San Diego-area casinos are a popular destination during the Christmas and New Year holidays. As a result, many are planning special menus and other events for guests. Here’s a roundup.
A Magical Jamul Holiday supper club event plays Dec. 15-17 at Jamul Casino.
(Courtesy of Jamul Casino)
Jamul Holiday Dinner Show: At 5:30 and 8:30 p.m. Dec. 15, 16 and 17, Jamul Casino will offer its third “A Magical Jamul Holiday,” a supper club event with entertainment at its outdoor Rooftop restaurant-bar. Tickets are $85. Entertainment will include singing, dancing and a live band, as well as a meet-and-greet with Santa and Mrs. Claus. The three-course dinner begins with a wedge salad, followed by choice of herb-crusted Atlantic salmon or braised beef Bourguignon with whipped potatoes and vegetables, followed by a gingerbread house dessert. A vegetarian menu is available. Reservations at jamulcasinosd.com/magical-holiday/
The Pala Casino looms in the background of the homes (foreground) on the Pala Indian Reservation.
Christmas Day feast: Holiday menus weren’t yet available at press time, but in past years, Pala Casino’s casual Pala Café has offered a prix-fixe Christmas day meal all day. All of the resort’s restaurants will be open on Christmas day. To learn more about holiday dining options, call the hotel’s main switchboard for updates at (877) 946-7252.
Pechanga Resort Casino’s take-home holiday meal is $260 and feed up to six people.
(Courtesy of Pechanga Resort Casino)
Pechanga Holiday To Go!: Pechanga is once again offering its pre-cooked take-home feast. Priced at $260 and designed to serve six, the meal includes a bone-in prime rib with au jus and creamy horseradish, potato puree, winter chop salad, roasted baby carrots, lemon-roasted Brussels sprouts with Asiago cheese, apple pie and bread rolls. Orders must be placed in advance by Dec. 15 at (951) 770-2307. Meals can be picked up curbside between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Dec. 25 at Pechanga’s Blends Coffee Bar.
A Meal to Remember: On Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve, Pechanga’s Great Oak Steakhouse is offering five-course pre-fixe dinner menus. The Christmas menu, priced at $120, has a soup course of sweet onion bisque, three salad options, an appetizer choice of crab cakes or lamb chops and four entrée options, including filet mignon, Chilean sea bass, free-range chicken or surf and turf. Dessert is a milk chocolate mousse pastry. The New Year’s Eve menu, priced at $140, begins with lobster bisque, followed by appetizer of crab cakes or lamb chops, three salad options and four entrée options of grilled rib-eye, free-range chicken, pan-seared scallops or surf and turf. Dessert is a triple chocolate layer cake. For reservations, call (951) 770-8507 or visit , visit pechanga.com/eat/the-great-oak-steakhouse.
Casual Christmas menus: For a less formal Christmas day meal, Kelsey’s sports bar and 1182 Cantina Mexican restaurant are offering prix-fixe menus all day. The cantina is serving a three-course $68 menu featuring a 20-ounce bone-in rib eye steak. Kelsey’s will serve a four-course $58 menu with dishes like short ribs, prime rib and pork belly gratin.
Gingerbread village and Santa: Each holiday season, Pechanga’s pastry team creates an all-new holiday gingerbread village display in its lobby under the waterfall chandelier. This year’s village has 11 gingerbread houses and 30 edible dark and white chocolate trees as well as sugar sculptures. Santa Claus will visit the resort from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Dec. 18 and from 5 to 9 p.m. Dec. 19 and 20 in the resort tower’s second floor foyer.
Bull and Bourbon restaurant at Sycuan Casino & Resort in El Cajon.
(Courtesy of Sycuan Casino)
Christmas Eve dinner: From 2 to 8 p.m. Dec. 24, Sycuan’s Bull and Bourbon Steakhouse will serve a prix-fixe menu priced at $85. The four-course dinner will offer choice of two starters, cranberry-stuffed gougères or chestnut-glazed lamb chops, choice of wild mushroom soup or pear and walnut salad; entree choice of Chilean sea bass or beef Wellington, each with sides; and dessert of eggnog pot de crème. bullandbourbon.com/reservations
New Year’s Eve dinner: On Dec. 31, diners at Bull and Bourbon Steakhouse can enjoy a $95 three-course dinner. The meal begins with starter choices of crab arancini with shellfish butter, house wedge salad or French onion soup. Entrée choices are a 16-ounce bone-in filet au poivre steak with mashed Yukon gold potatoes and asparagus, or a stuffed airline chicken breast with cranberry, brie, roasted root vegetables and Marsala cream. Dessert is a flourless chocolate cake with vanilla crème Anglaise with berries and whipped cream. Reservations are being taken from 4 p.m. to midnight at bullandbourbon.com/reservations
The interior of Black&Blue Steakhouse at Valley View Casino & Hotel in Valley Center.
(Valley View Casino & Hotel)
Chef Nick’s Special 3-Course Dinner: From 4:30 to 9 p.m. Christmas Day, the Black&Blue Steakhouse at Valley View will serve a $59 three-course prix-fixe menu. The starter course is any soup or salad from the Black&Blue menu. Entree choices are shrimp and scallop scampi linguini with vegetables; Brandt Beef filet mignon with seasonal vegetables and Yukon potato puree; or a cider-glazed Duroc pork shank with sides. The final course is a choice of desserts from the menu. Call for a reservation at (760) 291-2130.
Patties & Pints holiday meal: From 3 to 9 p.m. Christmas Day, this casual pizza, burgers and beer eatery will be serving $39 three-course holiday meal. The starter is choice of butternut squash bisque, entree of osso bucco with potato au gratin and roasted root vegetables and dessert of spiced bread pudding with orange liqueur Crème Anglaise.
The Buffet Christmas dinner: From 3 to 8:30 p.m. Dec. 25, casino Blue Card members and above can visit the buffet for a $49 holiday meal. Dishes will include honey-glazed baked ham, maple-glazed butternut squash, lobster bisque, beef tamales and Christmas yule log dessert.
Grove Steakhouse prix-fixe menu: On Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays throughout the holiday season, the Grove Steakhouse is offering an optional three course prix-fixe menu priced at $70. First course options are French onion soup or wedge salad. Entree course is choice of 8-ounce filet mignon with sides, Loch Duart salmon with sides or Mary’s Farm roast chicken with sides. Dessert is choice of crème brûlée or chocolate cake. Reserve at viejas.com/dining/grove-steakhouse
Pam Kragen is the arts and entertainment editor, as well as the chief theater, dining and opera critic, for the San Diego Union-Tribune. She joined the Union-Tribune staff in October 2012 after 27 years at the North County Times, where she served as the Arts & Features Editor, as well as the paper’s longtime arts writer and theater and opera critic. She is the co-founder of the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle. She holds a bachelor of arts degree in journalism from San Diego State University and completed fellowships in theater criticism at the University of Southern California and opera-classical music criticism at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. And in 2022, she was chosen as one of the fellows in the prestigious National Critics Institute, run by the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterf, Conn.
