Food service at the Buffington Harbor casinos - Trump and
Majestic Star - has taken a giant leap forward with the opening of the
Passports World Class Buffet, managed by the Compass Group.
On the first floor of the Buffington Harbor pavilion, it's in the same
location as the old buffet - a dreary cafeteria-style line that satisfied
neither Trump, Majestic Star nor the customers. But at Passports, foods are
fresher and tastier with more variety.
It's a multiple-station line, with a pasta chef and an Asian foods chef
standing at the center to prepare fresh dishes.
Along the way, customers can pick and choose from different styles of food.
On the day I went, the Southern Classics station included fried chicken,
sausage and shrimp jambalaya, collard greens, fried okra and sweet potatoes
with marshmallows, while the Asian station had crab rangoon, Szechuan-style
cashew chicken and beef lo mein among the dishes.
At the Italian station, in addition to pastas, there were Italian herbed
vegetables, garlic-skinned red potatoes and several pizzas. The Adobe
station, with Mexican foods, included tamales, fajitas and cheese jalapeno
quesadilla. And the carver was loaded with ham, roast beef, turkey and
sausages.
The location is out of the normal traffic pattern these days. Before the
parking garage was built at Buffington Harbor, players used to walk past the
buffet space on their way to the escalators that took them to the casino
level. Now, players walk out of the garage right on the casino level and
never walk past the buffet space unless they're looking for it.
But once word gets out that Majestic Star, Trump and Buffington Harbor are
now offering a quality product in that space, more and more will be taking
the trip down that escalator to get there.
SANDWICHES TO SAVOR: Horseshoe Casino in Hammond has the best overall food
service at local casinos, with Jack Binion's Steak House and the Village
Square Buffet both being among the best of their kind, the Lake Michigan
Deli Company offering tasty deli sandwiches, and Java Jack's coffee stand
serving up coffee, pastries and ice cream.
New in the lineup is J.B.'s Gourmet Sandwiches and Salads, open 24 hours a
day, seven days a week, and offering a 15 percent discount to those who show
their Horseshoe players club card.
I went to check it out a few days after it opened, and J.B.'s was kind
enough to serve a sampler platter of hot sandwiches along with a couple of
desserts. Panini - grilled, stuffed sandwiches - are a specialty here, and I
got to sample four.
I'm a big fan of portabella mushrooms, so my favorite was the vegetarian
panini, with Roma tomatoes, portabella, roasted red peppers, pesto and
provolone. The early best seller is the cheese steak sandwich, with ribeye,
sauteed mushrooms and pepper jack cheese. The Havana, with spicy pork, dill
pickles, Black Forest ham, Gruyere cheese and spicy yellow mustard, was a
real taste-bud pleaser, and the grilled chicken club, with apple smoked
bacon, provolone and tomato pesto, was another goodie.
It was all capped by a piece of a Binion burger, along with little tastes of
tiramisu and a terrific cinnamon roll.
When I'm back buying a whole meal, I look forward to trying the Asian-style
Bento boxes. Don't know if the roasted octopus with curry is quite my style,
but the spare ribs with black bean sauce sound as if they'll be right up my
alley.
