We came here for my daughter's 8th birthday over the weekend and it was a blast! We were seated instantly and it appeared to be pretty busy when we first came in (Saturday evening). I used to come here as a kid and it was crazy how much is still the same. A lot of the reviews say how outdated it is but for me, that's what made it so cool! We had Nacho Libre as our waiter and he was hands down, amazing! The only suggestion I have to place is to update the menu! Food isn't great but honestly we didn't even care. The experience alone was awesome and worth the money you pay. It's worth giving the place a shot. The drinks (for adults and bubbly drinks for the kids) were really good too which also made up for the not so great food. Seriously though, if you visit- try to get Nacho Libre as your waiter. You won't be disappointed! read more

We waited 1 hour and 10 minutes just to find our food almost warm and bland. Thankful that I had the calamary in the 1.5 hours I was there. This is my second and last time at this place. Not for the service which was acceptable, but for the quality of the food. Really overpriced. read more

The bar was amazing. Food was great. Kids loved the atmosphere and the game room. Great place to celebrate my daughters birthday. Loved the themed sections read more

If you were born before 1980 the theme would have been kindof neat, but the food was overpriced and wasn't very good. We have two boys and they wanted to sit us in the Ragedy Ann room. And who offers a salad bar without cheese, croutons or bacon bits. read more

Well after 10+ years I returned to the Magic Time Machine - they held true to the TIME MACHINE part. Same carpet, same chairs, same pretty much everything. Had an odd smell to it. We went with some friends (9 of us - so yes gratuity will be in this Yelp!)... where we waited about 40 minutes on a less than busy night before we were seated in a both that BARELY held 8. I had to find a chair and drag it over. Our waiter - Speed Gonzalez. The guy portraying Speedy should NEVER have chosen Speedy as his persona, maybe his cousin, Slowpoke. We waited 20 minutes for drinks (water and soda) and then took the guy oh 15 minutes to try to explain the menu, clearly he wasn't well versed, then we were lead to a Salad bar setup in an other school hot rod convertible. Messy and definitely not well stocked. Got back to our seats, waited I want to say a good 40 minutes for our food, had to ask for ketchup 4 times for the kids fries. Their menu for something they call the ROMAN ORGY was misleading. They said Chicken and Brisket. Their brisket my friends is a pot roast and tastes nothing like brisket. No smoke, no bark, nadda. Tasted alright but way over priced considering what it was supposed to be. One of the kids pizza looked and pretty much tasted like a Tatino's Frozen pizza. Ribs chewy, over cooked and covered in what tasted like KC master piece sauce. Lets go back to Speedy - the dude that NEVER came by and refilled our glasses or to check on us. Do you know my friends kid had to go find him and let him know we were ready to pay and leave. He comes back and we find out that the bill is $156.00 ... no bad considering there were 9 of us. Then on top of that there was a $26 gratuity assessed. 18%. No where on the menu did we see that stated by the way. We kind of figured it would be but at the standard 15% or so. By no means was the service we received worth $26! Just because you get a party of 8 or more does not mean free TIP. You should still be required to provide decent service especially when your claim to fame is your dressed up wait staff. We saw, I think 3 costumes that were decent: Dread Pirate Roberts, Wonder Woman, and I think (not sure) we saw a decent Paul Bunyan. Rest of the outfits looked like something out of a thift store and thrown together at the last moment. Sorely disappointed. Bathroom - was a disaster - towels all over the floor, sinks a mess, no soap, toilet was well yeah ... Long wait - with poor hospitality Decor - Old, smelly, out of date, somethings appeared broken Service - my dog provides better service Food - I give a 3 out of 10. I would have enjoyed Chilis or Taco Bell more. Over all we will not be back - EVER! read more

After reading some of these reviews, we were skeptical of trying this place... There is a difference between dirty and old...this place is OLD...it does smell musky but its by no means overwhelming or suffocating. Everything was very clean... But it is worn and needs repair and updating from destructive children. The food portions are HUGE. The bubbling adult drinks are not very good... I had the half and half... The chicken was tasty and juicy. The ribs were not my favorite... I have had ribs I prefer more but these were by no means bad. The mashed potatoes were amazing. My friend had the 3x4 trio. Her steak was cooked correctly and was flavorful. The chicken I personally felt had to strong of a taste but she was very happy with it. The shrimp were huge and flavorful. The bread pudding was good but I personally don't care for it with the fudge topping so after I removed that I was very happy. We will go back it was a fun way to spend lunch read more

Magic Time Machine - Half and half - Bars Near Me - Dallas, Texas

My biggest problem was with the staff. I do work in the industry, and I understand more than most how a restaurant runs. First, the waiter took about 5-7 minutes to even acknowledge us. This was after I watched him greet a table, go get their drinks, greet another table, and then go get their drinks. We were all sat at the same time. Yes, he was triple sat, but he had no sense of multi-tasking, which is a REQUIREMENT for any server. Second, if the only two kids in our party are little girls, WHY would the hostess sit us with G.I. Joe. Come on! read your freaking guests for Christs sake. The portions were fine, but I could have had micro wave dinners that were of greater quality. I will say, the ambiance and salad bar were the best things about the place, but it wasn't enough for me to take my nieces back. People who like this place are only interested in the nostalgia of it. It's neat, but unless they make some major improvements to their staff and food, then they can continue to decay and eventually go away! read more

Had been wanting to check this place out for quite a long time. People had said a number of great things about how unique it was. Four of us met up with two kids under age 1. Upon entering, I was pleasantly surprised by the décor and the layout of the dinning area. The wait staff wore costumes. Our guy "Superman" did his best to be interesting and had some decent jokes. That was about as good as things got. In looking at the menu, I was taken aback at how limited the menu was and how it was all overpriced. Upon going with the least-worst sounding option, our food arrived. Boring, bland and bleh - not even Superman could save this disappointing dish! I am giving one extra star only because of the effort put on by our waiter. read more

We were in Dallas on Spring Break and a friend recommended we go to this place. We took the chance and were very impressed. We arrived early as we did not have reservations and were seated almost immediately. My son is 4 so we were seated at the Sesame Street table. We loved the decor and my son loved the magic potion. Prince Charming was our waiter and was very attentive despite the fact that they were busy. My husband and I shared the half and half. We had so much food left that we took half of it home. Amazing experience and they encourage you to walk around and see all of their tables. read more

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One of the most uncomfortable places to be. It is dirty which means it is dirty. It felt very depressing and the salad bar....when was the last time they cleaned that thing. Not appetizing at all it actually makes you think should I just walk away! YES. If you feel this way when you are there trust your gut and go. read more

If our kids didn't love this place, we would never step foot in here. All of the foods tastes like they are frozen dinners. Even the kids were disappointed the last time though. How does a restaurant who only has kids dying to eat there run out of autographs booklets and serve dessert cookies that are so hard a trip to the dentist for a broken tooth would soon follow??? read more

Don't go. Don't go. Don't waste your time, energy, or money. My husband and I went to dinner because we had heard that the steaks were good. What a mistake! First of all the building is extremely old. And it stinks of old wet, dirty carpet. We were seated at a booth in the carousel. We waited a good 10 minutes before someone came to give us a menu and take our drink order. Our waiter was an extremely rude foreign man dressed in green. At first we thought he was Peter Pan. Then he said he was a plumber. We think he was Luigi but we may be mistaken. We asked him to take a picture of us with the carousel in the background and he refused. He said a professional photographer would come around to take a picture. We never saw the photographer. When I asked him what was good to eat, he said that people did not go to the Magic Time Machine for the food but rather to interact with the characters. It took me a while to figure out what he had said! He had a very strong accent. I am 55 years old and I do not interact with Woody or Cinderella. I go to a restaurant to eat. He told me just to walk around and look at the place. Long story short, the food was not bad. The service was HORRIBLE! The lettuce in the salad bar was at least 10 days old. It looked dirty. The meal came with a loaf of bread which we did not see until the end of our meal. Apparently they had ran out of bread! The waiter never came back to check up on us to see if the meal was OK. At one point I did ask for Parmesan cheese. He never brought it. We asked someone else for the cheese. He said he was a busboy and did not know where the cheese was!!!. We were never offered dessert. I wish there was a "0" star rating! I also wish I had read the reviews before going. Come to find out the person that recommended the magic time machine had been to the one in Austin and not the one in Addison. read more

Went for the first time to celebrate a birthday. The service was good and staff friendly though they did forget one request that truly ruined one of our guests meal experience. I've heard about this place for years so they have a good reputation but please it needs to be deep cleaned and refurbished. Clearly they do a good business imagine how much better it would be if it were cleaned and spruced up a bit. I had chicken Alfredo which was good not great I'd say the overall opinion on our table's meals, and we had 16 people, was well represented with my 3 star rating. read more

I went here on a Tuesday night for a friend's birthday dinner. Kind of a sad place. Food is extremely overpriced for the quality. I ordered the Pasta Primavera, the only vegetarian option, and it was a pile of linguine with zucchini and carrots. Bland. Our waiter was funny, but I wouldn't go again. read more

I know that this place is very old, but it is also extremely uncleanly. The tables were sticky and dust was just everywhere. It could definitely use remodeling. read more

Well....don't really recommend this place. The Guy upstairs with long blonde hair, at the bar was incredibly rude. I believe his name was Chris. I had ordered cheese sticks with the marinara and ranch as we waited. When he brought the plate to us there was no ranch so I said, "can I get my ranch please?" His response "I'll try but I don't really have time for that." Me and my husband looked at each other like wow did that just happen. So after waiting another 5 min and watching him not check for ranch, I walk over to him and ask him for the ranch and he said "it's your lucky day we have some." Well excuse me I ordered it with my food and you didn't look. We were about to leave because that is just bad service and we were unhappy with being treated that way Told manager they didn't seem to care either, we but as we were getting ready to leave our name was called so figured we waited lets try it. When we went down stairs to be seated I asked to speak to a manager, the lady with colored hair said she was a manager. After explaining what happened she said "I will speak to him" no I'm sorry no anything. We felt like we didn't matter at all like customers. So we got seated, already not happy about how everything has gone so far. Mario was our server, He was probably the best part about the whole experience. The salad bar was pretty nasty. There was no ranch and it looked like the food had been left out since that morning maybe even the night before. The food wasn't great for the price but the kids loved seeing the characters. Some of the characters, you could tell we're stressed out and didn't want to be dealing with the kids. If you decide to go I don't recommend going on a Friday or Saturday. I really don't want to go again but we have coupons that didn't get applied to our bill because the other guy who took our payment didn't forgot to add them and we just wanted to leave because it was taking to long for everything and they already ran our card. read more

Love this place! Great for families or date night. Every table has unique decor and your server is always dressed up different to provide a different experience every time you visit! The salad car is a great perk plus the magic potion drink is a must have! The building was once an old school building back in the early 1900s, which makes it a big maze inside. I had the catfish and shrimp which was really good. This is my favorite place in Dallas to bring the family! read more

The only thing good was the drinks and the wait staff! FOOD WAS HORRIBLE!! Took 30 min, came out uncooked, dry, and cold! Will not be returning unless its to go to the bar upstairs. This was my 1st time here and to say the least I was highly disappointed. read more

Went to Magic Time Machine for my great grandson birthday. It the the worst place I've ever been. We got there at 7 pm and they didn't seat us until 9pm then they only seated us because we pretty much made them. We was to have a waiter / waitress in costume but the waiter was in normal attire. We had to ask for our drink order twice the appetizer was so late coming out we was afraid to try to order entrees so we just paid for our drinks in and left. The other staff was just lined up sitting in the floor like "just leave we want to go home". By the way my 3 year old great grandson had to open his presents in the waiting area while we was waiting to be seated I do not recommend this restaurant to anyone ever read more

I'm a little late posting this review but on 11/13/16 me and a group of about 8 others visited this location for my goddaughter's birthday. I was already a little iffy about the food but I decided to go anyways. I got the super hero pasta and the waiter suggested that I add mushrooms. Once again, go with it right? Boy was the mushrooms AND the pasta the worst mistake ever. The next day I was soooo sick and received a text from another friend who attended and ate the same meal, minus the mushrooms. Surprise. Surprise. She was sick as well. We were the only two that ate the pasta and only two to get sick. I called a couple days later and spoke to the GM, I believe his name is JR. He was of no help whatsoever. He proceeded to tell me that they never get any complaints on the pasta and all it is is the spinach dip over a bed of noodles (ewww throw up!). Not once did we receive an apology. He questioned my credibility on whether or not I or my friend was really fell ill and asked for medical receipts. Long story short.... never ever ever again. I don't care whose kid wants to go to this place. I will not be in attendance. My stomach hurts just typing this review. read more

This place is horrid. The food tastes like it's straight out of a freezer and dumped into a deep fryer that's not been cleaned since Ronald Reagan was hunting communists in Hollywood. These location opened in 1979. From the dust and grime on the decorations and fixtures, I'm guessing that was the last time that it was cleaned. And the "characters" in costume. Our waitress was "Belle". I'm not sure who she thought "Belle" was. From her $15 halloween costume closeout to her utter failure in "acting" the character, it was a flop. The one bright spot...They have extra large crayons. Marines, you'll have plenty to eat. read more

I had an enjoyable time with my son and we had the meat trio which was very good. It was fun to go to a whimsical place with my 16 year old and our server Frozone was top notch! The balloon artist was a nice touch and was surprised when my 16 year old took him right up on the offer. Fun night out with my kid:) read more

Had an amazing time here. Wario/Mario was our server and he was awesome !!! Celebrated my Birthday on 3/15 with my family and he made my night . Also got a Birthday song sung to me with a guitar by Wario/Mario which was the icing on the cake ( which btw was delicious) definitely should order the chocolate cake with ice cream on the side. I would definitely go back here for another great time. And will ask for the same server. Service (staff) here is great! Very friendly and the food is delicious and filling. We made some great memories here and look forward to making more. Definitely a family environment. Love all the different scenes in the restaurant, and how exciting it all makes you feel. There's a guy making balloons for the kiddos as well. A lady took our picture and when she returned we were amazed. I've read alot of the negative reviews and I didn't get why they were so bad. I would recommend this place to all my friends and family. Who btw have spoken highly of this place. No regrets!!! Wario/Mario, thank you for a great night. read more

Went to a large family event here recently, and to say it was disappointing would be understatement. After our group finally being seated (20 minutes late, since they said they couldn't seat incomplete party of over 20 people, so you have 16-18 people standing around in the foyer). There was a single waiter to take care of a large room plus his other tables, which was a bad situation for him. He seemed to be doing his best but 30 minutes to get drink orders filled, even for just water, is inexcusable. When you are finally getting food at 8pm for a 6:15 reservation, that is just beyond what's acceptable imo. The menu is pretty limited, and the general consensus of the people in the party was the food was not very good. My catfish was very salty, rice pilaf was tasteless, and the shrimp, although the best part, was not anything special. The "Salad Bar" was a joke, a throwback to what they used to be in the Steak and Ale days of the 80's. To small of a setup, lacking variety, and the one person trying to maintain it on a Saturday night was fighting a losing battle. I give this place two stars for the staff, many of whom looked to be doing their best in a bad situation, but overall, there are way to many other options now in Addison and the surrounding area that are much better. read more

Captain Jack was awesome my kids loved him! I didn't get the time machine idea, but I really did explore the restaurant. The food was great! If possible get there early read more

The food is absolutely terrible....not bad, terrible. We have always enjoyed the characters, but paying $150 for TV-dinneresque food at best is painful. And what's up with the salad bar? Please take a few minutes to keep it clean...I'd also like to add that you will be staring down an hour plus wait with your kids in a dim bar where smoking is allowed. What adult goes to The Magic Time Machine for a beer and s smoke?!? read more

The wait was crazy. But it was worth it! We had never been and this was great experience for the kids. And even though we were one of the last tables the performers still gave it their all. We had Nacho! Not only is it my favorite movie he was a great character! The birthday song I got at the end was the best(nacho voice) read more

The car [salad Bar] is a 40's MG. The PrimeRib was a "3" == O K The #1 "Martini" was sent back - 50% water. The Martini #2 - dittio. The Merlot as a replacement was 3ltr Jug wine. The "birthday girl" was pleased but I will not return Sorry 'bout that //////////////////// read more

So my mom and I are not natives to Addison and saw this place from the outside. We decided to try it one night because it looked like a normal bar/grill place. Yeah, it wasn't. It took awhile to get over the initial visual assault the place gives you and to adjust to the noisy atmosphere. It is true the place does have a terrible musty smell that reminds one of wet dog and piss. However, the furniture and decoration of the place is true vintage so I guess the smell comes with the territory but I figure there must be some way to battle the odor. If you are more introverted and are wanting a quiet, relaxing meal DON'T come here. I have never experienced so much social awkwardness since middle school; I'm a recent college graduate now. The waiters and waitresses are all dressed as different pop-culture characters which is entertaining, but somehow they believe it gives them license to be as awkward as possible. After reading other reviews I realize they are supposed to be "acting" as their characters but most of them miss the mark. The food was also very mediocre, you are definitely paying for the experience; an "experience" which you could easily hate if you didn't want to have dinner with your waiter/waitress. Our waiter kept talking to us during our meal which was endearing but slowly became annoying and pestering. I can see why people take large groups here or their kids; that's what it was best designed for. This isn't a place for a nice, tasteful, relaxing meal. It's meant to be quirky and tacky. In order to enjoy this place you definitely have to soak in the gaudiness and cheapness of the place. read more

Very interesting place. Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz was out waitress. I am not sure where toto was, but Snow White had the table behind us. We really weren't sure what this place was all about when we walked in the door, but by the time we left, we were entertained in a strange, I can't believe this, sort of way. If you have young children, it is a great spot. Seniors, be ready for some noises you can only get from your grandkids. read more

We have been coming here for years on our kids birthdays and this last time was just horrible! (1 star max) Superman didn't make it memorable looked like he didn't like his job. Good was blah and there was just nothing special. Maybe time for new employees. Not fun very boring and it's supposed to be magical for the kids. Normally this place doesn't disappoint but for the price and the reputation we expected alot more, as we usually get... a fun memorable time. read more

Shame on all you people reviewing less than 5 stars! This place is amazing! The building is the original school house for Addison from way back when, there is a bit of an 'old building smell' but look past this and see the amazing experience that waits for you and your family. We had Captain Jack Sparrow and he was great! We were a very high maintenance table(11 people total-- 2 kids, 1, toddler, and 2 new borns.. And 3 pairs of parents who needed a night out). Our food came out quickly and was very tasty. Our kids walked around the restaurant and got autographs from all the characters. I love my bubbling potion drink and my kids thought theirs were pretty sweet too! Go to magic time machine, enjoy it, have fun and laugh a lot! read more

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I'm in my car right now as I write this review. I called in a takeout order 57 minutes from the writing of this review and it is still not ready. I know u may be asking "why a takeout order? The food here generally sucks!" I agree, but A takeout order was made and here i sit. I had the girl at the "front desk" take down my number to call me when the order was ready. This is all on the manager who took the order over the phone and assured me that the order would be cooking 5 minutes before my arrival time so it would be ready. I have no idea why he would say that if I'm in this situation right now. If u love being surrounded by stale cigarette smoke smell, crappy food, horrible waits, and bad service, this is your place. I can't believe people bring herds of children to this place. Add a 100 unresrtricted children to the poor customer experience and see how far your patience can be pushed. I hope your experience is better than mine... preferably because u went somewhere else :-) read more

I'm giving 3stars cause I like the pace and our Pirate server. But what happened to the birthday celebration? They ask when we arrive if we are celebrating and then.........NOTHING. We bragged about how fun this place was growing up, and it's kinda a let down. Again, why ask if we are celebrating and then not celebrate?? But I'm glad my niece told me thank you for her $100 meal because she was handed the check as a birthday card. read more

i love this restaurant, great staff, always makes me smile! kid and adult friendly and the atmosphere is something else. easy 5 stars on yelp. if you ever want to go somewhere that isn't totally boring and really fun i would 100% recommend coming here. read more

Absolutely horrible. We came from out of state & wanted to have a fun night for the kids. We arrived at 5:30 pm & got on waitlist with a 3 & a half - 4 hour wait. We expected that, so we weren't upset about it. We waited 4 hours & unfortunately were one of the last tables. The actors were all obviously ready to leave & didn't come up to us or anything. When we first arrived, I took the kids around the restaurant & saw the actors interacting with a lot of other tables. Be prepared to bring cash for the balloon man, we didn't know he was supposed to be tipped and when we asked for another balloon for the baby, he rolled his eyes and let out a long sigh and said hold on .. yeah I guess I will. We said thank you and he just left as fast as he could. So awkward. We then saw how nice he was when we saw another table tip him. We didn't know! Overall, it was a horrible experience, everyone looked annoyed to have to deal with us, food was gross, and we waited 4 hours for that. read more

I love the concept of this family restaurant. I have been several times in the past. I don't expect 5 star food and service. I just don't understand why the reviews are the same for years and years. Why doesn't mgmt. do something about these issues? I bet if they made changes to the negative reviews people would return all the time rather than "take a chance" every couple of years. PLEASE get new carpet, renovate, keep the restrooms clean so that the new generation can enjoy! read more

This place is impressive the first time here...however once u have been here a few times the appeal is lost and you start to see what's wrong with it. 1) the servers/actors are not very versed in the menu. They don't know what the soup is. I watched them all make up what they thought the soups were. This place is extremely children friendly and perfect of you have the kids. Otherwise, go the hundreds of other options on belt line. read more

This was my first time here. We made a reservation and were seated promptly. The restaurant wasn't busy at all so we had some space to walk around after we ordered. The decor was pretty neat. It was my daughters 8th birthday and she absolutely loved all of the different themes. Now, for our server, we did have to wait a very long time to receive our check, after she took our order we rarely saw her. I don't blame her for that at all, being a server is no easy task! It's exhausting to say the least. Our server was Miss Piggy, she was incredibly rude. Honestly, she was just plain mean. She made it very obvious that she had no time for our table when she blatantly told us she had no time for us along with various other snarky remarks. We all felt very uncomfortable and not welcomed. I just wanted to get out of there. The food was decent, I had the salmon and rice which both were dry. My husband had a burger and that was really good! Our other four people said their food was good as well. When it comes to the mediocre food with a high price, I know you really pay for the ambiance. At the end, our server got a friend and they sang happy birthday to my daughter which was super fun! She got a cookie with a scoop of ice cream as well. I thought the restaurant was clean and very well put together. read more

We were celebrating a birthday and the wait wasn't bad for us since we got there right as they opened. We got seated down and the drinks were great but about 5 or 6 of us ordered the Roman Orgy and the waitress made it seem like it was going to be a lot of food but it wasn't really that much. And everyone got a free salad and when she went to hand me mine she spilled Italian dressing on the person next to me. I got the Chciken alfredo with Bell peppers but the chicken was burnt. And accompanied to the Roman Orgy was a fruit bowl but the fruit was warm from sitting right next to the hot food. The waitress wasn't very entertaining and it was really boring. And we didnt even get a free dessert for the birthday guest! The thing that made everything worse was the bathroom doors didnt stay closed in the girls bathroom. There was no toilet paper whatsoever and there was no paper towels. And mind you this, they have only been open for an hour and a half through all this. It was definitely a place that is ould not go back to due to the prices being incredibly expensive but the entertainment and the service/food did not match the prices. Nit a place I would recommend. read more