Sassy and I are headed to Reno, Nevada via a 7 hour train ride through the Sierra Nevada mountains. 
But where to stay once there?
We are leaving this Saturday, returning Monday.
We are not into gambling so staying at a casino is not mandatory.
We’d like a reasonably priced hotel with at least room service.
Quiet room and comfy bed is mandatory.
A view would be nice.
And any suggestions for good restaurants are a plus.
So what’s the wisdom of the board?
Thanks in advance.
Sadly, since I live here I’m not well-versed on hotels and the like. I can however tell you some places to avoid:
the Peppermill is doing a HUGE amount of construction right now and you’d probably do well to stay away from them
most of the places in downtown Reno are next to the train tracks and can get pretty noisy.
I know, I’m a huge help aren’t I. :smack:
Forgot to ask, as far as restaurants - what do you like? How spendy?
I’ve only been there once, on business, and stayed at John Ascuagas Nugget.
Superb customer service. In fact John himself stopped me in the hall and asked if there was anything he could help with.
You must go to Virgina City though.
Ooh, I can actually recommend a place in Virginia City that we stayed at a couple years ago - name is escaping me at the moment, but it was on the left (there’s really only one road through town) just as you’re getting to the edge of town but before Gold Hill, past the old schoolhouse, I remember it was like a long gravel road with little cabin-y type rooms on either side, and the rooms were just lovely and furnished with old furniture (I know, once again not a huge help but there’s really not that many places to stay in V.C. so that should narrow it down). Really nice place and a decent price.
Do not stay at the Silver Queen in V.C. unless it’s really important that you stay somewhere historical. Mark Twain once said of it: “The walls are so thin, you can hear her change her mind”, and from personal experience he wasn’t exaggerating.
The train will drop you off downtown within walking distance of Harrah’s, El Dorado, Silver Legacy, Fitzgerald’s and Circus Circus. (The train tracks now go under Virginia Street, so the trains are no longer required to blow their horns – which they used to do, every 30 min or so, 24 hrs/day.)
We stay at El Dorado because we get comped there, but the rooms at Silver Legacy may be nicer. Both will give you views of downtown or the mountains (depending on which side you face).
At El Dorado, Bistro Roxy has excellent continental cuisine, and Brew Bros is a great brewpub.
The train ride through the Sierra is something I’ve wanted to do for a while - it sounds great.
I don’t know much about hotels here either, but I can throw a few ideas out there. I’m not sure you’ll find room service and a view anywhere in Reno outside of the casinos. You could look for a room overlooking the river - the Sienna is probably the nicest place right there, but it’s also fairly expensive. There are a couple of other places right around there (Cal Neva, Truckee River Lodge), but they don’t really sound like what you’re looking for.
I’m better with restaurants, but (as NailBunny said) a little more information would make it easier. What do you like?
Agreed on Roxy’s, but there are two much better brew pubs than Brew Brothers in town. Silver Peak (two locations, including a new-ish one on First Street right near the river) and the Great Basin Brewery in Sparks (on Victorian Square near the Nugget) are both far superior to Brew Brothers, IMO.
Ha! You took the words out of my mouth. Brew Brothers is…okay, but it is made crappy by the truly awful service. Do yourself a favour and go to Great Basin!
Roxy’s, OTOH, is great. I’m a big fan of the Cajun Martini.
That would mean I’d have to actually leave the casino & get in a car. 
I will grant that service at Brew Bros can be…variable. It’s good more often than not, in my experience.
You going to Burning Man?
I recommend the Silver Legacy. It’s where all my friends go after Burning Man. It’s a great hotel in a complex of hotels. IIRC it was about $ 70 a night which is sort of average for casino hotels. Casinos tend to be on the cheap side and are nice as far as hotels go, they get their profits from gambling so they want to encourage people to stay there.
This is all very helpful. The train trip looks cool, so we are looking forward to a good experience. The limitations are that we won’t have a car once we hit Reno, so our choices will be constrained by that. That leaves Sparks and Virginia City out of the loop for this trip, as far as I can tell.
Restaurants can be either end. We don’t mind investing in a good meal, but also love to find a classic diner 
A good selection of wine by the glass is always a plus - I don’t like to commit to a whole bottle when I am away from home. Fresh and interesting, but not so far as to be “art food.” Local favorites? An especially good breakfast? Seems like it’s easy to get dinner recommendations, but breakfast can be hit or miss.
Not Burning Man - I can’t tolerate that sort of heat! We decided we needed to get away and I was browsing Amtrak - Reno is a better deal than Sacramento, and we expect to have more fun.
Any local dopers who would like to meet for a drink or something, we could probably manage - we have made no plans other than to arrive Saturday afternoon and leave mid-day Monday.
My personal favourite breakfast in town is PJ’s, but if you’re without a car you’ll probably be sticking around downtown and that would be a cab ride. Peg’s is downtown however, and pretty good if memory serves. They have kind of a fun, diner atmosphere goin’ on.
If you’ll be downtown, and if you want some artery-clogging goodness for lunch, stop by the Little Nugget Diner for an Awful Awful Burger - it’s awful big and awful good, get it? Seriously though, these are God’s own burgers.
Lots of fun antique stores and coffee shops downtown as well - Dreamers and Java Jungle both have decent coffee which you can sip while having a stroll by the river.
Have fun, hope you enjoy our little city!
Since you’re walking, Peg’s would be my choice for breakfast as well.
The Awful Awful is fantastic if you like that sort of thing. I do. Still, I imagine it would be sheer, vomit-inducing torture if you don’t. On the opposite end of the spectrum is Pneumatic Diner, which serves raw/whole foods for breakfast and lunch. I don’t know if they’re open for dinner or not. It’s a tiny little place and you’ll be elbow to elbow with anyone else who’s there, but the service and the food are good.
Silver Peak (the second best brew-pub in town) has a location on the corner of First and Sierra as well - they serve good beer and decent food. I’ve seen people drinking wine there, but I’ve never figured out why they’d do such a thing. I’m the wrong person to ask about wine.
We couldn’t go with Siena, although I would have loved to…sounds terrific. The Legacy is fully booked. Some others in that ‘genre’ were, too. Spurred by the fear that we’d be sleeping in the train station, the choice was between Eldorado and Plaza on the River.
We picked the Plaza. Not on top of downtown, but near pretty much everything. Hoping for a nice view, comfy beds and a room service waiter that runs like Justin Gatlin.
Our thanks to all who suggested rooms.
The nominations for chow are still open, however!!
(God’s burger?!! We’ll just have to see about that!)