Ah, casino buffets…visions of the horn of plenty, slightly out of tune, perhaps, but tootling "We're In The Money" as food pours out, filling tables to overwhelming. Fruit rolls off the side, a turkey tips at an unseemly angle, pies and cakes vie for space with potato salad – that sort of thing. Casinos, at least those out here in the provinces, seem to stock their buffet with fairly awful stuff or surprisingly good. (It's probably true in Vegas as well; we just never hear about it.) And since St. Louis is perpetually in search of a really good brunch buffet, we thought about casinos.
River City Casino's buffets hold forth at The Great Food Exposition restaurant. (Park on the north end of the building to avoid a trip through the gaming floor.) The room has a couple of surprises for newcomers. One is that there are actually windows that look outside, an unusual thing in casinos, where they prefer that people not know even faintly what time it is. The windows are screened heavily from the view of the parking lot by plenty of trees, but the bucolic effect is quite nice. The other is that the aroma of cigarettes inside the entrance and following one down the hall is intense and apparently permanent. (Wry aside: Leaving that same entrance one sees several "No Smoking" signs. Outside.) It persists as one enters the restaurant, stops at the pay station, explains one's beverage choice and starts to be escorted to a table. Happily, both the dining areas and the long buffet counters are free of the scent. If they can manage the aroma that well, why not take the air-cleaning even farther down the hall?
The large salad and soup bar that greets guests is not much to become excited about, even though there's soup on it too – as well as oatmeal and grits. Experienced buffet folks know soups fills up the diner too fast. But hold fast – the best salads aren't actually on the salad bar. Croissants and corn muffins are, though, and real butter, an encouraging sign.
Cold items are on the far ends of the main buffet, hot ones in the center. Sushi is forgettable, but nearby is a rather attractive antipasto selection with grilled marinated portobello slices, sauteed asparagus not overcooked, little balls of mozzarella in a balsamic dressing, and thinly sliced capicola, dry-cured pork, a little spicy and quite nice. Shrimp, of course, hanging out in this neighborhood, and they, too, are tasty, not overcooked nor watery. A couple of different kinds of marinated salads, like artichoke and sweet pepper, show up, as well.
The usual large pieces of meat are around, salmon, turkey breast, ham – but instead of prime rib, there was sliced flank steak, some of it actually rare, and very tasty it was. Fried chicken, excelled, fresh, well-seasoned and not at all greasy. Another odd arrangement was that the chicken was with the pastas, and quite a distance from very good mashed potatoes and intriguingly spiced sweet potatoes.
An Asian section began with more interesting small salads, cucumber, a sort of slaw, and went on to crab rangoon, good but with an unusual sweetness, shrimp shu mai, the dim sum dumpling that weren't in a steamer but had been cooked somehow so that the rice dough covering had almost crisped, and what was, in effect, some sweet and sour chicken. Asian short ribs, said the tag – not pretty to look at, dark brown, the grain of the meat almost resembling the grain of wood. But so free of fat and gristle they might not have actually been short ribs – and absolutely delicious, tender and surprisingly moist. The rice was actually in takeout boxes.
The breakfast section seemed to draw most of the attention, lots of bacon that stayed crisp rather than steam-table limp, moist sausage patties, scrambled eggs that didn't fare as well, and fabulous biscuits with a decent gravy. No Benedicts, but pancakes and the toughest French toast I've ever come across.
Waffles? No waffles? Oh, yes. But they were down in the desserts. Blueberry waffles, in fact. A number of mini-desserts, little apple crumbles and parfaits. Regular-sized slices of pie. A selection of sugar-free desserts. Skip the loaf cake, but look for the chocolate thingy that resembles a large Ding Dong, a thin layer of ganache covering chocolate cake topped with chocolate mousse, moist and chocolatey. Lots of kinds of ice cream scooped to order. But the don't-miss is warm bread pudding, tender and eggy and not overcooked, with a light caramel sauce. Also enough whipped cream to float a canoe, for any dessert you choose.
It's $20 for adults – but if you have their My Choice card (which is available elsewhere in the casino and can be used the day you get it), they take $2 off. Champagne or mimosas included. For kids 4-10 years old, it's $15. They do brunch both Saturday and Sunday, starting on Saturday at 11 a.m. and Sunday at 9 a.m., a nice touch.
The Great Food Exposition
River City Casino
777 River City Casino Blvd., Lemay
888-578-7289
Brunch Sat.-Sun.
Credit cards: Yes
Wheelchair access: Good
Smoking: I saw no one smoking in the restaurant, but….
Buffet: $20 adults, $15 children