Q: negative

A: This was by far the most pathetic hotel I have stayed at by a drastic margin. This review is for the hotel and casino itself, all restaurants will be reviewed separately as many were not one-star. The room itself cost $40-60 per night not including taxes or resort fees. As cheap as that sounds, that's horribly expensive for the Riviera due to timing. It's not unfair, but I'm going to have at least minimum expectations for that. I booked a standard non-smoking room on the basis of it really being a place to sleep, shower, and change clothes. Of course, I find out the reservation was "changed" to a smoking room. After making it clear that was not an option, they offered a "free" upgrade to a "luxury" room in the Monte Carlo tower. Those quotes are there for good reason. Having a confirmed reservation for a non-smoking room means just that. I know the front desk staff has little discretion there aside from existing management plans. The fact that they quickly found an "upgrade" made it clear there was an overbooking and they wanted to make themselves look good. I would give them credit for that if it were a real upgrade. I'd even give it a pass if what I got was a reasonable standard room. However, the "recently renovated" Monte Carlo tower certainly remains pathetic. The shower head and faucet had plenty of hard water buildup and chips in them. I'm fairly sure they were older than I am. The smoke detector had an inspection sticker from 2008. At least one bath towel had a hole in it. The pillow cases had a few minor stains. The Monte Carlo tower itself has a pervading scent which I knew I would be scrubbing off the minute I got back to my own shower. Honestly, I'd expect better than this for $50 on a weekday or $70 on the weekend. Resort fee included there since it is part of the price. The casino is reasonably open and uncrowded, leading to only moderate smoke smell. On the other hand, this led to many empty table games. I believe I saw craps open once. They seemed content to rely on a video craps game with a dice shaker machine. There was a heavy reliance on penny progressive slots with a handful of quarter/dollar slots scattered about. Video poker pay lines were the worst of any I have seen. It's almost as if they intentionally want people to end up frustrated with the entire place and go away as quickly as possible. Even when I was winning, I felt as if in a way, I was still losing. Every single other place I have touched on the strip was friendlier and more pleasant of a location. The comps are virtually nonexistent aside from the standard cocktail offers. They couldn't even get their player's club rewards straight between signs and people. If not for events at the Riviera, the only purpose to go there would be the exercise from walking that far down the strip.

Q: negative

A: Hubby ran in for a takeout and the entree was ok...noodles and clams. He ordered a serving of lobster bisque and was disappointed in the quality. He was also overcharged $5. When he spoke to the manager the next day, the manager admitted he had been overcharged but refused to refund the money...told him he now has a $5 credit to a restaurant that overcharged him and served him subpar food. Well they can keep that fiver and enjoy it because they will not be getting any more of our money.

Q: negative

A: I am next door neighbors with the actual Capital Brewery in Middleton so I was rooting for this experience to be awesome. Therefore, it's very sad for me to have to say that my experience here last night was pretty cringe-worthy. We ended up at Capital Tap Haus after finding out that there was no way our group of 6 was going to get a table for Team Trivia at Tipsy Cow five minutes before it began. Someone suggested this place as an alternative, and they had Trivia at 8:30, so in we went. We were seated and the waiter came over to take our drink orders. We each ordered either a beer or soda and waters all around. We also requested that they turn on the Brewer's game, which the server enthusiastically agreed to do. 10 minutes pass. No water. No drinks. TV channel still showing not-Brewers. A member of our party (politely) flagged down a different server and requested the Brewer's game on TV. This server also agreed to do it for us. 10 more minutes pass and the game still isn't on. This went on for awhile, and it seemed like it was taking forever for them to change the channel and bring water. The restaurant was almost empty too, so there wasn't much excuse for the extremely inattentive service. In the end, we had to ask 2 or 3 different people FOUR times for the Brewer's game before they turned it on! It also took way too long to get our water and drinks. This alone didn't ruin the experience for me...what ruined the experience was that nothing else about the night was good either. Service continued to be slow and inattentive. The general consensus of our table was that that food was overpriced and mediocre. For example, they charge $3.00 for a side of regular fries with any sandwich or burger, and the fries were served cold and soggy. I know rent on State St. is expensive, but really? The one saving grace of my otherwise dismal experience, and the reason I refrained from giving the Capital Tap Haus one star, was that the sandwich I ordered, a Reuben, was very tasty. I would say that it ranked in the upper 20% of Reubens that I've had in my life: Thick and toasty marble rye, flavorful and *tender* corned beef, tangy, but not overpowering sauerkraut, and "perfect-amount-of sweet" thousand island dressing. Would I return to the Capital Tap Haus? Probably not anytime soon.

Q: positive

A:
Went here for Lunch. Line wasn't too bad. The seating area is very spacious and each cuisine is separated into different areas. The mideastern food was delicious, very fresh. The American area had scrambled eggs which were great and bacon and eggs Benedict. Asian section wasn't the best and while there was a Mexican section, i didn't eat the food because it was mainly beans, rice and fajitas. Dessert bar was good- freshly made and laid out nicely. Also a great assortment of Danishes and pastries.