The Chabot — Attraction in Castro Valley

I really like the fact the city of Castro Valley has allowed the Chabot Theater to remain. It's like a little landmark of it's own, it seems to be well known. The theater is really old skool, with only one screen but will often play two different movies at alternating times and its' seating is really simple. I'm not even sure it has cup holders. But it's cute, quaint and affordable.

My parents used to visit this theater because it's really close for them, affordable, especially with the senior discount available. I'm not really down for the really fancy theaters, where food can be ordered and delivered to the seats, I just want to see a good movie and be comfortable, but not have to spend gobs of money. For being an older theater, the seats are pretty comfortable and there is plenty of leg room. It's fun to have such a cute affordable older eclectic theater close by.

However, the one main drawback about this theater is the parking. It is few and far between, and mostly street parking or parking in shopping centers across the street, which is technically not idealistic as it could produce a parking ticket.

I would return to this theater and have on several occasions,...

We had a movie birthday party for our daughter who turned 5 this past weekend and the service from staff, as well as coordinating with the manager, Josh prior to the event was FANTASTIC!

Josh was polite, helpful, responsive and efficient. He offered suggestions and made him accessible in the event that I had questions and/or needed assistance leading up the party the day of.

The Sunday staff was FANTASTIC! They were nice, polite, patient and helpful which went a long way in our book.

Working with little one’s early in the morning can often be taxing but everyone was so pleasant and gracious and I couldn’t have been more pleased with our decision to host the movie birthday party at your theater.

They even wished her a Happy Birthday and put her name on the marquee which made the experience all that more special for her. She was overjoyed to be able to watch Frozen II with all of her friends for her birthday and hasn’t stopped talking about how much fun she had.

Her parents and guests haven’t stopped raving about how great the theater and staff were during the visit. We...

Do not get me wrong, I love this theater, and will catch my movies here when I can... but, there really is only one row of usable seats for my family and I (we have long legs) - and if we do not get there in time to get that one row, we cannot enjoy the movie in comfort. The people there are friendly, the prices are great, they show a good selection of movies (those are the pros). The cons: most seats have legg room for 2 year olds, aka, none - there is no parking for the theater, with the surrounding business lots having tow-away signs posted (I will not frequent any business that is so unfriendly towards community. Parking is street parking, with many spots being posted as "two hour" which sucks ( a normal movie with previews runs well over that.)

Castro Valley has really done a disservice to the great old theater by making it so inaccessible - if the lot across the street would open up theater parking, it would be the best family...