Bartronica — Restaurant in Melbourne

Decent place that deserves full credit for what it's achieved, but could amazing if the owners take it up a notch.

The beer selection is great and it's nice to be able to buy some food. There's an outdoor area which is good if you have smoker friends.

Some of the games could do with some regular maintenance due to being beaten up over time - especially when you're paying to use them. I would also really like to see some better video monitors or connections going on (composite into a cheap screen looks terrible).

As opposed to getting proper CRT monitors, Some XRGB minis/cheap hdmi scalers and RGB mods would go a long way to improving the quality and playability of the consoles which is what I'd expect to see in a place appealing to retro gamers and console fans. (c'mon guys!)

Diversifying of the range from just nintendo and sega would be welcome and a few more things to play wouldn't go astray as there seems to be a bit of wasted space about. The screens that are placed way up high near the ceiling are frustrating and a few more spots to put a glass down would be nice.

The place can be a little bit sterile and cold sometimes, or loud and blarey when there's heaps of people packed in there (at least it gets a good crowd), so I feel something could be done to warm up the vibe a little bit or acoustically treat the noise. Feels like you need to hear more of the sound from the arcade machines sometimes. Speaking of which, some of the games seem to be set to quite a high difficulty, but I get that money has to be made and there has to be rotation of players.

I really want to like this place and rave to people about it, but every time we go we end up having a conversation how it could be better. At present it feels very much like a bar with some retro stuff tacked on, where it should really be an awesome trip into nostalgia with the added...

Bartronica is a hidden gem in Melbourne. If you're nostalgic of the good old days where you had to go to your local arcade to play videogames, you'll love this place. From Golden Axe to Street Fighter, from Donkey Kong, to Daytona, you'll find plenty of arcade games to fulfill your desire to play. On top of that, you'll also be delighted to find consoles such as the SNES, the Megadrive (Mastersystem), the Gamecube, and the N64 to play your favourite games with your friends. You can even book the Mariokart (N64) booth privately!

There also are plenty of events happening there, from pop culture quiz on tuesday night (Rick & Morty, Harry Potter, Archer...) which are harder than you think ($15 entry, which includes a pint of your choice), to game tournaments, you'll always find something to play.

The beers are really good, and so are the cocktails. Happy hour every week day from opening till 6.30 ($7 pints, hard to beat!). The patrons and bartenders are extremely friendly and chatty, so don't hesitate to talk about your favourite game with them!

It's probably one of the first place I bring newcomers in Melbourne to,...

Used to be a fav and a mandatory visit when I had visiting guests, but very disappointed with our visit yesterday and feeling a bit conned.

Decided to book ahead to lock in a spot for our group of 3. Get all the way through the booking process, then they took a $90 'holding fee' for a 2pm booking.

At 1:45 I get a message saying they don't open till 3, despite the website and booking tool saying open from midday.

We wait around in a bar across the road until 3pm, at which point we are told that the $90 is not a holding fee and had to be spent on a bar tab only, not games. We probably would have spent this anyway, but nowhere was this advertised/made clear on the website at all. The place was near empty and thus not really requiring a booking.

One bartender working the bar, whom was extremely understanding and apologetic, but really given the hospital pass here as the place got busier... Unfortunately, half the games chewed our coins and they only had a couple of very average beers on tap with cocktails priced over $20.

Not what...