Dave & Buster's Birmingham — Restaurant in Hoover

My experience with this Dave and Buster's location was a whole big mess. I will go ahead and say, if you're just going to play games, you'll have plenty of fun! If you're trying to get a table, don't.

It was my 21st birthday, and I was there this last Saturday night. We got our game cards and went to go grab a table. We were seated almost immediately, even though they were very busy, so that was nice!

I know for a fact it was at least 20 minutes before anyone came to our table. My husband had gone to the bathroom, did jello shots, and came back, and we still had to wait at least 15 more minutes. By this point, I'm irritated and almost standing on my knees in this booth, trying to get the attention of anybody that walks by. Probably 4 or 5 people walk by without acknowledging me whatsoever. I finally get a guy with a dishes cart rolling by and tell him we have not been served for at least 20 minutes. Can we please get some help.

He gets our waitress, and she's a very nice, sweet young girl, I'm not sure what her name was, but she had curly short black hair in two ponytails and really pretty makeup! I just don't think she was experienced.

We put in our drink orders, I order a vodka cran and a water, and everyone orders their drinks. It took at least 20 minutes again just to get our first drinks, and she forgot my water. She wound up doing this again and I had to ask for water three times.

I ask for another vodka cran and finally got my water, my husband gets another beer, and another long while goes by before she brings us two beers. She told me she thought we both ordered one. We get our food orders in, and we finally just get up. I ordered at some point and a double shot vodka cranberry, and somehow, the bar made two one shot drinks.

We actually wind up finally having somewhat of a good time playing games, but while we were playing games, we happen to actually notice our server playing games with a few coworkers. That was honestly really frustrating to see after not being served well at all this whole evening.

our food finally comes, that's actually pretty decent food, thankfully. But then the bill comes.

My sister was not notified of a 6 dollar up charge on a meal because she substituted a salad, and there was an extra side salad charge that should not have been there. There was also a gratuity fee added, that we were not told about! For a group of 7, even though the 7th member of the group my was 3 year old nephew. And somehow my sister's bill still came out to like almost 70 dollars for two meals.

After seeing the ridiculous prices we all had, we asked if we could get a list of it, but we were told we had to pay but we could see the receipt afterwards for specific charges. She tried to say the gratuity charge for 7 or more people was on the menu, but at no point did she point that out to us before we paid.

She came back with receipts and we immediately just asked for a manager, it was my 21st birthday, I was not served well, none of us were, we did not feel like we shoudlve been charged gratuity for extremely bad service. She started trying to defend herself and her actions? I'm not sure if she is just inexperienced or if they allow anything to go on at this location, but she did try to defend herself.

She tried to tell me that waitresses don't get paid enough, and I am well aware of that. My mother was a server most of her life, and I ALWAYS tip well. Except when you did not do your job at all. I didn't tell her to pick this job, either!

She went on to say, oh they have fun here, and we waited so long on her in the beginning because she was line dancing up front and didn't know she had a table! Did she think this was helping her? My husband obviously started getting irritated, knowing how frustrated I've been all night, I told him to calm down but I respectfully told her honey you aren't doing your job, I'm sorry, but we want a manager.

The manager did everything I believe he could. He gave us 4 free game cards. And...

Our first visit to this location, (🎼🔊🎶"We're soooo excited..." music playing in the background 😊! Let me break this down! First, it is hidden in a little cubby hole, that you can only access from outside the mall. Our directions just had us driving right past it. So, we went in the mall thinking we could access it that way, NOOOO! We walked all over the mall, none of the people that worked there could give us clear directions. A suggestion might be to have employees on the inside of the mall at the BIG Dave & Buster's wall in the food court, to direct 🧭people. After walking the whole lower level of the mall, we were finally directed outside, along with about 10 other people, and walked 🚶‍♂️🚶🏽‍♀️🏃‍♂️🏃🏽‍♀️to the end of the parking lot, back up to the ONLY entrance/exit of the establishment. After waiting in an extremely long line for 10 minutes😟😟😟, we were LOOKED🙄😐😳👀 at by 4 ladies, and their security manager who was standing behind them whispering directions as she looked away in the distance. We wanted to Eat N Play! Well, they couldn't help us. The young lady stated all they did was sold Power Cards! So, we are looking👀 around, like okkkkkk, where do we go, then!? She finally said a restaurant person does that and go inside, because again, all she done was sold Power Cards! So, we enter and the atmosphere is foggy, loud, and filled with people bumping into each other looking for a restaurant waitress, host, stand, wall, ANYTHING! The restaurant stand is inside to the left, tucked away. There were 3 people standing behind and next to the stand smiling and talking amongst themselves. We asked were we in the right place to sign up to eat n play? The first person replied, "We don't have that on Saturdays, right? 🤔" The second person giggled at him, and said, "Yeah we do!" The third person said, "What time is it? We do until 5!" All this to each other!!! Finally the young lady, who couldn't stop smiling and looking at the young man she was working with, asked me our name, my cell number, and how many. I gave her the info and she said it was an hour wait, and we'd get a text! We're standing there like what do we do for an hour!? Our kids want to play NOW! What do we do? So, I said, "listen ma'am, this is our first visit here. Y'all are not very clear nor helpful. Please help me! How does this work? What are we supposed to do!" She THEN explains we could walk around or join the other 30 guests that were hanging out on the wall until our name is called. Then our server will get our Power Cards with our food order. Or if we lurk around and snatch a table as soon as other guests leave, we could seat ourselves sooner, then order, and proceed as she just said! 🙄😮🤯 So, that's what we done, we lucked up and found a seat soon afterwards. Our server was polite and tried to be as accommodating as possible! The server staff was stretched thin! They were being stopped and questioned every step they took! It was so sad! However, we placed our orders, received cards, and we were on our way! Yassss, finally! 30 minutes later our food arrived, WRONG! Keshaun apologized, and took it back to be corrected. Although it was high-pressure, he didn't break. 😉 but the food temperature was luke warm at best. We didn't complain, we just ate what we could and played! Hey, we couldn't all get up and go at one time either because someone would take our table! This was disappointing. So, we all pulled shifts going to play with each other. This was disappointing because my husband works out of town and we were looking forward to family time, while he was here this weekend. But it was too much work here. The staff's, or lack thereof, in the redemption center, attitude was HORRIBLE! Ultimately, I was a disappointed. It wasn't what I thought it would be, at all. We had an okk time, but for the amount of money we spent, it was NOT worth it, at all. 😤😬🤬 I hope to visit again, and be able to write a 5-Star review!!! Come on Dave & Buster's Birmingham, we...

Revu-a-Holic Time:

My hubby and I went on a couples dinner at Dave and Buster’s. I was so excited 😆. Why? I use to visit Georgia a lot with my college friends. Every time we tried to decided on a restaurant Dave and Buster’s was the go to eatery.

Though, how quickly the times change. How so? It took forever to find a parking space. My guest was 15 minutes late due to finding a parking space. So, my husband and I had to stand and wait. The hostess stated 50% of the party must be present before seating. I did not mind standing and waiting. I was uncomfortable because too many people were coming into the establishment and crowding around everywhere.

Once, our party arrived and we were seated. The waitress came over with the menus and started staring at me. I tell you the truth. The waitress kept staring at me and made numerous unwanted compliments about my shades, clothes, and so on. Do not get it twisted. I do take compliments well but she was over doing it. I had to cut her off so we could order our beverages.

I kid you not. It took her 20 minutes to bring us our beverages and she still lacked bringing one of our guest his beverage. I did ask why it took so long? She explained that on the tablet she puts in the beverage orders. Next, she retrieve them from the bar. In my mind I was like dang waitress do not go behind the bar and fix beverages🤔 anymore. Back-bar working is obsolete.

Next, I noticed people who came in after us were being service by our waitress more frequently than our table. They even got their food before us. I had to ask her what’s the hold up? She stated she would go and check on our food.

Soon after she returned with our meal. What was still missing was my guest beverage. I got her attention and reminded her again. She finally brought him his beverage 16 minutes later. By this time, he had already ate his food and just sipped on his girlfriend beverage.

Those craving moments to experience a long lost memory has faded. Dave & Buster’s is a bust.

Pros:

Clean tables

Freshly served food at appropriate temperature

Meals are presentable and tasteful

Variety of dishes and beverages

Servers are well presentable

Reasonable pricing 💵

Handicap accessible

Dine in or take out

Menus are clean and align with theme

Variety of activities/games

Appropriate music selection to listen to and played at a moderate volume.

Cons:

(1) location in Alabama

Traveling distance is not convenient “always traffic” by Galleria

Need an area for guest to sit while waiting on party. Also, if the establishment did have a place to sit and wait and the hostess did not offer. I will be very disappointed.

Large parking lots leads to limited space. The company should create a parking pass for people to reserve parking space.

Restroom area is designed nicely, but due to high traffic it reeks of different body odors. Toilets not flushed or cleaned in timely manner.

It’s too many kids. Yes, they may not target children 13 or younger. The company presents this house policy rule “Persons under the age of 18 or 21 (varies by location) may only enter the premises with a guardian who is at least 25 years of age.” Though, it should be an age limit of 16 and up who can enter the premises. No children under 16 years of age allowed to enter. Children running around everywhere and running into people. I cannot make this up....