The Games Room — Restaurant in England

Games room is exactly what it says on the tin. The variety of games is impressive from snooker to Catan, there are 9 English pool tables, a shuffleboard, table football, 2 table tennis tables, 1 American pool and 1 snooker table as well as a whole bunch of board games to choose from. Could be a standout place but what makes me hesitate to go here is that some staff can be pretty blunt and sometimes bordering on hostile.

This isn’t always the case, some staff are really nice, friendly, helpful, etc. but over the last couple of years it’s been enough of a mixed bag that I felt the need to leave some feedback for a place that I want to like going to again.

Couple of recent examples - myself and a group of friends walked into games room early evening, we’re all in our late 20s. Me and a mate (admittedly both have a baby face) were bluntly asked for an id as soon as we walked through the door (we didn’t even get to the bar) - my mate didn’t have it and was told to leave immediately without apology. Totally within their rights but this was a bit of a surprise, never been id’d at the door before in 7 years of going to games room - so a friendly attitude would have made this less of a L than a straight-up order to leave! Result was all ~10 of us left without buying a drink which doesn’t make business sense to me.

another time after paying for an hour of pool upstairs, we were told our time was up and we’d have to pay for another hour or return the stuff. My mate asked if we could finish our game first - the waitress continued to walk off while he asked and just said ‘no’ without turning back. Bit embarrassing to have visiting friends treated like that, and not a great way to sell the place.

buying drinks there are a couple of staff who it seems would really rather you didn’t. Maybe they were having a bad day but this isn’t a one-off type thing.

I understand that some customers are difficult, but get the feeling that this is an assumption some staff have on anyone who walks through the door. Really could be a gem and I used to go all the time but the above does make me hesitate to recommend games room nowadays so I usually head to a pub such as seaview or Jacobs for pool now unless I’m with a bigger group.

If it was me I’d have a chat with my staff about having a friendly attitude towards customers, point out role models (some staff are lovely and the manager is always v friendly) and perhaps offering some hospitality training to longer term /...

NOT EVEN 1 STAR My friends and I booked a table to watch the football on Saturday 4th June, the table was booked for 8pm. One of the taxis arrived directly outside the Games Room just before 7:45 and the other at 7:45, we got ourselves out of the taxis and went to the door where we told we were late and that our table had been given away because we had to be there by 7:45 (even though it was booked for 8pm). We were absolutely outraged considering that we had been outside since before 7:45 and there had been no one there, therefore even if we had turned up at 7:40 it would appear our BOOKED table would not have been available to us, quite frankly the lady at the door was absolutely horrible and treated us with absolutely no respect, she spoke to us appallingly. Admittedly, in response to the door woman’s immediate aggressiveness, our group got pretty lary back, however she was hostile from the beginning. After reading other reviews this is not the first time it has happened, so the real problem seems to be that they can’t keep track of their bookings, Quite frankly, I wouldn’t bother wasting your time at this place, unless you want to be spoken to like you’re absolutely useless, even though you turned up to your booking over 15 minutes early!...

Bar staff aggressively confronted me and told me to leave for no reason, and I mean no reason!

Edit 03/08/25 Nice professional response from the owner below my review (which they have now deleted)

Your staff will never admit to treating a customer bad or their behaviour on the night and you will always be on their side no matter what. Seems as though you are saying I was disoriented? Nope incident occured here, up the steps, second floor, full of student bartenders with a tik tok account about the place. I recommend don't go to this place especially not by yourself as they like to pick on quiet individuals who just want to enjoy their night by themselves.

Edit 08/08/25 - check the CCTV all you want, I never said when this incident was. I hope everyone can read how immature of an owner you are

Edit 12/08/25 - Sometime in June, regardless of the date, it still happened. I walked up the stairs, only to be told to get out again. I was fully of age and even showed my ID when asked for it 2 seconds into entering the building. Confronted by about 5...