The Board Room VA — Restaurant in Arlington

Board game cafes are one of my favorite things to visit in each city we go to.

Things I liked: -Currently don’t have to pay to play board games like most cafes -Large menu for food, cocktails, beer, AND mocktails (literally something for everyone) -Staff was friendly behind the bar. Kept the line moving quickly. -Ambiance and space itself was really cool and with the lounge area, couches, booths, etc., there was a lot of space while also having sections that felt more “homey”.

Things that could be improved: -There’s no real direction beyond “seat yourself” so we had to seek out employees to figure out how to order and how games worked -Games…lots of traditional games, but it looks like maybe they’re still trying to add more variety. Hopefully with time the library will grow, but if you’re really into board games, the library isn’t very extensive. Bring a backup just in case. -Food is okay, but nothing to write home about. We actually would have preferred to eat elsewhere and come here for games and drinks. -Beer options were limited when we went and they were sold out of almost everything. Maybe 5 beers on their whole menu were available from their brewery. If you were looking for domestic bottles and cans, that was available. -Bathrooms, weird but not a single stall locked. Women were trying to hold others doors shut, or just trying to keep them closed on their own. This seems like something easily remedied, even with an...

Do not book an event here - it’s not a smooth operation and you will have issues. Here is what happened to me when I booked the Chairman’s Lounge for an Olympics watch party.

1)The had the wrong time down for my group by an hour - the set up wasn’t ready for us and we had no server for the first part of the evening. The food arrived very late.

2)The bartender in the main room was extremely rude to my friends. He was even more rude when I went over to him to ask for the TV to come back on - which kept going out (this was a watch party and the TV was promised to me several times). I had never experienced such dismissive rudeness before in my life, it was shocking.

3)The server when she did come into the room much later only did so a couple of times, people still had to go to the main room to order.

4)Nobody came around to bus and the dishes and glasses just kept stacking up.

5. The TV cut out twice - one of the people at the restaurant had to stream it on his phone - but it kept cutting out. This was a watch party so the ability to watch the TV was part of the contract I established and they failed to deliver.

TLDR: terrible service and didn’t fulfill the contract for the event I had reserved and paid...

The Board Room VA is related to the original in Dupont (although differing owners run each place). You'll find a diverse 50+ mix of rentable board games from yesteryear (flat $2 fee). The VA location offers food as well, and it's pretty good from my experience. Much larger space as well. Beyond board games are TVs with sports games on. Plenty of tables, Woot!

FOOD: Pub Food. You'll find a mix of salads, appetizers, soups, flatbreads, burgers, and some entrees. Large portions especially on sandwiches and entrees, nice pricing too! I'm a fan of the "BLT" Grilled Cheese (toasted sourdough with Applewood smoked bacon, sliced tomato, grilled romaine, white cheddar, smoked tomato aioli) and Spicy Fried Chicken sandwich (a less spicy take on Nashville Hot Chicken), both piled with shoestring fries at a nice $12 price. Options for vegetarians as well.

There's a separate Champagne Lounge experience tucked away on the side: Ms Peacocks Champagne Lounge. It has its own look and feel and item drink and light food menu. The unique drink menu focuses on wine and more than 40 varieties of sparkling wine and champagne (and process range widely from moderate to uber pricey options), along with craft cocktails....