The Rec Room Granville — Restaurant in Vancouver

Strange interactions with staff overall. I went with a few coworkers for food + games. Every staff member felt like they were struggling to be human.

Being carded at the front door was expected, but the granville location also takes your picture (I won't even get started on the invasion of privacy). My colleague didn't realize this so he started walking in after showing his ID. The staff member rather angrily/loudly called him back to take his photo. She never even clearly said we had to take one, she called out "sir!" and just kind of gestured at the camera. Felt weird.

The main restaurant was closed, apparently it opens later in the evening. This wasn't mentioned on the website so kind of disappointing. We asked a staff member if there's anywhere else serving food and they mentioned going to mcdonalds? I think they misunderstood that we were asking about food inside the rec room.

The Shed on the top floor was open so we went up there. One coworker was in charge of ordering food for our group, she went up to the counter to ask if she could order. I guess there was (another) miscommunication and the staff told her she needs to get a game band and load credits on it at the game desk... So she went and got a game band with like $100 of credits thinking she needed it to order food. This was her first time at rec room and trusted that what the employee said was right. When she went back to order she mentioned she got a game band and the staff corrected her and said she must pay with a card, like normal. I don't know how this level of miscommunication happens. It's very strange that when a customer approaches the food counter the staff assume she wants to buy game credits.

The shed has very limited food options which was disappointing for lunch. Also all of the canned beverages are alcoholic, half of us got bottled water since we don't drink.

We were the only ones there and had to wait 45 minutes for our food. The staff had to go get a card reader just so my coworker could pay, they were gone 15 minutes, I'm not sure why they didn't have a working one there at the restaurant or why it took so long to find one. The whole process felt like they were surprised we were there wanting to buy food.

The staff were constantly hoving over us while we were out on the game floor. Multiple times we were asked if we needed help when we were just hanging out and playing. It felt like they were watching us out of suspicion or something.

We did axe throwing and the score board screens stopped working multiple times. The lady hosting that was nice and communicative at least.

We went to play minigolf and the staff member there was standoffish. One word answers and when asked how we can play he just vaguely gestures at the prices sign. The entire floor was empty and he actually walked away while we were discussing if we should play, and we had to call him back over to help us. We were the only customers there and he couldn't stand still to attend to us for 2 minutes. Again, very strange.

The location itself is great, we were excited to have a space like it close to our office. I like the vibes of the bottom floor where the minigolf is. Unfortunately it's staffed by...

Update to my review: I’m raising my previous rating from a 1 to a 3 after speaking with the AGM, Ideris, who promptly reached out after learning about our negative experience (please see below). He took immediate steps to address the issues and assured us that our feedback would be shared with the team. His quick response and genuine willingness to make things right were greatly appreciated. If Google allowed multiple ratings, I’d give Saturday’s experience a 1-star and and a second review a 5-star, but since I can only choose one rating, I’m adjusting my overall score to a 3.

Update to Rachels Review: After thinking we were refunded, a couple days later I was notified by one person in our group that we had not been refunded but in fact been charged again. I looked at my statement today and see that I was also charged again.

The Rec Room definitely needs to address this as we were double charged for gaming credit we didnt even use. Which is unfortunate as I had been to the location in Burnaby on several occasions and after this experience I will never go back.

Rachels Review: Yikes. What an absolute disaster of an opening. I have never experienced such atrocious customer service in Vancouver. Avoid this place- go to Burnaby if your interested in having any food or beverage.

As a long time fan of the Rec Room in Burnaby I was excited to try the new location on Granville. We went as a group of 8 and our friend went early to book a table (at 3:00pm) when we arrived at 3:30 he was seated at the bar and the host told us we were not allowed to sit at the bar with him. The host physically held her arm out to prevent us from walking towards him. The host then told us we weren’t allowed to sit at a table and a reservation was needed. We confirmed we had one but the host adamantly insisted we couldn’t sit together and requested us to make another reservation. After 15 minutes of back and fort (I should add the restaurant was entirely empty for this entire time) we finally gave up and went upstairs to try and get a drink. After waiting in another 10 minute line upstairs with what seemed like POS tech issues we gave up and went back down stairs to see if the original reservation was ready. At this time a different host told us we didn’t have a reservation. At this point we’d be at the rec room for 35 minutes waiting for them to seat us for a reservation. We asked for a manager who made up egregious stories about when we might have made our reservation and the new-ness of the staff. Ultimately we left without a genuine apology but were successful at securing a $425 refund for gaming credit. I can’t articulate how terrible the service was but I’d advise your avoid...

You can hype up a place all you want but in the end the service speaks for itself. Had a larger party, adult birthday that we had made reservations for a week in advance for this weekend. Played some games up stairs, reservation in the restaurant downstairs for early dinner, reservations upstairs after eating for more games. Our meal was for 2pm and after:

15 minutes being ignored once seated. Having our host who seated us return and apologize return again saying they were short staffed and he'd find a manager. Another 10 minutes pass. Host talks with a manager and both refuse to come to our table when being flagged to come by. They were less than 10’ away. Everyone disappears again for another 5 minutes. A different manager stops by with a young, untrained server to apologize and take our order. We are now at the 35 minute mark. 45 minutes in management appears again with 2 small bags of stale popcorn, apologizes that the young waitress forgot to ring in our orders but they are in now, offers to provide us with free deserts at the end of our meal(we had brought our own cake which management was comfortable enough to help hide for later and nearly lost because their staff did not communicate as to where is was put). And when brought up numerous times, they would NOT agree to remove the automatic 18% gratuity for parties over 6. They kept avoiding answering when we would bring it up. 6.5. While we are barely being attended to, there are only a handful of other tables with guests including a larger family party also being ignored/rare but random appearances from management and a 3 person family with a Happy Meal from next door that they left to get for their hungry child. Now at the 60 minute mark and we STILL have not received even our drink orders. Only small glasses of water.

Needless to say, we retrieved gaming credits to be used at the Brentwood location instead and walked out. This location is an embarrassment. Management is struggling and there is no staff other than teenagers and barely trained adults. The main focus is to take money for the gaming section yet they offer a bar and restaurant downstairs that is unmanned. Why have a restaurant and bar if all you care about is the gaming money made...