PIXELS Pints & Bytes — Restaurant in Norfolk

Last night was our first time visiting. We were super excited to have our son's 19th birthday here and also celebrate one of our best friends birthdays as well. We made a reservation about a week prior online. When we arrived they don't have a dedicated host which is a little off putting at first because we didn't know where to go or what to do. However, they were very accommodating once someone came to help us. The waitress who was also tending the bar was really great thankfully (which is the ONLY reason I gave 5 stars for service) and the food ending up being pretty good too for the most part. The vintage games that took tokens were such a great thing for the adults and the kids. Some games were not working, but the majority were which is understandable when you have a bunch of older machines.

However it all went downhill after that. We had finished eating and doing our cake celebration when we all decided to walk upstairs to play more games since we had a bunch of tokens left. This time there was a gentleman sitting at the railing on the second floor asking for IDs. Didn't really explain why he needed them and only told us we would need IDs to get up there. So instead of going through the hassle we decided to just stay downstairs finish our cake and finish using our tokens on the games they have downstairs. At that time the ID guy decided to come downstairs and rudely tell us we had to leave. He even told us that my 13 year old daughter and 19 year old son needed to go stand outside. He was EXTREMELY rude. So we had to gather up our stuff quickly because he was kicking us out. We found out later that apparently it's 21+ after 9pm (even on a pretty empty Monday night). NO ONE explained this to us at all. I understand an establishment having rules (even if it didn't make sense because alcohol was being served the entire time we were there), however what I don't understand is the fact that it was never mentioned to us by any of the staff (my daughter is clearly not 21). Instead of politely telling us their policy and at least allowing us to gather our stuff at a normal pace we were made to feel like criminals who were getting kicked out. This place took a birthday celebration and ruined it. My son LOVES vintage video games which made this the perfect place to celebrate his birthday. But instead they ruined it.

We will not be back, which really disappoints me because before the incident we were really having fun. Please at least train your staff to tell anyone (doesn't matter if you think they are all over 21 or not) that you can't even be in the building if you aren't 21 after 9pm on the dot. Thank you for ruining my son's...

I joined a group with a reservation. So we were there as soon as they opened. (I’ll start saying our server was great. I believe her name was Samantha) We all started with 4 baskets of fried pickles. When I got the fried pickles there were crispy fry chunks in there with the pickles- being the first and only table in there since they opened that day tells me the grease wasn’t clean. They promote the wings as an 8 count. But it’s really 4 wings. Just full wings. The sauce was great- but the wings itself were so dry the bones would crumble when we ate them. I got the Chicago dog which is a footlong. But still $15 (no sides with it) Unfortunately my hotdog was burnt as well as the bun. So I didn’t finish mine. Some other party members got a Chicago dog as well and enjoyed. Jalapeño burger was good. We also had the Mic burger. It was okay- but the tater tots were over cooked.

While waiting for our food- I wanted another drink. But didn’t want it to be apart of the party tab. I wanted to cover it separately. I asked the upstairs bartender for a drink and she told me no. To go back to the table and ask my server when she comes back. A lot of the staff was just sitting on there phones and didn’t put them down when I asked questions. Example: a machine downstairs took two coins. I asked the lady at the downstairs bar if I could have replacement coins. But she didn’t notice i walked up since she was on the phone. But yes she replaced my coins and was super sweet about it.

But I will say this is not like Draftcade in Richmond where the games are $10 for unlimited play. You pay per game, bring cash or you can add it to your tab.

Overall a lot of the staff (not our server) was unapproachable. For being the first customers of the day our food shouldn’t have been over cooked or having mixed fried foods in with them. We were visiting the area so I was super excited to try the food and games. The food was disappointing for some of the party while others had no issues. A lot of the games did have stuck coins or a few of them didn’t work. The experience was fun. But I do feel it’s a little bit over priced...

Arrived and had a cold walk to the front door. For a Friday night, it seemed pretty relaxed with a small amount of patrons which was lucky for me since I don't really like very large crowds at bars. Old arcade cabinets and pinball lines the left side of the downstairs dining area, complete with its own bar and a staircase leading up to another, larger bar with much more pinball machines and a few more arcade cabinets. It didn't seem like there were very many if them, but as I kept walking around I found more and more games which pleased me. There is a large room filled with cabinets, one side dedicated to co-op games like Mortal Kombat and TMNT and the other to more classic ones like Pac-Man and Centipede. There is a skee-ball area which we definitely got good at while we played around with the games. We were greeted by a nice server who promptly brought us water and menus (themed with video game inspired names for dishes). We ordered a mozzarella stick basket (5 sticks) which came with fries and instead of marinara, a penne sauce for dipping, which was very tasty. We both had the burger with fries for our entree and it was pretty run of the mill for a cheeseburger. I opted for a double smash bacon cheeseburger (smoked Gouda) with lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, mushrooms and grilled onions. It arrived with a toasted bun and toothpick holding my toppings in place with a lot of fries on the side. after taking a few bites, I noticed my mushrooms and grilled onions were absent from the burger, but that's okay I was so hungry I didn't mind. I was not charged for them so I cant complain. 7/10 burger I'd order again. The fries were good, cut with the skin on, giving a nice texture to them. I could see some complain about the amount of salt on the fries, large flakes clearly visible on them. I thought they were good, but order with reduced or no salt if that's not something you can handle. I recommend visiting this establishment if you enjoy retro games (they're only a quarter a play which is very very reasonable) and pinball and booze. Seems like I could spend a lot of time here and I...