Main Event Gilbert — Restaurant in Gilbert

I purchased my tickets around 2pm and got my 3 bands (24281,24282 and 24283). Like us, our friends with their kids also purchased the same ticket: The 'All you can play pass till 5pm' for $22.99 each. The 9 of us just wanted to have good family time as a group, but it turned out to be a very sour experience: we would never recommend any family to plan a 'family event' there.

Since there was 2 hours waiting time for Gravity and Bowling , we made our reservations in 2 batches: a group of 3 and 6 to get more flexibility and earlier options available. We started with Tag since we had no other option in the first 45 minutes and soon we realized that there is a long waiting time for other games...and we had nothing to do but to sit and wait!!!

Since our kids were getting bored we bought an extra arcade ticket to keep them busy but it was a long wait till our first group of 3 got a bowling call. Once a lane was allotted (Number 21), we realized it was not working. The interface to add names and start the lane was getting hung.. the lane itself was not functional. We went to call the staff, but they couldn't resolve it. Another team member was called and finally the third team member came and tried their best- finally it worked. 2 minutes after they left: the lane was not working again... The whole story of calling everyone started again and fixed again and to our amusement ..again the lane was not working...Finally we were allotted Lane 4: again that had a similar issue.. meanwhile it was 3:45 pm and the rest of our team with 6 members were still not allotted the lane.. we were told that birthday parties get preference. we will have to wait for 1 hour more: this means that we will go past our 5 PM Time limit!!So in this whole story the 9 of us were still waiting for bowling and our kids were hungry and tired.. We tried to keep them busy but we ourselves were cursing ourselves for making this plan to meet here.Finally just about 3:50 pm, after many requests, we were allotted Lane 4 but 4: 20 was our time for the Gravity game. If we missed that then the day would have been a waste so we rushed in our bowling game and made our way for gravity.

We were tired by the time Gravity got over at 4:45 pm. We were so hungry and thirsty but we all decided to leave the premises and go and eat at the neighboring Chipotle. We were tired with the wait time/lanes not working and an unorganized atmosphere.. We thought If we order food it might take more time and going out to the nearest Chipotle seems to be an easier option.

I would never recommend Main Event for Family meet up events: It might be the best place for birthday parties (we were told that we have to wait more , in spite of waiting for so long, as birthday parties get preference over us)-but this is a not a good place for family meet ups as all we did was wait for our turn and then the lanes not working and staff unable to fix them after repeated attempts.

We understand the wait time being long due to Sunday but equipment not once but not working multiple times doesn't make sense: whether it was the interface where names are entered for bowling to add names, or rolling pins or randomly working scoreboard on the TV screen above: nothing worked properly: we were just throwing balls because we wanted to use the 30 min window that we got after such a long wait but after such a bad experience we didn't even want to order any food- because the whole experience was a let down. The management needs to know and need to make the equipment better, staff more skilled to counter such technical issues and more staff to handle heavy days like weekends!! All we remember about today was the wait time and faulty machines and overworked...

We paid for the 200 points. Guitar hero only had one controller, Big buck took our points but wasn't working, 3 out of the 5 foos ball machines took our credits but didn't dispense the ball, one of the motorcycle games wouldn't steer left, the subway surfers "continue" button wouldn't work so you couldn't enter more points to keep your score going, and our first air hockey game took our points but didn't dispense the puck, and Terminator was running at like 5 FPS. There was more but it was enough to drain 40 dollars worth of credits doing absolutely nothing.

My husband brought the card up to the front and attempted to get a refund. We were excited to get to go out and do something fun, but we're not the kind of people with the disposable income to be able to throw away 80 dollars (I bought more credits to try a few other games which also didn't work, not my smartest move but we were here celebrating and i was trying to rescue the night).

So they told us they couldn't do a refund but offered a free activity. We asked for bowling, wrong answer apparently. The manager was visibly annoyed. They comped the 50 dollars (what the hell)? But made us still pay for shoes (what the hell x2). We took the offer and went to our lane.

(Actually, we had to wait for a lane to open up. To kill time we found a different air hockey machine. It stopped working midgame LOL)

We put in the kiosk to bring up the bumpers on my brother's turn. That didn't happen. We asked for some help with it. They told us either all of us could use bumpers or none of us, citing it as being "just what its programed to do". Fine, we'll all do the bumpers, lame as hell but sure. 5 minutes later we notice the party next to us has the interchangeable bumpers working just fine. So that was a lie.

Then, frequently, in the middle of your round, after rolling once, the machine would accidentally knock over all of your pins. You'd then have to roll your ball down the empty lane and get a spare for free. Looked great for my terrible score, but it felt like we were playing bowling for babies.

The lane to the other side of us had their pins jam up the machine and they had to get an employee to climb into it to clear them.

I paid my 17 dollar bill for FOUR SODAS and we geared up to blow this joint, but decided to stop by the prize stand to get our little handfuls of smarties and warheads you usually get with the meager points you win back.

I picked up a funny little squeaky toy that sticks it's tounge out when you squeak it. I squeeze. No tounge, no squeak, only depression. We then got ourselves each a tiny little 5 point water gun and left.

Best part of the night was the food, despite the costs. Unfortunately we started the visit with food instead of ending it, which may have significantly improved our mood. Everything tasted great and our waitress was awesome.

Now fix the damn games and you might have a half decent...

Half the arcade games straight up are broken and don't work The staff were nice. However it really doesn't seem like they have anyone servicing the arcade game.

Subway Surfers game has a huge crack down the middle and a broken start button Guitar Hero only had 1 Guitar the other is just missing Drop the ball in the cup game straight up doesn't work and just takes your credits Buck Hunting game took credits buck couldn't select a starting game mode because the guns didn't work 2 separate air hockey tables failed to dispense a puck got to play one round and half of a second one before it decided not to dispense another puck One of the stuffed animal claw games opened its claws before it got to the drop point winning nothing. Terminator game preview was running at what looked like 10 frames per second so we didn't even bother to try it. We pretty much just gave up trying to play anything in the arcade.

So after all this I went and spoke with the manager and she was nice to comp us a bowling lane for 1 hour and we all appreciated it.

However even the bowling lanes weren't working as intended either. You have an option when you start if you want to add bumpers or not 4 of us didn't want bumpers and one person did. Well there's an option on the screen to give a single person bumpers and... that didn't work either. So we spoke with a nearby staff who was very nice and said were going to have to either all have bumpers or none have bumpers. Meanwhile the people next to us had one person with bumpers and one without and theirs was working as intended.

Then often times the machine in the back will pick up and drop all the pins making the next bowl completely empty and just give you a free spare. This didn't really bother us it was kinda funny, but again it wasnt working how it was supposed to.

I've never seen something like this before ever didn't seem to matter whichever way you went something was either completely broken or partly broken. I almost NEVER EVER make reviews for places I got. Main event is a fun place but it's by no means cheap and to be paying as much as we were for half of the things to be busted is really REALLY bad... There clearly doesn't appear to be anyone servicing these machines or there isn't a team lead/manager taking note and requesting service for these very obviously broken machines

Had an order of 4 sodas coming out to $17 assuming because they are free refills but still felt like a big price hike.

Food service was good at the sit down eating area was great very nice staff...