Seeing all the bad food reviews I skipped the food altogether and just brought my kids (10 and 12) in for the games. I did grab a beer from the bar which was uneventful. The kids had a pretty good time but the games were very expensive - they went thru $50 in probably 45 minutes. It was kinda loud and not cozy at all in there; I was ready to leave anyways. That said the games were all new; probably the only place around Madison with state of the art games like these. Adults who want to play high tech games (and not old broken retro stuff like some places have) will appreciate it. May come back again occasionally for games, will continue to avoid the food until better reviews show up. read more

I can't put into words how terrible this place is. We just had the worst service and food I have ever experienced. Over priced garbage!! Please don't waist your money here. read more

Went here once to meet up with friends for a few drinks, food, and games. Asked the bartender if we could sit at a table and he said it was all good. We sat at the table for approximately 30 minutes while everyone else around us was attended to, and never received so much as a peep from the waitstaff. Haven't been back since and would not recommend. We did visit months after they opened. read more

Truly horrible service. I'm also a waitress/bartender so I have empathy for those in the service industry, especially when it's busy or stressful circumstances. However that was not the case when we went last night. Not exaggerating, it took 10 minutes to get the bartender's attention, waited another 10 minutes for our two beers, ordered from another bartender as ours appeared to have forgotten, and from there it took an additional 5 minutes to pour the two taps. The food was what you'd expect from a chain; portions smaller than pictured but still tasty. Also on a large TV in every direction of our table was a UFC game with plenty of blood. Not exactly what I would choose to view while eating. The games were great. Clean floor. But if you're going for drinks, good luck! read more

Came tonight with my best friend - had awesome drinks and service from our server Corinne! The games here are really outstanding and the food did not disappoint at all. We will definitely be back. Thanks Corinne! read more

Great atmosphere but overpriced food, small portions and poor service. I can't imagine going back here.

The service was awful, first the hostess was not helpful at all, we asked for a table and she said "we are doing shift turnover" so she couldn't seat us so she just sent us to the bar area, we waited there for about 15 min and nobody serve us, after we came back and talk to her again and finally she gave us a table, waited another 15 min for a server. read more

Terrible staff and food did not impress. The hostess told us we could sit in the bar area. After waiting 10 min. in the bar without any wait staff addressing us, we asked the hostess if we were sitting in the right area. She said we were fine there, but did not apologize for the neglect nor did she notify a wait staff of our unattended table. After another ten minutes, we returned to the hostess stand and said we would sit in the dining area since we still had not been served. Again, no apology, but seated us in the dining area. Our waitress was nice enough, but our food arrived before our drinks from the bar. The was nothing to write home about. Game floor was clean. TONS of staff members around, but only one greeted us the entire time we played games. Gal at ticket exchange counter was on her phone and took a few minutes to notice we were waiting in line. read more

I come here once a month, it's true the waiting time for an appetizer or entrees has increased but my children and I continue to enjoy this place. The atmosphere is great, for all ages! read more

Took two children but didn't eat. We bought two cards to play games. $12 for 60 points. $3 to activate each card ! Excuse me ?? Games take 6-8 points each. Basically got to play ten quick games each. Well that killed 20 minutes. Not what I thought. Won't go back. read more

This might be the single worst restaurant in the great Madison area. I've been here twice and the service is absolutely atrocious. Last night we waited over an hour for food and after asking about it twice they forgot one item. To make it right they offered a yard of beer and the manager was even a bit confrontational. I would stay away from this place until management changes because it's clearly a terribly run business. read more

We went last Saturday. The ads say this is amusement for adults. The line to get in was long. Once seated, drinks took forever to come. The bar was much slower than the restaurant part. The food was average. Mostly fried stuff. There were so many little kids, not teens. It felt more like a Chucky Cheese. Not what I expected. Wouldn't go back. read more

The waiter we got was extremely rude, the food was okay, but we all got majorly sick that night. While we were eating the workers kept staring at us and it made us all feel extremely uncomfortable. Will never be going back! read more

The kids have been begging for us to take them there. We were skeptical but thought we'd try it. The service was a bit slow and they were not overly busy. Our waitress was nice but not super friendly. She did what was expected but certainly didn't go above and beyond. The appetizers were the best part of the meal. I ordered a regular burger and it was just ok. Nothing special. The fries were Luke warm and chewy. My kids ordered a quesadilla pizza and they said it was ok - they didn't rave about it. We of course played some games after we ate which was the best part. We'll maybe go back sometime for appetizers and drinks while the kids play. Certainly won't be ordering burgers etc. read more

Understanding that covid is happening we still experienced terrible service. Our waitress was obviously new and should never have been alone and clearly needed more training. We had a group of 8 and it took up to 30 minutes to get our drinks (some were just fountain drinks) and to put our food order in it took almost 45 minutes. She left in the middle of us ordering food to go attend to another table. We sat at two tables to respect the rule of no more than 6 per table. She was putting our food at in correct tables and later on would realize that and would bring to the correct person. The food was absolutely disgusting and I couldn't even eat it. I usually never complain about terrible service and food because I was a server for years and I understand some nights the server or cook are off but this was unacceptable. read more

This was my first time there and for what is supposed to be adult based there were far too many kids. I was looking forward to a fun adult based experience and it was littered with children The service was poor our waitress came straight out the gutter no way will I ever waste my time going there again read more

"Cooked to perfection" is an overused cliche with restaurant reviews. Luckily, I had no reason to use this term because the entire experience was a disaster at Dave & Buster's. A colleague and I brought some friends along to celebrate our respective birthdays on this Saturday evening. We felt about as welcome as Larry Nassar at a gymnastics competition. All of us utilized the 'Eat & Play Combo' to try and save some money on the food and activities. Funny, because we certainly didn't feel like we got to play considering the lack of 'chips' included with the deal. One gentleman in our party didn't even get to eat because the server forgot his food. As far as the actual cuisine goes, I ordered the Bang Bang Chicken with Spicy Thai Peanut Noodles. The dish came off more as a deconstructed chicken strip with a cumsauce reduction on a bed of used condoms. All in all, the meal was subpar. Finally, the receipts given had different suggested tip options for the various percentages despite the total check amount being the same. Interesting to say the least. Next time, go to Chuck E Cheese. At least they have decent pizza. read more

Good games, bad service. If we hadn't played any arcade games, there's no way we would ever go back. Had an extremely weird server- very overly familiar.. told a friend at the table "you broke the computer" after scanning her ID, and played "keep away" with my ID. I literally had to grab it from him to get it back. Our food didn't come out at the same time, we had one sandwich come out and 20 minutes later, the rest of the food came... Come here for games, not the food or service. read more

Went there on a Friday night with a large group from work. We had a party of 14, and I knew it may be hard to accommodate that many people on a Friday night, so I called ahead of time and was told to come in about a half an hour early to put our name in. Ok, no problem. Friday night I arrived at 6:15 to get our name on the list. The hostess looked annoyed that we had such a large group, but I told her we wouldn't all be arriving until 7 and that we were totally fine with being split into 2 tables near each other. I was told it would be about a 30 minute wait and that I would get a text when rate table was ready. We were the first name on the list. We went to the bar area and played games while we waited. The games were fun, and the bartenders were great. At 8 pm I still had not heard anything, so I checked in with the hostess. She said that a table still wasn't ready for our large group. I reminded her that we were fine with smaller tables near each other. She again seemed irritated. I totally understand that they were busy on a Friday night and we had a large group, but almost 2 hours is unacceptable. We finally sat in a large booth in the bar area, and I took our name off the list for the dining room. I got an attitude from the hostess and 2 minutes later I received a text that our table was ready. Too late. The waiter we had at the bar booth was ok, but forgot a lot of the things we ordered. We got several appetizers for the table to share, they took an hour to cook/be served, and 3 of them never arrived. The waiter didn't realize it until he brought our bills. He did take them off and the manager took an additional $10 off for our troubles. Overall, I was very disappointed. All of the staff I interacted with, other than the people behind the bar, seemed overwhelmed and unprepared. I understand that there are kinks to work out when a restaurant first opens, but this was ridiculous. read more

Pretty bad service first time around. There was no one at the host stand when we got here and we got scolded for sitting down at a table that seemed to be self seating in the bar area. We put our name in and then waited 30 minutes for a table which is t unreasonable for a Friday night. However, we ordered drinks and one person got a beer rather than a hard cider. Waitress was very nice (the only pleasant part of the experience). Then we waited 30 minutes for an appetizer and the cascades was drowned in jalapeños and the wings were cold. The manager was very accommodating and comped our meal. read more

I wanted to leave a review regarding a few issues that we had this past weekend that made for a less than perfect party at Dave and Busters for our son who was turning 7. I had emailed our party planner about showing up 15 minutes early at 10:45 to get in and get the party set up so we could be prepared for our guests. The party planner said this would be totally fine and someone would be waiting to let me in. Not the case. I was knocking on the glass waiting for someone to let me in (along with another mother who also had an 11am party for her son). Twice someone walked past without acknowledging me. The third time someone gave me the one moment finger and reappeared about 5 minutes later to open the doors at 10:58am. A huge waste of our time, and also difficult to wrangle excited kids in a busy parking lot with nothing to do. Please change your party times to reflect this, since an 11am party doesn't actually start at 11am and it is false advertising. My son's card never actually worked for the free games. It worked fine for the money that was actually on it, but his card never allowed him to play the unlimited games as we had hoped--and was part of the party package. So while all of his friends enjoyed their unlimited play, he walked around aimlessly for a lot of the party. We did talk to the manager on duty and he put a few dollars of free play on it in an effort to reactivate the free play on the card but that didn't work either. The free play was awesome (that we paid an additional $45 for) for all of his guests. Too bad it didn't work out for the guest of honor despite checking with a manager. This was a gigantic let down and my husband was quick to say that he would not be recommending this as a party venue to our friends and family. The last thing might be something that simply wasn't included, but after many years of hosting parties for our boys at the most popular venues in Madison it was surprising to me. We did ALL of the work at the table. We served the kids, we cleared their plates, we packed the to-go boxes and made sure everything was cleaned up. We didn't even have a Dave and Busters employee who helped us sing Happy Birthday to our kid. It was kind of ridiculous for almost $400. I even tipped 20% for basically nothing because I felt pressured to do so by the person who was 'helping' me. Lastly, please consider getting some basic carts for parents so they aren't making 5 trips to the car to carry out all the gifts, cake, and extra food. Every other birthday party venue in Madison offers this free of charge. It's really is too bad, the place itself is absolutely amazing-and the food presentation was great --even though the food itself was just average. Clearly there is still a lot to be figured out with parties. I only wish we had waited to book in hopes of better service given the cost for 9 guests and the birthday boy (who walked away disappointed). If you are considering hosting a party here, I would give it a second thought. read more

I decided to take my boyfriend to Dave and Busters for his birthday, which was the first time either of us had gone to a D&B. From the time we entered the building, I wasn't impressed. First, the hostess told us it would be a 90 minute wait, which was not a problem at all, but then she didn't explain the process to us as far as how to get on a wait list, I had to ask her how we get noticed. She wasn't friendly and never smiled. We then walked up to the ticket counter, and I said "this is our first time so I'm not sure how it works" and the attendant just pointed to a sign with prices and ticket amounts. So we purchased two cards with 250 tokens each. Then we reached the bar. It was not completely full, so we stood there to order a drink and it initially took a bartender 10 minutes just to approach us and another couple who had been standing there before us. We let them order first. After we finally received our drinks and paid, we went to the arcade. The arcade was the only part of the establishment that saved the night for us. Once we got notified that our table was ready, we sat down, and not a single waiter/waitress approached us for almost 10 minutes, once she did she took our drink orders. I ordered a water and my boyfriend ordered a beer on tap. After she took those she awkwardly stood there staring at us, so I said "can we order" and she said "of course", that was it. Not very proper if you ask me. After we ordered, it took an additional 15 minutes to get our drinks. This has been an absolutely terrible experience and I probably won't return unless it's only to play the games. read more

Stopped in yesterday because our first visit here was amazing ! My fiance and i sat at the bar as we did the last time we came . This time was unpleasantly different . I will start by saying the food is still great , drink was awesome ! I was so disappointed in the bartender that served us . We ordered our drinks and asked for menu's , my fiance had to go to the car for his ID (which was fine) but when he left is when the bartender "Aaron" insisted on me giving him my credit card , i explained that we will pay as we go , as i was not the one paying , my fiance was . He continued to argue with me to the point i asked to speak with a manager 3 times . Rather than get a manager he continued to stand in front us to argue . As i give him my credit card to disolve the situation another bartender stepped in to ease the problem . Making a small funny joke .. He explained the company policy and told us we could pay as we go (which is what we wanted to do) . The other bartender "Roberto" i believe his name was ...was AWESOME . He was friendly , and VERY FUNNY , did a few magic tricks for us . That was the best part of the night !!! From there .. After we finished eating , as "Aaron" was taking our plates away says "so you ready to pay now "? My drink was empty and was looking forward to having a few more BUT after feeling rushed , i replied YES . Didnt offer dessert , more drinks etc ..He printed the bill and tore the survey portion of the bill off and handed it TO ME . He continued to stand in front of the 2 of us WAITING for us to pay , with my credit card in his hand as if we were going to run out or something . NEVER have i ever felt so disrespected . He was rude and will hurt business if he doesnt get some training in customer service . We thank you Roberto for your great customer service and entertainment . read more

Service was horrible, food was decent but nothing fantastic. The games where fun until I went to redeem my tickets. I swiped my card and it said I had around 65,000 tickets. I went to redeem and get a couple a prizes. The attendent was having issues so she called the manager who then checked my card and told me a game malfunctioned and gave. Me to many tickets and I wasnt allowed to keep the tickets on my card except for like 4,000 of them. The manager was rude and didn't even try to offer anything as an apology for there mistake. I won the tickets it's not my fault the game glitched out and gave me to many. I find it shady that you guys can just lock someone's card if they get to many tickets just so you can protect your bottomline. Already contacted corporate hopefully they can do what your store didn't. read more

This place could not be more frustrating. Food is terrible, drinks are slow, it is super loud and they ALWAYS seem to be short staffed. If it wasn't for a 12 year old that enjoys the games, I WOULD NEVER COME HERE. read more

I just have to say. The service was excellent the food was excellent. I just don't see how all the bad reviews are legit. Server was attentive the manager came by with suggestions on the food. It was a well oiled machine. BIG PROPS TO DAVE&BUSTERS MADISON WI read more

After reading all the poor reviews on this site, I very hesitantly visited the Dave & Buster's at West Towne Mall. Expecting the worst, I was immediately greeted by a very pleasant male host who also was our server. He couldn't have been more attentive or friendly Probably because of the poor reviews, the place wasn't very crowded so we had prompt service and there were no lines. This was Friday dinner time and it looked like there were a lot of couples on dates. I ordered the salmon which was OK and definitely overpriced-I would say my biggest complaint is that the food was very overpriced for what it is. In my opinion, the amount of screens in there could be about 30 less and something other than sports everywhere please! It's very unwelcoming to a non sports fan to be forced to watch multiple games while dining. In summary, It definitely seemed like somebody's been reading the reviews on here and making changes! read more

Waited over 2 hours for our table that was quoted 45 mins... asked 3 times on our table and finally Got sat the third time. It was 10 minutes before the server came over. We eventually ordered and Half the food for our table came out and waited 15 minutes more for the rest of the food. Food was .... mediocre. One person at the table order a salad entree and that came out last. Another two drinks were ordered after and came out about 15-20 minutes after they ordered. Everything was terrible! No one in our party will ever be back, from wait time to service to everything else it was the worst experience I've ever had and I've worked in the restaurant industry for over 12 years. You would think a party place would be better but it was not. This place will close sooner rather than later at this rate. Such a horrible experience. If I could rate 0 stars I would but 1 is required and that's giving too many star. read more

The food was surprisingly good. The service was a little slow but overall a great experience.

This review is for the bar. I went to this dave and busters with one other person. This was my first visit to this particular location though i have been to other locations in other states i have lived. We went to sit at the bar for a quick drink and bite. We sat at the bar and after watching some dude throw stuff and slam down blenders like he was having a temper tantrum, we came over and stood in front of us and was like "want something?" in a surly tone to us. No greeting, just attitude. We order our drinks and he just looks at us like he's irritated and holds up his hand which i assumed to mean he wanted to see our IDs. We showed ids and he went about making our drinks acting like we asked him to go dig through a manure pile. I noticed he had this same crappy attitude with the other customers he served. One of our drinks ordered was a margarita, was not asked if we wanted on rocks or blended, just brought it back blended with huge chunks of ice in it that made it basically impossible to drink. In fact, over half the glass was crushed iced. We also tried to order food the same time we were ordering drinks but he just ignored us and walked away. He didnt have a name badge but when i got my receipt i saw his name was aaron. We tried to get his attention a few times as he stomped around but to no avail. We tried probably tried for about 10-15 minutes to get his attention, finally he walked by and we again said excuse me, and he was like, "yeah, i heard you" and walked away. He finally came back and just stands in front of us and says "what?" What kind of attitude is that? I used to work in the service industry, and i get that sometimes you have a bad day, but dont take it out on your customers. We were not being rude to him but he was rude to us from the get go. His attitude was even worse when the 2 patrons next to us noted he charged them for an extra drink. Even the manager told him to act professional when he went to fix their tab. Needless to say, we decided to close out and went to the front to just get seated instead of dealing with aarons crappy attitude. I will say, our service in the dining area was better, in fact, the one bright star of this visit was our server, noah. Very attentive and let us know if there were any delays and apologetic when there were. This kid deserves a raise. unfortunately, our visit was already soured by our less than stellar time at the bar. Will never come back here and you can bet i'm gonna let all my friends know and put a review on every possible online service to warn others of a certain bartender. there are much better establishments in madison where you dont have to deal with prima donna bartenders. My advice to management, lose aaron or you are going to lose even more business. read more

This has probably been my worst experience at a restaurant. I have been to Dave & Busters numerous times before and have come to love it, but after this experience I will not be coming back. November 8th of 2018, me and a friend decided to visit Dave & Busters after a day of college visits; mind we are both 17. We were greeted and told we could sit anywhere we liked. We had a great experience, the waiters every very nice and the food was excellent. We wanted to come back in the future. This past Sunday (July 21, 2019) the same friend and I, along with two other friends our age and my sister had made a trip up to Madison for a day at the zoo, and we were very excited to take everyone to Dave & Busters. We walked in and we were greeted by a very nice gentleman, he asked if we were dining or there for the arcade, which we told him we were looking to eat some good food. Mindful, he did not ask for out ages. We were told we could sit anywhere we'd like around the bar. We chose a nice booth and waited for our waiter. Our waiter was very quick in greeting us, but started off with asking if any of us were over 18. We said no because 3 of us were still 17, and we were then asked if we had an adult with us, we said no. He then told us that if none of us were 18 or didn'have anyone else 25 or older with us, we would have to leave. We were all very confused, I asked if this was a recently new policy since we haven't visited for about 8 months, and he told me it was not a new policy, it had always been like this and we couldn't even eat, we needed to leave. We were all very upset because we had been looking forward to eating here, and I'm still very confused as to why we were allowed to eat here in November still being 17, but now it's different. Definitely will not be going back here again. read more

Wow. Just. Wow. This was my third time at Dave and Busters and while I was definitely underwhelmed the first two times the third was bad enough to inspire a review. First of all I'm pretty sure it was our waiters first time waiting on anyone. Ever. It was honestly the most painful experience I've ever had at a restaurant. Ever. The service was unbelievably slow and he kept forgetting our drinks. Second of all I ordered a chicken ceaser with Kale salad. After an HOUR of waiting for my meal it arrived with NO kale and the iceberg lettuce was BROWN AND WILTED. I showed it to my waiter and they took it back for a new salad but this took ANOTHER 30 MINUTES!!!! When I got my new salad it had no kale again and some limp lettuce. By this time I stopped caring because it was the longest wait I've ever had for a garbage salad. To top it off the naturally screwed up our bill like 5 times and the meal was stupid expensive. To sum it up if I ever want to sit in a restaurant listening to crappy music for 3 hours I know where to go. Save your money and your sanity and don't go. Never again Dave and Busters. read more

Dave and Buster's need to figure it out. The service sucks today. No one at the hostess desk for 10-minutes. Person at the desk for refilling our gaming card told us to sit in the bar. There were no clean tables so we tried to sit at the bar. We were told we had to get a table because of child. Finally got seated. When we asked to not be in a booth, another 5 minutes to confirm we could change tables. Our poor server is new and clearly needs help. My husband got the wrong beer when he finally came back with a beer. I don't know if or when we'll get our food. If it wasn't for my child, I would have walked out 20-minutes ago. We've been here for 45-minutes and all I've gotten is annoyed. read more

The people at the door were very humble and nice . It felt warm coming into a comfortable place to eat and drink with good service. Barbara and Arron were great with the service and smiles. Music was good, and Leslie kept my glass full. He kept asking us if we were good on numerous things which made me feel like I was paid attention to. It wouldn't have mattered if they asked for a service or not, but I would have given this place a solid 10 on a scale of 1-10!!!! " ILL BE BACK " in my Arnold Swartzenegger terminator voice!!! Thanks read more

Awful experience food took forever drinks took forever when we got the food it was disgusting. I could continue but just don't do it. Dave and Busters you should just close down and do some training then try a reopening because it's not working... needless to say we didn't eat out food and told the manager we were leaving and not paying for it it was that bad. read more

Had enough time to wait 20 minutes, create a yelp account, download the app and write this review before the beer came. Server was nice but this place is absolutely not operating smoothly. Might report back if we ever get a chance to play any of the games. read more

Would love to rate the food, but I can't because I was never served any. Husband and I waited 30 minutes in the supposedly full service bar and wasn't acknowledged by a single staff member. We were so annoyed, we didn't even stay to play games. read more

We came here for some desert. We have been waiting over a half hour just to be asked if someone has helped us yet. All of the tables were not bussed while the staff was standing around and talking to friends. The table we sat ourselves to was not cleaned. The table next to ours got up and left telling us this was the second time this has happened to them.I don't believe we will be returning for food. Very very unprofessional. read more

They said it would be 30-45 minute wait. We added our name and went to hookup get credits to play. They were going to charge me for a card. I asked for a manager and she was very understanding. She compensated us and apologized. We drove an hour and got bad news today. Thank you Jessica aka peacekeeper for making our day a little better. read more

Ridiculous. Waiting and waiting. Filthy tables all around. Was told 30 to 45 minutes over an hour ago. People off the street being sat while I am told to continue waiting. Leaving. No return trip to this location again. read more