Running Aces

This review is based solely on the Outdoor Concert we attended last night. Running Aces sold VIP packages, in which you would get your own table for your group of 8, along with 1 free beer each. All told, each person in our group paid 50 bucks for this so called VIP package. General Admission was 25. We got nothing VIP — IMO. General Admission seating was in front of us– they all got chairs with backs on them, we got an 8 person picnic table with no comfort– but hey, it held our drinks nicely I guess. The show itself at times was way too loud, but I guess bands like Warrant have to turn up the guitars to drown out their horrible singing. Lita Ford was great! If Running Aces has more concerts and offers the so called VIP package– don’t get roped into buying it! You will be much happier spending less money for GA tickets– and you will get more comfort for your money. I should have known better than to think RA was capable of actually making it better for the people that paid out double the money– next time it GA all the way.

Cold food, over-​cooked hamburger, 30 minute drink orders, messed up bills– took 4 times to get it correct. Only 3 tables in the dining area and we managed to get someone else’s order delivered to us. Slow service. Our table of 10 resulted in 7 to vow to never return. Food was good, once received. Cold, but good. Didn’t go for the gambling, just for a nice birthday get-​together. oops.

We are spoiled in MN to have some great places to play cards! Everyone has their preferences, as do I, and I like Running Aces a lot and just as much as the other options.
They recently remodeled and added more tables and space. They have a cool bar area too that is new. The food is always pretty solid and the service has improved overall since I’ve been there last. I wish there were more players that played at Aces, however, for where I live it’s very close and convenient which is nice.
I’ve heard from others that the buffet is solid too, which at any gambling establishment is typically the case.
Definitely worth the drive!

B E T T E R T H A N B E F O R E
Once again, this restaurant inside Running Aces Harness Track, has morphed. For the better.
Originally the home of TROUT AIR, a beloved restaurant run by a family, Running Aces has restored some of the Trout Air selections on it’s new menu. Good Thinking, forces that be.
There seems to be a little redecorating, not outstanding, and the uniforms are wierd looking. The menus are just 1 piece of paper, ours were stained… ick.
We had a Cubano (better than average), and a cheese tortellni with a tangy garlicy pesto sauce. Too tangy for the Swedish tast buds. But a huge portion.
The Trout entrees were pretty pricey, but then they are the «stars» here.
The BEST part was being able to watch the harness racing horses race. Yeah Baby.
We were only there a little while, and I didn’t get a racing form, so I didn’t bet this time. There used to be a $ 25 minimum to sit by the window by the track, but not anymore. There were lots and lots of people boths inside and outside.
A G O O D T I M E W A S H A D B Y A L L

Brand New Menu and all I can say is WaHoo!
The Tuscan Turkey sandwich is the absolute best sandwich I ate this year!
I strongly recommend you check out the new menu!

We went to Running Aces This past Sat. Night Oct. 25^th. We decided to eat in the restaurant and then do the Nightmare Halloween attractions. The restaurant is way over priced for what you get and the chicken on the caesar salad is rubbery and disgusting. For the Halloween part we paid 35 dollars to do the zombie hunt and haunted house. We got there when they opened around 7:15. Got thru the line and decided to to the zombie hunt first since it seemed like the most fun and was first come first serve. 2 hours later (9:30) after standing in line we still had not got on to the ride because we didn’t have VIP passes. So basically how this works people with a VIP pass get to go right away so if there’s always a line for «VIP» regular ticket holders can’t get on and just keep waiting. So everyone in line was getting so mad of course they went and spent an extra $ 10 so they could go next. SCAM!!! Why don’t you just charge more for that attraction then instead of having 2 lines or get more wagons since it’s such a popular thing to do these days. Finally we got on at 10pm. It was a 10 ride to where we had to go and back. When we got there I believe there was 3 or 4 areas that were suppose to have zombies. They didn’t really move and just stood there we were done in 10 mins. This is so not worth the money I paid or the time I waited in line. I will never go to this again and I probably will not eat here either. Save your money!!!

Running Aces is one of my favorite card rooms in the metro area. I will say Canterbury has better cash game poker action on any given day but I prefer the environment of Aces over Canterbury any day. I’m not huge into poker but if you prefer table games without the annoying sounds & smoke that come with slots you will enjoy aces. The horse racing can be fun in the summer time, but again Canterbury has much better horse racing if that is your thing. The only reason they even have horse racing is because they can’t run the card room without having it. I wouldn’t go up just for the horse racing but it’s worth stepping outside if you happen to be there on a race night. Aces does have a good comp program earning $ 5 an hour cash just for being logged in while playing poker. If you are looking for something to do, Aces is a great place to check out for table games. Plenty of parking space, good food overall, full bar, friendly staff and they are always open.

I am going on record to say that yes, all the old reviews had some merit to them. However, Aces has changed a lot — especially in the past 6 months.
GAMING– while I’m not a poker player, my husband is and claims they have a great amount of tournaments available and opportunities to win seats into larger tournaments (MSPT for example) only wish would be more «affordable» tournaments ($ 50 buy in for example) on the weekend or evenings. Paigow however, is my game and I love all three of the tables!
ALL-​IN GRILL — This is why they don’t get 5 stars. This area, which is made for quick grabs for food is not quick at all. They are severely understaffed here. Only one cook for all the patrons and servers alike. Too slow for what is to be quick food I feel. The food quality has improved there however, except the Asian express items. Most of them sit way too long and just do not even look appealing sitting in their warming trays. I have had the General Tsao’s chicken one time when it was cooked fresh — that was amazing. Club sandwich is terrific here.
WINNER’S CIRCLE RESTARAUNT — WHAT A CHANGE!!! and I mean that. The hubby and I live close so we do frequent Aces a lot. We have had some horrific experiences but recently, things have really changed around. We were just in for Monday night for a bite to eat after a long day — had the Reuben sandwich with French fries. WOW — it was crunch and hot and fresh. I am a self proclaimed food snob and do not hesitate to let management know when something is off (as we have here numerous times in the past) but this was spectacular. Their new deserts are amazing too. Crab night on Thursdays, although it is no longer a buffet, is actually more enjoyable in my opinion. And the service — well let’s just say they hire and train them right. I have never been treated poorly or rudely or missed out on a refill of anything. The staff is spot on for their restaurant.
RACING — Fun times! It is drastically different from Canterbury but still a great time. If you can get there early enough for a table you’re set for the night. The automated machines for betting are fun and the atmosphere is great. Advice — try the corn fritters from the food truck — total calorie sabotage but very tasty.
Last comment, Aces actually cares what people post. My husband frequently uses Tripadvisor and both times he has had an issue with food the manager has reached out to him and discussed his concerns. Now who does that anymore? A business that cares to improve. Keep up the good work, we like what we are seeing!

We came to the Winners Circle restaurant at running aces. It was fantastic ! We had reservations for 4 at 10:30am at the champagne brunch on Sunday. We were seated immediately and offered our champagne and any juices we wanted. The buffet was very fresh and clean. Prime Rib was the real deal (not the sliced up roast beef I have had at other buffets). The eggs benedict had soft poached eggs like it is suppose to. A wonderful wild rice potato dish. Made to order crepes, waffles, and omelets, excellent. Salads, fruits and desserts all fresh. Loved it. Consensus is 4 of us gave it 5 stars and we will all come back.

This place is a shit hole since it was built. I will start off with the positive and why I gave 2 stars instead of 1, RA leads mn poker rooms in $ 2-​$ 100 spread limit which is arguably the closest thing to no limit on mn. I have to be completely honest: the food is all bad expect for the pizza, the place is very uncomfortable, a call it the Walmart of poker rooms, the dealers are kinda rude, unhappy, and grumpy, the jackpots are small, they elect to give out more little bits of money here and there instead of have a large payout for their main Holdem jackpot.

This place sucks ! I thought I could get a pint and do some gambling. Wrong you have to have a PHD to place a bet. The horse races are terrible and i will never waste my time and money here.

It’s a good room for Poker when it comes to Live Games but the Tournament Structure needs a change, for the first 2 hours of play they have alternates that come in when somebody gets knocked out, 2 hrs is a bit long for that I get rebuys and late entry for the first hour but after that just makes for a Long Drawn out Tourney, the other thing that happened that I thought was wrong was some lady told the floor boss that when we break our table she wats a mid seat (, these are seats that you draw for) he gives her the 5 seat as I draw the Dreaded 1 seat , as far as it goes overall it’s not too bad with a snack bar that serves Gas Station Quality Food, a wait staff that only cares about the Black Jack and Higher limit tables I know that from playing all the limits in the poker room, best part is you can usually find the action your after!

Running Aces Harness Park…
So Me and the Gal needed to get our Gambling on. We don’t do casinos so that would leave horse racing. Neither of us had been to Running Aces before and I wanted to see harness racing. We made the long trip from the south metro, it was worth it!
Plenty of free parking! Friendly and helpful staff. It’s Clean and so are the restrooms. They could use some craft beers on tap but then again I think everyone should have Craft Beers on tap. The harness racing is fun to watch and before we knew it we had bet on 11 races. A few of our bets returned big time. If we had only made bigger bets! We ended up making a few bucks even with the beer we drank.
* For those of you that might be concerned. We had a long drive back to the south metro so it was only a couple of beers. :-)
It’s a great venue to spend a day.
So out of 5 stars they get…
4 Stars

Tried to get into seafood buffet on Thursday at 5pm. Hostess said they were full. I said no prob… we can wait. Then she said, no we are full for the night. I said I’d wait 2 hours if I had to. She said that its full for the night and that happens most nights. Maybe when I’m 75 ill eat dinner at 3pm but until then running aces can kiss my a$$

Full of Rednecks, chicks with bad hair and chain smokers.

I keep being told that the food here is great, but have yet to actually experience it. Our food took an hour which was really tough since we had two hungry, young kids. Service was soso as was the food.

I didn’t get to see the racing up at Running Aces, but I was impressed with the poker room and black jack tables. The layout is decent and if you are looking to even just sit and watch some races from around the country you can do so relatively comfortably.

The only way to describe my first experience at Running Aces is disappointing. For starters, we had to wait an hour to be seated on a Thursday night at 6:30. I never realized this place would be so packed, but I guess the masses flock here for their Thursday Seafood Buffet. After waiting an hour and watching dozens of people walk buy with plates full of crab legs, we were finally seated.
Our waitress seemed pretty surprised when we asked to see the menu, I guess everyone usually gets the buffet. About 10 minutes later when she returned, she only brought one menu for the four of us, which I found a bit odd. The menu seemed a lot smaller than the menu they have online, and I’m not sure if that’s because of the buffet or if the online menu is just wrong. Three people at our table ended up getting the buffet for $ 24 and I ordered a Thai Shrimp Salad with rice noodles. By this point, I was literally famished, but I didn’t want everyone else to wait for me to eat so I watched in jealousy as they started to eat. I was pretty surprised that my cold noodle salad would take 30 minutes to come to the table, especially when the waitress repeatedly stopped by to tell me it was on the way. When it finally did arrive, I was less than impressed. The noodles were crunchy and undercooked and the lettuce was old iceberg. The dressing had good flavor, but other than that the salad was pretty boring. I wouldn’t order it again.
The other three people at my table seemed to enjoy the buffet. I tried the sushi which was surprisingly good for being a part of a buffet. It definitely wasn’t fresh, but it wasn’t terrible. I also tried some of the desserts from the buffet and wasn’t too impressed. My favorite was the rice crispy bar. The apple crisp was mushy and too tart and the chocolate cake was a bit bland.
In short, if I come here in the summer to check out the races, I will make sure to eat first.

We went to Sunday Brunch on 02−27−11 and it was terrible. All the food was cold and over cooked. There were not very many choices. We have eaten in the restaurant before and the food was very good.
The harness races are always a good time. But I would never recommend the buffet.

My husband and I were pleasantly surprised at the brunch this place had to offer. My parents treated us to Sunday brunch and it was one of the best brunches I’ve had in a long time.
It’s a little bit of a jaunt, but worth it for the price and the selection. It’s a buffett, but a tasteful breakfast buffett.
Fresh fruit, salmon, mini bagels, fresh rolls, typical breakfast fare, cold salads, peel and eat shrimp, carved meat, omelettes and so much more. Excellent choices for dessert. It was a very nice spread, food was very fresh, service was excellent. Champagne and OJ were included.
Overlooked maybe due to the location not being the closest to the cities. If ever in Forest Lake looking for a great brunch, this is the place to try.

It took me a long time to get out to Running Aces. But since that fateful night, I have not looked at *cough* Cantebury Park*cough*.
Running Aces is hands-​down the best poker room you are going to find anywhere within driving distance from the Twin Cities. The chairs are comfortable, the room is much more attractive than other local poker rooms and the comp. system is pretty good at $ 1/​hour.
This place has been a major victim of bad word-​of-​mouth reviews I’ve heard, but none of them panned out to be true. Pretty good service, a great seafood buffet (mmm.crab legs!) and a wide array of great card games.