Playback Ottawa — Restaurant in Ottawa

Playback Just had just recently opened when a few friends and I went to check it out. The atmosphere is great, aiming for a faux outdoor feel. Our server was attentive, and the food and drinks we ordered were great and came within a reasonable amount of time (vegetarian pizza, salmon, burgers, cocktails etc.). Prices weren't too bad either.

Regarding the games, they have 4 lanes in total; 2 for bocce ball and 2 for shuffle board. I had reserved a lane ahead of time which costs $20/hour, and only realized when we were there that you can reserve a lane in-person, first come first serve, for 30 minutes for free. With either lane type you can squeeze in one, maybe two full games. Everything was still relatively new and in great condition, so there was fun (and no issues) to be had :)

If I had to nit-pick, there were a couple qualms, some outside of the control of the owners. While the lanes themselves were nice, there isn't much in the way of space to wait for your turn. Our group of five often had one or two people on the lane, with the remaining three waiting outside of the lane for shuffleboard. This isn't a dealbreaker by any means for the shuffleboard lanes, which are in and around some tables being waited on, but for the bocce ball lanes it was more obvious how restricted the spaces were.

If you'll be going there to play and eat, I advise trying to play a 30-minute game first while you wait for your food, then heading to your table to eat before jumping back into a game. From the time we got there to the time we ended up eating (~30 minutes), the place went from 0 to 100% capacity, so trying to get a table after playing would not have been possible. Again, not a dealbreaker, just requires some planning.

Our server mentioned that management is in the process of refining the menu and approach to reservations, so I can only expect it will get better with time :) Also super neat is the fact that archery tag is next door. Even if it's not your jam, watching a group play for a few minutes while you try and get the ring on the hook (another game by their front door) is an unexpected bonus of the location.

Lastly, make sure your car can take the hill going out of the parking lot. The incline with some ice on it requires some speed and tire grip to get up. Worth checking out if you're in the Ottawa area and want to try...

I was here on Saturday. Cool place, with bocci ball, and shuffle board, and bean bag toss. The food is typical sports bar fair. It's okay. I didn't expect to be blown away.

If you're in a group, be aware that the menu is limited. Like severely limited. The menu we were given had about 15 items on it, out of the 45 plus on the main menu. Things like the chicken sandwich, and fish burger, not to mention the vegetarian options, and pizza are apparently a no go in a group.

That's cool, I get that it can be hard with big groups.

Typically I'd give a place like this 3 or 4 stars. So, why the one star review? The ridiculous gratuity I was charged. And it's the sole reason I can't suggest this place.

They have an 18% gratuity on a party. Again fine. The problem is I was charged weird gratuity amounts within the bill (says 18% but the math doesn't work), then I was charged 18% on my bill total on top of the included gratuity. And then I was asked again for gratuity when paying (I added an extra five dollars, unaware the additional 18% gratuity I was about to be charged). This sketchy gratuity policy led to me paying an additional 45% on my bill.

I'm sorry, but your food, ambiance, and facilities are nowhere worth 45% on the total of my bill. In fact, I'd call that robbery. Need proof of the fuzzy math? Check the...

Skip this place if you want a fun night with friends. Reserved a table and escape room for a friends birthday and thought it would be a great place to hangout with 30-somethings that wasn’t a bar downtown. It was horrible. The waitress forgot to send half our tables order to the kitchen so half our table ate while the other half had to wait 15 minutes. When the food arrived, it had been put through a panini press to speed up heating it to get it out of the kitchen. The waitress offered us a free game of choice as an apology - she set up cornhole for us and when we got up from the table to play, another group was using our set up so we were unable to play. When we returned after our escape room, the wait staff seemed annoyed at us being there at 9pm on a Saturday with few other patrons. Multiple times weren’t served at the bar when friends went for drinks. We had to set up beer pong, cornhole, and shuffle board by ourselves because the staff wouldn’t help. They also lost half our beer pong set so we couldn’t play a full game. The wait staff and bar tenders seemed annoyed we were there. Overall the experience was awful and from reading the other reviews, seems pretty typical these days. A shame this place seems to have gone...