North Star Mohican Casino Resort — Restaurant in Town of Bartelme

Full smoking. First time ever going here. Not that impressed. If it wasn't for Gabriel Iglesias being the headliner, would have left 3 hours early. Not a smoker, and really messes with my allergies. Will probably not return unless for a great performance like Gabriel had. Probably only reason for 2 stars. Very very poor filtering of smoke, at least the ho chunk casinos filtered it better when they did smoke inside.

Went to groove. Started out very good. No seating so we sat at the bar. Whatever, not the main reason we went, just filling our bellies before playing and waiting for Gabriel. Took a good 10 minutes maybe before we got the bartender to take our orders. Not necessarily his fault, he was on the waitress side of the bar, and they are very "catty" lack of better word. Great! Finally got the bartender to serve us and take food orders. Food was 100% not the problem and good. Groove burger and BLT. We ate our food. Then we were ready to leave and by then the bartender had switched sides. No time for them to chat really, which is part of the reason to sit at the bar in my opinion. Wanted to get a custom drink made, and bartender never came to take my order before switching sides. When we were done and wanted to go gamble, had to ask 3 times to cash out, around 15 minute span. So food good at groove, service lacking.

Then we went to gamble. I'm a black jack guy. Took a minute to find a table I wanted to play. Sat down at the big "shoe" table, most places I go have those so not big deal. Got half way through the first shoe, winning, others joined the table, great! Able to gauge the cards better with people. Half way through second shoe, still winning, new dealer. I didn't get her name, but very piss poor in my opinion. She ignored my hand signals 4 times. Reading the reviews, sounds like the lobster opening lady. She told me I shouldn't do what I wanted to do and made my appropriate hand jesture 4 times. First 3 times, LOST 3 times if remembering right, 4th time I was a bit pissed off and had to forcefully tell her I told to you to hit. I do not follow the "normal" playing of black jack, so I'm used to getting player critism, but I should not have literally argue with the dealer. After the 4th time, and I won and broke the house that time, I immediately asked to color out. Nobody wanted to sit at that table very long except some very very regular guy named Mike that was on first name basis with everyone. This pretty well ruined my experience, and still had 2 hours until Gabriel. Only good thing is we left with same money we went in with. Just very frustrating all the way around. Never been treated that way at the table ANYWHERE from ho chunk to jackpot, nv to Vegas.

Very very disappointing and probably won't see me again until you make it non smoking like the rest of the country now. And if I do happen to end up here, I will immediately leave the table if that dealer is there. She pretty much ruined the whole thing for me...

I really would like to give a higher rating but the fact of the matter is, they don't deserve it. Tuesdays are Senior Day for the 55+ crowd. Currently they give $250 to one 55+ person every 30 minutes. Great....for the seniors. They have no such promotions for the younger crowd. The vast majority of their promotions this year have been lackluster. I foolishly went almost religiously in 2024, especially for their end of the month grand prize giveaways. There was a reoccurring theme. One month a winner was "John Smith", next month was "Jane Smith" and in a later month they both won. With their "drawing barrel" being digital, it's hard to belive that it is legitimate. The RTP is really low. Obviously there are people who get lucky and catch a good run but overall it certainly doesn't feel that way. Then you move on to free play and comps. You are only able to collect roughly $50 in free play for every $1,000 lost. They have justified themselves a little bit by allowing that number to be racked up over multiple visits and no longer just a single visit. Then you have their "membership" tiers. You get X points for X dollars worth of play. Its something like 26,000 points to go from brand new to top tier. Which translates into roughly $104,000.00 worth of play (free play not included). Now its one thing to have it set up like that but the absolute trash aspect of that is that it resets every 6 months. My recommendation is that if you are visiting the area and want to play in the casino and win some money, go elsewhere. There is another casino 20-25 miles each way. To the west you have Ho-Chunk, which in my experience has a better RTP or to the East you have Menomonie, which in my experience has slightly better RTP but not as comfortable of an atmosphere. Given how tight North Star is, its going to be hard to get me to return any time soon. If they were to offer more ways to earn or accumulate free play it would be different but as it stands, the juice isn't worth...

I really want to give this casino 5 stars. It was clean, well lit, very well ventilated (and I have sensitive lungs), and most of the staff were helpful and friendly. I went with my sister, mom, aunts, and grandmother March 2014 for a "girls' weekend" to celebrate my grandmother's birthday. The casino concierge absolutely made my grandma feel special and accomodated. We started with the slots, and I found one machine that was happy to double whatever I put in. Once we were all feeling well accomplished and our pockets were heavier, I suggested a table game. We're not big gamblers, but we get the jist of Black Jack, so we filled a table. We warned the Dealer of our Novice statuses, and she was more than accomodating and taught us as we played, offering tips and tricks of the game - she made sure we had a good experience. As members of my family left the table and new joined, we were sure to warn them of our ineptitude, and the Dealer would jest with them. However, our last Dealer was gruff, abrupt, and not willing to teach, despite the fact that we gave him the same spiel as everyone else of our novice status. He actually called me a fool for playing and laughed in my face when he took my money. I am very glad he was our last dealer for the night. After I had humble pie force fed to me, our family had supper in the hotel restaurant. It was nice, but not really anything to write home about. It was also fairly pricey. Yes, I know it's a hotel restaurant, and that's always more expensive, but $23 for French onion soup, salad bar and one (short) mixed drink?? Also, who doesn't have a birthday special? I want to give the casino a 5* rating, but with the rude dealer insulting me, and the restaurant over-charging and under-performing, I can't.

However, I am headed back this weekend for Grandma's birthday, so hopefully things have improved. And hopefully "my" slot machine is still there and still paying out as...