Casino Reviews

The new hotel at the Akwesasne casino looks like it is on schedule. We were told that it is supposed to be ready to open in March of 2013 and we expect that they will meet this deadline. They are working on the inside now that the walls and roof are up and the windows are all in closing off the interior from the cold winter snow. The construction crane is gone and they are doing the finishing touches. However, this project is a complex one. Not only are they building a new hotel, but they are also expanding the casino floor. Also updating the buffet and changing all of the carpeting. In addition, they are moving the table gaming area, moving many slot machines around. Also converting the tent portion of the casino to a bingo hall. A lot has been completed and everything looks great and on schedule.

Expanded Casino Floor

The expanded casino floor is already open in the new area and they are updating the old casino area with new rugs and new machines. The tables for blackjack, roulette, etc have all been moved into the newly expanded gambling area.

Even the old tent area is being updated. There is only a small area open in the tent with a few slot machines and a poker area at the time of writing this post. The rest of the tent area is under construction and the rumor is that they will add a large bingo hall to this area. It is all supposed to be done by March 2013. We think they will make it.

There is a lounge area behind the new bar where people can sit and relax to have a drink. They have a disc jockey in this area who was playing rap music. Which we do not care for. However, the management is still experimenting with entertainment. It was very loud and you could barely hear anyone close to you. The price of drinks has been raised, however, they are still very inexpensive compared to many other places that charge for drinks. At $1.50 for a draft beer, we really cannot complain at all.

Akwesasne casino hotel – Dinner

We enjoy going to the Akwesasne casino very much and usually make a day of it. Mondays and Wednesdays are senior days where you can have the buffet at half price. The buffet is excellent and one of the best around. It is even better than any of the Canadian Casinos in the Ottawa area. We always use the points from our slot cards to pay for the meal. As a result, we seldom have to pay anything when we eat, unless we are having a drink with our meal.

They have a brand new slot comp area near the main entrance now which is much more open and bright.

There is also a Comfort Inn next door. You can stay for the night if you plan to stay over. Note that there are no taxes on rooms and meals while staying in this area. Since it is on Indian Land which is another large savings. Once the hotel at the casino opens, they will have a lot more competition at the Comfort inn. We expect the prices for rooms to become much more competitive.

More to come on the Akwesasne casino. For more posts about this great location, click here.

The Akwesasne Mohawk Casino opened another section of the new wing of the casino on Nov 9^{th, 2012}. The Cascades bar has opened. It is modern, it is high class, and it has the same machines as the bar that was in the tent. For the information of readers, the old bar in the tent was being dismantled when we arrived on the 9^th of Nov. The new section has about 50% of the floor occupied with slot machines, the high roller area, and the Cascades bar. I am sure the rest of the floor will be filled in the next few weeks, and we will write about this over the next month or so.

The Akwesasne Mohawk Casino Cascades Bar

The new hotel is progressing and is still expected to open in March 2013. As far as we know, it is still on schedule. The front desk personnel at the Comfort Inn next door tell us that the rates for rooms will be higher than theirs; however, we feel that it will depend on supply and demand. If the casino is not busy, they will be sending people invites with free rooms attached. We have discussed this in several of our posts, where customers can expect free rooms and meals from casinos as long as they use their slot cards in the slot machines when they are playing.

Drink Prices on the Rise at the Casino

The casino has also started raising prices for drinks. Formally we paid one dollar for a draft beer on the floor as well as at the bar. Now the price is $1.50, a fifty-cent rise in price. The price is still not high, and we cannot really complain, but just the same no one wants to see a fifty percent rise in price. They also no longer serve popcorn at the bar. I guess they think that it is not as cultured to serve popcorn. They did tell us they plan to serve something soon but are not sure what that will be.

Patrons Coming from Canada and the Surrounding Area

Lately, we have done well at this casino; however, that may all change as they strive to generate more revenue to pay for all of the expansion. The last time we were at the casino was on a Friday, and it was quite busy with many people coming from the area as well as from Cornwall, Ottawa, and Montreal. One patron I spoke to had been at the casino three times that week. Said she did not like the casino in Montreal and preferred to come to the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino instead.

Restaurants are Getting Better Too

The restaurant Sticks has also improved a bit with a nicer entrance to the main lobby of the casino entrance. Rapids, a fast food place, serves up pizza, burgers, and salads. The buffet, which we also wrote about in a previous post, is great, with excellent food quality and decor.

We have been going to this casino once or twice a month for a while. Pretty soon, we will make our annual trip to the southwestern area of the US and write more about the casinos in this area.

We went to the  Akwesasne Mohawk Casino Buffet on June 30th, just one day after they re-opened in their brand new updated restaurant area. We snapped a quick picture to give readers a look at the newly revamped restaurant and buffet area. The entire restaurant and food area gets a real thumbs up. We love the decor and we love the layout of the buffet. This is a huge improvement over the previous buffet both in terms of comfort as well as the food. It is organized in a much better manner. You are not tripping over other people or waiting in line. The food continues to be excellent!

The only complaint we had was that the air conditioning was working overtime. It was overly cold in the buffet area and also in certain areas of the casino as well. We spoke to one of the managers who said they were definitely aware of the issue. Technicians were on the roof working on the problem. The casino is known to be cold with drafts in some areas. But you sure do not want that when you are trying to enjoy your meal in any of the restaurants.

Akwesasne Mohawk Casino – Updated Buffet Menu

Menus do change depending on whether you are eating on the weekend or during the week. This was a Saturday night and we found that there were lots of items on the menu, with high quality as well. The salad area and the desert area are now separated from the main food items, providing a much better traffic management flow for people to get their food. They had the standard salads, peeled shrimp, meatloaf, pork, salmon, battered fish, mashed potatoes, and gravy. There was also prime rib and turkey, along with pizza and sever Chinese dishes.

All of the food was hot and well-presented. This is definitely a thumbs up for the new buffet at the Akwesasne Casino, considering it was only their 2nd day after opening.

The Rapids restaurant which had been temporarily used for the buffet has also been converted back to its original configuration. This is a place where you can purchase fast food quickly and also sit at tables in the restaurant to enjoy your meal. Burgers, pizza, salads, muffins, etc are included in this area of the casino.

Update On the Construction of the new New Akwesasne Mohawk Casino Hotel

We also spoke to another manager who gave us an update on the status of the hotel. We could definitely see progress in the construction of the hotel. It turns out that the additional casino floor should be open in Oct – Nov time frame of 2012, while the hotel will not open until March 2013. The entire casino floor is going to be updated with new paint, wallpaper, carpets, and probably new machines. We find that they have all of the latest machines in their current casino, although they are a bit limited due to space.

New Akwesasne Mohawk Casino Buffet Schedule

We also have to congratulate the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino management team for meeting the schedule that they advertised. The construction workers should also be congratulated as well.  Many renovations of this type experience many delays, however, this private industry not only met the schedule, restaurant area was fully completed and operational on the 2nd day of operation. Not many places can boast about that kind of performance. They did a great job and deserve to be congratulated. It also bodes well for meeting the schedule that has been outlined for the other areas that are currently under construction.

Hotel Rates

The Comfort Inn is still the only place to stay near the casino. We have not confirmed if rates are still high, however, we do expect the rates to come down once the new Akwesasne Mohawk hotel opens next year. let’s keep our fingers crossed. We look forward to the hotel opening and spending a night or two at this location next year.

My wife and I have recently been to the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino and they are under construction in a big way. We had not been to this particular casino for several months. We were really surprised to see how much was completed and what the big plans are all about. The picture on the left is of the current casino complex in early 2012. It does not reflect what is planned.

Here is what we know so far. They are adding a 140 room hotel to the west of the casino. It will also house an expanded casino. When we talked to one of the security guards, he said that they decided to build the hotel because the Comfort Inn next door was charging too much for their rooms! Hopefully, he is right and rates will drop compared to the $100+ that the Comfort Inn currently charges. They are often full and can charge what they want. I suspect even with these additional rooms, both hotels will both be full. Rates will gradually creep up. What will be good is that the casino will now be able to award free rooms as part of their slot card comps which will be great for all casino players.

Other Changes

The second major change that we found out about is the current Native Harvest Buffet area is being totally redesigned. The buffet has been temporarily moved to the rapids area which had fast food. It is not a great place to have a buffet, but it is only temporary and the new buffet area will be much better. We had a glimpse of the new area and it will no doubt be the nicest buffet restaurant in a 100-mile radius.  Better than even the casino buffet area at Lac Lemay in Gatineau. Now we only had a glimpse, but the decor is a huge improvement and will be a huge compliment to the Akwesasne Mohawk casino.

Akwesasne Mohawk Casino – Updates

The casino itself is being updated as well. We are not sure how this will change, but it will be for the better. The current casino has lot’s of great machines. However, it is getting to be a bit tired looking. We are anticipating a much more glitzy casino as a result. We can only hope for a large nonsmoking area. It would save them so much money in operating costs if they band it all together, but we really do not expect them to do that.

The casino is currently in the tent area. It has been there for some time in addition to the main casino. We understand that the bingo palace is moving over to the tent, once the main casino in the hotel area is completed. This is a multistage multi-year project so it will be some time before this section is completed.

All of these construction changes are moving this casino from being a 2nd rate casino location into a 1st rate casino-hotel complex. We did not hear anything about entertainment, however, I would not be surprised if they added a venue for entertainment as well. Lots of customers already come from Canada, from Cornwall, Ottawa, Montreal and surrounding areas. With the hotel added, customers will not only come for one day, they will stay for a couple of days at either the Akwesasne hotel or the Comfort Inn next door.

Comps Are Great

The picture on the left came from the site IndianTime.net. It was taken sometime in late May or June of 2012.  The buffet is scheduled to open in late June 2012, while the hotel is scheduled for March 2013

Right now we are receiving lots of comps in terms of free play, free buffets, and other free stuff. They are going through growing pains and construction pains so customers are being compensated for some of the disruption. We really enjoy the Akwesasne Mohawk casino and expect to like it even more once the construction is completed.

Once the construction is completed we will post an update to this blog to give you our comments and opinions about the new venue. The buffet is to reopen in the new location during the month of July. We will add another post about the casino buffet at that time. For up-to-date information on the Akwesasne Hotel and Casino, click here.

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.We recently visited the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino a couple of times in the past month. Either we enjoyed their buffet too many times, or it was not as good. Since this visit, we went back to the new decor and found it much improved. They usually have two kinds of soup, but this time, they only had chili and one soup, which I did not care for. Ok, you can put that down to personal taste; however, some of the other things are starting to make me wonder if it is really as good as I thought it was.

It is a nice buffet, very clean, and a nice selection of food. The Akwesasne Mohawk Casino buffet has all of the basics, so there is no problem with that. They were really busy, and some of the trays were empty; for example, you could not get any spare ribs when we went through the buffet. They may have brought some more out later; however, it was too busy to stand in line again to get to the ribs.

The buffet reopened after being closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prices have increased dramatically, and there are fewer items available. We found the quality to be very good, and there were no line-ups to enter the buffet, as in the past. I guess this reflects the client’s reaction to the increased prices and overall reaction to inflation.

Akwesasne Mohawk Casino Buffet – Deserts

There is a good variety of desserts. However, the crust of the pie is too thick and heavy. Obviously, these pies are not made on-site. However, they just do not appear to be fresh. Maybe I am just disenchanted with the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino. Perhaps because we have been there one too many times, but I do not think so. Another couple who came with us felt that the Rideau Carleton Casino actually had a better buffet. I was really surprised when I heard that since we do not really like this casino’s buffet either. You can read a more complete review of the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino by clicking here.

The buffet costs $1799 at night and $10.00 for lunch, except on senior days when the price of the buffet at lunch is only $5.00. for these prices, one should not complain since the food is quite good. Although it could be improved, at these prices it is more than worth the money.

Crab Legs are not Great.

The last time we went to the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino was a Saturday night, and my wife ordered crab legs, a special on the menu that evening. It cost an extra $5.99. It was not as good as other places where we have had crab legs. The legs were not cracked or precut, so it meant that you really had to fight to get at the meat inside the shells of the legs. We would not order this particular special again, preferring to save our money for better deals and crab legs.

Well, that is about it. Maybe this sounds like a griping session. However, we just did not enjoy the buffet as much as other times. If you have been there and tried the buffet, please leave a comment. Any well-written comment will be approved, with or without a link. We are looking for quality input for our readers.