Dave & Buster’s

Consider me your ghost of outings past, and heed my warning. Holy bloody Hades, this place…
It’s like I have amnesia with this place; I always remember the fun games, and I always forget the ear-​piercing noise and the hugely long wait times and the terrible service and the insane expense to play arcade games. And so, I agree to go again to meet up with friends that suffer the same social amnesia I do, and every time we all end up saying the same thing: «This is why I never come here.» Maybe you’ll like it more than we do; no one really hates D&B, but… there are some good reasons that none of my crew loves it:
1) Expense. To be completely blunt, two people can’t play the games for an hour for under $ 55 (apparently, based on our own repeated experiences; YMMV — if you were to average out the expense of the games, they’d round out at about a dollar per, which is a lot when you consider that you’re ALSO buying mediocre overpriced food and probably strong, inhibition-​limiting drinks… You’re basically paying this place to help you make bad decisions while there). I’ve never gotten out of here with two people for under $ 90 in total, even for lunch.
2) Quality of food. OMG, the food here is bad. I can’t properly convey to you how bad the food here is without using a lot more words than a Unilocal review really merits, but… pretend you’re back in your school cafeteria except that mystery meat is going to cost you $ 18 – 25. Just no. Come and game and maybe have a drink, but don’t buy the food. You can thank me for that tip later.
3) Even though this is supposed to be adult Chuck E. Cheese, parents pretty much treat it like straight-​up Chuck E. Cheese. Every time I’ve been the place has been packed with small children running amok without adults in tow. I’m sure the adults are there somewhere — probably at the bar — but, this has essentially become a Chuck E. Cheese that serves cooler drinks, apparently. I’m a parent, I take my own kid (who’s 9) during the day only, I stick close and make sure he’s not annoying the heck out of other patrons or being unsafe because PARENTING. Leading into that, the next issue is…
4) Noise. If your hearing is on point you can still hear someone talk to you sometimes, and good for you! But the games are all insanely loud, INSANELY loud, so loud that you’re not going to have any kind of a real conversation unless you’re nowhere near the games, and even on the opposite side of the restaurant it’s rough.
5) The service. Expect TGI Fridays level service and then expect a little bit worse and a lot slower.
The games are awesome, though!

Dave & Buster’s, the place for games and food, but not for service. Four of us were seated in the bar area, at one of the small cocktail tables, barely enough room for 4 adults. Our drink orders were taken, appetizer order taken; our waiter returned with our drinks (he forgot the two alcoholic orders at the bar). When he finally brought our bar orders out, he took our entrée orders. The appetizers came out as expected, barely enough room at the table for the two appetizer dishes and our 4 appetizer plates. Our entrees were delivered, all was fine except one of our party ordered a Philly cheese steak sandwich, but it didn’t have cheese; the waiter took it back to the kitchen, and came back with a completely different Philly cheese steak with plenty of cheese. Two of the entrees came with fries, and he said he’d bring ketchup. The ketchup never came, my iced tea was empty, a refilled bar drink didn’t show up, but our check did. I asked for a tea refill and he came back with a quarter filled glass and said «that’s all we have, and I’d have to brew another one» I said «don’t bother». When putting our payment in, we had to ask again for the missing but paid for alcoholic drink, we were told, «oh sorry let me get it» he then returned with it, and said «you can take this into the play area»
Food was ok, service was awful, next time we’ll go for the games, and skip the food and libations.

As far as games go it’s pretty good, especially on Wednesdays,
Otherwise $ 20
Doesn’t get you too far. Burgers are decent but some of the appetizers are kinda sketchy. Service is ridiculously slow and many patrons allow their kids free run of the place. Kids don’t know enough to ignore heir excitement and I can’t tell you how many times I got bumped into while there. Did I mention the service is slow? S L O W. Plan for at least 10
Minutes after being seated to see a server. We watched 3 groups get seated and then get up and walk out when no one came to them.

I just cannot get with this place. I have been four or five times, and I still shudder each time. The place is overly stuffed with games. The games are too close and too loud to the point that you cannot even hear your own game, not to mention your own thoughts. The games are expensive and you win very few tickets. All they do is use those cards to make you lose track of how much you’ve spent. Set a budget before coming. The prizes are the absolute pits, very cheap and cheesy. You don’t even get tickets in your hand, so thy sucked the excitement out too. Anyway, the life was already sucked out of me fighting crowds of people and machines to find a game.
Parents, if your kid is twelve or under, keep them out of here. There are only maybe three or four games appropriate for kids from 7 and up. The few kid games require too much arm strength for the little ones (Skee-​ball, knock clown down, milk jug toss, etc.). There are mounds of extremely violent and gruesome games so bad that they need warnings. Don’t be a dummy and ignore the warnings or allow your young child to roam free and play as they wish. Remember, this is not an arcade geared toward kids. Speaking of kids roaming free, this place is the perfect scene for a kidnapping. You cannot see more than a foot ahead of you because it’s packed, both with stuff and people.
Now, say you go with just adults. The food is exhorbitantly-​priced and small portions for the deal ones with the game card. The food is never good. The fries are craaazy salty. You wait an hour for a table, 20 min or so to order, and we literally waited an hour to pay. Insane. This place is a money pit ripoff anyway. If someone insists on going here, encourage them to eat elsewhere and come for games only. It’s quicker, better value, and better quality.
In short, go see old Chuck. It’s never as crowded as this place, and the teen and adult games are smartly separated from the kid ones. If all else fails and you’re with kids and reached budget, send the kids to climb through the pipe crawler. It’s free, super fun, and wears them out and encourages a bit of social skills development. You do remember what those are right?

This place is definitely focused on the games. The food reminds me of what you’d get at kings dominion… Decent but simple and without any real care put into the preparation.

I think out of the many times I have been here the only times I enjoy it are when we go just to play games, or if it is buffet style. The service is usually slow and it feels so much longer when you have a child with you who is itching to play games but you have to wait for the check. There were three of us and plenty of open seats, but we were placed right next to a group of 12 – 14 people who were very loud. I do not expect a quiet dining experience at D&B but wasn’t expecting that.
I recommend going here to play games, the cost for games isn’t outlandish, and the prizes are reasonably priced. We will just eat before we come out to play the games.
They have a non ticket option where you can «go green» and get virtual tickets, but that takes all fun out of winning games and seeing tickets come out of the machine.

Worst Dave and busters I been at! All the games are broke or take your money! The selection is limited and the game floor is extremely small! Luckily it wasn’t crowded or we would have left. Food was worst. Ordered the pretzels pizza and it was one of the worst things I ever consumed! Please save your money and go else wear.

Great vibes and great drinks! Their drink selection is quite large and the bartenders are always spot on. Only downside is, I wish they had more games to play in the arcade

Food speaks for itself, great. Staff is perfect, always friendly. Sadly, Management is horrible, at least the one I have met a couple times, Dan. I’ve been coming here every Wednesday night for the past 2 months and got fed up with his attitude, and rudeness to the point I want to speak up about it. If you come here and ever need a managers help. Just give up.

Christa our waitress was awesome one of the best experiences that I have ever had at any restaurant. The food was excellent and filling. My tea never went below a ¼ of a glass and drank 5 glasses of tea. The Hottie burger was very good if you like spicy burgers. I will definitely be back soon.
Thank you Christa for a Great Experience

Today just happened to be half price on games. I figured it would be crowded but it wasn’t too bad. I arrived around 2:00 so maybe it was after lunch. I thought the service was really really slow. It was just me and I ordered the Cabo Chicken. The two boneless breasts were tasty but I felt they were slightly overcooked. I opted for double vegetables which was brocolli. I’m glad I wasn’t in a hurry because at one point I thought the waitstaff had all gone on break. I’ll come back for games but next time I might eat at the bar. They seem to move faster there.

This place is not even comparable to the other D&B locations I’ve visited in the past. The food was served cold, the waitress was inexperienced and the place wasn’t all that clean!

I am huge fan of Dave and Buster’s but only for the arcade games. Bottom line, do not go for food, go to Dave and Buster’s to have fun and maybe some drinks. When I used to live near DC, I always went to the MD Dave and Buster’s which was huge. The Richmond location is much smaller, but I honestly preferred it. The smaller location is actually less chaos than the huge location in MD. My fiancé and I put the tokens on our card and played a ton of carnival-​like arcade games. Because this location is smaller, I think it is also easier to beat the game high scores and get tons of tickets. We had a great time. The location was super clean, and I cannot wait to go back the next time I need my arcade game fix.

This place is like a technologically advanced chuck-​e-​cheese with a bigger menu. If you’re into that, you might like this place. I don’t really like arcade games so I just went and ate.
The menu is pretty expansive and lots of things look really amazing, however, the prices are outrageous for the quality they serve.
I had the buffalo wings appetizer with fries and paid over $ 10. That’s just crazy. If the wings had been amazing, it would have been ok, but there were only 8 of them and they were fatty and obviously cheaply made. They weren’t even hot when served to me. They tasted good, just not good enough for the price I paid. The fries were better than the wings, though it’s really hard to mess up fries, so I won’t give them too much credit.
The atmosphere was cool and the waitresses were nice. The drink selection also looked really awesome. Those were the only positives.
I won’t be coming back here.

PRO’s: fun drinks, fun atmosphere, I can watch my kids have fun and play video games while I drink a beer (everybody is happy). Always pick a high calorie dish. My friends ordered the steak and cheese and alfredo and both were very good.
CON’S: I incorrectly went to the hostess when I had an issue with my game card and was rudely told to get in line behind the people waiting to put their names in for a table. Our food took a long time which is not good when I have hungry kids. I ordered the shrimp skewers trying to keep it healthy and the rice was just way to spicy.
I can handle this place about once a year. My kids love it but on a Saturday night there are just way to many people in the arcade. I was constantly bumping into people and children were running around unsupervised being obnoxious which drives me nuts.

Meh!
I could take or leave this place. Knowing full well that the food is garbage, our group decided to skip out on D&B dinner and eat elsewhere. Our party was three adults and my younger twelve year old sister, it’s too cold to do much outside so we spent Saturday night here.
I’ve always been told that this location can get a little rough at night, and the first thing I noticed was the amount of police officers outside. Honestly, there were like six of them standing by the entrance. I found that to be a little unsettling as I was walking in with my much younger sister. Once we entered there were another two police officers and the hostess stand. We were advised of needing the player’s card and that there was a $ 2.00 per card activation fee. We already had four card activated, we just needed to add D&B coins to them. The hostess did her job but came across a bit curt.
I’ve only ever been to the D&B in Washington, DC… comparatively speaking, this location is small… small… small. It was almost painful how crowded it was. It was hard to actually play the games without being bumped into. It was hard to walk from game to game because of the sheer amount of people in the building.
The pricing per game is ridiculously high as well, 10 – 12 tokens for some of the games. Absurd.
The prize and ticket redemption area flows through the process well and efficiently… but it is entirely too crowded to actually see what is on the shelves and again, is cramped and uncomfortable.
For a quick, indoor outing, this place is okay. I doubt I would come here again unless the kiddo wanted to go. I can see how she could enjoy it being past the «Chuck E. Cheese» age but still young enough to enjoy an arcade.

Because where else would I go to people watch? Seriously, D & B surprises me everytime I try something new. I don’t ex their food to be the most amazing in the world but they do have some good stuff. The bar staff is typically awesome but of course there will be a few bad apples. It’s always high energy. The only downside is the game room is kind of tight so when it gets packed be prepared to squeeze through small spaces.

Dave and Busters is one of my favorite places to go for fun in the Richmond area, though unless you plan it well, it’s going to be pricey. Also, as someone who was spoiled by going to the Bethesda, MD location in the past, this location doesn’t measure up to it.
I had dinner and played games with a lady friend here last week and it was very enjoyable. The food was stellar (wish I had taken pictures) and, since I brought a buy one get one entrée coupon, the price was definitely right. My receipt even allowed me to fill out a survey so now I have a free appetizer coupon for next time I go. Great deal! Wish they gave out the BOGO coupons more than once or twice a year, though.
While I had a coupon for $ 20 for $ 40 worth of gameplay, the credits still didn’t last very long. They’ve raised the credit costs (the money you’re paying) of every game, and frankly, if the actual costs of playing each game weren’t hidden by the veil of «it’s credits not money», you wouldn’t throw your money away on half of these. The one exception is the new fun «beer pong”-style game in the corner of the game area near the bar, it’s a ton of fun. Your tickets won’t take you too far in the redemption area, unless you really, REALLY like pixie stix.
So, here’s the scoop on savings: 1) Don’t dine there without a coupon. It’s great food, though you’ll leave with an empty wallet. 2) Don’t play unless you have a 20-​for-​40 gameplay coupon or it’s Wednesday (half-​price game night). If you REALLY want to make it work, charge a card with a 20-​for-​40 coupon on a non-​Wednesday and then go spend them on a Wednesday (they won’t let you use a coupon on Wednesday itself; if you do it as I mentioned, you basically get $ 4 of gameplay for every $ 1 you spend), and 3) Drink during happy hours. Their happy hours are a great deal and this is the BEST place to take girls (or effeminate guys) who love unique cocktails.
In summary, if you’re a smart consumer and a coupon guru, you’ll come out of here feeling like a million bucks. If you go in couponless and without good timing, you’ll leave reasonably happy, though minus that million bucks. Or at least minus quite a few.
Overall: 3.5 stars
— — —
Pros:
— Food is amazingly good and the portions are generous. Make sure you get something with mac and cheese, theirs is particularly great!
— Some of the games are quite fun.
— GREAT happy hour specials. Drink early or really late!
Cons:
— MOST of the pros only work if you go on the right night (probably Wednesday). Otherwise, expect to pay a lot and be left wondering if it was worth it or not.
— The games are pretty kiddie-​oriented compared to other locations: not a lot of card/​gambling games or shooting games.
— The tickets these days are like those on Whose Line Is It Anyway?: «the points don’t matter.»

If you are looking for a different way to take a guy or girl out on a date go here. I would suggest maybe eating some place else if you are on a budget, cause it can get pricey. However the food here is good greasy food. I got the jalapeño quesadilla and it was super yummy. Very cheesy, and the jalapeños were just the right kind of spicy. My boyfriend got the Philly steak burger. Oh my did it look delicious and it was, I of course snuck some bites.
So about the games. It’s fun I’m not gonna lie but I wish they had more or at least make it bigger. I have been to other dave and busters and this one is much smaller than the rest. Also if you want a prize at the end to impress your date, hope that they love candy cause unless you are a pro at arcade games that’s all you are gonna get.
Overall, this is a fun place. My boyfriend and I had a great time. It was something different than just going to dinner and a movie.

Small — especially in comparison to other D&B’s locations like the one in Bethesda, MD which is like 60,000 sq ft. This makes it very uncomfortable (and unenjoyable, IMO) when the place is packed during peak dinner/​early evening hours.
If you plan on coming here for dinner before playing games, do yourself a favor and make reservations. Actually, from all the other reviews I’ve read from here, you’d be better off not eating here at all — but I myself cannot back that info up. Anyway, when we did arrive during dinner hours, the wait was over 2 hours. Pretty rediculous, but seems to be the norm in the immediate area.
We were able to snag tables at Keagan’s for dinner and eventually made our way back to D&B’s. We stayed at the bar for a while to sip on some adult bevs. I had the White Peach Sangria and enjoyed it very much. The bartenders were friendly and were quick to make our drinks/​shots. They regularly checked on us and even provided us with the wifi password. One of the male bartenders was overly theatrical/​strange but seemed to be just a harmless personality trait.
After the crowds calmed down we made our way over the the gaming areas. I was hooked on skee-​ball (of course) and I loved the huge Connect 4 game, even if I did lose to my friends every single time!
It was a little unnerving to see a number of cops roaming around the establishment throughout the evening. Makes you wonder what’s happened there late at night. The cops were pretty nice though and got a real kick out of watching me lose at Connect 4 repeatedly (I’m admittedly a LITTLE competitive and hate losing).
The employees working the rewards area are awesome and must have the patience of saints. I watched a man in front of me accuse one of the attendants of stealing his rewards card with all his points on it. Complete bullshit but the gentleman just looked at him and calmly said, «naw man, I gave it back to you.»
My friends and I were sharing our points and when one of us got a little candy crazy and went over our points, he gave it to us anyway. I’m sure it had to do with the fact that we were shutting the place down and they wanted us out pronto — but the didn’t say it or act like we were a bother. Again, they must be saints! I couldn’t do it!
Pro Tip: if you’re here & find that you’ve had too much to drink/​unable to drive, just stumble over to the Aloft hotel. Awesome place. And obviously much cheaper than a DUI :)