NEST Center City — Local services in Philadelphia

We had our son’s first birthday party at Nest a couple of weeks ago, and it was great! The staff was absolutely wonderful with the activities and interacted so well with the babies. My son had such a great day! There are just a few things to know if you are thinking of booking a party here. There is a big price difference between the basic package and the next two packages up from that. We went with the basic because I wanted to provide my own food. With the basic you can not set up ahead of time- you are literally given 15 minutes before the party starts to get everything ready. They even keep the doors locked so you can not even move anything from your car to inside the lobby. As far as decorations, it is not stated in the FAQs, but they do not allow any thing to hang from the ceiling (they say it’s a fire hazard), nothing attached to the walls even command strips, and no decorations in the play area. I did not know this ahead of time so I had already bought and made streamers, a banner and balloon garland. Good thing I went in person for the consult (which was a mistake because apparently it was supposed to be just a phone call) and found all this out. You can only hang decorations from their shoe cubby which is only 3 feet tall. It took a lot of improvising on my part with then having to buy a banner holder and attaching the balloons to that instead, but it worked out. Just as I had feared though we already had guests showing up before the party was to begin and they all ended up helping to get everything in place, which I really did not want to have happen. I was also told that if I needed serving utensils that they had plenty on hand. We needed serving spoons and no one was there to check on us to see if we needed anything so our guests just stuck a flimsy fork in whatever they needed to. The high chair my son was supposed to use for his smash cake was not brought out until right when he was supposed to eat it, so I was unable to decorate his chair for him. The event itself was very disorganized on their part and poor communication leading up to the party. Two months beforehand I did not get the digital invitation from them (which is included) and I was blamed for emailing the wrong person about it- which was not true since I had replied directly to the person that I needed to. I feel that this is all a way to get people to pay the extra money for a bigger party package but it was not worth such a large discrepancy- the basic package is $495 and the next tier up is $695 in which they set up for you. All in all I am just glad that my son had a good day and that our guests...

Our family heard so many wonderful things about Nest, and absolutely adore the Chestnut Hill location. Unfortunately, we had an awful experience with their rude customer service after attending a subpar class here.

Do yourself a favor and don't patronize this children's play space - it is poorly designed , with no natural lighting in the main play area and lots of narrow steps that are hard to navigate by adults and children alike ; features challenging to find and/ or expensive parking options ; poorly taught classes that are not worth attending; and worst of all , rude staff.

We were told that there was nothing the Nest would do to make us happy, or compensate us for an erroneously described Spanish class - that was so boring that my child repeated insisted on leaving the class , and that my toddler could have done a better job teaching. I reached out to the manager, who also made it clear that she didn't value our family or care about our experience at Nest .

In a city with a wonderful diversity of children's play options, parents who love their children and care about fostering a love of learning should bring their lovable...

This place is disgusting I was there with the little ones and the play area is dirty, the carpeting is lifting up and moving making it very dangerous for children while running and playing. To make it worse I have seen bugs and mice crawling around there. The staff when they are supposed to be watching children while parents are doing a class or use there drop in service . are playing on their cell phones, talking to each other and sitting in a corner ignoring the children they are supposed to be watching. The stools that they use in the bathroom to allow children to step on to wash their hands is unsafe, not sturdy and have had many children get hurt on them. the chairs in the eating area wobble and are also very not sturdy. The owners and or management are out right rude and ignorant!! Do not waste your money on this place, your child i sure to leave their with hand , foot and mouth disease or some other type illness. If you do take them please make sure you wash their hands very well before you even leave the place and also take them home and bathe...