Del Soul — Restaurant in Nevada

Almost THE worst dining experience EVER! (The worst was on my second deployment and involved what I think might have been a rat on a stick instead of shish kebab) On Sunday the 17th of March, I found myself at the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino after taking my Grandson to see Paw Patrol. I was excited to join your rewards program and was happy to find out that our parking would be validated if we ate in the Cafe Del Soul Restaurant! We waited in the restaurant reception area for 5 minutes and then for 15 for someone to take our order. After our order was taken and delivered, the waitress NEVER CAME BACK to check to see if we needed anything, drink refills or more napkins; anything; (we needed more napkins. We had an 4 year old with us, lol) until I asked for to-go boxes. She brought the check and did not explain anything like that she would be back to take payment or that we had to pay in the reception area so we wasted another 10 minutes! While waiting, I asked another waiter who I happened to see if I could have a small container for my thousand island dressing and he told me I would have to wait and he never came back, lol. I caught the attention of a woman going into the back who brought me the container. We waited for someone to ring us out about 5 minutes when another patron said he was waiting for his take out order and that "the service here sucked but the food was good..." I was actually rung up by Karina, a very nice woman who apologized and said she would let management know so I asked to speak to the manager. She made a call and out came Nick Rurry. I explained everything exactly as I have written it here after I introduced myself as "GigiTheVet" and that I have a National Facebook Page with over 48,000 Veterans Nationwide and I post reviews so when Vets travel, they have the BEST EXPERIENCES... He said, "We are shorthanded and maybe if you come back "you may might"have a better experience..." (I took "might have" as the operative words) I was literally taken aback. This is from the MANAGER! I showed him my Facebook page and explained that I was in a Sam's Club last week and a cashier flipped me off and Sam's Club within an hour of posting apologized AND gave my non-profit $1500 for an All Veteran Climb at Yosemite Park during Memorial Day weekend. I asked if he was ok with me posting my experience here. I have PTSD, depression and anxiety, so I write is a way of expression and to calm down. He said "Sure; go ahead) I then went to the front desk of the hotel and spoke to "Paris" and his associate. They were GREAT! Paris tried to call you and then gave me your info to contact you as well as telling me he would contact you immediately. My bill was less than $50. I spent over $300 just for tickets at the stage, popcorn, lemonade w/refills, branded cups and pail and light up crap. So it's literally not the money I'm mad about. It's definitely the service...

But wait! It gets worse!!!!!

The next day I sent this email after letting Anna Soto-Vopalensky, a manager at the hotel know what was going on with no response... "This is a follow up to yesterday's email. Yesterday in my group, I was the only one to order the Reuben Sandwich. I ate 1/2 of it with thousand island dressing. Within 30 minutes I started to feel like something was wrong but I was still OK. Within one hour I started having abdominal distress. Within three hours I started projectile vomiting, that was followed by diarrhea. I had horrible cramping, dry, heaving and diarrhea all night long until at approximately 3 AM I went to the emergency room as I could not stand up straight any longer and I was severely dehydrated. My lab tests show I have blood in my urine from vomiting and diarrhea in excess... I was in the emergency room until 9 AM and then trying to get meds has taken another hour because I don't live here. Therefore, I have no pharmacy here. It’s been over two weeks now and crickets. Again, they only got one star because you have to post that to review. They are a...

Surprisingly good veggie sandwich and fries (3/5 green stars) Checking out of the Montbleu hotel, the front desk dude asked me, “Are you not going to use your $50 resort credit?” It’s a long story which I’ll explain in a review of the hotel itself (suffice it to say that the guy who checked me in misinformed me). So… I headed to Café del Soul for brunch, kind of excited at the prospect of having $50 to spend (and kind of pissed that I could have used it the night before if they hadn’t messed up my check-in). However, I didn’t meet the challenge of eating $50 worth of food: their food is rich, and portions large, so I only managed a coffee, cranberry juice, and veggie sandwich with fries (and then got a repeat sandwich and slice of cheesecake to go, in order to use up the remaining credit). Service was friendly and my sandwich with fries ($12) was really good. It was packed with avocado, grilled onions, eggplant, roasted peppers, mushroom, and a nice aioli. Fries were tasty too and overall it was so good that I ordered another one to go, but this time with a side of potato salad (which was not so good). The cheesecake was really rich too and came with a super-sweet raspberry sauce that reminded me of childhood ice creams. The Surgeon General would probably recommend limiting your visits here to one per month, maximum ;)

I’m also giving them 3/5 Green Stars for social and environmental impact, based on these reasons: • The menu is pretty heavy on meat and fish. You can find a few vegetarian options, not many vegan (although they can probably modify some dishes to make them vegan). • They are not very transparent about sourcing of any ingredients. No information on the menu or online. • Some things, like milk for coffee, are in little single-serve plastic containers (and from a poor supplier – Dairy Pure). • They do make an effort on sustainability with some of their to-go packaging: • The cheesecake was in a compostable box. • Utensils (which I returned to them) were compostable. • The sandwich box was polypropylene (recyclable in Preserve bins Whole Foods but I would prefer a compostable box). • They do pack everything into plastic bags though (paper, please!). • Overall, with a bit more effort on ingredient sourcing (transparency), more veggie/vegan options, and more consistency in their use of sustainable packaging, it would get a...

The prime rib special is a deal not to be missed. The beef was delicious and the accompanying vegetables and mashed potatoes were enjoyable, as well.

My usual “go to” is the House of Prime Rib (HOPR) in SF, which is the Gold Standard in this category. I enjoyed the Del Soul prime rib just as much as the HOPR, at about 1/3 of the price. The Del Soul cut is smaller at about 10 oz, but that was sufficient for me.

The only criticism I have is the restaurant host. John B cited a 15-20 minute wait and it ultimately turned out to be a 50 minute wait. However, the real issue was John’s attitude. He stated that he was short handed and only had one server working. However, he was very nonchalant about seating guests and was not overly concerned about filling the tables.

At one point, there were exactly 2 tables seated and the rest of the tables empty. I asked him why he wasn’t calling the names on the waiting list and he snapped back, “I only have one server and we can only do so much”. I said I understood that, but 1 server could easily handle another 5 tables minimum. John replied that there was a system and that tables had to be cleared, etc Yet, when I walked through the dining room, every single table was clean and set for dining. (I even took a video if management cares to see it). It is my opinion that John B requires additional training if he plans on continuing in the service business. If not for John’s abrasive personality, I would’ve rated this...