Forks & Boards — Restaurant in Phoenix

Experience more like a 3.5/5 !

Came here for the 5- course dinner movie experience for “Ponyo”

Here’s what was included in this $85 course including 2 alcoholic drinks :

Ponyos Tidal Treat: shortbread cracker infused with bacon and topped with red bean paste Sea cucumber salad : crisp, briny salad of cucumber, carrot, and daikon in sesame oil and chili flakes Seabed serenity broth: miso and lemongrass with silken tofu in a citrusy broth Depths of discovery stirfry : yakisoba noodles with pork veggies, sesame, soy and garlic Tides and embrace honey cake : honey cake topped with blue pea, flour, whipped cream

Cocktails :

Tsunami kiss : lychee ginger with vodka, lime, and fizzy splash

Moons tide rising: blend of perlata, sweet vermouth , campari and translantic bitters

Let me start off with the vibes of the place very spacious and clean I thought the service was quick and efficient. I did see some not the best service though from a certain bartender I won’t name, She seemed just to be having a bad mood in general so I kind of felt like we were being a bother for just being there and she didn’t like working later then she usually does so okay sorry for bothering you first time here thought it was cool haha , As we had gone an hour early to hang out in the bar area. But once we sat down, the servers were much more friendly and quick and efficient as well in the movie section it’s not a closed off section so you can still hear the people playing games in the room connected, but they’re not super loud and you don’t really notice that it is in the open area and you can hear the movie fine. The speakers do sound a little bit shot out, though I’m really loud parts of the movie, now the food/drinks for me was like 50-50, good and bad one of the cocktails was all right. The other one was really undrinkable to the point that I noticed nobody else really drink the second one. The cracker they give in the beginning was pretty good not the combination I expected, but it worked well. The cucumber salad definitely could’ve definitely used way more sauce. There was just like barely anything on it and we were just tasting basically raw carrots and cucumbers that weren’t the freshest, the broth soup wasn’t very lemongrass. You could barely taste it. It was more of a miso soup if anything and the type of tofu they decided to use I probably wouldn’t have done not fresh but the dried out kind that you rehydrate , They just didn’t taste very good. The yakisoba was pretty OK though I think that was probably the star of all of the food. Didn’t have much seasoning, and not much in it just the noodles three huge pork pieces and small tiny pieces of cabbage but they gave you a lot of pork in it and then the dessert at the end was really freaking good actually I have to say it was probably the best thing there two of the items, though we had to wait seven minutes after most people had already been served it so they didn’t really accurately time it with everybody else as the last item which was the dessert we got literally two minutes before the movie ended compared to other people who had it 15 minutes before, so you know that could definitely be fixed. The timing , but I don’t think what we got was worth the price for sure as a lot of of the things that they gave us for items that can be made cheaply coming from somebody who used to be a chef but I think the price would be worth it if you just pay attention to what they’re serving as we saw a sneak peek of the menu for the Lord of the rings movie they are playing next, and I thought that menu was more worth the price than this one. I will definitely come back for another one and maybe even update this review if they do change anything that I had noted today overall...

The food is truly foodie. You wouldn't expect that from a restaurant integrated into a game store, but the food is truly excellent. Their sauces are all made on site, and you can tell - they are truly great. Everything I've tried there from the chicken sandwiches to the burgers to the tacos to the Margarita Chicken are truly excellent.

The service is incredible too. They truly aim to please and you can tell that the team there is passionate about ensuring a great meal and a fun evening for their guests. As for the fun, bring a game, buy a game, or borrow one from the store. You can combine a great meal out with your game night. Tables and booths are spacious for this reason and even provide power outlets in case you need them. You can play in the restaurant or order your meal at a play table in the store, either way you get the best of both worlds.

So, what if you want libations? They have bar service with alcoholic beverages, offer a solid coffee bar (including teas), and even have a Gelato counter with a wide range of flavors. All of these items can be served to your table.

Prices are crazy reasonable, and even if you just want appetizers or sides, the fried mushrooms, onion rings, and french fries are outstanding. Try them with some of their amazing dipping sauces.

If you like to play games and want a great evening out with friends and family, you can't go wrong at Forks and Boards! Don't want to play a game, no problem, you can still have a great meal in a fun, comfortable atmosphere.

Just wanted to post an update that this continues to be one of our favorite restaurants. We've actually "Door Dashed" from Forks and Boards, and today I picked up take-out. Of course it is ideal to sit in for a meal, but they honestly do a great job packing the meals for travel. One of my favorite things today - put in my order, and instead of waiting, I was able to shop the game store. The team is so kind and awesome, they actually brought my takeout order to me...

I have sat on this experience for over a month. I was so excited for the Lord of The Rings experience. And so writing a negative review for something I wanted this badly really is hard.

For 2 people it was nearly $200. But that is the price of a fancy date night so that seemed like an ok price in the beginning. Servers were all so so nice. Unfortunately though this was not a $200 event. The seeting is awkward, if you're in the booth with the TV being high up and directly beside you. From the beginning we noticed how low res the picture quality was and it was very pixelated, I'm not sure if they had just a splitter from one source and the quality wasn't transferring well or if they were streaming it, but either way that was an immediate observation. Then it quickly became apparent that the audio was slightly out of sync. And the speakers were completely blown out so we mostly only heard the speakers rattling. So the movie experience was not good at all.

Some of the food was alright. The bacon wrapped figs were very good. Their drinks on tap were the coldest beers I've had. The mead was a very very small portion and it was not much to write home about.

The mushroom soup tasted pretty ok, but could've been blended a lot better it was very mealy.

We waited for the main course which was a roast. A roast that had not cooked long enough to be even remotely tender. We ate what we could.

We wanted to like this so badly. LOTR is our favorite series, the thought of 5 course meal alongside other fans was something we really looked forward too and I really really wanted this to work. I was so bummed about the experience, especially how bad the Audio/Visual aspect was plus how uncomfortable we were in the seats, we decided to leave early.

In theory this is a remarkable idea, but there is a just a lot that needs to be done to make this...