Monkey Joe's — Local services in Brambleton

I cannot begin to describe how incredibly disappointed I am with the abysmal service we received at Monkey Joe's Indoor Play Area at Dulles for my daughter Abigail's 5th birthday party on July 22nd. This establishment managed to turn what should have been a delightful celebration into an absolute nightmare. Monkey Joe had carefully planned and scheduled the event, booking the party room for two hours as per their instructions. First Hour: Guests arrive for bounce & play time! Next 30 Minutes: Party room for food and fun! Next 15 Minutes: Cake time and a visit from Monkey Joe or Monkey Jane! Last 15 Minutes: Party wrap up/final payment The first hour seemed promising, with the children enjoying themselves in the play area. However, the service problems began when it was time to move to the party room at 3 pm. Our host announced for our guests to return to the party room at 3 pm. However, the host didn’t show up with the pizza and drinks until 3:13 pm, leaving us to entertain our highly energized guests. The delay in serving the food was already bad enough, but what followed was even worse. After the pizza and cupcakes, we were left waiting for nearly 20 minutes, for our host to return with promised visit by Monkey Joe and the game cards, which was part of our party package. Several of hyper guests were chatting “Monkey Joe! Monkey Joe!”, while waiting in the party room. I went to the front desk twice to ask for a manager or where was our host. The staff seemed to have no sense of responsibility or communication skills whatsoever. It's like they don't care about their customers at all. We finally let all of the guest return to the play area. By the time Monkey Joe and the host finally decided to grace us with their presence, half of the guests were already buying game cards or leaving. The level of unprofessionalism displayed by the staff was astonishing. Not only did they mess up the character, dressing up Monkey Jane instead of Monkey Joe, but they also failed to communicate this issue for the delay properly. To add insult to injury, when I raised my concerns with the host, things turned ugly. He was completely disrespectful and rude, cutting me off and making snide remarks. I never expected such appalling behavior from someone working in the service industry. We spent over $500 on this disaster of a party, and they had the audacity to request an additional 20% gratuity for such a terrible experience? Are they kidding? For that kind of money, I expect a flawless event, not this circus of incompetence on 2-hour children’s party. Monkey Joe's had plenty of staff members on hand, yet they couldn't manage to provide even the most basic level of service. It's clear they have no idea how to run a children's party, and their lack of organization and communication skills are unforgivable. I wrote the Owner/Operator of Monkey Joe’s Syed Hussain, and I still haven’t received a response. In conclusion, I would strongly advise against hosting any event at Monkey Joe's Indoor Play Area. They ruined my daughter's birthday, and I wouldn't wish such a disastrous experience on anyone else. Save your money and your sanity, and steer clear of this establishment. Trust me; you'll thank me later!

UPDATE: Overall, I find their response below very unprofessional The owner never attempted to contact me (they have my email and phone number). I also have time stamped photos to...

Before the pandemic we were regulars at Monkey Joe's in Dulles. Now as things are improving, we've started visiting again. However, I am forced to give 1 star for our recent visit, which left us with a bad experience. Starting with the good, our son loves playing here with other kids and making new friends. The equipment and arcade games can keep him occupied for hours if we let him. The air hockey table surface is a little sticky and the puck doesn't slide properly, but that's not the main complaint.

We last visited on July 8th, 2021 at around 4:45PM. We are aware that the kids need socks to enter the play area, and our son was wearing a pair when he began playing. However, I noticed that he lost ONE of his socks after a few minutes, and I promptly went looking for it inside. One of the employees also noticed that he was missing a sock and approached us, reminding us that he needs to wear socks. I thought it was obvious that we were trying to comply with the rules, but we felt singled out as we noticed there were other kids NOT wearing ANY socks at all, and continued to play without being approached, even with one adult wearing sandals inside the play area.

Since I couldn't locate the other sock, instead of leaving we decided to spend $5 to buy socks there. After paying the admission fee and accidentally losing a sock, I felt they should have been complimentary. I continued to observe for the next hour and half that nothing was done to enforce the sock rule for the kids not in compliance. I complained to another employee and asked why they're only selectively enforcing the rules for certain children. Although they admitted fault, they did nothing to rectify the situation. On top of that, and I don't mean to call out anyone, but some employees were just sitting around, only getting up to change the channel on the TV, and worse, one looked like they were taking a nap. There are breakrooms so that we don't have to observe situations like this, but more importantly, why don't they make an effort to ensure all the rules are being enforced equally, instead of sitting around?

With that in mind, I'm baffled as to why my son was singled out. Being regulars before and especially concerned with hygiene, we wouldn't have let him play without socks anyway. I can only use my imagination as to why they only selectively enforced the rules, and I hope management can take the appropriate steps so that something like this does not...

Started with being charged on a Tuesday for 5+ yrs old because my hb said my daughter will be 5 in January, however she is still 4 till then. It’s not the 5$ but just the principle, she should have been charged for 4 yrs old still. Next. They require you to take off ur shoes, I get it, but the carpet is filthy for this requirement !!!! Major stain at the entrance clearly showing spills aren’t cleaned up at time of accident, not even after. See the bottom of ur socks before you exit, you might end up taking them off prior putting ur shoes back. Disappointing, the fact that the management will not take responsibility over ice cream machines that eat up ur money and give u nothing. They give us a phone number to call about that 5$ the ice cream machine eat up without dispensing any ice cream, I found this ridicules. It’s on YOUR property, you should be responsible for these type of situations. It’s not about the 5$ , it’s about principles. After spending 100$ on games in less than an hour to face with this 5$ situation was near shocking. Finding out the machine had the issue and just been repaired OR NOT! Seems like an existing an known problem yet they still refused to make it right. No sign put up either to warn the next person about the machine’s faultless. Then after all we tried to spend that few points we collected. 1st of all, u hardly can collect points they are so cheap with it. Machines take too much points for a game, u don’t get much point for ur money to play either . For 10$ u may play about 6 games ( some only less about 30 sec). For 100$ we collected 96 points , we won 600 and we couldn’t buy nothing for it. So we tried to pay the difference in cash to get a junky stuffed animal for 28$ and they told us, you either pay cash or points . No mixed payments allowed. Just an other way to get ripped off . Well that 696 points that we couldn’t spend, won’t get back us here for sure. This was the first and LAST time for us. Sad truth, no place can beat Chucky Cheese still. They still are the best option between all.

Otherwise stuff is nice, they got nothing to do with the situations or management and...