The Game Parlour — Restaurant in San Francisco

I am coming out of a ~five year hiatus from reviewing to express my great appreciation for Game Parlour and the great staff creating an excellent game cafe experience that, if you are lucky enough to get into due to the high demand and relative smallness, will be all you could ask of a board game cafe.

My group of me and my wife, my cousin in from San Jose, and my four year old son got to play Sushi Go Party for a few hours, breaking to enjoy a lunch of surprisingly excellent fries and other fried/sandwich food. While not up to the quality of a standalone cafe, the food was very good and the staff took great care with my cousin who has a lot of dietary restrictions. Seasoned fries a great surprise; iced coffee a big watery let down, unfortunately—the one disappointment of the day.

Despite the very crowded atmosphere, staff took the time to address every question about ingredients and even remade a dish that accidentally contained egg. One took a moment to carefully take a photo of my group for me. The great staff make the place great.

Game Parlour has a great layout with two-tops for quick bites in the front, drop-in four-toppers and long term rental tables in the middle, and two special game tables in the back. The front has a deep discount rack on preplayed games, the perimeter has new-in-shrink games for open browse and buy, plus the hundreds of for-play copies. I bought three games here, all prices reasonable.

Prices are insanely low and prbobaly need to rise on weekends—many groups who walked in a half hour or so after opening were turned away as people enjoyed the all-day entry fee. Nonetheless, if you get in, the ambience is great for gamers. Everywhere, nice folks are playing all manner of game from typical CCGs, multiple D&D-type campaigns, or tabletop board...

The food is largely your standard food with a small up charge due to their lower foot traffic as individuals will most likely be staying at the establishment for an hour or so. They have coffees, teas, french fries/chips, potato chips, ice cream, and a few other oddities one would find in a café.

The service is nice, yet you cannot help but get the feeling if you are not part of their tribe, they're less welcoming, but it was never a direct issue for me nor my companions. They were helpful, but hands off for the most part, so depending on the customer this may be a bonus or an annoyance, I find it to be the former.

The atmosphere was pleasant, there are boardgames in the back you have access to after purchasing the $7 entry fee, and boardgames you can purchase to take home that are reasonably priced, and sometimes even cheaper than big box office competitors. Within the back area next to the restrooms you'll find all the boardgames, and what seems to be a poker table a party can rent out, though I'm uncertain of the price points or ability to reserve it. In the front there are multiple tables where you can enjoy the boardgames provided by the establishment or use your own. It does feel a little cramped at times, but given the square footage that most businesses operate within San Francisco it's no worse than any other location, over all it was a pleasant and fun atmosphere.

Overall, I'd say the value is worth it, the employees are well received, and the other boardgame enjoyers were friendly and respectable...

The big White guy with long skater hair managing the place was super rude and unaccommodating. We’ll never be back. There are way friendlier and better board game cafes to go to…

It took us an hour to get a table, and once we finally got a table and started playing, a third friend showed up mid-way into our gaming session. He ordered food immediately and sat down with us. Immediately the guy came over and refused to let him sit at the table with us because it was a “”two person table” even though there was plenty of space… And he also refused to allow us to switch tables with the 2 people next to us sitting at a four person table, even though those people were happy to switch tables with us. This guys said “I understand what you’re saying but no I won’t let you do that and your friend has to leave.” He refused to budge and on top of all this, he REFUSED TO REFUND the friend’s food order which has just been placed… So we all just had to get up and leave.

I still can’t believe how terrible the service was. Haven’t experienced this bad of service before. Hope the owner of this place gets rid of that employee - until then I...