The Bard and Bear Games Cafe Hamilton — Restaurant in Hamilton

Been to board game cafes on and off since Snakes & Lattes opened up in T.O ages ago, and Bard & The Bear tops them all. Not exaggerating.

-Not the usual halfhearted cop-out selection of a bag of chips and some sad coffee! Thoughtfully good food here. From solid snacks to some legit delicious sandwiches with bread from local bakeries if you're feeling hungrier than usual.

-Great drink selection. Fairweather and Clifford's are some of the best breweries in town, and they have the finest from those and several other places, including some Mead!

-800+ish board games and they can explain most of them. Seriously, what the heck. From childhood staples like Mousetrap and Rock'Em Sock'Em Robots (in good condition, somehow), to some morbid delights like Gloom

-Crazy good service. The place was packed (at half capacity because of covid but that still looked like a full house) and it still felt like we were waited on with the attention of a fine dining restaurant. Holy heck!

Definitely going to be back. This place is not only a new staple of Hamilton's downtown/North End for us, but also a must-visit for anyone looking for a reason to go out and remember what a great time with...

Overall, this is a great little café. I appreciated the service and the delicious Cappuccino and the chewiest chocolate chip cookie ever. Also, they have an excellent assortment of games to choose from that are very well organized.

Unfortunately, the issue was the noise level. I've been in busy cafés before, and I know it can get loud, but the noise level here was unbearable.

I couldn't hear my guests sitting right beside me. Which meant, If you weren't yelling nobody could hear you. Which meant the noise level became louder and louder and louder.

It also did not help that some other tables were yelling so loud as they argued over their game, whatever they were playing. It was uncomfortable.

I likely won't be back for this reason as I've been to other similar spots without this issue, even when they have been full to capacity. Maybe it's the metal roof. Maybe it's something else but the acoustics of this establishment are terrible.

I do hope they fix it as it is a nice spot and the service and quality of everything else are excellent. I'd love to come back if the noise level was addressed or maybe it was during a time that...

I really liked this place when it opened, my husband and I are huge board game players and often don’t mind the fees of a cafe - we were here opening weekend and tried to go every month to 6 weeks since, bringing friends and family, even tho the food is painfully average (we have stopped ordering… that chip dip is not homemade, we buy it now.) But now, there’s far too many events going on this year. Seems like any time I’m interested in going there’s an event going on. The increase to 7$ per head threw us off as well, especially when food and drinks are so expensive.

In this economy, unfortunately I’ll have my own dip and chips, wine and board games at home. This place is no longer worth the 50$ date night sadly. If the food was better I’d gladly pay more.

We may still return on the urge to be out in public but the cost for value isn’t there with this establishment, espically the number of times we have paid for parking and seen an...