didn't look appealing. Even worse, it seems that temperature control of the food itself was lacking. Hot items, such as the fried oysters and calamari, were cold. The cheese platter by the salad bar was the opposite... instead of being cold, the cheese was warm and crusty, and the salami was sweating grease (which it doesn't do when it's cold). At almost $30 per person, I expected better. As a note, our party of three did receive 2 buffet entries for free by signing up for a rewards program.

Would I go back to this casino? Sure.... I left $15 richer, and my girlfriend won a hundred bucks, so no complaints about that. Will I go to the buffet again? Unfortunately, I went mainly for the buffet, so I was pretty...

Belterra Park has become one of the filthiest places I've been. When I first started making visits to casinos a part of my routine it seemed like I'd see the house keeping staff all the time, but not now, it is literally filthy with trash around and in machines and dust every where, if you are a non smoker and happen to enjoy any of the games on the smoking terrace you will be smelling like an ashtray in no time at all. I recommend wearing an N95 or KN95 mask to at least filter out done if the smell. Another area of concern is safety. I've personally witnessed an encounter where a male patron shoved a female patron and friend of mine off a machine she had approached. When this incident was reported to security, every security team member seemed to know exactly who the male patron was and mentioned that this was the man's third strike should the reported incident be found to be true. The report had to be repeated three times before anyone in security did anything expected when this incident occurred except for follow up with the female. The only information given was that someone named Brad who allegedly is head of security decided that the female was the aggressor because he response to seeing the man rushing towards her was to raise her forearm to a defensive position to prevent more serious contact. Imo they need to clean house on more than the equipment and surfaces. Security seems a bit too chummy with certain patrons and I've begun to wonder how this happens and continues without any intervention from higher ups. While the place continues to decline photos will be attached to this review I warn you they get pretty graphic the last few are indeed fecal matter smeared on the stall walls, and this has been there for about three or four months. Telling me they don't clean anything except toilet, urinals, and maybe the floor, strong odor of urine hits me when I get close to the entrance to the bathrooms. Very gross and disgusting from the point of view that housekeeping staff is under valued and over worked, and what disgusting people do this to places they patronize. I wonder if they do this at home, what kind of pig pen are they...

Went to Favorites Steakhouse for dinner as it was recommended by others and we were told the steaks were comprable to Ruby's or Ruth Chris. Thought it was worth checking out and reserved a table to celebrate my husband's birthday. I am so disappointed and embarrassed that this was his birthday dinner. First, there was no host staff to greet us when we arrived promptly for our reservation. When we were finally greeted and shown to our table, I requested a bar menu...to which I was informed they do not have. No speciality cocktails for dinner out? Ok, so we both ordered a vodka/Sprite. Bartender was apparently pretty heavy handed, which I'm sure some may appreciate, but I couldn't even finish mine as it tasted like a ratio a drunk college kid would pour. Server had no knowledge of menu, made no recommendations, did nothing but ask for our order. Long wait time on drinks and entrees. Manager came by and apologized for long wait on drinks because "they were washing glasses". Which brings me to my next thought, my ice water smelled like fish. We were pretty sure it was the glass and it was very off-putting. I shared my husband's water glass instead of using mine. We barely saw our server or else I would have addressed the issue. We had a party of 10-15 seated next to us and we couldn't even hear each other talk. By the end of dinner, we just wanted to go home. No mention of my husband's birthday (which I had put in our reservation that we were celebrating) or offer to look at a dessert menu. The one positive is we both got the 8oz filet and were satisfied. Basically what I'm saying, if you are looking for a great dining experience and amazing steak dinner-this is definitely not worth your time and especially not your money. I will never betray Jeff or Ruth again. Poor service, poor dining experience,...