Dave & Buster's New Orleans — Restaurant in New Orleans

Getting Started: The service here is horrible. Staff could use some training on customer service skills, hospitality, and just plain old friendliness. When we exited the elevator there was no one at the front desk for at least 15 minutes or more. Finally after looking around, I noticed a kiosk that we could use to self serve. The kiosk is nice if you are already familiar with the way things work, not so much for first timers who may have questions. A front desk worker and what appeared to be a manager eventually arrived at the front desk. We walked over to get assistance. Neither one of them looked up, greeted us nor acknowledged us. The front desk employee proceeded to put on lotion, wipe the station down, and I guess get ready for her shift. The manager was doing something of the other computer. Another family walked in and we were all just standing there. Once the employee finished applying her hand lotion she said she can take anyone paying cash. We all looked at each other to signal the cash paying customer to go ahead, but we all were paying with cards. She then stated that if we were paying with cards then we need to use the kiosk. I asked her the questions we had, which she answered, then we proceeded with checking out on the kiosk. Food service: We walked over to the host station which was abandoned, hoping to get a table. Several employees moved about in the restaurant, yet none of them looked our way, greeted us nor acknowledged us. Instead they talked to one another, fixed themselves drinks, or continued with their tasks. I walked back up to the front desk to inquire about the seating process for the restaurant, she told me to go to the white desk and someone with seat us. I told her no one was at the desk, she walked back to the restaurant with me and asked said something to someone about assisting us. I’m not sure what exchanges were made, but she said that someone would be with us when they finished fixing drinks for the another table. A few minutes later a different manager walked out of the kitchen and stopped to ask if we had been helped, we said no, she sat us at a table and took our drink order. Minutes after that our server came to the table, apologized and took our food order. Things were getting better besides the fact that she wasn’t really sure about how to redeem the play and eat combos we purchased for our kids. She was going to charge us for their food twice. Luckily she checked with management first before closing out the tickets.

The games were fun, most of them worked properly, we had a good time.

Ticket service: Here we go again! So, naturally the items in the redemption are marked up. I get it, that usually how it goes. After choosing an item, my baby was left with a good amount of tickets but not enough to get something else. She may have had a little over 100 tickets. I asked the guy if there was anything she could get, he first responded with “we could use it next time”. That would work because we are from out of town and most likely won’t be visiting again any time soon. Then he told me about a little corner that had a couple of items for fewer tickets. Perfect! We picked out something else, but there were still tickets left. My oldest daughter had tickets on her card too. The guy is just standing there scrolling on his phone. He didn’t offer any assistance. I turned and asked him if we could combine the cards, he said yes, I asked he why didn’t suggest that if he heard us standing there struggling trying to figure out what to do. He just stood there looking. Blank stare (a familiar stare from the front desk employee) 🙄

Anyway, this would be a much better place if it were run by robots, or if the staff had some customer service skills/training. As long as you can be self sufficient in here then it’s the place to be. We had fun. It was...

I’m usually not fond of leaving negative reviews for businesses, as many times the situations that lead to 1-star reviews are issues that are heightened by frustration and miscommunication. That being said, I felt the need to publicly dissuade anyone from ever eating or drinking from this specific D&B. The bartenders could not find enough time to even speak to me for 20 minutes, only to be told that they are busy and will be with me shortly. 10 minutes later, we give up and return to our party of 14, where only a few sodas have been ordered and brought out. We finally see our server again, only to have her struggle as she takes our order. The order was literally being written on a napkin, which explains how far south the situation goes. After 40 minutes our food arrives and we all enjoy the meal. 20-30 minutes after we have gotten the food, our server has yet to return to us. Most of us get antsy and start playing games near the bar, telling our friend who stayed behind that we plan to return in about 15 minutes to see if we received our checks. This results in our friend being greeted by our server and a security officer explaining that he must pay the $300 ticket and that they have his card on file to ensure he pays. Not once did she speak to him or any of us, who are still in the building, about the bill before bringing a security officer. Our friend hands his wallet and says they can keep that while he wrangles us all up so we can pay for our meals. We hurry to the server station to pay for the meal and sort the situation out, only for our server and her manager to struggle printing our tickets and properly separate each check. We individually list every single item we ordered and it still took 30 minutes to have the tickets properly printed. During this time the server SNATCHED server map tickets from people’s hands out of frustration. These were dramatic and aggressive gestures. No subtly and certainly not even close to professional. None of us wanted to argue with this server any more so we just let it slide and sat while her manager did damage control and the security officer stared us down. The manager explains she was FLOWN FROM DC to solve their poor kitchen and wait staff. The irony of this situation was lost on us, as we were so frustrated and confused. After paying for our tickets and sorting the orders our server took on a napkin food, we left. As a restaurant manager, I was appalled and confused for the entirety of this exchange. I have never experience such dysfunctional service, not have I ever seen such a ticket issue treated with such drama and confusion. Please stay away from the bar area of D&B...

To help clarify the four-star review: I arrived with a group of 12 people who had made a reservation for dinner. We were seated quickly and our orders were taken promptly without issue. However, there were 3 members of our party that found themselves waiting for their food after the rest of the orders arrived. At that time we were told food would arrive shortly. When the wait staff was asked after 15 minutes how soon the rest of the order would arrive they said they would check on it. After another 10 minutes a member of the wait staff arrived to inform the table that they needed to retake the orders for the 3 people who had not received their food because somehow the kitchen had delivered those meals to a different table. After several more minutes the rest of the group had finished their meals and were eager to be heading out since we were starting to press up against time constraints to get to an event that same evening. Our bill was paid in full along with gratuity for the server. While the rest of the group went on, I waited for the orders of the 3 who had not been able to eat. Eventually, their food did arrive and unlike the rest of the group they had to hurry through their meal. This was further complicated because once the larger portion of the group went on ahead the crew came over to clean the tables and were actively cleaning the table folks were trying to hurriedly eat at. It was at this point the remaining 3 and I decided to leave because it seemed there was greater interest in having the table prepared for the next guest than the ones who had waited the majority of the evening for their food to arrive. For those who were able to finish their meals, the food was very good as the 5 star shows for the food portion of this review. The service staff received only 4 stars because of the mixup with what table the food was delivered to and then the extra wait for the new order to arrive. The service staff was apologetic. However, the cleaning staff made those left waiting for their food to feel as though they should not be there anymore. The atmosphere also received a 4 star because the restrooms had a few issues with their sinks and soap dispensers. Which was a tad ironic because of how eager the cleaning staff was to have the tables cleaned. Our group was out of state guests participating in a church group activity and were excited about making this visit as there was not a Dave and Busters local to our home area. We hope the experience others have here will be more to...