NQ64 Arcade Bar - Birmingham — Restaurant in Birmingham

UPDATE: Lowered to a 2/5 because they charged £6.80 for an Asahi. Jesus Christ, I might never order here again after that.

The thing is, this place is a lot better on weekdays than weekends. On weekends the music is so loud it hardly feels like a social establishment, because the music is so loud it makes any attempt at conversation awkward. Plus there's nowhere to dance (except technically the DDR machines, but come on) so the loudness of the music feels kind of pointless in practice. The weekday playlist is way better than the weekend playlist - the weekend one is full of hip hop bangers while the weekend one is more pop-centric generally. The volume is more manageable as well, compared to the weekends where it's almost unbearably loud. Don't even get me started on the time they brought in that crappy reggaeton DJ, on a Saturday football match day.

The consoles are the main reason I come here personally - they have these signs against console hogging and all, but personally because I mostly show up on weekends, in practice this has never been enforced on me. I have completed Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 twice and Resident Evil 4 once, and I have never once been asked to move from a console or even approached for staying on one too long.

Besides that I love the general atmosphere of the location - it's kind of grimy in a stylish way with all the graffiti and writing (feel free to bring your own marker and leave your mark here) and the lighting is just right for this place's dirty but stylish feel.

Drink prices kind of suck though, as is the standard with Digbeth places. At this point on the occasion I do order drinks, it's because I feel I owe the place for all the times I've hogged the consoles on Wednesdays and Thursdays without buying anything.

So yeah, as I said at the start, this place is a lot more enjoyable on weekdays than weekends. I'm biased because I'm autistic and am a little more sound-sensitive than most - take that as you will.

I LOVE this place, as an autistic nerd. But it really could be better here, if it just didn't conform as much to the club atmosphere of Digbeth and embraced its own identity as an oddity...

TL;DR – Long-time loyal customer and sober designated driver refused entry after bouncers wrongly claimed my disabled brother (with a prosthetic leg) was "too drunk" due to his walk. Absolutely appalling experience. 100% Avoid.

I’ve deleted my previous glowing 5-star review because the respect I had for this venue has been completely shattered. As a frequent visitor who has spent countless evenings here and recommended it to many friends and colleagues, what happened on the night of the Bloodywood gig at the Digbeth Institute was not just disappointing—it was disgraceful.

My brother, who is disabled and wears a prosthetic leg, was refused entry by two bouncers—one of whom gave the name "Bubba"—because they believed he was too intoxicated. He wasn't. His gait, understandably, reflects his condition. I was the sober designated driver, so I witnessed everything with full clarity. Despite calmly explaining the situation, the staff dismissed us without a second thought and told us to "find somewhere else." Ironically, we went to Subside nearby, and they treated us with the respect and basic decency you'd expect.

This wasn’t just poor judgment—it was ignorant, ableist, and handled with zero accountability. The venue I once praised has clearly declined. A quick glance at other reviews reveals we’re not alone in having issues with the door staff.

This place used to have heart, but now it feels cold, careless, and arrogant. It’s deeply upsetting to be treated like this after years of loyalty. To the management: you've lost regulars who genuinely cared about this place- ill be making sure I personally inform as many people as I can.

If you want to rectify this, I'd like to see a formal apology from your door staff members to my brother or just to see them relieved of their position so that the opportunity can go to the correct door staff who treat others with the empathy and respect they deserve. This is not a bar on...

The good - the arcade machines are plentiful, it was empty when we went so there were no queues for the machines. The prices of the Arcade machines were 14 tokens for £7, which works out to 50p for most machines of £1 for the popular ones (DDR, House of the Dead, Guitar Hero etc.)

The machines were well maintained, controlled well and only had 1 token eaten the whole time we were there.

The environment was awesome - aircon, cool designs on the walls and friendly staff.

Environment wise, what would make it awesome is a jukebox that eats the tokens for the arcade machines.

The bad - Drinks prices are crazy and include 1% tip by default, along with signs belittling patrons that don't tip. I get that these are in jest, but for £9 for a little tiny cocktail (Basically a shot of gin and some fruit) or £5 for a 330ml can of Hooch, £5.10 for a pint etc - if the staff want tips, they could have served the drinks up nice and quick, espcially if it's empty. In the UK tipping is not part of the service, it's for exceptional service, which this wasn't. It took almost 20 minutes for one set of drinks to turn up, but on average around 5 minutes. Which would be fine, but the place was empty.

Plus, if I'm going to tip, I'll tip my server directly so that they get 100% of the funds. Not via the app.

All in all, an awesome day out - just start there, take a bottle of water and instead of buying drinks there, pop around the corner to subside and pay a normal price for drinks.

Enjoyed my time, but wouldn't visit again in a hurry purely because of the extortion...