Its only recently (that is, in the last year or so) that I’ve really taken notice of the casinos in London. Unlike casinos in Australia, where any punter can place a bet at any stage without anything more than producing ID, in London it seems you have to join up as members first. Its a pretty straightforward process though I think some casinos require you to pay a fee and maybe have a waiting period. The Casino At The Empire at Leicester Square allows you to join for free and play immediately. I guess its something to do with trying to capture the tourist dollar.

Well tonight, for something a little different, D organised for a group of us to pay a visit. So, along with D, James, Catherine and Lawrence I went to check it out.

Dinner

Before gaming we all had dinner at one of the three restaurants inside the casino – FuLuShou which is a restaurant serving Asian fusion food. It has a pretty diverse food menu covering Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Malaysian, Vietnamese and Korean noodle and rice dishes and even offered a small range of dim sum dishes. Our food was very tasty and fairly decent sized portions (though not overly-generous.) Next time I want to go back for the desserts that sounded intriguing – Pandan ice cream with coconut glaze on honey sesame tuiles, Chilli Chocolate Spring Rolls with peanut and toffee sauce, Banana and sticky rice pudding with mango ice cream and biscotti and Lychee pannacotta. For £4 these seemed a bargain though I’m not sure what size portion you would get.

The restaurant is not very big with only about 10-15 tables I could see inside the restaurant with a few scattered outside. What it lacks in size it makes up for in the details – nice decor, good atmosphere and the booths are quite comfy, cool and intimate. The waitresses wore very nice (and sexy) cheong sums and were at all times friendly and efficient.

This restaurant was as definite surprise. I was expecting tacky over priced average food and instead I got fairly classy, value for money, decent tasting food. If there was one drawback it was that food came out in a Wagamam style manner – all at different times without about 10 minutes between the delivery of the first dish and the last.

The Casino

As I mentioned above to get into the casino you have to sign up to be a member but this is a straightforward process that involves you handing over your ID, getting your photo taken and then receiving your membership card. I was actually impressed by the casino though it was smaller than I’d imagined it to be. For those new to gaming they have practice tables but I’m not sure if its free because by the time I saw the tables they had shut down (11pm close.)

After dinner we headed out straight to the floor to check out the action. The main casino is on the ground floor where there are electronic gaming machines (slots, roulette, etc.) and then the tables for black jack, poker etc. There is also apparently a private poker room for World Series Poker tournaments and Learn to Play sessions.

The casino wasn’t as big as the two I’ve been to in Queensland Australia but it was enough to keep us entertained until about 3.30 in the morning though D (who had to catch a train home), James, Catherine and I had ceased gambling at about midnight. Lawrence kept going back at various times to dip his toe into the pool. The good thing about the casino is that when you’re not gambling there are plenty of spots to have a seat, have a drink or just take in the action and relax.

The tables are all handled by glamourous and ridiculously good looking dealers/mangers. My main game these days is blackjack where you get your own space to enjoy the casino. Games like roulette are just to manic for me with people being way too aggressive with their bets and with their physical space around the tables. Blackjack, though often surrounded by crowds, seems much more civilised. I think I was at my table for about three hours (and I must have sat through about three dealer changes) and D was performing well as a host by constantly bringing me drinks. I had a really good time as I had some good banter with the guys next to me – ironically I was sitting next to a dude from Adelaide and his friend on my other side was from South Africa.

Oh, at 10pm, 12am and 2am four las-vegas-style dancers come out and do a bit of a dance on the stairs. It was a little cheesy and almost embarassing but I guess the loud music does its job of waking everyone up (if they needed it) and re-energising the room.

Overall I had a fantastic time at the Casino in very good company and in fact it made a nice change from the norm of going to a pub and just drinking. At the casino you get to have a drink, have somewhere nice to sit and then of course there is also the distraction of the gambling.