Queen & Rook Game Cafe — Restaurant in Philadelphia

A lovely little cafe with a fantastic business model that helps make board games accessible and enjoyable. With a vegan focused - allergen conscientious menu, gender neutral bathrooms, and a strong awareness for covid protocols, this spot seemed to astound. I was looking forward to becoming a long time patron.

Unfortunately, my experience tonight changed that as I experienced the worst wait service I have ever experienced. The waitress seemed to completely ignore our table for the majority of the three and a half hours we spent there. I note the time, not because we intended to be there that long, but because her service to our table was so sporadic that it extended our stay well past when we wanted to leave. Out of those three and a half hours spent there, our waitress came to our table twice without us having to flag her down first, and even when flagging her down, it would take 15-30 minutes for simple requests like a refill or to ask about a game (a refill on paid beverages, forget about water, that was completely ignored). And the place was busy enough, but not swamped. Our table had the misfortune of being able to see into the kitchen where we would watch our waitress sit, 10 - 15 minutes at a time, so they were far from overworked. In the 30 minutes it took for us to get the check from when we first asked (and we only ended up getting the check by asking the bartender directly), I would estimate 15-20 minutes of that time our waitress spent sitting in the back.

Even with all of this, I am easy to forgive waitstaff. I understand the difficulty of being in the service industry. I understand that her knee was hurt and she needed to ice it. I understand she was the only waitress between 7 tables. I understand you could be tired and need to sit (although we were there as soon as the store opened). But there was no cordiality, no consideration, no awareness, no apology, no explanation. A single one of these bare minimum soft skills applied and I wouldn't be writing this review. It is a crying shame that this wonderful cafe is so poorly represented by this one particular waitress. I'll also note that we were catered to when we first arrived by (I believe) the owner and the assistant manager between our two separate visits, both of whom were nothing but exceptionally helpful and cordial as we perused the retail side of the business. But until the waitstaff is either held more accountable or outright replaced, I urge everyone to stay away lest your 2 hour visit becomes a...

A truly fun experience. I went there for a birthday party, and that's an excellent reason to go! They have a truly superb library of tabletop games, along with honest and helpful "game experts" whose entire job is to help you navigate their hundreds upon hundreds of selections. The wide selection and thoughtful expert advise means that there was plenty to enjoy for everyone in our group, from those who almost never play games to longtime strategy gamers. They also have some delicious food with a good choice of vegetarian and vegan options (as well as gluten-free). The beer list isn't huge, but it's fine, and their choice to focus primarily on local brews is a nice idea. They also have a surprising number of wine and hard seltzer options, as well as soft drinks. That said, if you're going here, you're going to play games. There is a $7-per-person-per-3-hours surcharge to cover the gaming, and the food is definitely intended as snacks rather than meals. The food is also quite pricey given the portion size and quantity – this is NOT a good place either to fill up your belly or to enjoy fine dining. You can find more diverse and interesting drinks menus at almost any other bar in the area. That's not to say that you shouldn't go here – you should! Just make sure that you're going for the games and the atmosphere, that you're prepared to spend a decent amount of time & money, and that the food & drinks are a nice bonus for you rather than the main draw. If you go in with that attitude, this place is a solid 5/5. If you're looking for a quick drink and maybe a game to pass the time, then you can get that here, but you're definitely not...

They had a lot of games. The chili crisp fries were good

The service was terrible. There was less than five tables of customers total in the entire place and despite of the fact that I counted four servers on the floor and at least one food runner, our water was not refilled even once and our server never even checked on the table. Our server also waited at least 15 minutes after we already put our order in before telling us that they’re out of one of the things we ordered. Then the next thing we wanted to order was also out. I don’t understand how you can be out of that many items (5) given such a small menu for Sunday service. It also took me 10 minutes to flag down someone to take our cards so we can leave and the four servers were just chatting at the servers station the entire time.

We ordered chicken nuggets and they were meh. I’ve had better frozen vegetarian nuggets from the grocery store. They were definitely from frozen which is fine but $13.00 for chicken nuggets and fries plus .50 for the cheese sauce that is just melted Velveeta seemed steep. And you already had to pay to be there. My friend ordered a cocktail and the rosemary they use was overwhelming and the drink itself was very meh and weak. Oh and the spinach artichoke dip was super greasy and inedible.

You had to pay separately to play in the arcade and there were multiple machines out of a small collections that were broken or glitchy.

Eat ahead of time if you come here to play games

Edited: Updated stats to reflect my feelings...