Dave and Buster’s is a chain of combination restaurant/arcades, with 55 locations here in the US. Over this past weekend Mason and I (always in search of a new arcade) decided to check out the newest D&B location, which just happens to be the one here in Oklahoma City located on the corner of May and NW Expressway.

Before entering the establishment, visitors are greeted by a big sign full of rules. All minors must be accompanied by (and stay with) an adult. There’s a smoking section, but that doesn’t include pipes, cigars, or chewing tobacco. There’s also a lengthy dress code, also available online for your convenience. While it’s all pretty standard fare (no cut-off sleeveless shirts, no gang-related clothing, no t-shirts with vulgar words on them), it makes you wonder how things got so out of control that the company had to post these rules outside the front door. And to make sure you take their rules seriously, standing outside the building were not one but two employees, ready to kill (or at least turn away) anyone daring to enter their establishment with “torn or soiled clothing.”

(Humorously, one of the things Dave and Buster’s also prohibits is “loud language.” Other than front row at a Slayer concert or perhaps inside one of NASA’s booster rockets, D&B’s may be the loudest place on earth. Anyone kicked out of a Dave and Buster’s establishment for using “loud language” has surely brought his or her own megaphone.)

I’ve been to Gameworks several times, but never Dave and Buster’s. The two things D&B’s is known for is eating and playing video games, so those were the two immediate activities on our agenda.

Upon entering the establishment, Mason and I found ourselves in a line. What for, we weren’t sure. There were two lines, in fact — one going left, toward the arcade, and one going right, toward the restaurant. Since it was already 7:30pm we decided to eat first, and game later — so, we got in the line on the right. To be honest we weren’t really sure what we were in line for, but it felt like the right thing to do. It’s not like there was anybody there to ask what to do; they were all outside, watching for dress code offenders …

After a little over five minutes, we arrived at a counter. I told the man behind the counter that this was our first visit and that we were there to eat and play games. He sold us a game card, and pointed us to the restaurant’s hostess to reserve a table. With a $10 game card in hand, we moved to the next line. That one was relatively quick; we were handed a buzzer, and told to expect a “45 to 60 minute wait” for a table. Note to self: if you are looking for the quiet, non-crowded Dave and Buster’s experience, 7:30pm on a Friday is not the time to get it. With our buzzer in hand, we left the restaurant and headed over to the games.

Dave and Buster’s arcade is something to behold. It’s loud and visually over-stimulating. Every game it seems is attached to an over-sized flat screen television. There were driving games, shooting games, and lots and lots of redemption games. As I alluded to before, all of these games require a game card. It’s like a debit card that you put “charge up” before hand, and then use to play the machines. Lots of places do this now (including GameWorks and Incredible Pizza). They say it’s so you don’t have to “lug around” a “heavy pocket full of tokens,” but the real reason is that it makes it difficult to keep track of how much you are spending and how much each game costs. “Tokens” become an arbitrary value — the more you buy, the cheaper they are. Mason’s card was $10 for 48 tokens, making them worth about 21 cents each. Each game takes a different amount of tokens, and there’s no tangible reminder of how many tokens are left on your card until it’s empty. Unsurprisingly, the cards can be recharged at any of the available kiosks, all of which accept credit cards.

Mason and I played four games before I heard my name over the loud speaker: “Rob, party of 2, this is the last call for your table.” I pulled the buzzer out of my front pocket; it was flashing, but not vibrating. Oops. Thirty seconds later we arrive at the restaurant to discover they’re already given our table away. For the next 5-10 minutes we are forced to stand “the Spot of Shame,” a small designated area in everyone’s way where patrons who assume the buzzers vibrate get to rub shoulders (literally) with the staff and their fellow patrons.

Eventually we did get a booth, and since this is getting long, I’ll cut to the chase: Mason had a kid’s meal with a root beer, I had “shrimp and chicken pasta” and a Long Island Iced Tea, and we split an appetizer. Our food came out in a reasonable amount of time. Our waitress was very kind and polite … I think. I couldn’t really hear what she was saying, nor could she hear me, so I mostly just pointed to the menu and we used a lot of sign language. The total bill was $38 and some change; I tipped $5 and rounded up, making our dinner $44. You can do the math there; for a family of four, if both kids have kid meals and no dessert, you’ll be pushing $90. Change one of those kid meals to a third adult meal and you’ll be in the hundred range.

After paying we realized it was 9:30pm, and time for Mason to go to bed, so we split.

Summary:

Dave and Buster’s is a nice place. There are guys standing outside keeping the riffraff out. Every employee we encountered inside was pleasant. The place was very clean.

The restaurant prices were high — not out of this world high, but higher than I was expecting. All of the adult dinners I saw on the menu were $15-$20. The online version of D&B’s doesn’t show the prices so without a receipt it is hard for me to determine the exact price of each entree.

The game floor was stunning, if you’re into ticket redemption games, driving games, and racing games. I did not see a single broken game on the game floor. I also did not see a single arcade game with a joystick — guns, steering wheels, and touchscreens, yes; joysticks, no. This is not your father’s (or my) arcade.

The biggest problem about Dave and Buster’s for me personally is that I have to drive past Gatti-Town (formerly Incredible Pizza) to get there, a place that has a $6.99 all-you-can-eat pizza buffet for adults (for kids, it’s around half that) and at least twice as many games for the kids to play.

Again, I think D&B’s is a nice place; I just think it has a fairly specific demographic that misses both me (who would rather play the classics at Cactus Jack’s) and the boy (who would rather play the games at Gatti-Town).