Casino Pauma — Attraction in Valley Center

Pauma Casino is a smaller casino. It doesn't have a hotel, but the drive into the valley and surrounding hills are beautiful and a highly recommended day trip. I visited, again, Thursday, April 26, 2023, for their gift to the community: prime rib dinner @ 2 for $20! They even allow you to take one home if only 3 are dining or you come by yourself. You are served soup or salad. Salad is crisp and simple, but the simple Bleu cheese dressing (no chunks of Bleu cheese) is very tasty. Your order comes with a large baked potato served with a little cup of sour cream, chives, and butter/margarine? (Can't tell which). Fresh cut vegetables in a bit of butter. A pop over airy roll like those at the Neiman Marcos Cafe in San Francisco! (They can be a bit "eggy" tasting) and a nice 8 oz cut of very tasty prime rib 1/2" cut. I like mine medium well. It comes out perfect: a bit charred and juicy. Creamed horseradish is available. This special is offered T/Th for dinner. If you arrive before 5 p.m. wait, times are minimal. From 5 p.m. on increase to up to a 45 minute wait. Even though the Cafe can get busy, cashiers and wait staff are courteous, friendly and service oriented. They even have a robot helper that carries out meals. Carryout boxes and containers are provided (like for the extra prime rib dinner you purchased for salad, au jus, salad dressing, etc. ) We usually leave a 20% tip. However...yesterday, we had the unfortunate experience of having "Piotr" (Peter in Poland) as our waiter. Our worst dining experience at Pauma's Cafe! I knew he was very different from other wait staff we are used to in the Cafe upon his coming to out table: somber, no friendliness in his demeanor, and abrupt in his manner. He took our order. It was busy in the Cafe and he was taking orders from many guests. He did a good job of bringing out coffee served in paper travel cups which I like and we had nice lemon wedges in our iced water and straws. He also left extra paper napkins. It was busy and we understand. Our salads came out a little later than usual. Not a problem, it was busy. However, we had a longer than normal wait for our prime rib. Patrons seated after us had already received their meal and we had been waiting more than 10 minutes after finishing our salads. Piotr seemed to avoid us. We couldn't get his attention until I elevated my voice as he passed by and asked "Excuse me!' ' Is our food coming out soon?" He rudely confronted me and asked "how long have you been waiting?" When I said 10 minutes, he rudely scoffed, this after ignoring us for 20 minutes. Well, it got worse. Another person delivered our meals. One was not cooked as ordered. We had to hail down Piotr for our creamed horseradish after 5 minutes. He avoided us; never checked back once during our meal for coffee refill or anything else. Our table was never cleared of dirty salad bowls. After finishing our meal, we were watching him to get his attention for our check and take home containers. Never happened! Instead, my sister got up to get our own containers so we could carryout our leftovers. Even after we finished, Piotr never delivered our check. We asked a couple of busboys for small containers with lids. They accommodated us right away and were friendly and courteous. (We tipped him.) Finally, after waiting another 10 minutes to get Piotr's attention, AFTER filling our Carryout containers...we left our table and went to pay the cashier without our bill for our meal. While I was at the cashier's, Piotr finally showed up with our bill. Needless to say, we couldn't bring ourselves to leave ANY tip! (A first for us! We've never done this!) I went looking for two busboy who helped us to leave them a tip but only found one. We also tipped cashier. Piotr got tipped for his service...zero. $0. I sincerely hope management reads Google reviews and provides Piotr with a training update for customer service at a minimum level. When I return to the Cafe; I will specifically ask NOT to be seated in Piotr's area. Poor Pauma...

I came for the steak and egg breakfast this morning. I order the same thing everytime. Which is the steak medium well. Hash browns and english muffin cooked light. And scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese added. My mother who also comes with me gets the same thing. After waiting for more than 30 minutes the meal arrives one plate has cheese on the eggs one does not. I immediately pointed this out to the person who brought out the food. The man said he would go and bring a side of eggs with cheese.A few minutes later the man comes back out with an empty plate offering to take the cheeseless eggs away. I told him if they were going to be thrown away I would eat them so as not to waste them. He said ok. A few moments later a woman brings out the eggs with cheese but states that I would have to pay 6 dollars more for them since they didnt take back the ones without cheese per her manager. I refused the eggs as I am not willing to pay for their mistake. I spoke to my primary server Manuel who is a very good waiter always friendly and efficient. He stated that he did place the order for both plates to include cheese and he would get me the eggs with cheese as it was the kitchens mistake. He was told by Taylor that he could not bring the proper order of eggs without paying 6 dollars more. The steak breakfast is 6.99 and even though it was clearly their mistake she refused to make it right and insisted that 6 dollars be paid. Taylor didnt even take the time to come to the table to even tell me this herself nor to appologize for the mistake. Needless to say her lack of good customer service brought down my previous 5 star rating to 2. I have a copy of the recipt clearly showing that the cheese was ordered. If this is how management takes care of their customers I definately wont be coming back nor would I recommend pauma to...

Unprofessional Security Staff. We came here yesterday and my sister was allowed in without showing identification but for some reason today she was asked for identification. She is clearly over 18 years old and we were there for the most expensive meal the Surf n’ Turf. We even tried saying that they could escort us to the restaurant and how we were not going to gamble but they still refused her entry. We received conflicting information from each security guard such as being able to enter just by showing some type of identification while another said that it had to be a government issued identification card. Instead of trying to help the situation the security guards were worsening the situation. We went back twice and the second time we went and showed a picture with my sister’s birthday in the form of her school identification and I thought it would work because I have seen high schoolers get in with only school ID. In the end they refused to budge and I took into account someone who appeared younger than my sister walk by as we were being hassled by the security. Very unprofessional when calling for back up, one of them greeting their supervisor over the phone by saying “Hey Motherf@$#&%” right in front of us. Everyone else in our party was not asked for ID only my sister. From where I stood I had seen many young people go by without being asked for ID. My sister has ID but didn’t have it on her. I look young just like my sister and we’re only two years apart and I wasn’t asked for identification. This experience has left a bad taste in my mouth. I do not see myself returning anytime soon, despite having a...