Main Event Chesterfield — Restaurant in Chesterfield

So my wife and I thought we'd cheer up our son by taking him and his pal to Main Event, thinking it'd be a blast since it was our first time.

We walk in, get asked if we're part of a birthday party, and when we say "nope," we get a weird "Oh, what are you here for then?" "Well I guess we're here to do what families who aren't here for birthday parties do...Play games and eat, I guess", I replied back

My patience and emotions for this sled ride has begun...I get nudged and begin the plunge.

We’re directed to stand in line for the hostess. It's noon on Sunday, expectedly hectic. The hostess seems surprised we didn't know what to order or know the drill, tells us there's only one server, and adds us to a waitlist. Then we're pointed towards yet another line for game cards.

After dropping a fortune on access passes and game cards for the boys, my wife and I head to the dining area since my phone buzzes that our table’s ready. Once we sit, we're told to order from the bar. My wife stands there trying to order for what feels like forever, totally ignored for at least 15 minutes. I check the weather on my phone, do a little work and some FB browsing. She's still standing there and I can see the anger growing.

I’m also getting pretty frustrated by now, my sled momentum is climbing.

Finally, we get our food, which is actually alright - a pizza, wings, salad, and breadsticks. Mid-meal, an employee zones out and stands at the end of our table for an eternity. A dad adjacent to us tries to get his attention for some silverware. The guy finally comes to reality and is like "Oh, not my job, I'm in games" and walks away.

That wasn't my business but added to my downhill of misfortunes where I just missed a tree. This gave me a slight chuckle as I couldn't believe the experience kept getting worse.

My kid and his buddy wanted the fancy Shirley Temples with cotton candy. We order. Some dude delivers them with what feels like a performance straight out of a drama class.   Gives us some camelot speech, bows his head then moved on to his next quest.

The dads daughter next to us grew a huge smile and her eyes glistened when she seen those drinks. At that time, he know he had to order one for her as well, but with the upcharged candy stray. It arrives minus the straw. A bit confused, he tries to sort it out.   Staff brings him the candy straw and as the dad offers to pay the upcharge, he's now directed to go stand in another line to pay for that.  The expression on his face showed that we seem to both sledding down the same hill, except I think he hit the tree I merely missed moments ago.

By this time, I’m just hoping to finish up and get out of this place. It's been quite the downhill ride, and just when I thought it was finally over, we go to pay at the bar and once again, completely ignored for at least 10 minutes. There were many open seats around the bar so it wasn't as they were tending other guests.

I've finally reached the bottom. This was our first visit to Main Event and entering with high hopes, the experience, service, confusion, pricing and overall demeanor crushed those dreams I had and will forever deter us from ever stepping into this...

I organized an event for 42 people from our Scout troop on January 24th. The event itself was great. Everyone had a really good time. The pizza and salads were very good, and the bowling and games were a big hit. Our attendant was also very good. As the group organizer, my problem was with organizing the event and with being hit with unexpected costs. First off, while I understand needing a firm commitment to make sure there is enough food, there should be some leeway - especially during cold and flu season. We had a couple of people who were unable to attend due to illness, and it is really terrible that we still have to charge them or eat the cost ourselves. As a non-profit we try really hard not to exceed our budget.

Which brings me to my second complaint. The original quote I received did not indicate that there would be an additional charge for some adults who were planning to do pizza only while supervising the Scouts, even though I told the event planner that was our intention from the beginning. When I advertised the event, I gave everyone a cost based on that original quote. Our troop was planning to cover the soda fountain for everyone and $1 of the meal so that we could charge everyone an even $30. Imagine our surprise when we received the final quote and the price of the meal had increased an additional $3.50/person for our adult chaperones. I am very displeased with how the manager I spoke with the next day handled this. She refused to make any exception and though I asked to have the issue elevated to corporate management, I still have not received a response. I was also supposed to receive a final receipt, and I didn't get that either.

Even though we had a lot of fun and the (originally quoted) price was great for what we received, the lack of flexibility, lack of transparency in quoting, and attitude of management all combined to leave a sour taste in my mouth. Because of this, I will be hesitant to organize future events here, and this is something that our troop would like to do a few times each year.

EDIT I am bumping this review up a star. While the original quote did not indicate the upcharge for those doing pizza only, I did find a response buried in a later email chain that the cost would be more for that particular scenario. I still think it's dumb that they upcharge for chaperones, and the response still came after I had already advertised the price to our troop, but I did have advanced warning of the discrepancy that I overlooked.

If I do this again, I plan to lowball the attendance count by a few to allow some flexibility for anyone who gets sick or has another conflict arise last minute. They can add a few people (within reason) day of, but they will not give any credits for people who...

I’ve been to many Main Events nationally, and regularly take clients there for a fun experience. I was highly disappointed in this Main Event. The staff seem to be very laissez-faire and did not seem to know much about the equipment, menu, or even what they were supposed to be doing. There was no organization for the laser tag nor their featured VR game, when we tried getting in line and asking the worker how long the wait was/where the line is we were informer that everyone is in line and the game lasted about 5 minutes, meanwhile we had been 15 minutes for the current group to finish and since there was no true “line” the attendant would just let anyone in without any order or method.

We ate in the “restaurant” as well. Our server was very friendly, but my wife and I received our food 20 minutes before the rest of our table received it. I asked where the rest of the food was and was told, “It’s been rang in.” No further action was taken, I have 10 years of restaurant experience and currently help run one as well as do many consults for local eateries and never experienced such blatant disrespect. If the restaurant was busy, I would understand, as things were there were only 3 other tables eating food and 2 other tables that had not even ordered in the whole restaurant. I was appalled. Our server never went to the kitchen to check on why it all didn’t come out together or why we were sitting there not eating while waiting on the rest of the food. Instead, she went to the POS and texted on her phone until a food runner brought the rest of the food.

I would also highly recommend security, dress codes, enforcing mask mandates and social distancing. While there my family saw more skin and parts of people that were just very gross, not to mention that the whole venue smelled of weed - when in the men’s restroom there were even 2 employees and a guest vaping next to the sinks. I was not comfortable in this environment and will not be back. This venue does NOT align with Chesterfield’s standards nor does the staff/management enforce any type of common civility.

If you want to see lots of children running through a whole warehouse with their parents having no control of them not supervision over their children, then this is the place for you. Meanwhile, I’ll continue to take my clients to Top Golf and other venues that respect my business and put effort toward training employees and implementing systems and rules.

I believe unless serious changes happen here this will be the next place where a major crime will occur and this building will be shut down.

Main Events elsewhere are great - please don’t let this poorly managed venue turn you away from others located elsewhere...