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It's looking like my wife is going to have a job interview in Casper during December. Her interview will be on a Friday and we'll likely extend the stay over Saturday and Sunday as well.
One of our goals will be to get a feel for the town to see how we feel about it. We would like to make it into a mini-vacation for the family (family of 6).
1. What restaurants should we try while in town? We like ethnic food alot. Mexican, Chinese, Thai, Indian, etc. We'll eat anything though. We like burger joints too.
2. I think we might like to check out Casper Mountain. We like the mountains and I like mountain biking. Is the mountain open during December or do they close it?
3. If we move to Casper we will be looking to rent a 4 bedroom home, hopefully with a few acres. In what parts of town would we be most likely to find something like that? We won't actually be looking on this trip but we'd like to get a feel for the neighborhoods and different parts of town. We like rural but our experience in Eastern Colorado has been that it is extremely difficult to find nice rental properties with acreage.
4. What fun family activities (that don't cost too much) could we do while in town? My kids are 9, 6, 4, 2.
I haven't scouted out a new town like this before. what other things should we check out while in town?
It's looking like my wife is going to have a job interview in Casper during December. Her interview will be on a Friday and we'll likely extend the stay over Saturday and Sunday as well.
One of our goals will be to get a feel for the town to see how we feel about it. We would like to make it into a mini-vacation for the family (family of 6).
1. What restaurants should we try while in town? We like ethnic food alot. Mexican, Chinese, Thai, Indian, etc. We'll eat anything though. We like burger joints too.
Absent knowing what your baseline of comparison is for restaurants/ethnic food ... I'll make a generalization of my experiences in Casper, which is to say that for the most part, you will be disappointed.
There's a decent italian restaurant downtown, as well a better than you might expect Japanese restaurant.
The Chinese restaurants I've been to are uniformly americanized stuff that will have you thinking fondly of the steam table foodlike substances they served you in school. For whatever reason, the Chinese restaurant owning community in the region think that the american taste in their ethnic foods doesn't go beyond that ... and you'll find numerous buffets that serve a fairly uniform level of mediocrity. It's filling, but not especially tasty and the levels of MSG can vary widely. The worst is to find sushi-like substances on their buffet tables, a recent addition to their ornamental fads; what they're serving is an insult to the concept of sushi with fake crab (surimi), a sprig of vegetable, and lots of rice without any semblance of correct preparation surrounded by a bit of nori. They're so intimidated by the concept of serving real Chinese food of whatever region that they include a lot of fried foods of their interpretation of american cuisine ... not unusual to find fried chicken, hot dogs, etc ... for those who can't stomach the oriental foods, even tame stuff like flavorless potstickers.
I haven't seen Indian or Thai food in the Casper area. Your closest fix for these will be in Ft Collins CO, although there is an Indian restaurant at the Antelope truck stop in Burns, WY ... passably good, but limited to less than a handful of items on their Indian menu.
Mexican food in Casper is a real mixed bag. There's mostly places serving gringo food ... the usual assortment of burritos, tacos, enchiladas and such with canned flan and similar goey substances for deserts. Most of them don't serve anything as good as what's available in your grocer's frozen food case or at Taco John's (a Cheyenne based regional mexican oriented chain with some unusual takes on the cuisine ... Potato Oles, for example). I've found only a couple of Mexican restaurants that has some semblance of authenticity of various regional cooking, but I'd have to say that they were a little rough around the edges, too. I'd been advised to not go there as a single non-mexican, especially in the evenings.
Even 'merican food will have you confounded in this town. I've been to a number of conventions hosted by the main hotel/convention center complex in town and it (as well, the restaurants nearby) will make your local Holiday Inn look pretty good for food. There's a number of chain restaurants which are forgettable. What you'll find in Casper's restaurant scene is a lot of national chain restaurants ... think Red Lobster, Olive Garden, the usual assortment of fa(s)t food burger joints, etc. This extends to the steakhouse concept restaurants, too.
The bottom line is that your dining choices in Casper are rather limited and not a major attraction to a place of this population size.
2. I think we might like to check out Casper Mountain. We like the mountains and I like mountain biking. Is the mountain open during December or do they close it?
You'll find that the weather will preclude enjoying much of what the Casper Mountain area has to offer at this time of the year. You might want to call the folks at 307-266-1136 to find out what activities, if any, are accessible while you're there.
3. If we move to Casper we will be looking to rent a 4 bedroom home, hopefully with a few acres. In what parts of town would we be most likely to find something like that? We won't actually be looking on this trip but we'd like to get a feel for the neighborhoods and different parts of town. We like rural but our experience in Eastern Colorado has been that it is extremely difficult to find nice rental properties with acreage.
I don't think you'll find a 4-bedroom home anywhere "in town on a few acres" for rent. You'll need to widen your search area to outlying developments. Best to peruse the ads in the Casper Star-Tribune for rentals and contact the real estate agents/property managers directly for their available properties. Be aware that Casper is in a mild boom phase right now due to the oil field activity in play in the region, and the rental housing market is somewhat limited, especially in larger homes which weren't historically built for the rental marketplace.
4. What fun family activities (that don't cost too much) could we do while in town? My kids are 9, 6, 4, 2.
IMO, your choices for family entertainment with youngsters in Casper are limited. There's a few movie screens. Essentially, the entertainment aspects of Casper ... as found in much of Wyoming ... doesn't center on being entertained, but focuses on the outdoor activities available in which you partake. The issue becomes one of seasonality and weather conditions ... in the winter months, you may find that much of your outdoor activities can be less than a pleasure. Hiking/bicycling/camping/fishing/equine activity simply loses a lot of it's appeal when the winds are howling and the air temps are low. Ah ... the winds do howl in the Casper area in the winter months.
I haven't scouted out a new town like this before. what other things should we check out while in town?
I'd make it a priority to investigate your housing requirements given your anticipated income level. Tour the neighborhoods where the rentals are available. When you are looking for acreage, the concept of a "neighborhood" may not be applicable; ie, you may simply be out on a patch of land surrounded by not much of anything. You may find that networking with other families with young children will be a concern when you're seeking playmates as your younger ones won't have the connection of school mates and you may find that there's a lot of distance between where you live and neighbors with children. Your school age children might only see their friends on the school bus or at school, so you may be doing a lot of transportation within their circle of friends ... and yours, too.
Depending on where you are coming from Eastern Colorado, I believe you will find what Casper has to offer to your liking.
La Cocina is a good Mexican place; plenty safe to visit any time of day.
4 or 5 Chinese places, Chopstix Asian Bistro. Google them and there are reviews available.
Depending on the weekend you are vising Casper, there is something going on nearly every weekend, even in the winter. Again, Google it to get a calendar. Dec 11-12 is a huge Christmas craft fair/event at the Sunrise Mall that my kids love.
Casper Mountain isn't closed because they have a ski area there, so you should be able to get a look at outdoor areas to explore when spring comes.
I agree with sunsprit that your desire in housing may be difficult to find, or if you find it, might be expensive. Housing in Casper is definitely more expensive than anywhere in Eastern Colorado. I hail from there as well, 20+ yrs ago but all of my family still live there. Our economy is MUCH better than where you are coming from, so we have people with income driving our housing. It actually may be cheaper to buy than rent, but that may not be an option. Have a relative who bought a tiny, 3bed/2bath house in Casper for investment, and rented it for $1300 month overnight.
Also consider the wind....where I grew up in NE Colorado, the wind does blow, so I have no problem with the wind in WY. But Casper definitely has more wind than other "windy" areas of Wyoming. I have come to terms with the wind and understand it is why this great state hasn't experienced the growth other areas, like Front Range of Colorado, has.
Not to turn this into a foodie thread ... but as I said, it's all a matter of where you're coming from and what your expectations are for a restaurant experience ....
Coming from the Eastern Plains of Colorado where good ethnic food is essentially non-existent, I would imagine that anything that purports to be of a certain ethnicity and prepares food in a given "style" associated with that would be "good" food.
Coming from Denver, where there are some exceptional Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, French, Thai, Indian, Vietnamese, Italian, and others .... the restaurant scene in Casper simply doesn't cut it. Especially at the price points on their menu's for what are among the least expensive cuisines to prepare and serve ... Mexican and Chinese being two of them. When I see $10+ entrees that are essentially a platter of beans and rice, I expect the main item to be rather exceptional. Every Casper restaurant has disappointed on that score so far even on the beans and the rice which appear to be a commodity item instead of something treated with respect.
As I grew up in a community of many immigrants and first generation folk from widespread Asian and Mexican backgrounds, I learned firsthand what those cuisines had to offer. Many of my high school friends were from restaurant owning families ... and I got to eat the food in their restaurants with my parents and then eat the foods that they served at home which were a world apart from the stuff that they made their living at, but was the "real" cusine. For the most part, the Chinese families considered any other ethnicity to be "devils" worth feeding only crap like Chow Mein and Chop Suey and real garbage food created with the same ingredients but intentionally of a low level of food preparation.
My interest in food extends well past the common stuff here in Wyoming. For example, a few months ago I had the pleasure of having company over for dinner ... as in they were to bring the ingredients and prepare the meal for us. She? an award winning Vietnamese chef with several top rated restaurants back "home", and one in NYC that gets top reviews. She cooked a meal for us that was typical home cooking, and being unsure of what we might have for ingredients on hand, had brought everything from the Pacific Ocean Market in Denver that could possibly be needed. Much to her surprise, we have just about everything on hand in our pantry and freezers, from the oils to sauces to spices to chili peppers. She was able to prepare whole sea bass, shrimp (several different ways), octopus and scallops in pho, and so forth ... all augmented with our selection of oyster sauce and nuc mam. I got to watch a pro first hand prepare these items, including spring rolls and such ... it was an amazing feast for the eyes, taste buds, and aromas. From wok or cooking dish to table in seconds .... after many hours of preparation.
On the other hand:
Quite frankly, what you are looking at in LaCocina is more of the institutionalized south of the border stuff which isn't good at all, being heavily americanized gringo food. Proof? Ground Beef on the menu. Hamburgers, too. An absence of all the meats and cuts that would represent any form of "real" mexican cooking ... not even bar-b-que chicken in a mexican style. No shrimp. I could go on and on about the regional mexican cusines and their signature items, but the bottom line is this place serves mexican style americanized food, but it ain't mexican food. I was taken to this place by some friends while there for a conference awhile back, and it didn't even smell "mexican" to walk into the place. Tacos, tortas, chimi's, etc. do not mexican food make. My wife thought she tasted soy sauce in the food, too ....
The Asian Bistro? you gotta' be kidding me. A commingling of three major asian cuisines, all done poorly and essentially an antithesis of the food cultures of all three. The sushi isn't worth the money ... save your dough for a good Japanese restaurant. The Thai? OMG, the curry was tasteless, not a balanced blend of textures in a sweet/salty/spicy fragrant mixture. And the worst insult was the chinese food ... or what purported to be some of it. The rice was bland and had crunchy stale overcooked grains in it, the saucing was stale on every dish, and the obligatory fried roll filled with a vegetable filling was ... in a word, horrible. The fried won ton with a dollop of some unknown filler was disgusting, and the rest of the dishes were exceptionally overpriced for what amounted to steam table slop rather than food freshly wok prepared to order and served with the expected fragrance ("the breath of the wok"). You'd serve better food with higher quality ingredients to your family to head to the supermarket and buy canned Chun King ....
As I said, if you're really into ethnic foods and know what to expect from a good place ... Casper will greatly disappoint you on most cuisines. If you haven't had that type of dining experience in a community where there's an ethnic base catering to it's own origins ... for example, the Vietnamese community in Denver on South Federal Blvd, or the smattering of Mexican restaurants in NE Denver or the places like El Taco de Mexico at 7th/Santa Fe Drive, or the Thai in Littleton ... You'll be happy with Casper's dining scene.
I'm not. I don't consider the national chains presentations of various ethnic foods worth my money; they don't bring me any pleasure at all. The national steak houses? not very good for the most part with their marinades destroying the meats. We do better on our own free range raised beef where even the lesser cuts have flavor and are naturally tender to begin with. I don't eat in fast food places, they're deadly to health and weight issues. As I'm a good cook with a serious interest in preparing and enjoying various ethnic foods, especially asian and mexican ... I get disappointed with the common stuff that I can do much better at.
Your results and satisfaction will vary from mine, but in my experience, the threshold of restaurant food quality served in Casper is pretty low. Your first tip-off is seeing who the commercial food purveyors are to the trade in town ... when I see Sysco trucks and such, I know how much of their food is essentially "brought in" rather than prepared from scratch using proper ingredients.
It's looking like my wife is going to have a job interview in Casper during December. Her interview will be on a Friday and we'll likely extend the stay over Saturday and Sunday as well.
One of our goals will be to get a feel for the town to see how we feel about it. We would like to make it into a mini-vacation for the family (family of 6).
1. What restaurants should we try while in town? We like ethnic food alot. Mexican, Chinese, Thai, Indian, etc. We'll eat anything though. We like burger joints too.
2. I think we might like to check out Casper Mountain. We like the mountains and I like mountain biking. Is the mountain open during December or do they close it?
3. If we move to Casper we will be looking to rent a 4 bedroom home, hopefully with a few acres. In what parts of town would we be most likely to find something like that? We won't actually be looking on this trip but we'd like to get a feel for the neighborhoods and different parts of town. We like rural but our experience in Eastern Colorado has been that it is extremely difficult to find nice rental properties with acreage.
4. What fun family activities (that don't cost too much) could we do while in town? My kids are 9, 6, 4, 2.
I haven't scouted out a new town like this before. what other things should we check out while in town?
1. If you like ethnic food I would check out the Indian and Thai place downtown. I can't remember the name of it, but the food is very good.
2. Casper Mountain is open, just check the weather reports. Also keep in mind that much of that is private land.
3. I'm not sure of the places with acreage, but don't rent from Alerin Management.
4. I don't have kids so I can't name much for family activities but there is a planetarium and the western trails museum is nice. Also check out Independence Rock. It is a bit of a jaunt from town but if you are a history buff like me you'll love it.
The fusion concept didn't work for me. Service was poor, and the food simply doesn't begin to compare to what I can find in Ft Collins or Denver when I'm on the road for comparable or less money. Still, it's better than a lot of Casper places in the ethnic foods category.
The fusion concept didn't work for me. Service was poor, and the food simply doesn't begin to compare to what I can find in Ft Collins or Denver when I'm on the road for comparable or less money. Still, it's better than a lot of Casper places in the ethnic foods category.
That name sounds about right. The service was good when I was there but this was a few years ago. Casper is the biggest city I've lived in so I haven't gotten to try out places in big cities much.
Last edited by NDak15; 11-13-2011 at 10:06 PM..
Reason: Mistatement
It's really to each his/her own. I remember when we moved to Gillette 40 years ago all we really wanted was a Dairy Queen! We'd drive the 300 mile round trip to Rapid City just to eat at Shakeys Pizza! And, oh my! When McDonalds came to town! Pure heaven!
Heck, the biggest improvement in Gillette's restaurants came about when the city water improved to the point that there wasn't an oil slick floating on your coffee and the cream would actually mix with it instead of curdling.
So I expect that a lot of people [don't know about the op in this instance] who ask about good places to eat when they're coming to visit are just looking for some of the best the city has to offer. We've gotta eat, after all. My wife loves the Outback in Casper. Some think it's horrible. *shrugs* So just tell me what's better in Casper. It's a dead certainty that when we go to Casper for the weekend, we're not driving to Fort Collins for our meals.
That's not to say that we shouldn't be honest about a review. If it sucks in our opinion, that's exactly what we should say, but to not offer any alternatives doesn't help either.
My personal preferences in food changed drastically 20 years ago when I lost my sense of smell during a surgery. I was at my son's home a month or so ago when he and his wife opened a $300 bottle of wine and poured me a glass of it. I barely sipped it and handed it back, telling them not to waste it on me. I used to love a good dry wine, but now they all taste bitter. All spices taste bitter. Even hot fudge tastes bitter. My first indication that Mexican food is spicy hot is when the top of my head starts to sweat! What some people like, others hate and vice versa.
It's really to each his/her own. I remember when we moved to Gillette 40 years ago all we really wanted was a Dairy Queen! We'd drive the 300 mile round trip to Rapid City just to eat at Shakeys Pizza! And, oh my! When McDonalds came to town! Pure heaven!
Heck, the biggest improvement in Gillette's restaurants came about when the city water improved to the point that there wasn't an oil slick floating on your coffee and the cream would actually mix with it instead of curdling.
So I expect that a lot of people [don't know about the op in this instance] who ask about good places to eat when they're coming to visit are just looking for some of the best the city has to offer. We've gotta eat, after all. My wife loves the Outback in Casper. Some think it's horrible. *shrugs* So just tell me what's better in Casper. It's a dead certainty that when we go to Casper for the weekend, we're not driving to Fort Collins for our meals.
That's not to say that we shouldn't be honest about a review. If it sucks in our opinion, that's exactly what we should say, but to not offer any alternatives doesn't help either.
My personal preferences in food changed drastically 20 years ago when I lost my sense of smell during a surgery. I was at my son's home a month or so ago when he and his wife opened a $300 bottle of wine and poured me a glass of it. I barely sipped it and handed it back, telling them not to waste it on me. I used to love a good dry wine, but now they all taste bitter. All spices taste bitter. Even hot fudge tastes bitter. My first indication that Mexican food is spicy hot is when the top of my head starts to sweat! What some people like, others hate and vice versa.
WARNING: Wyolady, this is another nauseating long post! Do not attempt to read at risk of losing your cookies!
I haven't had coffee in over 20 years and even then never used cream or sugar in it when I did get fanatical about fresh roasted/ground beans and a french press.
Sorry to hear of your loss of sense of smell ... it's such a huge part of enjoying food. I know I'd be devastated because good food is such a big part of my life, having grown up on so many ethnic cuisines which feature that aspect and I'm a curious and adventuresome eater. I have an interest in food to the extent of taking cooking classes and learning how to select the ingredients and prepare many different cuisines to a high level ... friends welcome me in my travels because they look forward to my cooking wherever we go. Recently, we had the pleasure of a top Vietnamese chef come to our house and prepare a feast for us, so I got to learn even more about cooking their foods home-style. Caused me to stop at Pacific Ocean Market and spend several hundred bucks to stock up on the essentials ....
I'd mentioned two ethnic restaurants in Casper which were decent places ... an Italian and a Japanese. They are Botticelli Ristorante Italiano, where the owner/chef knows his stuff and what he is serving, and House of Sushi which I think is one of the better Japanese restaurants in Wyoming.
For a Casper steakhouse which will blow the doors off of the franchise mediocrity of Outback/TexasRoadhouse level food, try Poor Boy's Steakhouse.
Casper has a sizable number of Chinese restaurants ... all of which seem to serve the same 'ol same 'ol chinese glop. Picking one out of the bunch as a standout is a losing proposition, they're all bad in competing with essentially the same poor food prep. Chinese food is served at 4 descending different levels ... to knowledgeable Chinese, knowledgeable others, unknowledgeable Chinese, and unknowledgeable others. All of the chinese I've found in Casper is served to the lowest level because it sells and makes them money.
And yes, I've seen the same levels served in San Francisco's Chinatown ... different food to different diners. I've been at some top rated places there and seen/smelled the beautiful food at an adjacent table, and told the waiter to just bring me the same meal that they served to that table. Only to have steam table glop brought out that was totally lacking all of the wonderful aspects of what they'd served the table next to me. Same dish as far as ingredients, but totally different food prep. You have to make a big deal about being a knowledgeable diner to even try to get decent food there. My saving grace was to go back to those places with a very good friend who is a Chinese immigrant, speaks many dialects conversationally, and whose family has owned restaurants in China for generations. When he orders in Chinese, he tells the server he's knowledgeable and that he wants the best the chef can cook for us at $x's per person. The choices are up to the chef, and we generally get fabulous meals.
A tip-off to me that's been very consistent about how serious a restaurant is at a given cuisine is to see various unlikely combinations. For example, a Japanese and Chinese restaurant. You have but to know how much these cultures and societies have been at odds with each other for centuries to have an insight into their differences. The clash between them makes USA racial issues look like a warm-up for real hatred. I've yet to be in a restaurant where both were on the menu and either one was worth eating. Similarly, Mexican and Italian served from the same kitchen ....
It's why a Country Buffet (or similar) isn't a place you go to for great food, it's simply a place to go stuff yourself on the cheap with lots of different themed but pretty much all tasting the same foodlike substances. It's the difference between hearing an original tune performed by a band and then hearing it in a Muzak rendition. You can kinda' get the drift of the tune, but it ain't the real thing anymore.
Agreed, WyoNewk ... food is a personal choice and I've pointed out that we all taste food differently. For some, anything that's served is good ... for others, there's choices to be made.
I get no pleasure from a franchise cardboard pizza (where the box it is delivered in is more nutritious, if not tasty, than the contents of the box), fast food franchise burger restaurants, a D-Q, nor a McDonald's. The salad bar at a KFC is weak but at least it's an alternative to the protein they serve. The only redeeming feature about MickeyD's is that they've built a lot of clean restaurants across the country where you can count on getting consistent bathrooms ... and now, free Wi-Fi which allows me to keep in contact during my travels.
Agreed, too ... honesty about what we're finding here for dining choice is the better way to go. Most Wyoming restaurants are a real let-down and at the same time, an insult at their price points. It's commodity mediocrity of prepared institutionalized food at the lowest common denominator for most restaurants in this state where the name of the game is just to make money ... as you say, we all gotta' eat. It's one of the reasons why I've now invested in a (class b) RV to do my sales trips around the region ... so I can prepare food in my own little galley instead of putting up with the crap served in most of the towns. Gonna' take a b-b-que with me, too, for those evenings when the weather and opportunity presents to grill something good.
Wow, I appreciate all the comments so far even though they've been a bit different than I expected.
I do feel like Sunspirit did a background check on me. Must have gone back to read some of my previous posts to see that I lived in Denver prior to moving out to Eastern Colorado about 6 months ago.
The only ethnic food I've had since moving out here is what I've cooked myself. I'm getting much better.
Please keep the comments coming and try to keep the anger to a minimum.
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And, oh my! When McDonalds came to town! 
