Up-Down MKE — Restaurant in Milwaukee

This was hard to rate and I will have to come back when it's less busy. Altogether I was a bit disappointed but I am at an arcade bar for the gaming experience and I did not feel like their target audience -- it felt more catered to the young, hip socialite than the nerd who wants to game and throw back a few.

I expected an Arcade Bar in that order -- the games come first and you can enjoy some drinks while you play. What I got was a trendy, extremely busy bar, that happened to have a lot of arcade games.

There is no seating and nowhere to comfortably stand without feeling in the way. Even playing a game I felt uncomfortable with the amount of people constantly bumping into me. The overall layout felt cramped for the amount of space they had and I couldn't even get near the ski-ball in the 2 hours we were there.

All that being said Up-Down does a lot right as a bar, has great beer and service, classic retro games, nostalgic programming on plenty of flat screens, awesome they serve pizza (although I didn't try it), etc., but this isn't a relaxed arcade bar as much as it's a hip night spot with many people there not even touching an arcade machine.

Again I will have to visit a second time when it's less busy and if I do will...

An expansive barcade with options galore, room to spread out and wonderful outdoor areas to make the most of the warmer days.

You will have no trouble finding space to have fun here. The games are well spread out and organized, they have all the necessities, like Tapper, and even four skee-ball lanes. Every barcade I go to I aim to set the hiscore on the Tapper machine, but at this location the high score was over a million. I still recorded a PB of 268,000, which I am ecstatic about. They have a Killer Queen machine and host weekly league nights. You need to check them out. The game is a blast and the camaraderie around it is exhilarating.

Upstairs you will find a row of pinball machines. I particularly enjoyed the Iron Man and Batman ones. Next to the upstairs bar are the fighting game machines. From here you can step outside to the upper level of the patio and get a nice view of Brady Street. Going down the stairs, you’ll find a full size shuffleboard which is always buzzing in the summer.

Up Down was the penultimate stop for a bachelor party I planned a few years ago and it is a great spot to celebrate. The bar has options for everyone and it is large so you don’t have to worry about being...

I threw a party here for my birthday and it couldn’t have gone better. The event organizer and staff were very helpful the entire time. Setting it up was easy and they were very detailed and prompt in letting me know accommodations they could make. We had a reserved patio area with tables and planned for pizza/ tokens to brought out as well. It eventually rained later in the night but we were able to switch to a covered area without any hassle.

The atmosphere was busy like usual but everything was taken care of as we planned and had friendly and accommodating people working there, helping us clean up as the night went on. It was nice to have our own separate area to come back and forth to as we played games or grabbed a drink.

Couldn’t have asked for a better time!

I have gone to the UpDown in the past for drinks and never leave disappointed. I am so glad the party went well- I absolutely recommend others having an...