The Raving Gamer Bistro - The Board Game Restaurant — Restaurant in City of Langley

Before I get into our dining experience, I want to point out that half the restaurant is a boardgame store. I love collecting boardgames and was pleasantly surprised at their prices, definitely better than a lot of other brick and mortar stores. People should keep this place in mind for their next boardgame shopping trip. One small critique/suggestion is that they might have devoted too much space to the new boardgames. They're all laid out so prettily and can probably be condensed with the same diversity of inventory. The only reason why this came to mind is because they can probably use more tables. However, perhaps they don't have a large enough kitchen and staff to serve more people during their peak times.

In terms of why we came all the way out from Vancouver, well, there aren't many good boardgame restaurants so my partner and friends wanted to check this place out. The restaurant was clean and comfortable and seems to be popular during this Friday evening (they take reservations so I suggest calling in beforehand). I ordered a chicken burger with added cheddar and it came with (slightly spicy) fries. It tasted good and I was impressed that the burger "patty" was an intact piece of real chicken, rather than processed. However, the thing I really loved was the "milk and cookies" dessert, something I wouldn't normally order at a restaurant but glad I did. The (two) homebaked chocolate chip cookies had the perfect ratio of slightly crispy exterior and chewy interior. They were hot and the chocolate was gooey...just perfect with the glass of milk. Was definitely tempted to order a second but was already stuffed. I'm a little embarrassed to admit I'm still thinking about them hours after leaving the restaurant, haha.

The game selection was great and the staff was friendly and helpful in teaching us the basics of the game we played. I am looking forward to another visit to the Raving Gamer! It was a long-ish drive from Vancouver but it...

We visited this restaurant based on the reviews today. We had a reservation for 4 adults and two kids. On arrival we were greeted with smiles and seated to our table. Lady at front with games was very friendly and knowledgeable. She was amazing and guided me to some age appropriate games for my little one to keep him busy. When we arrived there, restaurant was busy, people were playing games and had drinks. It seemed like they were short staffed as service was quite slow. No one came to our table to ask us to order anything for about 20-25 mins. When they finally arrived, we were able to order our drinks and again drinks didn’t arrive for good 20 plus mins. Mind you, they were mostly coffees. We asked our hostess who was running around however it didn’t seem like it was kitchen busy as no one around us had their food. When confronted she seemed very nervous and confused and told us someone else will help us. We were finally then able to place our lunch order with a gentleman, who was very nice and apologetic about the whole delay in service. We ordered hot honey sandwich with salads and fries. It was good, very nothing exceptional based on their review. I am not sure if the food quality wasn’t as high as I had expected per reviews due to them being busy but no one in the restaurant had their food so I don’t know what had happened. I had ordered a shot of espresso which is 4 dollars btw, it was the smallest shot of espresso I have ever had. It was literally a sip. Some of our party had some of their brunch items and loved them. I am giving it 3 stars just based on service as it seemed it was very unorganised chaotic ness whether it was a staffing issue or what, but didn’t sit well with us. We came super hungry and didn’t get our food for an hour of arriving there. Very disappointing. I wish it was as great of an experience as expressed in their...

TLDR: Fun concept! But they have hidden charges, badly made and overpriced cocktails, and food is hit or miss. I have had way better experiences at other board game cafes. 💸💸💸

I was very excited to visit this unique local business and check out thier restaurant concept combined with board games but unfortunately several issues made my experience fall short. First of all, I did like the fact that there was someone to greet you at the front of the store and help you pick out games so that you could have a more catered experience, I would have liked to be able to browse the games to try myself but it's understandable that you must have an employee grab them for you. When it came to the restaurant side however, there were several red flags🚩🚩🚩. I had high expectations due to the local sourcing of ingredients and the fancy sounding menu but the water buffalo burger I got had a pitch black patty and was so dry and smoky that it just tasted burnt. My drink, the Villanous Peach was horribly made and had 4 little ice cubes floating in a giant glass of mixer, overly sweet and unbalanced. For $15 this cocktail tasted worse than something I could get at a dive bar. Speaking of cost, my server charged me $1.50 when I asked for mayo, which isn't a problem, but he never informed me that the mayo was going to be a charge until I got my bill. Had I have known, I probably would not have gotten it. I will say others in my party had better luck with the cookies and cream milkshake and chicken and waffles. Although the shake was smaller than expected for $9. Lastly, my partner found a small glass shard floating in his beer glass and unfortuantely our server never came by to check on how our drinks were going, so all these details were missed. Don't think I will be going back here when there are other similar businesses that can offer a better...