NQ64 Arcade Bar - Shoreditch — Restaurant in London

Great atmosphere, but a disappointing gaming experience.

The welcome from the security at the door, was frosty to say the least, but we were a large group, so perhaps understandable.

The drinks are pricey (even by London standards). The cocktails are unique and nicely themed, but even the beer on tap is well above average pricing. Bar staff were friendly and we were never kept waiting too long, even whilst they were busy making cocktails.

The decoration and layout of the place is excellent. As a retro gaming nerd, I’d rather be able to hear a bit of the audio from the game cabinets, but the music in the venue completely drowned that out.

My biggest gripe with the place is the condition, set-up and price of the games. The tokens are equivalent of 60p each. Most of the more premium cabinets require 2 tokens per player - that’s more than when these cabinets were state of the art some 20+ years ago. I wouldn't have minded so much but nearly everything I played had some kind of set-up issue or was in need of repair. Most of the cabinets that would have difficulty settings also seem to be set to their original difficulties, back when they were new and designed to milk as much money as possible. Now they are a retro novelty, it just makes it frustrating, when coupled with the cost of the tokens.

Every light gun game we played had calibration issues with at least one of the guns, making them unplayable and munching tokens. To play House of the Dead, the 2nd player gun had to be held at a nearly 45deg angle to the screen.

I put 2 tokens in the Terminator 2 game, (a waste as I then found it was set to free play) only to find the 2 player gun couldn’t be aimed at anything. The 1 player gun seemed to be missing some of its feedback noises.

The ‘tag’ button on Tekken Tag was stuck into the machine, making it impossible to swap characters, meaning defeating the AI was pretty much impossible past the 3rd round.

The Street Fighter II cabinet was an oddity. I think it might even be an infamous ‘Rainbow Edition’ bootleg ROM board. Chun-Li was producing Hadouken fireballs from her special kick that would fly all over the screen - this is not a feature in the proper game! Made the game AI broken to all hell and again, almost unplayable.

The Mortal Kombat 2 cab didn’t seem to be properly set-up for their tokens, meaning that even though I had tokens left, I couldn’t carry on my game as it kept spitting them out.

Maybe this kind of stuff bothers me more as I’m a nostalgic retro gamer who grew up with these games. I think they are trying to appeal to an 18-25 demographic that never experienced this stuff the first time around, like a historical nostalgia or anemoia.

In all, the Four Quarters chain of bars offers a better retro gaming experience in London (but not perfect either), but these are more like pub-arcades, than the club-arcade vibe this place is going for. It's worth a visit, but if you are a retro gaming snob, don't set your expectations too high. With a little TLC on the games and either dropping the difficulties or dropping the price of the tokens (for a better value gaming experience), this place would be...

First impressions were excellent. The decor with the black lighting and neon splatter painting were really cool and our group was served drinks very promptly. Food took a bit longer but the chef was on her own though she was very warm and apologetic but I was happy to wait as the food was more than decent. Pricing for food and drinks was expectedly expensive but not unreasonable for Shoreditch. There was a good selection of arcade machines with games ranging from the early 1980s to the late 2000s along with a few consoles of retro games of a similar era. Rather disappointingly, at least 4 or 5 machines weren't working at all or fully. Not a negative as such but one rather unsettling aspect was the toilets. I'm not sure maintaining the UV lighting to brighten up the walls was the wisest of ideas as splotches on the walls did make you question if that was by design or any unsavoury patrons leaving... deposits there. I daren't touch the Puzzle Bobble arcade machine they had in there either as I'd need a lot of faith that people playing it had washed their hands first. The biggest let down for me was the music. For a venue that specifically advertises retro gaming on arcade machines and consoles, I would have thought they'd play music of the time but most of it is thirteen-in-a-dozen, generic urban songs like today's hip-hop and R&B so it feels like an anachronism. They played it louder later in the afternoon too so I didn't really feel all that immersed in the gaming and forget about being able to chat without shouting. In fact, the only music I recall enjoying was that playing in the Guitar Hero Arcade booth as it was soundproofed from what the DJ played. I get that people have different musical tastes but the DJ's selection truly marred my experience at NQ64 - sound and music within gaming are a key part of my experience playing - loud, overbearing urban music detracted from that experience and thus killed the atmosphere for me. If they'd played music contemporary to the retro gaming titles and perhaps down to a volume that I could enjoy the game audio more clearly, I have little doubt that I would have...

Blimey where do I start! Was welcomed by a handsome gentleman named Russell who was the security on the front door, he gently guided me down the slide and I felt so safe.

As soon as I walked in I couldn’t believe my eyes it was like I was transported straight back to my youth, I walked in and got greeted by a strapping young lad under the name of Zack who I found out later was a part of the management team, he looked after me and my friends really well and made us feel so welcome, as I excitedly made my way to the bar I was greeted with a smile and a warm welcome by a dashing fellow named Logan, we chatted for a bit about the current affairs and recommended me and my friends some cocktails, I had the lake Springfield and it almost felt like I was transported into Springfield! Doh! There was a lot of room to sit down and have some drinks with pals so we were spoilt for choice on where to sit, we sat in one of the many comfortable booths, we had someone come over and collect our empty glasses and keep our table clean under the name of Adam, very easy going guy who had a spring in his step, looked eager to work there and looked like he was having a blast.

Everyone on the bar had a smile on their face and whilst they were having fun the service was still quick as, one of the machines didn’t process one of my tokens and a lovely person under the name of Ilona ( I hope I’m spelling that right haha) and she gave me one for free for my troubles so it was really nice to feel so looked after.

The game selection was exquisite I don’t think there is enough time in the day to play them all! But all in great condition and any issues me and my friends had with the machines were very swiftly dealt with by the staff.

I will absolutely be back here as I haven’t stopped thinking about since I left, felt like I had just been on a date with a beautiful Bolivian woman and just wanted to see them more.

Heavily recommend this venue whether you’re on your own, on a date or...