|
|
|
 |
Central Newsmagazine is Central St. Louis County's
exclusive direct-mailed community newspaper. |
 |
Dining Spotlight |
|
|
Harrah’s New Eat Up! Is A Win-Win BuffetBy Suzanne Corbett
Harrah’s has transformed its former Town Square Buffet into a multi-sensory dining experience where food is cooked and presented from a series of innovative, international-themed kitchens. Unlike typical casino buffets, Eat Up! is high-end with an emphasis on fresh and with most items made to order. There is not a steam table in sight. “Eat Up! is a bold concept,” Harrah’s Executive Chef Ray Leung said. “We’ve created seven foodscapes (mini-restaurants) that combine interactive and signature dishes with discovery flavors that deliver a unique culinary experience with Las Vegas style.” Each foodscape features a theme: “Toss Up” features custom salads; Italian “Bella Bella” specializes in mini-baked pastas; “Down Home,” where fried chicken rules, has all-American comfort food; “Good Fortune” features savory, delights of the Far East; “Fired Up” is a Brazilian-style churrascaria where meats are house-smoked and fire-roasted; and “Cake Walk” tempts with gourmet cupcakes, pastries and homemade gelato. Rounding out the lucky seven is “Shuffle,” featuring seafood, Tex-Mex, Key West, Cajun fare and more. “’Shuffle’ is a station that changes its theme, morphing into something new every two weeks,” Leung said. “It will give us the opportunity to bring new menu themes to the dining mix.” Discovery, Leung said, is a vital part of the Eat Up! menu. “We have dozens of sauces and scores of international ingredients guests can discover - ingredients that they can select themselves with our chefs to incorporate into a custom-cooked dish. It’s the ultimate in interactive food preparation,” Leung said. Each Eat Up! kitchen operates under a chef who specializes in its cuisine. “Each chef wears a logo patch representing their expertise,” Harrah’s spokesperson Lindy Kirsch said. “A patch with a chicken on it is ‘Down Home,’ crossed chop sticks represents ‘Good Fortune,’ while a chef’s hat is ‘Shuffle.’ The more expertise a chef earns, the more patches. It’s a fun element and another way we can communicate our commitment to culinary excellence.” Besides innovative food, Harrah’s new buffet brings to St. Louis the first commercial operation using heat induction technology, eliminating steam tables and trays. “Nothing is sitting in holding trays. Heat induction lets us cook everything fresh and in small batches, which enables us to offer incredible foods you wouldn’t normally find in a buffet,” Leung said. The only ingredient that seems to remain from Harrah’s former buffet is an all-you-can-eat, affordable price tag: Lunch is $15 per person, Sunday brunch and Sunday-through-Thursday dinner is $20, and Friday and Saturday dinners are $25. Now that’s a winner!
Harrah’s Eat Up! 777 Casino Center Drive Maryland Heights, MO 63043 (314) 770-8100
Lunch: 11a.m. to 3 p.m, Monday - Saturday Brunch: 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday Dinner: Sunday –Thursday 5 p.m. – 10 p.m. Sunday – Thursday; 4:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday |
|
||||||
Harrah’s Casino is betting on lucky number seven: The seven dining options housed in Eat Up! - its new, $17 million buffet-style restaurant opening on Dec. 20.