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Dave & Buster's

3 star rating
based on 55 reviews

Categories: Bars, American (Traditional), Arcades  [Edit]

Neighborhoods: Manhattan/Theater District, Manhattan/Fashion District
234 W 42nd St
New York, NY 10014
(646) 495-2015
  • Nearest Transit:

    Times Square-42nd St (1, 2, 3, S, 7, N, Q, R, W, A, C, E)

    42nd St-5th Ave-6th Ave (7, B, D, F, V)

  • Price Range: $$
  • Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
  • Parking: Street
  • Attire: Casual
  • Good for Groups: Yes
  • Good for Kids: Yes
  • Takes Reservations: Yes
  • Delivers: No
  • Take-out: Yes
  • Waiter Service: Yes
  • Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
  • Outdoor Seating: No
  • Good for: Dinner
  • Music: Juke Box
  • Best Nights: Sat
  • Happy Hour: Yes
  • Alcohol: Full Bar
  • Smoking: No
  • Coat Check: No

55 Reviews for Dave & Buster's

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Photo of Mark W.

 

0

2

Mark W.

Brooklyn, NY

3 star rating
07/05/2008

Dave & Busters is a fun place to go with friends or family, the food is pretty good and the games are pretty fun. But the Drinks are way over priced and they suck. I ordered a henny & redbull and it was all Ice and no liquor and 15$ for it. total rip off. but it your going to just eat and play then i would recommend it.

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Photo of diana m.

Elite '08

57

414

diana m.

Brooklyn, NY

3 star rating
04/30/2008

I was in here recently for a friend's 30th Birthday.  This place what is a fun place to play tourist for an evening.  Overpriced arcade games and drinks, I didn't try any of the food but it did look typical tourist trap offerings.  Why did I give it three stars instead of two? Because as much as I'd love to deny it I had fun playing those overpriced games.

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Photo of Sara S.

 

17

23

Sara S.

New York, NY

5 star rating
07/07/2008

Virtual Boxing: Boyfriend goes first.  He gets hit three times in the first minute, which I believe has to be a new record.  I get in there next, trying to act girly so he would pay for our date, but when that animated Tyson started swinging at me, my Asian fighting reflexes kicked into high gear and I proceeded to KO the next five virtual meatheads.

Trivia: Even with my handicap.. namely, that I'm partially blind at long distances, so my reading speeds are seriously inhibited.. I got the A-C-B-D answer pattern down pretty fast, and soon Player #2 was coming out on top of every round.  Player #2 was me (in case you didn't get that).

Skee-Ball: Everyone knows this is the best game ever.  If you don't agree, you're retarded.  The only annoying thing about playing here is there's always a bunch of ass-hats who think it's normal to crowd your Skee-Ball playing space, so you end up having to swing the ball with your right arm while simultaneously clearing the way by flailing your left arm as you step forward with your left foot.  It takes some coordination, people.

DDR: If you know what this game is, I don't like you.  I realize I know what this game is, but since it's my conditional, I not only exclude myself but also say it's fine to play on limited drunken occasion, which may or may not have included this particular trip to D&B.

Basketball: It was lots of fun grabbing balls and throwing them at boyfriend's shots, just to knock them away from going into the hoop.

All of this equaled pissed off boyfriend (we're now broken up), half a week's paycheck and 387 tickets, including the 60 I stole from the gramms who put her cup of tickets down next to the coin game (the one where you drop in a fake gold coin to see if that knocks down some other fake gold coins that were dropped in to see if any fake gold coins could be knocked down = FUN).

Well anyway, another FUN aspect of D&B is that they, like everyone else whose name is not Al Gore or Leonardo DiCaprio, don't care about the environment.  This means each game gives you so many paper tickets, they actually have to weigh them at the end.  I honestly think they should just make it a lot harder to earn a ticket (top score on Whac-a-Mole gets you five-eighths of a ticket instead of 20), but I admit there is something surprisingly gratifying about finding out your ticket poundage at the end of the night.

Since the prize numbers are therefore seriously inflated, (how the hell do you get 2,340,999 tickets for the $15 gift certificate towards any appetizer with the purchase of five other appetizers at the D&B restaurant!?) my 1.57 pounds of tickets bought me a battery-included (!!) electronic chihuahua that now yaps around in circles in my living room, a giant D&B lollipop, two plastic rings, a D&B yoyo, a Family Guy t-shirt as a consolation prize to my emasculated boyfriend, and a few other really awesome pieces of trash.  Oops, did I say trash?  I meant John Q's treasures.

Needless to say, Dave & Busters is one of the best places to go in Times Square.. be it with friends, a date, your illegitimate children, etc..

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Photo of Dana G.

 

37

34

Dana G.

Astoria, NY

3 star rating
07/01/2008

Put down your attitude for a minute and admit that deep inside you are still a kid.
Then go here.
When you are done go home take 4 advil to sleep it off.
Its an arcade that caters to all age groups and im not just talking about Chuck E Cheese serving beer, thats a neccesity.
Dave and Busters has plenty of arcade games that unless you are a trivia junkie (for the trivia game) there really isnt a line for anything. They have the fighting games, the ticket games and even the fire fighter games.
They have beer.
And alcohol.

They have the equivilant of good chain food (if that makes sense, not crappy like cr-Applebees, better than that)

With food they offer deals for food and play, so you get started with a decent amount of games.

About the advil. If you are older than a child the place can be like vegas only with more children. So you either drink more to numb the sound thus needing the advil or just the headache from the sound will require the advil.

In closing, you have to admit it, the place is fun.

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Photo of Sienna K.

Elite '08

123

134

Sienna K.

New York, NY

2 star rating
04/14/2008

"Don't get it twisted. This is Dave and Buster's."

You got to be kidding me, I thought. Or, in the words of the boy next to me, "Unbelievable."

In fact, this entire place is "unbelievable."

I told a boy I could school him in air hockey. He retorted that while that may be true, he'd trounce me in skeeball and hoops. Well, if that doesn't sound like a challenge, I don't know what does.

The thing is, there is apparently no where in Manhattan that has air hockey, skeeball, and hoops. Well, no where other than... Dave and Buster's. I tried looking for other places, but there was only Dave and Buster's. I cringed--Times Square and tourists? But eager for a glorious air hockey victory, we bit the bullet and decided to meet there. We chose an early time slot (Saturday at 4 PM) hoping that the place would be empty as all the tourists were out taking pictures of billboards or something.

First mistake: Dave and Busters isn't filled with tourists--they're filled with B&T folks. Second mistake: B&T folks don't come here late at night to party, but they do come here in the afternoon with their children for a family event.

I have to say, it's super awkward to try to jostle a seven year old so you could play some skeeball. It's also even more awkward when another kid takes your machine, and you can't really say anything because you're like three times the kids size and age. And it becomes intolerably awkward when you, after having surrendered a machine to a kid, raise your gigantic beer mug to drink, and then look down to see a tiny little one staring up at you.

Oh God, if that four year old kid turns into an alcoholic in couple of years, it's all my fault.

The entire place is also a little bit ridiculous. They try to spruce the place it up, make it look classy, even installing some Tiffany-looking glasses in the dining room, but that further adds to the absurdity of the place. The attempts at looking nice combined with the bright lights and loud noises of games make this place like a miniature Reno, Nevada--a cheap imitation of Las Vegas.

There are lots of games, but there are more people than there are games. We tried to find the air hockey tables right away, and were disappointed to see that there was only one table. After waiting in line for a good while, we finally got our game. He won. But that's only because the traction of the table was awful (obviously, had the table been in better condition, I would have routed him badly); in fact, there were times when the puck stopped dead in the center. Awful.

There were few nostalgic games than we would have liked. The only games we recognized were air hockey, skeeball, and hoops. There were only very few of these machines, and these machines also gave very few tickets. Maybe our skeeball and hoops skills needed honing, but we only won one ticket per game for each try. Ouch.

There were though, very high tech games that we didn't recognize. There were about three shooting games, many driving games, and even a huge Madden game with  gigantic screen.

But then, we found a way for my useless self to be not so useless. My useless knowledge of history, art, football, and random facts apparently came in very handy in the trivia game. We had to wait for the trivia-junkies (it seriously echoes of those ladies in Vegas who are glued to the slot machine joystick) to leave, but once we did, we finally found our arcade niche. Who knows who won the 1995 Superbowl? I do! Who knows who led the North African efforts during WW2? I do! God, I so rock at this.

After having won couple of rounds and exhausting our tokens (all done now on fancy high-tech cards), we decided to cash out. They're pretty efficient in counting the tickets, so that was pretty neat, but it's pretty much chaos inside the little prize section. The prizes are alright (nothing too cool, nothing too crappy), but it was a stampede in there.

Anyways, going back to the first line, the boy and I were standing in line behind a family, when a stereotypical B&T MILF figure (short dress with low neckline accessorized by three children) cut us. The boy and I shrugged. But the woman who was in front of the said MILF wasn't having any of that. She started making a huge ruckus about how no one should cut the line. It was both frightening and amusing to see two stereotypes (B&T MILF and Ghetto Fabulous Mom from BK) collide into another. Never mind that both these mothers had children looking up at them, they began to curse another out. It all ended with that glorious quote--"Don't get it twisted. This is fuckin' Dave and Buster's. You better recognize before I slap you, bitch."

Unbelievable.

As we stepped out onto Times Square, the boy turns around to me and says, "I had fun, but I don't really want to go back there anytime soon."

I couldn't have agreed more.

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Photo of Jamel O.

 

22

31

Jamel O.

Jackson Heights, NY

3 star rating
05/30/2008

So when I took the bar exam they had shirts that said:
"Do it once, Do it Right, Never do it again!" That sums up Dave and Busters.  It is Chuck E Cheese for adults, but with no "adult" type stuff....just games...

So I always wanna know about the special.  Cause I am cheap.  So they have this power play thing, its like 16 or 17 dollars and you get a $10 game card and you eat.  Why do you care?  Cause actually, there is food at this place and my brother lives down the block and insists that we go sometimes...insists...but he has some issues...so I get this cajun chicken pasta that is SOOOOO hot in a good way and I actually like.  I like it.  It has vegetables and is worth eating.  Odd huh...So there is a menu item worth getting at this over priced tourist trap.  It turns into a semi teeny bopper club on the weekends and even charges admission.  If you arent 25, you better have someone with you who is...if that isnt a recipe for disaster, I dont know what is...just what you want in times square, a place that requires underaged people to consort with the older man with candy...can you say liability...hmmm....

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Photo of Najah P.

 

0

6

Najah P.

New York, NY

2 star rating
04/13/2008

Note: I have to admit that my visit was in the "bored and wandering around looking for something to do with friends" category, in addition to being a Saturday night, so I'd be willing to give it another chance.

As for now, my experience can easily be summed up in one word:

MEH.

My friends and I just wanted to play a few games and hang out as we already ate elsewhere, so I can't say anything about the food or drinks.  What I did partake in was the permeating stench of body odor, deep fried foods, children that found a need to run around as much as possible despite it being absurdly crowded, and the looks on their parents faces that screamed "why didn't I use protection?!".  

All it took was $5 worth of skee ball in a line full of little kids walking up to the net to put the ball in the 100 point cylinder and a scuff on my favorite pair of boots to make me do a 180 out of there.

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Photo of Namrata A.

Elite '08

15

186

Namrata A.

New York, NY

1 star rating
02/13/2008

Fun games, but EXPENSIVE.  I spent $35 for HAPPY HOUR.  2 drinks (way too sweet and NO alcohol), crappy food where the portion size is insanely small, and 60 something chips.  This place is a rip off, and yes I had fun playing the video games and goofing around, but otherwise, I feel like I'm in a crappy Atlantic City venue spending money on overpriced cheese fries.  Stay away.

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Photo of Daryll H.

Elite '08

43

431

Daryll H.

New York, NY

1 star rating
01/06/2008

When my friend invited me here, I figured sure, I'll suspend my disbelief about this being the closest thing to hell on earth.  Yeah, that didn't last long.

It's in times square.  It's full of tourists.  It's above an Applebees.  There were two TVs where we were watching football, but they weren't in sync, so you'd see the same play repeated 5 seconds later.  I don't even know how it's possible to make that happen.

I saw a craigslist posting for an apartment the other day that said "YOU COULD LIVE 2 BLOCKS FROM TIMES SQUARE!!" as if it was a good thing.  

There apparently was a rodeo in town (?) and there were various cowboys and their children here.  Just the perfect thing for out-of-towners -- let's go to an awful generic chain that we can find back home!  Good job!

Yeah, it's easier to be negative than positive.  Oh well.

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Photo of Alicia K.

 

7

40

Alicia K.

Brooklyn, NY

3 star rating
03/18/2008

I'm a little ashamed to say that my boyfriend requested that his birthday party be at Dave & Buster's, and that I'm giving it three stars!  Oh my.  He's the quiet, reflective type, so this kind of venue in the heart of Times Square was quite a surprise request!  But, I aim to please...

Prior to many situations, I lower my expectations so that my disappointment isn't too great.  The food at D&B is not great, but I get a kick out of ridiculous entree names.  The mixed drinks were terrible!  Stick to beer or wine.  

The games!  Well, I am a claw machine-master, even if I have to throw down $7 in quarters.  They have one of those giant claw machines filled with pillows and big stuffed animals.  I had all these teens and tweens watching me as I won a big baseball pillow on the FIRST try.  Woohoo!  Lots of other arcade games, including Pac-Man.  With our collective tickets at the end of the night, we were able to "buy" a rad fiber-optic tree.

The main downside?  When some dude threw up in the bathroom on our way out and the lobby smelled putrid.  Thanks, buddy.

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Elite '08

59

365

jeff c.

New York, NY

3 star rating
03/04/2008

$20 in credit will last at least an hour for two people. It's no Jillian's (no bowling alley or pool tables) but it's good for a bit of escapism. It offers your usual fare of fast finger foods as well.

I scored 540 on skeeball and the tickets didn't stop coming out as if the machine was broken...beat that suckers!

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Photo of peter d.

 

138

36

peter d.

New York, NY

1 star rating
05/07/2008

We used to go to a place like this when I was a kid. It was fun then. Now it's not.

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Photo of Rachel P.

 

3

30

Rachel P.

Brooklyn, NY

3 star rating
03/14/2008

Too busy and crowed. However, found tables in a surprisingly quite area.

The food was unexpected.
It was actually good.
I recommend the Cajun shrimp Alfredo.
Friends ordered stakes and potatoes , and said it was good.

The best part were the drinks.
Many fun 'girly drinks.  I enjoyed the strawberry banana margarita.

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Photo of Kristy G.

 

0

28

Kristy G.

Brooklyn, NY

2 star rating
05/01/2008

if u go to a dave & busters anywhere else but in times square im sure its alot better than the one i went to ..

i went there when i was 20 years old on a friday night with my girlfriend.. who was 23 at the time .. and apprently to go to an arcade you have to be 21 or older .. or your legal guardian has to be 25 (because theres a bar inside) .. so i waited till i was 21 to enter this magical kingdom .. and once inside .. i saw nothing but overgrown men .. bored with their wives at home playing arcade games in the middle of times square..

and nontheless the games were horrible.. most of the cool games were broken .. i can make bettter games at home .. the only good booth was the "gene machine" where u can take a picture of yourself and ur significant other and the computer matches ur facial traits and prints out a picture of what your baby will look like .... i went to the dave & busters in colorado and it was much better .. better games (u know more up-to-date) games ...

i dont recommend you go to the one in times square .. if you really wanna go make the trip to long island..

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Photo of Joolie T.

Elite '08

306

816

Joolie T.

New York, NY

3 star rating
09/13/2007

where do you take a fully-grown man who likes
video games and beer?                      Dave & Buster's.

where do you tourists who want to meet other
tourists?                                                 Dave & Buster's.

where can you win Laffy Taffy buy throwing a ball
in a hoop?                                              Dave & Buster's.

tis all. the only thing i like about this place is that
it brings back old memories of HS and how boys
liked winning stuffed animals and candy for me.
now, watching men do it is kind of unattractive....
and actually a little scary. they get all INTO IT and
infuriated. tis not cute.  

i'd probably only come back with a huge group of
drunk friends. i'd NEVER come here sober. lol

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Elite '08

26

194

Marcus V.

Brooklyn, NY

1 star rating
11/04/2007

Granted from time to time I enjoy playing video games, but the combination of dining and video games doesn't really do much for me. For one, I loathe Times Square. It's a tourist-filled nightmare, as is Dave & Busters and numerous other traps in that cluster headache part of Manhattan.

I went for the first time on a late Saturday night and it was very crowded. You couldn't manuever through the place without someone bumping you. It made me uneasy and uncomfortable walking through an enviroment crowded with families and lots of young kids, particularly on a Saturday night. My girlfriend and me were simply killing some time as we waited for a late-night showing of Ridley Scott's American Gangster at the AMC 25 theater. Initially, the idea of playing video games sounded like lots of fun, but the idea became less novel upon being swarmed by so many kids...who otherwise should've been home and in bed at such a late hour.

The place also had a horrid stench, a culmination of sweat and food, and perhaps a fungus or two, that was really unpleasant. The wait to play any game was aggrevating, and trying to order a simple Coca Cola at the bar was a daunting task, as the staff was clearly very inattentive and slow. And forget about the menu. Forget about even looking at the menu for that matter. I couldn't imagine myself eating a thing here. The place totally grossed me out.

In all likelihood, I'll never step into a D&B again for as long as I live. I'll stick to the occasion arcade or a home-based game console over a lame D&B fiasco.

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Photo of Jodie G.

 

2

12

Jodie G.

New York, NY

4 star rating
11/06/2007

I always have a lot of fun here. I take my daughter and we get dinner. They have deals where you get food and a game card for a special price. You end up only spending about $7 per person on dinner and you can sit back and take your time while the kids play. They kick the kids out at ten I believe on the weekends. My girlfriends and I often go for drinks. They have fun mixed drinks and good food and lots to do. The girls that like to drink hang out at the bar, the rest of us have a drink or two and play games and have other things to do besides watch everyone else drink. It is also a nice change from the average sleezy bar environment.

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Elite '08

179

502

James G.

South Lake Tahoe, CA

1 star rating
09/17/2007

Pinball alert!  Busted...

For any gaming connoisseur, such as myself, Dave and Busters is a BIG disappointment!  I wish I didn't make a special trip out of the way to the 42nd street area for DnB.  

This location has only one table and it's out of order!  WTH?

  GIANTS (see: http://www.ipdb.org/ma... )  

What's also notable is its lack of cool titles to play. There's

-- No Initial D
-- No Street Fighter type games
-- No Shooter type games like Metal Slug or Raiden
-- And my biggest hangup:  No pool/billiard tables !   This seems to be the weirdest aspect of DnB that I thought was standard at each location.  I've only been to the DnB's in Las Vegas on the Strip (see: ) and in the Bay Area in Milpitas (see: ).  

+ Old Skool games (Donky Kong, Pac Man, Galaga, Space Invaders) available for play although at an exorbitant amount.  If I wanted to play these I'd go to a console or handheld instead.
++ JUMPING JACKPOT  from Namco  -- It's in the back of the gaming area and is basically an electronic jump rope machine.  Looked like fun but I wasn't willing to buy a card just to play this one title.

Pix laters...

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2338

220

Michael D.

New York, NY

1 star rating
09/04/2007

What was I doing there? This place is everything I hate, then multiplied by bad food.

My girlfriend's friend asked us to meet her there. I'd never heard of it so I didn't know what to expect. Once I realized we were going to Times Square to eat, I knew I was in trouble.

Up and escalator and we walked in to this unappealing room. Video games to one side and dining room/bar to the other. There is nothing about this place that is appealing. It's strictly for tourists.

I ordered a Whiskey glazed mixed grill. Most of which was cold. My girlfriend's pasta was overcooked and...

It was such shit I'm not even going to finish this.

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Elite '08

165

170

karen g.

Astoria, NY

3 star rating
03/24/2008

I'm embarrassed to admit how much I like this place. Went here for the first time with friends and grabbed drinks/dinner first. First of all, the place looks very similar to Cheesecake Factory (another place i'm embarrassed to love as much as I do-I typically hate chain restaurants).  The food was decent and surprisingly not expensive (for Time Sq area). We played games afterwards and we opted for a super charged power play card or something of that variety. Basically, for $50 we had fun running around like 10 year olds for 3 hours on a Saturday night. It was crowded....very, very crowded. And ghetto. Very, very ghetto. My friend and I got yelled at when we were cheating the machine out of tickets. Little do they know that I'd been doing it for hours and left with somehwere around 3,000 points or something silly like that.  It's no Jillians or Good Times from Boston, but it's good enough for me. This would be a really fun place to go on Tuesday afternoon or something in the summer while playing hooky from work with Hubby.

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3

10

Avenash K.

South Ozone Park, NY

3 star rating
12/31/2007

If you're bored and have nothing better to do in the city, D&B isn't a bad idea.  They have some pretty decent deals with the meal and power play card combo.  There are some fun arcade games and other interactive ones but not much variety.  All in all, not a bad way to kill an hour or two if you're bored.

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Elite '08

215

577

Arnab M.

New York, NY

4 star rating
05/28/2007

I had such a blast here, even though I am so not a video game/arcade person. We had an researcher event from for work here, so dinner and open bar and coupons were all paid for, and we had more credits than we knew what to do with. We won enough tickets to get ourselves Dave & Busters shooters from the gift store, which was awesome. Oh, one of the safer games is the wheel of fortune, it is really hard to not win a bunch on that.

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3

78

Julie M.

New York, NY

4 star rating
03/23/2008

pull out the d&b card from your back pocket for a surprise first date and you WILL score. at skeeball, i mean!! kekkekek. i love this place!

note, i wouldn't actually eat here.

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Elite '08

47

113

karan s.

NY

4 star rating
05/01/2007

I never eat or drink here, cause the food sucks balls and the drinks are blah, atleast my jack and coke is

. this place is good getaway when you are with a big group of friends who are not into drinking or clubbin but bein kids again and doin things together.  like 8 of us can did arcade car racing at one time and me shouting WHO IS YOUR DADDY throughout the race and be drivin with one hand in the air proclaiming myself as NO1. ( see the pics)

I also liked it cause me and my boy snuck our own contraband in here .we enjoyed playing the basketball game with the hoop goin back n forth. the women like the game where you throw the wooden ball in the holes with different points.

i had fun takin the paper point tokens from all of us,we  were about 25 of us . in the end i bought all the 7 girls in my group a teddy bear as a sign of  appreciation.

overall a very fun night

be a good place to have Yelp Arcade Game Night also sans the food and the booze

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Elite '08

170

725

Tony L.

San Francisco, CA

2 star rating
07/19/2007

If you've seen one, you've seen them all.  Yes, you get skee ball, Time Crisis, Mocap Boxing, and basketball shootout games.  You also get shitty chain quality food that tastes like it's been shipped up from Applebee's from the floor below.  And you can enjoy everything with rounds of $10 cocktails (half price for happy hour till 7:30, still not exactly worth it) so  you can keep emptying your wallet.

This is gambling without any returns, swipe your token card so you don't know how much money you're spending, drink grease and eat beer, stuff that's good till you realize loud noises and junk food only get you so much entertainment in life.  But there's obviously a market for this kinda thing, which is why they've manage to land square in Time's Square, and I can see how this can be fun for some people.  Hence the two stars.  I do think there are other great places for you to go if you're into this kind of thing, but hey, if you don't feel like you want to be adventurous, this may be your ticket.

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11

William P.

Clifton Park, NY

3 star rating
03/23/2008

I was just there on a Saturday night, do yourself a favor and don't go.  It's way to crowded and full of sticky fingered and shady people.  Also, even the older people there have no etiquette.  At the trivia machine, people just sit down there and play for hours without letting people waiting patiently have a chance to play.  If you go at other times, the place is a lot funner.

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5

Maureen Q.

Bath, PA

1 star rating
02/17/2008

I will never ever step foot in another Dave and Buster's, as long as I will live, that's for sure.
When you first walk in, there is this desk, with a little sign, saying "Dave and Buster's, 3rd floor."  We were waiting patiently to ask the girl behind the counter if it was possible to just go to the bar and play the games, as we weren't hungry.  Her response to us waiting, was" There's a sign people.  Reading is fundamental."
Needless to say, we walked out.  And have contacted headquarters, because quite frankly, if that's the kind of person you have at your front desk, you clearly don't want business.

However, afterwords we went to the Playwright Bar/Restaurant, located across from the laugh factory(well, sorta).  I would recommend this bar.  This is the same bar we went to on New Year's Eve, and it was wonderful.

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137

Toastface Grillah X.

New York, NY

2 star rating
03/08/2007

Much like a trashy casino, Dave & Buster's seems to attract a mixture of die-hard regulars and curious tourists.  The die-hards carry around their buckets, which are full of arcade game tickets instead of chips, and sit for hours at a time to accumulate more of them.  

The curious wander around the game space (which is smaller and has fewer games than you would think a place which relies on them as their gimmick would have) and stop to play a game or two.  Then, one of two things probably happens: they either get hooked, join the die-hards, and develop butt imprints on their stools OR they realize they've just exchanged five dollars for two minutes of game time and quickly lose interest in D&B.

Inexplicably, on a recent Saturday night, there were more than a few people among the mostly B&T crowd who were dressed up and appeared to A) have been on a date in Times Square and B) gone to Dave & Buster's, of all places.  Classy.

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Elite '08

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77

Hugo O.

New York, NY

4 star rating
04/04/2007

How can you not have fun at Dave and Buster's! I'll tell you how! Try to squeeze a turn at the Basketball Shoot-out machine sober! You'll be guari-damn-teed to get pissed off and start some beef. But...if you're like me, you will have already pumped yourself full of beer or some other alcohol drink before dealing with those issues. Games and beer, baby!

As you've noticed it's smack in the middle of Times Sq. I tried to convince my gf (fingers crossed...we had a bad fall out after that night) to get there before 5PM for three reasons. I know what you're thinking...cheapskate! This is NYC baby...millionaires are looking for deals! That's how bad it can get. Anyway...reason 1)This place is teeming with tourists. They're usually busy at Madam Tussauds or some other shennanegan around that time before dinner. 2) It was Final Four Night. 3) The Dinner and Game special for $18.99. Figured this was reason enough.  Unfortunately, we couldn't do that cuz of schedule conflicts.

So we decided first to eat somewhere else and then hit up DNB.
I made sure I had a giant Texas-size frozen margarita from Dallas BBQ with two shots before coming in to DNB. When you get there you got these bouncer-looking fellas carding you. You pay a $5.00 cover charge and they hand you this black VIP card that you can also use towards $5.00 bucks worth of games. However, do not be fooled into thinking you can recharge this card. You must buy an official game card which itself carries a $3.00 price tag in addition to the game package. They got diff packages on the card. I got a $25 card each for me and the gf.

So off we went. After making a quick survey of all the stations our fav was the basket ball shooting game. It was all fun except there was this other couple who were trying to out-do each other's score and ended up hogging the damn thing for like 15 minutes (the girl won the shoot-out in case you're curious). Another favorite was the EA Sports boxing game where you don gloves attached to sensors and punch the sh%t out of your opponents. Major calorie burner! The other was the fishing pole game. Very simple...very gratifying! Just the way i am! Some of the racing games were cool too. All in all it was a fun time!  

Next time i'm definitely coming for Happy Hour and to cash-in on the dine and play deal. Haven't tried the food yet.

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Elaine M.

Arlington, VA

2 star rating
03/21/2007

A visit to the high overdrive conglomeration of bright advertisements and bad chain restaurants that is Times Square always leaves me a little more sympathetic to communism.  Nothing is perhaps more symptomatic of the exhausting appeal to consumerism lining 42nd Street than Dave & Busters Times Square.  

It also kind of saddens me, because as a kid, I actually begged my parents to take me to Chuck-E-Cheese (to no avail) because I thought playing arcade games to win tokens was the most fun thing ever.  Now I only see the crowds as unpleasant and the end-result--a cheap trinket bought with tickets accrued from games--as lackluster.  (Whither childhood).  Actually, I have nothing against the games themselves, but I have no desire to spend a lot of money to get a crappy key chain while jostling fellow gamers and waiting 20 minutes to play the trivia game because some selfish glutton doesn't have the courtesy to let someone else take a turn.  In this sort of atmosphere, I'll need a drink, but paying upwards of $8 for an ice-filled gin and tonic is hardly a palliative.

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Elite '08

34

387

Gerard Y.

San Francisco, CA

3 star rating
05/17/2007

Good place to meet up with people. The cheese burger was cool but the mixed drink I ordered wasn't made that great though. Didn't stick around to play the games.

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Charles Nelson R.

New York, NY

4 star rating
05/17/2007

This is your typical NYC tourist trap, which means any real New Yorker would avoid this at all costs. Fortunately, I am not from New York so I can come and go here as I please.

I met a blind date from match.com here and she seemed to be impressed with my choice of restaurant. She said that she does not get out often and that coming to a place like this, even with all the tourists, made it that much more enjoyable.

The hamburgers are out of this world. I wanted it well done, and golly gee they were well done. My date unfortunately is a vegan so all she had was soup and salad. But she said that it was delicious. And we both appreciated that there were lots of TV's around so we could watch the Mets game. Yes, she and I are both NY Mets fans, and that always goes a long way in my heart.

So after she paid the check, we walked around Times Square and I walked her to the Marriott Marquis and she took a cab from there. Needless to say we are going out again this weekend. But hey, I am still single and I need to move about. No "one woman" for this bucko. Though the prospects are good, especially if she keeps paying the check like she did tonight.

I am only kidding. No way will I let a woman pay for the check, are you kidding? We split the check. Hey, women's lib!

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5

Benjamin M.

NY

5 star rating
04/01/2007

There is no better Happy Hour Value in midtown!

1/2 price cocktails!  $4.65 for a Grey Goose Martini?? Monday-Friday from 4:30-7:30pm!  Plus if you have a few you may remember how to beat the High Score on Ms. Pac Man!

Try the fries pickles! (not on the menu but they still serve them)

There is also the $18.99 deal that gets you dinner and a $10 game card!

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Elite '08

123

598

Scott R.

New York, NY

4 star rating
08/19/2007

Haven't sampled - nor tempted to sample - the food but had fun playing the games on a rainy Sunday.

Not a ton of selection if you're a hard core arcade person but they had enough games for me - skeeball, basketball, and simulated racing.  I bought a $12 card and found it lasted a lot longer than I expected it to.

It might be better to go during a weeknight as it was full of kids on a Sunday during the day.

It's not a good enough reason to visit Times Square but it's not a bad place to kill an hour or two before/after a movie...

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63

Geralyn Y.

San Francisco, CA

2 star rating
06/05/2007

If it were anywhere else in this country o' ours, then maybe my opinion would be different. Yet considering that it is in the center of nyc, two stars, for the mere reason that it gives folks a place to gather before hitting up another night spot.  

There isn't much I can say. The food is alright and drink names are creative, but the servers don't come around as often as they should.

Compared to other bars in the theatre district, nothing too special about the atmosphere. The games are a bit too expensive. As a kid, I never liked spending loads of precious game money only to score a bunch of cheapie erasers at the prize booth.

Why would I like it now?

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Elite '08

85

145

Brian K.

Weehawken, NJ

3 star rating
01/27/2007

Sure it's touristy and overpriced.  The food is okay, actually better than I expected, but that's probably because I stuck with a burger.  The beer selection, while not spectacular, is also better than I expected, and you can buy these really huge 25 ounce mugs that made me want to break into German drinking songs... if only I knew some... or could sing.

I took a quick look at the gaming area and didn't play any.  The games are extremely dated (how old is Daytona now?) and there is only one air hockey table.  There are also not enough skee ball lanes.  Still, I think this place could make for a pretty fun (if overpriced) drunken evening at times.

I have an idea for them: they would take out the entire dining area and replace it with bumper cars, so that you could just eat in your bumper car, drink really huge beers, and run into people at the same time.

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Jenny P.

New York, NY

4 star rating
01/31/2007

Being a resident of Hells Kitchen, I have a love-hate relationship with Times Square and tourists. I despise going out of my way to avoid slow-walking visitors, but after all these years, I still find myself enamored by the lights and glitz of the area.

When I first heard Dave & Buster's was opening a new space in Times Square last year, I was super-excited. After all, growing up in Philadelphia, I had attended several birthday parties (chaperoned, of course) at the Philadelphia D&B. Also, since the excellent Chili's Restaurant in the AMC Empire megaplex closed a few years ago, I needed something to fill the void. D&B has done just that.

While I have not yet eaten in the D&B restaurant, I have spent a LOT of time (and money) in their arcade, which offers Skeeball, interactive video trivia, car-racing games, and so much more; and all of this while drinking beer! If you bring $20, you can enjoy about an hour of .games, and cash in your prize tickets for toys or candy. There is always a good crowd, but I've never seen obnoxiously large crowds (even on Friday and Saturday nights, amazingly). Highly recommended, especially for the young-at-heart!!!

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