16-Bit Bar+Arcade — Restaurant in Washington Township

Fun hangout bar with a simple premise: All of the machines are free to play as long as you're drinking. 42 classic arcade cabinets combined with skeeball and a huge light board add up to hours of entertainment. There are also 6 console setups that let you play old NES, SNES, and Sega Genesis games from the comfort of a big leather chair. Speaking of comfort, there's a generous amount of lounge space, with options for bean bag chairs and floor pillows if couch space becomes scarce. The craft cocktail list is something to behold. Garnishes for these innovative drinks include rock candy, bacon, slim jims, etc, which all contribute to the unique ambiance of the place. "So can I take my kids there?", you may be wondering. Short answer "yes". The bar shares the all ages schedule with its neighbor PINS, so children are welcome with guardian supervision until 8pm every day. After 8pm the bar becomes 21+ exclusively, so even infants and toddlers must seek a new locale at that time. Speaking of PINS, if for some reason you grow tired of everything 16-Bit has to offer, feel free to wander over, via the back hallway, that connects the two bars, confident in the knowledge that your tab will follow you there and back. Food policy is exactly the same as well. Since there is no food menu, you are welcome to bring in any outside fare, either from food trucks (typically on site during the weekend), local restaurants, or delivery. There is a No Outside Drink policy though, so leave the water bottles and coffees in the car. In short, the new 16-Bit has unprecedented features and a massive floor plan. If you like the one in downtown Columbus, you're going to love this one. One last note: dedicated...

This is a pretty awesome place to stop in the Dublin area. There isn't a ton of things to do in the area, so it does get super crowded with kids during the day. It is 21 and up after (I believe) 8pm, so that may help you plan accordingly.

Personally, I have a kid, so I don't necessarily mind it being kid-heavy during the day, as it gives us another option of things to do in the Dublin area. That said, they are often unattended and just run free and kind of do whatever they want. When we do take our son here, we are sure to keep him close by and make sure that he is pretty well behaved.

The game selection at this location is awesome! It has a lot of my favorite games and the space is much larger than the location downtown, so that is a welcome change for me. I prefer to have a little space and be able to get to the bar or to a game without having to squeeze through people and wait for 10 minutes. There is usually nobody waiting to play a game and it generally doesn't take very long for them to open up.

The drink prices are seemingly higher than other places, but then again you aren't paying to play the arcade games, so I guess it works out.

I HIGHLY recommend that you close your tab, as one day I left it open and ended up with a large number of drinks on my tab that weren't mine. We had three or four beers between two of us and a few days later I noticed a charge for over $60. I definitely won't make that mistake again, but will return for some arcade games and fun...

I've been coming to this location for years with friends and for almost a year with my girlfriend. Tonight was the first time she'd been denied entry at this bar because the staff thought her PA license reading "Not for Real ID purposes" LITERALLY meant it wasn't a real ID.

It was practically comedic at this point that even 2 managers, who should be trained at these kinds of things, thought this phrasing meant it was a fake ID when it's, on the contrary, specifically only saying it's not federally compliant.

Initially we were genuinely just trying to reason with the manager we ultimately spoke to about the situation, but as we were trying to explain the ID to her she cut us off and straight up lied saying "it's not even shining" which meant it was fake. That's when we just dropped it and went to a competing barcade in downtown Columbus where we were accepted and even commended by the competing barcade's staff for being so patient with how we handled 16-bit's ignorance this evening.

This competing barcade even thoroughly looked over the license and shined a black light just to cover all bases. This competing barcade also thought it was comedic how the staff at 16-bit didn't understand what a "Real ID" was, since they're supposed to be specifically trained with these types of situations.

Oh well! I'll take an extra 15 minutes of a drive to go to a barcade I've always enjoyed...