Cedar Lakes Casino & Hotel — Attraction in Minnesota

EDIT 12/22/24 *** It stinks. I’m not talking about the sticky buttons on the slots or the splatter on the doors, walls, and toilet paper receptacles in the restroom, or even the inconsistency of promotions. I’m talking about the cigarette smoke that now covers the entire casino floor. *

Cleanliness, customer service, and air quality have all seen a vast improvement in this new facility. But great ventilation systems are only as good as the facilities that maintain them. And cleanliness needs a conscious effort.

It’s SO UNFORTUNATE that after having no smoking in the building for the last couple of years, they now allow it again. The smoking section is much smaller but it’s smelled throughout the casino floor and you have to walk even closer to it or right through it to get to a beverage station since they removed the nice one over by the restaurant.

It smells like the Palace now. Stale cigs and swass(as my teenager calls it). One big whiff of nostalgia.

I was a bartender at the start of the statewide smoking ban and I was a smoker at that time but as an employee in an off-Rez place, I was appreciative of not being subject to others’ smoke and as a customer I felt that it helped me cut down on smoking. It also helped us keep the building clean and reduced risk of damage to surfaces as the result of cigarette burns. As a Leech Lake band member I’m pretty disgusted in the hypocrisy. On one hand we’re concerned about public health and our elders and our youth — so much so that we sponsored billboards about tobacco use—but those concerns get thrown out the window if it effects revenue. For shame. Maybe people aren’t going all that way to this casino because they have slots available at their local pub…which are licensed by Leech...

The casino was very nice. I liked the lay out a diffinate improvement from the old place. I didn't visit the hotel so I have no opinion on that. However the food is another thing. If the casino wouldn't of been nice I would given the place fewer stars. We wanted to go to the Pub 33 restaurant we looked at the menu it looked very good. However they did told us it would a hour and half wait. The place seemed to be mostly empty. So I'm not sure what the problem was. We then decided to go to the food court there were lines at all the counters with people that seemed to have no idea of what was going on . Costumers and workers. They did not seem to be very prepared there is a choice of 3 different food types American, tex- Mex and Italian. All the food seemed to come frozen from bags. The Italian counter seemed to be going fast since it was just reheated pastas. The wife went to the American counter there was a 5 minute wait and they screwed up her order she had to go back and get the rest of it. I decided to try the Tex-Mex . There was a 10 minute wait they then called my number. They then put my burrito together. I wanted beef but was told they had to cook more it would take 20 minutes, so I settled for Pork I got the last of that. They appeared to be out of several things. Heck they were even out of salsa. I realize it was the opening weekend but there is really no excuse for being so unprepared. Did you not expect people to show up? Heck I could of gone down the road to Northern Lights got something to eat and came back before I would of got seated in the busy half...

I stayed 8/27/22 and have absolutely nothing good to say about this Hotel casino. First the hotel room was clean but absolutely no complimentary anything.. Second food court has such limited staff that patrons waited hours for food after payment. Dining room and lounge waited over 15 minutes and no hostess ever showed up no staff either. Went to room called to find out if there was room service was told no, asked to speak to manager receptionist kept saying why you yelling at me I wasn't yelling I was explaining problem and finally asked her to do her job and put me through to manager after second call back she put me though to someone who claimed to be shift manager after explaining the food problem and being told she was short staffed and basically tuff luck food courts would be closed by 8:00. She didn't care whether you patronize the hotel again or not. Then at 11:30 their time 1:30 our time security comes banging on our door demanding we open it and let them search the closet for a previous customers belongings who supposedly was checked out of the room by accident, they still insisted even when we looked and told them there was nothing. I believe this was retaileation for us complaining about the food court and restaurant there was no apology and no call from management prior to them pounding on the door and demanding us open. This was a federal violation of my right against illegal searches. But without knowing laws on an Indian reservation we allowed it. Don't...