Steakhouse, Buffet, Quick Bite - Hollywood Casino Columbus

I'll give a quick recap of events:
Friday

• Hoof Hearted
  
• Hotel check-in
  
• Barley's
  
• Denmark
  
• Char Bar
  

Saturday

• North Star Cafe
  
• Columbus Brew Adventures (CBC, Rockmill Tavern, Copious, Arepazo Tapas, Brick)
  
• Ohio Supreme Court riverfront Park
  
• Hollywood Casino
  
• Mikey's Light Night Pizza by the Slice
  

Sunday

• DK Diner
  
• Walk around Downtown
  
• North Market
  
• Seventh Son Brewery
  
• Ariel-Foundation Park
  

We had a great weekend and obviously packed a lot in, as we tend to do. Columbus reminds me of Cleveland in a lot of ways (naturally), except (as we heard from multiple people), Columbus likes new things and doesn't seem to appreciate old/historic places much. Its quite the contrast to Cleveland where anything that's old is preserved and protected and often inhibits development/progress.
FRIDAY
We got into town and went directly to Hoof Hearted. We split a burger and fries, which was fantastic. The beer was OK. I really had my hopes up but nothing really tickled my fancy. Funny story, it took me until Saturday morning to realized it was a play on words. I was over enunciating Hoof Hearted instead of who farted.
From there, we checked into our hotel room. I won't say where because we had an significant issue with cleanliness in our room. We didn't ask for anything really special, they gave us a new room and a couple courtesy incidentals that we didn't even use. It was nice.
From there we decided to just bar hop around the hotel. We started at Barley's Brewing Company. We each had a beer and split an appetizer. We really liked the classic interior and great cheese. Then we went to Denmark. The drinks pretty good and we loved the staircase, even though we were a little under dressed. I had an Ol' Fashioned, she had a dirty martini. The last stop was Char Bar. Nothing remarkable about this place except that it reminded us of a local dive bar we've gone to for 8 years to drink cheap and dance all night.
SATURDAY
First stop was OSU campus to pick up my cousin for brunch. We went to North Star Cafe and the food was really good. We split a burger, salad, and bowl of soup. The price seemed a quite a bit high, even though the food was good.
From there, we moved to the Columbus Brew Adventure walking tour of the Brewery District. This was a great tour. There were 12 people in our tour group, plus the guide. We started at CBC and were given 2 flight-size beers each and family style loaded nachos, mexican pizza, and pretzels with cheese. From there we went to Rockmill, which specialized in Saison's made with well water. We were given 3 flight-size beers, along with a baked breaded and seasoned bowl with an egg, cheese sauce, and pepperoni on it. We loved the historic building, the appetizer was great, the beers were good, and we loved the atmosphere - even though the wooden interior caused my allergies to act up (old horse barns). From there we moved to Copious for 2 rock-sized glass of beer, a sour and a stout, 1 was from Platform - a Cleveland brewery. The space was really nice, but the owner basically was giving us a sales pitch instead of history lesson. From there we moved to Arepazo for a sugar cane cocktail and some sort of fried empanada appetizer? The appetizer was fantastic, but I don't care for tequila. The last stop was Brick. The basement atmosphere was incredible... would love to spend more time there. We were given another rock-sized glass of beer along with fried salmon patties and fried beef egg rolls (for lack of better term).
We had planned to go to Forno for dinner since the tour was described as "light finger food." It was far more than "light." So, instead we checked out the river front near the Supreme Court. That was a fantastic park and river front use across from COSI. Being from Cleveland, we have about 5% of our water front developed and is very disappointing when we see so many other cities and communities invest in such nice public/green space. We still flew the drone even though it was over cast. It was my first time flying for the season, so we didn't get a ton of good photos/video.
From there we went to Hollywood Casino. Nothing note worthy. We left with more money than we started with.
We ended the night getting some Late Night Slice pizza. I was craving it all week. The pizza was pretty good but the sauces just put it over the top.
SUNDAY
Breakfast was at DK Diner. We loved the atmosphere, loved the location.
From there, we decided to just walk around downtown for a little. Get a feel for the buildings, the architecture. We tried to find a winery for a bottle but had no luck.
We got back to the hotel and checked out North Market. I wish we would have known about this earlier. We would have went every day. It reminded us of a smaller West Side Market. We had some samples, bought some drinks, bought some food. I ended up buying a Make Your Own 6 (5) Pack and filled it with Land Grant and Wolf Ridge. We were proud to see so many Cleveland breweries represented.
After North Market, we went to Seventh Son. We are glad we went here last, because if we found it first, we wouldn't have gone anywhere else. The beer was really good, the atmosphere was fantastic. It was totally our type of a place, a "come as you are," place... a local start up, taking lemons and making orange juice. We bought a shirt and cup. We will be back, 100%.
On the way home, we stopped at Ariel-Foundation Park. This was a really cool area, especially for the drone. We flew for about 30-40 mins. We were hoping for a guided tour, but it wasn't in-season. We were hoping to get some more of a history lesson on the area and glass making. Unfortunate they just had some plaques with a line or 2 about the area or history.
We had a great time. Columbus is definitely a clean city, which we appreciate. It also seems your traffic patterns/roads are about as stupid as ours in Cleveland.
We are looking to plan an overnight trip in the fall sometime. The goal being to check out the Zoo, Curio, a nicer restaurant like Forno, and Park of Roses.
Thanks for the all the tips and helping to plan. If you guys ever visit up north, I hope I can help you guys as much as you did me.
If you want to see some of the drone pics, you can follow me on InstaGram @CLEdrones

Ive been somewhat of an introvert and don't go to any of the cool places around the city. My girlfriend will be here in late december and through the new year, I want to show her a good time around town and am looking for ideas (not just restaurants, but some of those too). I don't have a whole lot of money, but I'm looking for both cheap ideas, and some that may cost some money. Thanks for your help Columbus!
Edit: any specific new years events that are fun?
Edit: My list currently consists of:
Cosi
Cheesecake Factory
Hollywood Casino
Thurmans?

I am a 23 year old male card dealer transferring out to the Hollywood Casino in Columbus and I was looking for some information on where to live.
Mainly I am just looking for what areas to avoid moving to and what areas are safe.
Also, I am curious to find out about some of the good restaurants, disc golf courses, and fun activities that happen in the town.