Wanaaha Casino — Attraction in Bishop

This casino has gone downhill over the past few years.

SERVICE: a few machines were malfunctioning and not returning our money. We sat for 40-50 mins with the service light illuminated and attempted to flag a female employee who walked by us and completely ignored our call for assistance with the malfunctioning machines. That afternoon was not busy and after 50 mins, we had to call the casino security to flag someone. Most of the employees were socializing at the member services desk.

MACHINES: This casino removed most of their video poker machines as well as an entire back floor of slot machines. According to a casino host, there are no plans to replace or add any machines.

GAMBLING: As a frequent visitor of all casinos throughout Nevada and California, this casino had the tightest machines as evident by our win/loss statements. I learned that Native American casinos are not regulated like other casinos and are not subject to publish payout ratios. Instead, they are regulated by the National Indian Gaming Commission which determines the slot machine payouts. In addition, California does not require any minimum returns. That said, our family of 8 gambled here recently, spending a total of $14,000 and the largest win was $100!

FOOD: Their TuKaNovie Restaurant served stale bread and fries. Prime rib was dry and pretty tasteless. Service was very slow despite only a handful of customers. Food was overpriced for what we paid and you would find better...

The newly opened now called Wanaaha Casino is great. A whole new section and a whole new atmosphere. They have a bar that looks elevated and hip looking. I loved that they coincided opening it with Halloween and there were costume and pumpkin carving contests to boot. The band was great and played nice music. The decor is elevated as compared to the old part of the casino. Dining now has wine offered. I tried the Western chicken salad at lunch and it was delightful! They now offer a separate deli with cold and broiled hot sandwiches and pizzas and the new restaurant has a nice patio.

Why not five stars? Here are my reasons.

The new tier cards were not ready. One of the gifts, a set of knives were not available when I had points to redeem. And I would have liked to have gotten them as I am from out of town. The host was very helpful however and offered to mail them. My favorite breakfast chicken fried steak is still on the menu but the quality has gone way down. It felt like eating jerky it was so dry and thin. It used to be huge meaty and juicy like a steak flavor.

And the country potatoes that came with it looked boiled and pale unlike before they were crunchy and brown and before it had fresh peppers and onions too.

Smoking was allowed which is still banned due to covid in...

I am rating the restaurant exclusively with this review. The four stars are largely for excellent customer service from the wait & kitchen staff. If it were exclusively the morning wait team of Mariana & Jessica, this would be a five-star rating. They are on top of it and Mariana is a wait staff professional, with Jessica not far behind. The other wait staff team is also quite adept at handling busy situations and doing so with courtesy.

The food.... It's largely great food with the breakfast and lunch menu item. If you're looking for a special breakfast treat, ask for a chili & cheese omelet from the "build your own omelet" menu. As for lunch with the Palace Burger or the Bishop Burger, I'd give them the second-best burgers in town, behind the Burger Barn.

What would improve things for me would be if they offered soy or almond milk, considering that a great many Indigenous Americans are lactose intolerant, noting that the cereals have milk.

Another point of improvement would be to have another diet soda option other than Diet Coke, which leaves my taste buds less than impressed. A second option might be to have Diet Dr. Pepper or even Coke Zero.

But overall, the restaurant earns a solid...