Arcade Club — Restaurant in Rome

1st interaction that I've had when visiting this place, was having one of the patrons opening the door and telling me it was a private member's club, and could only get in with invitation, which was odd since there no mention of it online or anywhere else. When I confronted him with that fact, he reluctantly let me in, saying that I needed to sign my first and last name to get in. That whole situation immediately turned me off! The place looked great, nice and cozy, seemed like it was made by people that really love old school video games like myself. And as someone that grew up in the 80s and 90s playing arcades and video games, it would seem to be the perfect place for me to hang out during my stay in Rome. Sadly that initial experience, really let me feel discriminated against, specially after seeing other people getting in without going through the same process that I went through. Maybe brown/black people with tattoos are frowned upon there. Regardless of the reason it was a bad approach and spoiled it for me. I will also like to mention that I wasn't drunk or noisy, nor was the place full, nor was a private event going on, and was over 30 minutes pass the opening time, so I didn't get why he would have that approach, besides being prejudicial towards me. And to top it off, drinks seemed overpriced for the type of place that it is, prices that someone would normally pay at night clubs, fancy cocktail bars and fine dining restaurants. Also considering you still need to put coins in the arcade machines. I just drank my overpriced...

I was looking for a place with rock music and also pinball/arcade games and this place showed up on a search. It was a bit hard to find the entrance, it's just a sign next to an rather anonymous door. I pressed the button and was let in a minute later.

Note, this seems to be a private club so you have to sign up for a membership. It doesn't cost anything though and only takes a few minutes. The staff was friendly and I felt very welcome.

I'm a pinball/arcade/retro nerd so I really like the venue. It's a basement filled with game memorabilia, retro gaming consoles, painted murals, and a lot of other small details. Someone has spent quite some effort on putting all those things on display. Me like.

The place was a bit empty when I arrived just after opening at 23 on a Friday, but people started dropping in soon after that. My flight back out Rome on Saturday afternoon got cancelled, so of course I dropped in on Saturday evening too. At midnight the place was quite crowded.

So, yes, this was definitely a bright point during my trip and I'll definitely try to go here again the next time I...

You have to sign papers to enter the club that validate your ID, along with your email. When I first went, literally only a few of the machines there worked, and 50 cents for each coin was not worth it. I didn't even finish my coins because the experience was so bad. The only thing that I liked was the ps2, but I couldn't sit in this place much longer because of the horrible smell. It smells like a male gym locker room that never gets clean. I always had the smell of body odor lingering in my nose every single second, and I hated it. Make people wear deodorant, cologne, perfume, or SOMETHING. I mean, light a candle for Christ's sake because the smell is choking everyone out! This place barely gets any activity, and for good reason. I never wrote a review before on Google maps, but this place was so bad that I feel like I'm saving people by warning others about it. Have...