Cal Neva
1 E 1st St
Reno, NV 89501
Rating: 
Located on the 2nd floor of the Cal Neva Club Casino in Reno, the Top Deck Restaurant serves up a large variety of inexpensive food. A large sign outside the casino showcases the restaurant’s top menu items: steak & eggs, steak with fries & soup, and prime rib with fries and soup all for under $5.99. Pulled in by the great deals, we entered the dated casino and entered the restaurant where a hostess brought us to a table. Menus were provided and drink orders were taken. A few minutes later, a different server asked us for drink orders again and actually brought the drinks. This felt odd because we were asked for drinks once already. The server later returned to take our order after an extended amount of time.
Today, we ordered the steak & eggs, prime rib with chicken noodle soup and fries, and the El Gordo burrito. The size of the steak was quite small, probably around 6 to 8 ounces and cooked medium rare as requested. The steak was actually seasoned well and was tender; each bite tasted juicy. The scrambled eggs tasted like they came out of the carton and had no texture at all, which also tasted bland. The hash browns were unusually dense and chewy. Even with extra ketchup, the hash browns were fairly hard to eat and continued to not taste fresh. The wheat toast came with a hefty amount of butter, which made the toast really good. The chicken soup that came with the prime rib was extremely hot and included an ample amount of tender chicken. The included herbs added flavor to the bland flavor that resembles soup coming out of a can. The prime rib was small and looked around 10 ounces, but almost half of the slab was fat. Of the remaining meat portion, the meat was tender, but had no flavor at all. Even when dipped in the au jus, you could really only taste plain meat. The meal did come with a generous amount of fries, which were cooked properly and went well with ketchup. The El Gordo burrito comes in weighing 2 pounds served with a side of chips and salsa. I ordered the burrito without beans since I was already eating a lot of carbs anyways. The burrito came filled with seasoned rice, beef, cheese, and tomatoes. It was quite a challenge to eat the burrito, especially after clearing the plate from the steak and eggs. The meat in the burrito resembled chopped up prime rib, but like the prime rib meal, the meat in the burrito was equally as bland as the meal. In addition, the beef was dry, and there was not enough cheese in the burrito to add moisture to the burrito. The salsa helped a bit, but consisted of mostly liquid tomatoes and very little heat. Having ate half of the burrito, I was unable to finish the other half at the time.
Overall, Top Deck Restaurant serves up decent food at amazing prices. If you decide to come here, stick to what tastes good and just order the steak and eggs. After eating two other bland items from the menu, I can only approve of the steak and eggs. Service was hit or miss as our server was friendly, but the assistant servers and replacement server did not seem that friendly. If you are in the mood for steak at a budget, give Top Deck a try, but don’t order the eggs scrambled. Even if the sides don’t come out properly, at least you ate a good steak.
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