PlayScape Café — Restaurant in Vancouver

I think this new business has some kinks to work out. I went with my 2.5 year old on the opening Saturday and it was quite hectic and disorganized, but I can see the potential.

We went around 9:30am and there was line soon after us. Then shortly after, families were being turned away at the door (max space is 30? but there seemed more). There are not enough tables in the eating area. People just left their coats, bags, drinks, and food on the tables to go into the play space. So, tables were just left full of stuff with nobody sitting there. When I asked what I could do with my coffee in a ceramic mug (because there was literally no place to put it and my kid wanted to play), one of the employees said “just share a table that has space”. So, we found a table that wasn’t too full and put our stuff down, but the family who was using the other half, later noticed was not happy to share. I ended up chugging my drink and putting our stuff in a cubby.

The play space itself was a bit of a disaster (see photo). There were toys scattered everywhere. None of the play sets were near complete (or possibly just spread too far across the floor to find matching pieces) and they’ve only been open a week. Half the time there we spent just walking around looking for pieces to be able to play with the toys. I would highly recommend that a staff member be assigned to tidy up the play space every so often to avoid such a mess. For $20 for 2 hours, it’s a pretty steep price for the state it was in (Circus play cafe is only $14 and much better/bigger). They had a sign-in list and at the 2 hour mark would walk around calling names to leave. I think they need a better system to avoid the line ups (potentially an online time slot booking system?) especially during peak times/days.

I think their plan is to have the weekends reserved only for birthdays (even though I think they’d make much better revenue with open play time slots), which is a bit of a bummer because weekends are often the only time working parents can bring their kids to this space. I’d recommend only doing birthdays in the afternoon on Saturdays to accommodate working parents (this is what Circus does).

Pros: Food and snacks are affordable. They have a kids size toilet. The jungle gym is a nice size and age appropriate. The cappuccino that was included in the price, was quite tasty. If this place was tidier, I can see how this place could be nice. The staff were very friendly and kind to the kids.

I might try this place again in a few months after they get over their initial growing pains. I’ll update this review if my next...

I’ve been waiting this place to open for the longest time!!

I went for the first time on Sunday morning, around 9:30am, the staff who were very friendly btw, said they were at max capacity. They didn’t offer that I can leave my name down or come back in a few mins at first, but luckily I asked if there was a wait list. She said okay, and I wanted to put my name down with my friends (3 kids total and 3 adults). Waited about 30mins since most people came at 8am I guess so that was the 2hr mark.

I understand that the space is a small compared to the other play cafes or play areas, but it was so chaotic in the space because not only the kids are inside but they were also tons of adults (I understands bc they young ones as well) I think because of that, maybe ask if 1 parent can be in the play area? Or a have a smaller number of people who can come in? I don’t know, but it was just too crowded that kids constantly dodging around. The inner room with the pretend play was cute but maybe have less tables jammed inside? Bc it was all moved around after and was a mess.

Eating tables on the outside was nice and clean, but squishy. Not even the slimmest person (my friend) couldn’t even fit in it 🤣

Food and drinks were reasonable and I really appreciated it!!

Other than that, I will probably come back in a couple months hoping some things will be...

I’ve visited this play café twice this week with my toddler, and honestly, I don’t think I’ll be going back.

The space opens around 9:30am I arrived both times at 10am, just 30 minutes after opening, and the place was already a complete mess. Not just a bit chaotic from a few kids playing I’m talking about toys all over the floor, pieces scattered and completely mixed up, especially in the imaginative play area (kitchen sets, pizza stands, ice cream shops, etc.)

But here’s the thing, there were maybe four kids in the space, and three of them were in the slide/climbing area. So there’s no way they caused that level of disorder in under 30 minutes. It honestly looked like the toys hadn’t been cleaned up from the day before. I strongly suspect they don’t reset the space at the end of the day or ever, really. I didn’t see anyone tidying up during either visit.

For $20 a session, you expect a minimum level of maintenance, organization, and hygiene. Otherwise, the kids can’t even enjoy the toys properly they can’t engage in real pretend play if nothing is in place and half the pieces are missing.

On top of that, I’m pretty sure my daughter picked up hand-foot-mouth from here. Which raises serious questions about cleaning and disinfecting...