Monkey Joe's — Attraction in Houston

Best kept secret or "slowly" dying? This was my first time coming to Monkey Joe's on Westheimer but I am no stranger to the location in Katy. The reason I chose to visit This location is because the Katy location has more broken machines and equipment than working and in good shape. Unfortunately, this Westheimer Monkey Joe's is a lateral move. The inflatable equipment is heavily worn and one of them was crumpled on the floor, uninflated. The main inflatable had a tear in it large enough to fit my hand in, right where kids enter. If Monkey Joe's doesn't have stock in Duct Tape, you're missing out! Grayish silver galore! Picking up a game card, I noticed a notice, a sign that had (you guessed it) duct tape with the number 11 hand written in it's place. The sign read: "currently 11 working game machines". Upon walking into this location, I was impressed that so many machines had the lights on and seemed to be working, over those at the other location with lights off and 'out of order' signs posted directly on them. However, at This location, the lights were on but the card readers delivered the bad news of them being out of service. Here's the thing, my game card didn't work here, it's set to the Katy location. That's how I saw the posted notice about the machines. I wasn't able to purchase a new game card though, apparently the credit card system/machine was not working as well.... Yea. The change coin machine was working in the arcade though and was fortunate enough to get a few dollars in quarters for the more "classic" games in the back that still take money. Imagine that. Pros: for the majority of the 2hrs we were there, we were the Only people in the entire place. The machines we were able to play, worked perfectly. Cons: we were the Only people in the entire place. Even staff was amiss a couple times. I get it, no one around, why bother? The place is nice to look at, at a distance. But getting closer you see the obvious wear and tear on just about everything. Even the faucets in the bathroom need to be replaced. Verdict: I've contact the home office of Monkey Joe's about the Katy location on several occasions but no one cares enough to return the calls. They obviously don't care about the state of disrepair their facilities are falling into and the lack of lighting can make the space feel ....unwelcoming at times. Coupled with spots that haven't been cleaned in a very long time (dust on top of the play center plexiglass and other areas - candy wrappers everywhere - chip bags outside the safety netting - etc) it makes me wonder why these are even in business? Just shut them down if you don't care enough to maintain them. Sad thing is, these facilities would be so easily cleaned up and repaired, little investment. As is though, there are less and less patrons to Monkey Joe's and it's reasonable to see why. Skip the Joe's and go to a TILT in the mall or a playground someplace. Tuesdays are half price if you're really looking to try out Monkey Joe's. Just don't say I...

My family and I reserved this establishment on 8/17/2024 for a 3-year-old birthday party. Let's start by saying this place needs to be closed down and rebuilt from the ground up. The first eye-sore was when we first came into the building. Directly in the walkway against the wall were 3 large pallets of items. The building was so hot, there was no air conditioning at all. We were greeted upon walking to the counter. We were told where to go for the party that was reserved. When I entered the purple room, it was even hotter; an employee was putting in portable a/c's. The floor in the purple room was very dirty and wet. The games don't work, and they had the nerve to have a sign that tells you that only 11 games work. One of the video games was a water gun game. The water that came out smelled like sewage. The food was very little; kids were only able to get one slice of pizza a piece; it was a sign stating that if you wanted to order pizza, it would be a 45-minute to 1-hour or more wait because the pizzas are ordered from somewhere else called Marco's. So we decided since we couldn't get a pizza we would order something else. Upon approaching the counter, all the employees just stood there; after standing for a few minutes, we just asked if we had ordered because no one acknowledged that we were standing there. The young lady who was the party host for the purple room did awesome, her customer service was great. Now, let's talk about the monkey that came into the room; in my opinion, you shouldn't have ever come in; you didn't do anything, your shoes were untied, and the customs were a mess. We didn't get the chance to open up the birthday presents. We had to open them outside the room because they were closing the room up. The place made an announcement that all concessions and games would be closing at 7:20, but the establishment closed at 8, and yes, at 7:20 on the dot, the lights and game went off. The place isn't a place to take a kid or anyone for that matter. I called a spoke with the manager a couple of days later she was very professional but not very helpful at stating that the bill was given a 10% discount for it being hot, and she stated that the hotness came from them being busy and the door begin open back and forth which was a lie, let's just be honest there was not a lot of people in the building and also the a/c wasn't working at all. The slides were supposed to be monitored by the employees there and no one was monitoring any of the inflatables or anything else for that matter. Our toddler tripped over wires/cords that were supposed to be under a protective cover; instead, it was covered in grey duct tape. One of our family members fell onto the floor and two employees walked right past her. No one came over to see if everything was ok. Neither employee went and got a manager or anything. All of the games cost 1.00 a game, which most of them didn't work. I really wish that I had taken pictures. This place needs to close...

Absolutely horrible experience. Ruined my daughter's 9th birthday. I called to book a room but no one would answer the phone. I called a different location to see if I can get a hold of a general manager. A supposed general manager answer. Which I'm not mad at because Melissa and the other woman I spoke to at the Katy locations are the only ones with great customer service and willing to go above and beyond to help. They tried helping me by reserving a room at the Westheimer location for me. They helped me reserve a 3:30pm room on Saturday for Westheimer. I printed all the invitations for my daughter's party and she gave them to all her classmates. The manager at the Katy location said someone was supposed to call me back from the Westheimer location to confirm the reservation. This is Wednesday. Never received a call back so I called and it went to voice-mail. Next day still no call back. I called in the morning, during lunch, and before closing time. Went to voice-mail... at this point I'm thinking they're ignoring me intentionally. I finally call Katy location again on Friday because the Westheimer location didn't answer again (the day before the party). I spoke to a manager and she went ahead and took my payment in order to book the room. She then told me that someone would call me to confirm. Finally the assistant manager Brianna, who has absolutely no custom service, nor willingness to help proceeds to read me the book of policies and saying how they do things. Instead of helping me find a solution basically said there isn't anything she can do to help. Basically gave me the big F U good luck tone. Even when I was trying to expalin the situation she kept interrupting and talking over me to explain her book of rules at Monkey Joes. I ask her to then return my money and she said it is going to take 3 to 5 business days. Cherry on top. So I basically have to pay for a miscommunication mistake on their part. Oh and to top it off apparently they hadn't even booked me for the right location! They booked me at 3:30pm for the Katy location. It wouldn't have been a huge deal other the than the fact that we invited 30 people and 17 confirmed already! Due to the fact that when I booked the reservation at 3:30pm the manager said I was set. And instead of getting any help or actual customer service, I get a false apology and a big F U. Good job Monkey Joe's, specifically assistant manager Brianna who proceeded to read me a book on how she can't help me instead of doing...