Arcadia National Bar

This place was the most pleasant find. There’s pinball machines and old school video games everywhere. Not to mention board games and plenty of people playing settlers. They also have fun cocktails and the night I went they were even selling bowls of cereal which I thought was awesome. Definitely good for a fun, grown up time acting like kids!

Great in-​house specialty cocktails.
Great crowd of people, friendly, willing to help newcomers and willing to play some games.
Great console game selection, but not so great televisions to play on.
Decent arcade game selection (including NBA Jam!), but not wonderful.
Poor restroom.

If I am having a night on the town I have to stop by Arcadia. I’ve never been to a bar before where everyone is so friendly. Everyone is on the same page. Drinks are cool. Games are cool. Put them together and Bam… you have a brilliancy. My fav vidja games there are Burger Time and NBA jam. He’s heating up… Boomshakalaka!

This bar could be incredible. The concept is unique to the portland area and there are plenty of things for everyone looking for something video game esque to keep you entertained. Drinks are reasonably priced and there is a good selection. The sole reason, or at least the primary reason for this rating, and is the only rating i have yet to give, is the service. I am utterly confounded at how poor the service is here at this place. On numerous occasions i have gone to this establishment and nearly every time the staff has been rude, negligent, and more concerned with making conversation with their friends than serving their customers.
On one occasion, a staff member with no warning nor a word to myself or the people playing a game just turned off the entire switchboard to a console we were playing cause it was last call (no not closing time, but last call). If they wanted to close early thats entirely fine with me but all they had to do was say something or give us a heads up. Not a huge deal but it was unnecessarily rude. Tonight, and on several occasions, the bar service has been downright rude to neglectful, as i stood with my wallet out staring at the bartender doing nothing other than conversing with her friends as oposed to attending to any patrons waiting for a drink (there were several of us looking at each other wondering why we couldnt get a drink). I don’t think anyone minds them chatting it up with their friends at the bar, but could you at least do it while making a drink/​doing your job?
Honestly i don’t mean to sound so negative but my experience here has been consistently poor when its come to the people working here and has left a serious bad impression on the establishment amongst myself and several other people i have attended with. Like I said, i normally don’t write any Unilocal reviews but im making an exception after maybe 10 plus times trying this place and receiving the same horrible service. It honestly is the only thing holding this place back from being something special.

Good idea but nothing to brag about to your friends. Games are cheap but more options of games would be better.

Awesome place. I love the video games they have. I’m currently playing ps4 at the bar and it’s a great atmosphere. The grilled cheese is Fricken awesome as well.

Great beer selection and tasty cocktails, plus plenty to do other than drinking. Burgertime!

last time i came here, a total stranger joined my friends to play smash brothers wordlessly, and when we got up to leave, he departed wordlessly and brought his nintendo gamecube controller with him. it was a really endearing experience and i would probably have gone back sooner to try and replicate it, but their cans of narragansett are 3 dollars and if i’m gonna get drunk over gamecube with friends, i might as well do it at home.
that said, if going out is your thing, their pinball and street fighter ii prices are extremely reasonable, and it’s hard to argue with an environment where a nameless man will compliment your jigglypuff play before departing into the night.

Super cute and welcoming establishment. I don’t go out much and haven’t lived in Portland long, but this place I like. A very reasonable poor on the whisky I ordered. Very attentive and friendly bartenders and all the games!!! I will be going back soon. Remember to bring cash for the token machine :).

Charming vintage video game bar. the frogger table really brought back memories. I had a mixed drink called falcon punch– it was not my favorite. But I didn’t come for fancy mixed drinks– the atmosphere was the real concern. The atmosphere was amazing. just the right level of geekiness.

I believe Belinda Carlisle said it best, «Ooh, baby, do you know what that’s worth? Ooh heaven is a place on earth. They say in heaven (games come) first. We’ll make heaven a place on earth. Ooh heaven is a place on earth.»

There’s a place in my heart for video games! This place is great with all the old school arcade games, pinball and a bunch of different console game. Did I mention all the most addicting board games like Cards Against Humanity and Settler’s? Yes you can have ALL that and BEER! Can you do this at home… yes maybe some of that but not the awesome pinball and atmosphere!
There is always a bit of a sadness to the fact that there is only one of each board game, even the popular ones. I wish there was two Cards Against and two sets of Settler’s. Some of the games are a bit more pricey than I would think but I can understand why. The only thing I wish is that there was a bigger space with more games as it can be quite packed sometimes!
Oh! And another idea!
What about a console game like xbox in the window with wireless controllers. That way the people in the line can play games while waiting to get in ha ha

Awesome place to go, the staff was great and it was pretty awesome to go to a bar and play video games. A lot of pinball though and no Johnny Walker or Dewers.

How is it that all my 10 year old dreams have come true (plus booze)!
Mario Kart (for free) on the couch, grilled cheese, game themed cocktails crafted by the nerd-​fabulous staff (Falcon Punch?! I’ll have two!) and more board games available then you could roll a 12 sided die at.
It gets crazy on the weekend but it’s worth fighting the throngs to put your initials up on one of the many (classic to modern) arcade games available.
A great addition to the scene!

Great concept and a lot of great vintage games. I have been here at least 5 times now.
Was disappointed in the bar experience, however. The bartender was inattentive, and gave wrong change. The overall experience felt like high school hanging out in your parents basement.
Fantastic place to place video games. Not a place I would pick for a drink. With a few tweaks at the bar– with service and selection, it could be.

Fun and different. Portland needed this!
Board games & Cards Against Humanity, too.
Can’t wait to go back.

I doubt I would ever select this bar if I was picking where to go for a drink, but it doesn’t mean I didn’t like it. I like the idea of having old school video games around, and there was a lot of them which is a great idea and might be fun for a date or a few friends. I don’t drink beer really, which of course limits my choices around here, but they did have this one cocktail named after a pokemon (jiggly puff) and it was really good. He warned me it was strong which it was but it tasted good too! It’s a small space and there’s tables to play card games too. You can even play video games from the bar.

A while back I visited Montréal. I went to a place called Notre Dame Des Quilles (
). It had a unique vibe for a «dive bar», one I hadn’t experience anywhere else before — sort of this non-​judgmental safe space for people to have impromptu dance parties on tables or the bowling alley, sing karaōke awfully and still get a genuine standing-​o from everyone nearby, and cheap drinks and beer that blur your common sense causing you to actually SIT on suspect toilet instead of hover because «honeybadger don’t give a shiiiiiiiii…» when you’ve been drinking.
The point?
I’ve been to Arcadia a handful of times now… it’s 100% like that place in Montréal. And this delights me, because there’s NOTHING ELSE LIKE IT in the city of Portland.
Also… Galaga for .25 cents? Yes, please.
On the vibe/​scene… the first time I came here it was hipster central more so than I’ve ever seen before in this city, and the median age seemed to be just-​turned-​twenty-​one year olds (side note: the bartender was also a mega jerk). The second time I came here it was a complete 180° turn around, as the entire place was filled with well-​dressed young professionals (and the two bartenders were patient, skilled, friendly, and had sense of humor; essentially, the kind of people you want working at an arcade bar). So I think — depending on WHEN you come — you’re always going to get a different vibe/​scene here. Come once and don’t like it? Try it again at a different time and date… you’re gonna have an entirely different experience.
What I’d like to see here in the future?
— Food (preferably video game themed items like with their cocktails)
— Rock Band or something similar (or is that no longer «cool» with the kids? Personally, I can see my friends and I drinking a little too much and scream-​singing «Sex On Fire» by Kings of Leon here)
— The TV in the back by the pinballs isn’t being used for video games, and that seems like a wasted opportunity to me
— More board games
Finally… the drink prices delight my soul. $ 7 for all glasses of wine; $ 5 for a lot of the beers; and, the $ 10 price tag on the cocktail special of the night? TOTALLY WORTH IT. My last drink was just layers and layers of alcohol. Just one and I knew I was the best Galaga player in the room (okay, maybe not…).

Arcadia National Bar is hipster central, there’s no way around that. It’s basically the teenage brother to LFK. So I’m not entirely the target audience, but this was still a cool bar. Across from Slab on Preble St., the gleaming bar dominates the right as you enter. There’s 6 – 10 local, reasonably priced beers on tap and a handful more in cans. There’s several cocktails as well, and the food consists of grilled cheeses with toppings (which I haven’t tried).
It’s an arcade bar, focusing entirely on old school videogames. For 25 cents a turn you can play the like of Ms. Pacman, Street Fighter 2, The Simpsons, Mortal Kombat, etc. Most are multiplayer games. There’s also a handful of classic pinball machines for 50 cents a turn. The best deal are the systems. The Super SNS, Sega Genesis and Playstation 4 are provided for free with many games. Really cool.
If you’re not in the mood for video games, they have communal tables to play board games as well. I saw popular ones like Cards Against Humanity along with obscure 80s board games like Rampage.
I’m not sure Arcadia is for everyone, but grabbing a slab across the street and then having a couple pints to classic videogames would be a solid night just outside of downtown.

This place is really fun. If you’re into playing videogames, arcade games or board games this is the place for you. They have a variety of pinball machines as well a Sega and a Nintendo 64. All of the arcade games are coin operated, but luckily they have a change machine on-​site.
The bar area is pretty small and right by the door, so if it gets crowded there can be a bottleneck by the entrance. The beer selection is fairly small but not your usual options and the prices are average for Portland. Hopefully they can work out the kinks for paying as they are working with a temperamental iPad.
Overall, I really enjoyed this place. It’s a unique addition to the bar scene. I couldn’t go 5 stars because I think they need to get the AC situation sorted out. It was sweltering in there the night I went.