Main Event Tomball — Restaurant in Tomball

Main event

There is no system in place to meet the kids when they first arrive for the party. They wanted the birthday girl to stand at the front during her party to know when the kids arrived. The host did not assist with passing out the game cards. There was no instruction as to where we were supposed to go or what we were supposed to do other than we only had some place to sit as a group from 4:30-5:30. Prior to that there was NOWHERE for the adults to go sit. We were not allowed allowed to sit in the restaurant as a group even though tables were open because there were no servers. The only was to get a drink was at the over packed bar and it was impossible to even stand there to get the bartender’s attention. Once I did get her attention she would only sell me one drink at a time even though TABC rules say two drinks at a time. The wait for everything was completely outrageous. When the kids came out of laser tag I asked for some water for them because there was NOTHING available and in order to purchase them water it would have been a wait in a 30 min line. After we were allowed to go to our party table (1 hour after arriving as a group), the kids sat down and food was brought out. As soon as the food was dropped off the party host immediately left and was no where to be found. We ordered chicken nuggets with ranch. There was no ketchup and no ranch. Nothing to go with the chicken nuggets. No drinks besides the original pitcher of water (that I had to ask for) was brought out so the kids had nothing to drink. The package is supposed to come with free cups every kid and unlimited soda. There were no cups for the kids. I had brought cups from home as decorations and when the kids tried to fill them up at the soda machine the party hosts stopped them and told them they weren’t allowed to. I had two extra kids show up so I added them onto the package. They party host refused to give those two kids food because she said add ons don’t get food (even though it is 30 dollars per kid and told as a package). I had to do all the cake and singing of happy birthday. There was no assistance with anything. No one helped pick up trash or make sure the kids had what they needed. The party was completely cleaned up by 5:00 by the staff. We were supposed to have the table from 4:30-5:30 but ended up only having it for 30 min. Then again we were left with no where to go as a group. My daughter saw the other kids getting sung to by their party hosts and was really upset no one did that for her. This was the most stressful and terrible birthday party we have ever had or been too. It’s humiliating to have to complain to a manager in front of my daughters friends parents because the service was so horrible. I worked really hard to be able to provide for my daughter and it was let down by main event. Even after we were given a huge discount by the manager in the end, it was by far not worth any of the...

This is a newer location and is always clean, games usually are all functional and up to date/new, they have a great variety of games for both young kids, teenagers & adults. The food is not bad, although usually I just eat the left over cheese pizza my daughter doesn't finish.. full bar with variety of draft beers & cocktails. The service, however, is not great. If there's an issue with a game or play card issue, etc., you have to either wait at game & try to wave someone down which isn't very effective or forfeit the credits & go search for someone for assistance. There was an issue with the kiosks placed at front of entrance & scattered throughout the facility, a few visits back, these kiosks are what you use to buy, reload credits & check balance on play cards used to swipe each game in order to play. They also load the points or "virtual tickets" (I miss the old school, actual paper tickets printing out, especially when you won the jackpot & the lights flashed & hundreds of tickets printed) that you are awarded for playing games and are used to purchase or redeem prizes, toys, candy etc. This particular visit is prominent in my memory, as I took my 6 yr old daughter to have some fun & upon entering, we went to 1 of the kiosks to reload & check balance on previous play cards we still had, but an error msg kept popping up, even when trying to just purchase a new card, so we tried another 2 kiosks before I decided to find someone to help (despite several staff members hanging around in the vicinity, witnessing the issue & not offering support) & it was as if nobody was trained on how to operate the kiosks. So after it literally took at least 3 staff members & 2 managers, 30+mins wasted time- the 4 cards we had all had several points & credits remaining on them & all I wanted to do was combine them on to 1 single play card & then add money to it to play games & add to our points total but in the massive confusion between staff, my daughter crying because she couldn't play any games & frustration on my end- a staff member said they were able to do as I asked & our card was ready to go- except it declined on the 1st game we tried playing so I approached a manager that was able to help us & made our card work, however we lost all the points we had accumulated on the other cards the other staff member said he had put together on 1 card... We also lost the money we paid to add credits on card & had to repay. No resolution was given even after I submitted feedback after we left. Other than that, it's a fun...

My review pertains to a birthday party held at Main Event last weekend.

We had a birthday party on Sunday, and things were much more stressful than I anticipated. The party check in table did not initially give us the extra tickets for my son, so I had to ask them at the end and wait while they made sure our package included one. Our party host was not available in the beginning of the party so I was stuck lugging gifts to the back and no one really told me where they were going. Just to a “cubby in the back”. There were no carts available. When it was time for the food, the pizza was on the table but no drinks or cups until about 10 minutes later - the kids were trying to get up and leave to go play again.

I know they have limited space but it is frustrating to not have a spot for their drinks where you can access them while they’re playing. Also not having someone to greet guests as they come in is difficult. I’m just not sure what all the party host was supposed to help with, but it seems like that would be a good role for them - greet guests and give out cards. This is why other similar arcades (iTZ) ask for a guest list - the party host or people at the front check them in.

Our guests also struggled to get drinks at the bar and were informed that Main Event was simultaneously “understaffed and overstaffed” because homecoming was the night before, and honestly - I paid for this event regardless of their plans the night before. The staff were hard to find in other cases as well. They were mostly hanging around the drink machine in the party area making it difficult to get to our stuff from the cubbies.

I will say they were quite accommodating with a mix up on trying to load a $5 credit into our kids cards. It was very nice of them to work that out so the kids could get some tickets. The ultimate gamer package doesn’t come with that so it’s nice when they can do that. I do wish there was an option to add a $5-10 play card to the package from the get-go as that was our plan for the kids in lieu of party favors.

Overall it was a really stressful experience running all over the place because I was the one carting gifts back and forth every time a guest arrived and trying to figure out if someone who came in was a friend from school. If I have the option, at this point I wouldn’t host another party there. If I’m paying $300+ to have a kids’ party, I want to be able...