1. Foxwoods Resort
City: Mashantucket, CT
Category: Accommodations
Telephone: (800) 369-9663
Address: 06338
Description: Foxwoods Resort actually has 4 different lodging options, all of which are expensive, but some less so. If you’re looking for a cheaper option, stay in one of the 280 rooms or suites at the Two Trees Inn, which is a long walk or quick shuttle ride from the casino. The 312-room Great Cedar Hotel is the next cheapest, and the 800-room Grand Pequot Tower and the 825-room MGM Grand hotels are the most expensive. They also have the best rooms, and the best views, far out over the woodlands of eastern Connecticut. There are “director suites” and “producer suites” at the MGM that truly give new meaning to “high roller” living. There’s a 5,500-square-foot pool (with poolside cabanas and bar) for guests, too. You can get discounts on the rooms as a member of the Wampum Club, and the resort is wheelchair accessible.
2. Craftsteak
City: Mashantucket, CT
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (800) 369-9663
Address: 350 Trolley Line Blvd.
Insider Pick:
Description: Yes, Craftsteak has amazing steak. They have all the fantastic cuts you’d expect: rib eye, filet mignon, skirt steak, porterhouse, dry-aged beef, and three cuts of Wagyu. But what Top Chef judge Tom Colicchio has created at Craftsteak is a fine-dining restaurant pushing the boundaries in subtle ways with dishes like sea scallops, English peas, carrots, and, wait for it, green curry. Go for the hen-of-the-woods mushrooms, the truffled oricheitte pasta, or any of the oysters. There are several different options for chef tastings and prix-fixe dinners, all worth your time. This is not a celebrity chef restaurant—the celebrity here is the amazing cutting-edge food.
3. David Burke Prime
City: Mashantucket, CT
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (860) 312-8753
Address: 350 Trolley Line Blvd.
Description: Prime tries to “fill that steak-shaped hole in your life” with the best cuts from Creekstone Farms in Kentucky, which are then dry-aged for 28 to 75 days in the restaurant’s in-house dry-aging room. The double-cut maple-pepper bacon strips, surf and turf dumplings, and Parmesan meatballs are all great appetizers. Or if you like seafood, get the Pequot Tower raw bar. However, David Burke made his reputation with his invention of the crackling pork shank, and there’s a good reason for that. It is one of the largest, tastiest pieces of meat you will ever (try to) eat. They also have an enormous wine selection, and if you see a giant glass-walled tower of wine as you walk around the casino shops and wonder what it is, that’s Prime’s wine cellar. Or rather, wine tower, and you can just follow it down to the hotel level for one of the best meals of your life.
4. Shrine
City: Mashantucket, CT
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (800) 369-9663
Address: 350 Trolley Line Blvd.
Insider Pick:
Description: Located in the newer MGM section of America’s largest and most elaborate casino complex, Shrine is the best pan-Asian food you’ll find in the county, with Japanese pork katsu, grilled Mongolian skirt steak, and a General Tso chicken that will certainly not taste like the stuff you got for Chinese takeout. The menu has a fantastic selection of sashimi and rolls, along with better-than-you’ve-ever-had lobster rangoons, duck buns, and red miso five-spice wings. The martinis and other cocktails are great accompaniments to the meal, or just as a nightcap after winning at the tables. The restaurant itself is huge, but believe it or not, it fills up. Get there early and get the fried rice wok dishes to share.
5. Paragon
City: Mashantucket, CT
Category: Restaurants
Telephone: (800) 369-9663
Address: 350 Trolley Line Blvd.
Description: Paragon lives up to its name as one of the top restaurants in the state. Featuring changing, seasonal menus and daily market specials, the menu is hard to quantify. The “taste of Paragon” appetizer perfectly sums that up, with a chef’s daily selection of tasty tidbits to try. You could go for the Siberian caviar, of course, if you want something more reliably decadent. The confit dumpling soup and the heirloom tomatoes with buffalo mozzarella are both good choices as well. The Nigerian wild prawns are an unusual delicacy—like shrimp or lobster, but clearly not. Speaking of lobster, Paragon has a number of different preparations, like wood grilled and Cantonese, and you can pick the sauce. Located on the 24th floor of the Grand Pequot Tower, Paragon’s live piano lounge is also the place among those in the know to get some champagne and sushi appetizers while waiting for a show. They consider themselves “French” dining, and that’s why they’re in this category. But it’s hard to put a label on the seriousness of this food.
6. Foxwoods Resort & Casino
City: Mashantucket, CT
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (860) 885-3000
Address: 350 Trolley Line Blvd.
Description: This resort and casino offers everything you could possibly want from a weekend getaway, all under one roof. Here you’ll find fine-dining restaurants, a world-class spa, live entertainment, nightclubs, six massive casinos, and luxury accommodations. Combined, the casinos within Foxwoods feature 6,200 slot machines and 380 gaming tables (featuring 17 different table games). If poker is your game, you’ll find 100 poker tables here, plus a high-tech Race Book and the world’s largest bingo hall.Special events and concerts are held here throughout the year. Oh, and when you get hungry, there are 30 restaurants available to serve you, many of which are open 24 hours a day. Foxwoods, like the other casinos in the area, offers a true Las Vegas–style experience.To get to Foxwoods Casino or MGM-Grand at Foxwoods from Long Island by car, travel toward New York City and then take I-95 North to exit 92 in Connecticut, past New London. Turn left onto Rte. 2 West. Foxwoods Casino is 8 miles west on Rte. 2. The drive time is about three hours from Nassau County.
7. MGM-Grand At Foxwoods
City: Mashantucket, CT
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (860) 312-3000
Address: 240 MGM Grand Dr.
Description: A recent addition to the Foxwoods Casino complex is the MGM-Grand, a massive stand-alone casino/resort. It too offers everything you’d want in a single building, so once you arrive, there’s really no reason to leave until you’re ready to head home. Here you’ll find 1,400 slot machines and 60 gaming tables, plus a handful of world-class restaurants and several large theaters that present live shows, sporting events, and concerts almost nightly. There’s also a luxurious day spa, plus two on-site golf courses. In terms of accommodations, the MGM-Grand offers 825 guestrooms and suites, all featuring ultra-modern and extremely comfortable furnishings and decor.
8. Foxwoods Resort & Casino
City: Mashantucket, CT
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (800) 369-9663
Address: 06338
Insider Pick:
Description: The largest casino in the US, Foxwoods is a destination for people from around the world. There are over 380 gaming tables, including baccarat, blackjack, craps, keno, money wheel, pai gow, roulette, and a variety of poker games, all calling people to eastern Connecticut. There is also a sports betting facility, bingo, and the most slot machines of any casino in the world. With bars and entertainment, Foxwoods could just as easily be listed under nightlife. It qualifies as a mall, too, with dozens of shops and restaurants. In 2008 the MGM Grand opened, adding 53 gaming tables, 1,400 slot machines, a 4,000-seat theater, and 825 hotel rooms to the complex. There are, in fact, hotel accommodations here, a spa, and a golf course. This is, quite simply, the centerpiece of the tourist industry that makes New London County thrive. Try not to get lost wandering the countless halls and rooms. You could spend a week here, and many people do.
9. Mashantucket Pequot Museum
City: Mashantucket, CT
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (800) 411-9671
Address: 110 Pequot Trail
Insider Pick:
Description: For over 10,000 years native peoples occupied southeastern Connecticut, and just before the Europeans landed, the Pequots were a tribe of 8,000 people. The Pequot War and the slaughter of 700 men, women, and children by the colonial forces devastated the tribe, leading to centuries of wandering and reservation life. Then, in 1992 the remaining descendants of the Pequots opened the Foxwoods Resort Casino, and with the money available to them, have created this amazing museum honoring their ancestors. At first you make your way through large, life-size dioramas like A World of Ice and Changing Lifeways, thinking this is a great, professionally built museum, almost as good as the Smithsonian’s Native American museum. Then you step out into the full-size re-creation of the Pequot village and you realize that it is actually better than the Smithsonian. This remarkable attraction is open Wed through Sat, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with the last admission at 4 p.m. If you’re going to have fun at the casino, stop here first, and be amazed at one of the best (okay, probably the best) museum on Native American life in the US.
10. G Spa At Mgm Grand
City: Mashantucket, CT
Category: Tours & Attractions
Telephone: (800) 369-9663
Address: 350 Trolley Line Blvd.
Description: The 21,000-square-foot G Spa was designed by Gretta Monahan to be an oasis amid the flashing lights and jingling slots of America’s largest casino. You can find facials, body treatments in Vichy shower rooms, hair and nail treatments, and an entire menu of relaxing massages. Try the “vino therapy,” which uses grape-seed extract for its treatments. The spa also includes a fitness center, indoor lap pool, and coed Jacuzzi. You can also use the raindrop massaging jet showers, waterfall Jacuzzis, eucalyptus steam rooms, and saunas in the locker rooms. You must be 21 and over to use the spa. Foxwoods also includes a satellite of the Norwich Spa (see below), because, you know, there are a lot of stressed people coming to these casinos, and relaxation is a full-time job.