Vertigo Pinball — Restaurant in Blue Ridge

I recently visited Vertigo Pinball, and while the food was enjoyable, the overall experience did not meet expectations. The service was slower than anticipated, with the staff appearing overwhelmed, leading to extended wait times.

A significant distraction during our visit was the presence of children running around and slamming their hands on the pinball machines, leaving drinks in holders, and not moving around to other games, which created a chaotic atmosphere and made it difficult to fully immerse in the games, which are meant to be the focal point of the experience. Nonetheless, the families didn’t even eat their food, as they ordered a pizza from next door to eat in the restaurant instead.

Additionally, there was limited designated space to place my drink while playing at many machines due to other players or abandoned drinks, forcing me to awkwardly balance it while attempting to engage with the machines. To add to the frustration, an employee approached me from behind and made a somewhat off-putting and snarky comment, suggesting that I "didn’t want to foot the bill" for leaving my drink sitting momentarily. I was instructed to use the drink holders on the machines, but ironically, there were no drink holders on the machine I was using at all and those on nearby machines were already occupied due to the limited space. This was only my fourth game, about 10 minutes into our hour game time. I left immediately.

The snarky comment and attitude was off putting for sure, with or without having a sense of humor. Even his response to my fiancé is quite gross, but I guess I’m a...

I spent around $55 for 3 "meals" & drinks. 1 of them were the pepperoni & grilled cheese with fries (uncharted for fries since I don't like chips) & 1 was same with chips. 3rd was just grilled cheese & chips. 2 virgin piniacolodas & 1 virgin strawberry for drinks. I didn't get the pickle or slaw that the other 2 meals got (even though I paid more), & I didn't get a fork. For 3 meals, we were handed 1 BROKEN fork. There was attitude from the lady cleaning the tables from the moment we walked in. I saw menus on the table so I asked her if we order from tables or go up front. She just points up front & exhausting irritating states "up there". Wasn't what she said but how she said it. When ordering, she seemed irritated that it took us a moment to look over the menu since it was our 1st time there. We asked how the games worked...yes we can read & it is posted...but I asked if there was something my grandson could do other than pay $12 to play ONE game. She just repeats with no empathy "$12 a hour" like I was a dummy. I explained he doesn't know how, it's just for the experience, is there an exception for him to just attempt to play 1 game? She repeats with no other words "12 dollars an hour". So we didn't allow him to play but we did let him "look" while we waited for our food. I can't speak for the others, but my toast was hard, my cheese wasn't grilled or even melted well, & I had about 4-5 pieces of pepperoni between 2 dry pieces of toast. The fries...they were excellent & the only good thing about this...

We were so excited to learn about this place in downtown Blue Ridge. I brought my teen daughter to play pinball machines. It was $12 per person per hour, but there were other ways to play and I’m sorry I didn’t note all of the purchase options. They provide you with a wristband once you pay and you scan that to be able to play unlimited. It looked like a fun bar and restaurant and several people were having birthday parties there while we were there. Looks like an extensive bar and a good place to watch a game. We came exclusively for the pinball machines, and there was a great variety of older and newer pinballs. Seems like there is a special collection of rock band and also movie specialties like Star Wars and walking dead, etc. It was so fun playing and my daughter loved playing as well. They are lined up in Rowsand I thought it was nice they put cupholders on them so you could keep your drink or phone right next to you as you were playing. Definitely a fun place to check out. We didn’t try the food so I didn’t provide a...