Nostalgia Lounge — Restaurant in Mentor

So, there’s potential here, but anyone familiar with other barcades will probably be disappointed.

Pros:

-Friendly service. Our visit wasn’t without issue, but our server was friendly, worked with us to get our tabs split correctly, etc. It’s a new bar, and it’s clear there was some unfamiliarity with the POS system, etc. all easily corrected with time.

-Great food. Two of us got burgers, the other two tried different wing flavors. Everything was good, and well worth the price. If I was in the area and wanted a burger, I could see myself stopping in for another.

-Reasonable drink prices. There’s several $4-5 beer options, $3-5 shot options, and their signature drinks are mostly between $5 and $8. We enjoyed the signature drinks we tried.

-Skeeball and Basketball. These aren’t games you usually see at a barcade due to the space required, so it was nice to get to play these. Unfortunately, Skeeball is crammed against a wall, which makes it difficult to play right handed unless you’re very, very slim.

-Solid atmosphere. The walls are packed with nerd art, and it feels like whoever chose what’s there is a genuine nerd and isn’t just trying to pander to an audience.

Cons:

-Meager selection of games. There are a little over a dozen cabinets available to play, although several have multiple game options, along with a few consoles scattered around the bar. It wouldn’t be hard to have the bar half filled and no open machines. The board game offerings are also disappointing.

-Almost half of their machines are either Arcade1Ups or custom/home built cabinets. If you’re expecting to walk into the arcade of your youth with a bar attached, you’ll be disappointed.

-Cover charge. If you want to play games, you’ll be shelling out $5 ($10 if you’re under 21) for the privilege to play. This isn’t the norm for other barcades that have been in the Cleveland/Akron area, and with the game selection being subpar, it doesn’t feel worth it unless you’re going to close the bar down.

-“VIP area”. The VIP area is two couches and two chairs with some consoles and a 50-60” TV. It feels like you’re in your neat freak gamer buddy’s basement. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but again, underwhelming for a room you need to reserve. This could be a dedicated pinball room and it’d have better draw than its current setup.

Conclusion:

Solid staff, solid menu, solid drink pricing and good specialty offerings. Underwhelming game offerings, especially considering the cover charge. Dump the VIP room, cover charge, and reorient the place to pack more actual cabinets (not A1Us and customs) into it, and it’ll be a winner. As it stands, I’d stop back if I was in the area and wanted to grab a couple of beers and some food. If I wanted to game, there’s...

Wife and I finally were able to get a babysitter and wanted to check this place out. Got there around 4:30 and it was fine until about 5 when people started to come in. Bartender was more worried about talking to her friends and what seemed like regulars that came in, and we sat there waiting to order another drink for almost 20 minutes. Games are outdated and some don’t work, as other reviews have stated, so to us it wasn’t worth the $40 we spent.

EDIT We were served normally until other customers came in, all of which knew the bartender so she focused on them. Our first round of drinks was ordered before the bar started getting traffic, so once regulars came in we essentially were ignored which is when we waited 20 minutes (while the one singular bartender schmoozed with regulars) to order ANOTHER (reading is essential!) drink before deciding to just close the tab and leave. More than one game was broken as well; the buttons on Mario don’t work properly, the pinball machine wouldn’t work at all, the hunting game’s aim is nowhere near accurate. Making snide comments about a customer’s review history is both weird because you felt the need to look at my profile and rude, definitely not a way to get business. Do better.

EDIT 2 Deleting your original nasty response doesn't change anything; your ONE and ONLY bartender at the time was busy serving customers she knew and it's common sense to check on ALL customers sitting at the bar, not just the ones who are regulars. We weren't at a table, we were literally sitting at the bar and got ignored for 20 minutes despite trying to get the bartender's attention. The theme of the bar was understood which is why we chose to come there on our one night off. None of my reviews are of a small business unless you consider mold on a Burger King (fortune 500 company, far from a small business) acceptable? All this goes to show is that you're a poor business owner; if you have an event going on (which you do practically every night) you need to make sure you have enough staff to serve all customers, not just the ones they know. That's essential to operating a successful business, otherwise you get negative reviews. If your employees are so hardworking and NEVER ignore customers in favor of regulars, then I guess the other reviews stating the same thing as I am are liars too LOL

EDIT 3 Owner reports and removes negative reviews even if they're accurate. Reviews don't speak for themselves when you remove...

This is a really neat idea for a bar and my son has come here a few times and enjoyed it but not so much me. We came with hopes of ordering pizza but were told the cook does not come in until 6:30 so all that was available was the back of the menu which is appetizers. We did order food that was as expected for bar food. We ordered fountain drinks that did not taste like anything and that we did not drink and were charger for. There were retro games which was neat but a lot of the machines were not working correctly. You do have to pay extra per game for pool which in my opinion should be included in the wrist band price. The bartenders fell short. For the duration of our visit we sat at the bar 4 of us and during that time we ordered drinks and food and came and went from the bar to get our drinks because there are stickers that state to not put drinks on the games (can’t play games while holding drinks) Once trivia started one of the bar tenders asked if we were still drinking our drinks because they needed the bar space which I answered no. I thought it was a silly question to begin with because obvisouly we were using the bar and the seats. When I ordered food and drinks I was asked if I was going to pay cash and had to pay before my order was placed (at least that is what it sounded to me when asked) I paid cash before my order was submitted. After getting a drink I was asked if I wanted my change and I stated yes at that point I was met with a dirty look. We also did not receive a drink we ordered but were charged for. I tip after all services have been rendered. My recommendation is the bartenders be trained more on proper etiquette when dealing with customers. I tipped off the drinks/food/service we received before we left and the tip was much more then it should have been but I believe in tipping at least 20%. The trivia was a nice touch and a lot of people seemed...