I cannot believe we've never been here before. First of all you have to pay for downtown parking…read morewhich was okay. Second no shoes so bring some socks unless you want to be grossed out. Third such a cute space with a lot of things for kids of all ages to do and little games and toys. Everyone was so friendly and my guy had a great time. Cannot wait to go back

What an awesome way to cool off in the summer heat. Thank you First Methodist Downtown for this…read morefree experience! Located inside the church, this play center is for ages 0-5 years of age. Let me say it again - FREE! Little slides, a climbing structure, artificial grass to play on. There is also a classroom set up with toys and games. And better yet, you can bring in your own food and drinks and eat lunch with your little. There are cubbies to store your shoes and other items. There is a sink located in the classroom as well as a changing table. When you enter, you'll check in and you'll get the low down. It wasn't over crowded when I was there and you don't need to make a reservation. Parking may be tricky the first time. There is parking across the street on Clay and a block over - catty corner to the church. If you park along the green fence in one of those two lots - it is free! There are reserved signs pained in the spots - but a little hard to read. If you are concerned about where you parked then just ask the security guard when you entire the church. I took off one star only because with any park-the older kids can trample the littles. Sometimes I felt like some parents weren't keeping an eye on their kids - but that's anywhere. I highly suggest this place for your little if you want to beat the heat!!

This place is awesome…read more Play games and enjoy having fun. Pros: Variety of games Scheduled time / Clean restroom Had my kids party here and they loved it ! Cons : none

Immersive Gamebox is so much fun!…read more My husband and I were enjoying our staycation in Downtown Houston, and decided to give this place a try. We opted for the ever-popular Squid Games. It definitely was an "immersive experience" as the entire room became a touchscreen of the game. We'd love to come back with our friends to try the other games!

I might just have to do a national barcade tour. We were here on Sunday afternoon, so there were…read morepeople everywhere, but I still had a blast. This place serves food, drinks, and has plenty of games! You can either buy your tickets in person or online beforehand. It's $12 for entry and you can stay as long as you want and come and go with unlimited game access. From what I can tell, some days have specials. Only additional purchases are food and drinks, obviously. They have pizzas, quesadillas, salads, dessert pizzas, and pizza burritos. I tried that last thing because I had never heard of it -- think of it as like a glorified hot pocket. It was delicious! I had a salad to balance things out, and I'll surprised by how hefty it was! Since I had never had their cider before, I decided to do a flight of five. When I placed my order, I was expecting them to give me a tray of five 1 oz pours... But instead, they told me the flight will consist of five 5 oz cups.... WHOA. So I grabbed the first two and had to come back for the rest after I finished. Every single one was delicious, but I really liked the mango habanero and the one with the coconut. Now, the games... I rarely come to a barcade that has TWO Guitar Hero setups. And they had plenty of classic cabinets, air hockey, Mario Kart, shooting games... Claw machines... It was quite epic. By the way, the claw machines did cost extra, and I peeped a party room in the back that had those interactive team floor games! That would be fun to reserve for a special occasion. This place really impressed me. If you enjoy games in a bar setting, I would recommend this spot if you are in the Houston area.

Cidercade is a good option for a big group activity that's (thankfully!) indoors, away from the…read moreHouston heat. I've been there with a group of adults and also with a group of kids, and just note that while it's totally fine (and very fun!) for kids, it's probably better for adults--there's no kid security check-in at the front, and the building is very big, with lots of games. We ordered a pizza from a touchscreen by a food window, and the pizza was actually pretty good, much better than I was expecting at an arcade. The downside was that, in the lunch rush, it took 30-40 minutes for that one pizza to come out, though you could tell they were individually making each item in the big pizza oven. If you want drinks, you separately order those at the front, near where you check in, which is a little odd to have two separate food/drink ordering spots. When we walked in, we paid for a wristband, which gave "free" access to all of the arcade games, except for the claw machines, which required you to buy an extra card.

There was no graffiti at all, entire neighborhood is being renovated and everything's been removed…read more Huge waste of time but don't want anyone else making the same mistake

Whether it's showing out of town guests around or an impromptu photoshoot, Graffiti Park in EaDo is…read moreworth a visit when in HTown. It gives me NYC 5 Pointz (#1) vibes with its colorful array of urban art. This experience is free and is the perfect tub of murals while capturing the city's Urban essence in an area that is changing by the minute. Find a good weather day and enjoy the street parking along Leeland and bring a camera to capture all the colors, convivial designs, and endless homages to mainstream heads and thought provoking concepts. This isn't a place that is often advertised as something people should see, but I think it should be on everyone's itinerary when visiting Houston. The other bonus is that it's rarely ever crowded. On the weekends, this part of town is in brunch mode but it's a quiet place and perfect for the casual tourist, the ever loving art fan, or just someone looking to diversify their social media feed. It is one of my favorite places to go in town. ___________ (#1) R.I.P: https://www.yelp.com/biz/5-pointz-long-island-city?hrid=05Il9SSjbIcv3lSEaHzdIA&utm_campaign=www_review_share_popup&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=(direct)

This project featured artists from all over the world, with the furthest being from Taiwan, ChingYu…read moreCheng. She used natural wood and local fabrics to give her art an airy, breezy and natural twist. When I walked up to her house, it was windy and you could see the wind blow through her various fabrics, all so colorful, as if I was in a field of flowers. The soft gentle swoosh as each piece of fabric blew with the wind. The smell of cedar, oak from the wood! The houses on this row each told a different story, one about natural 4C hair, the journey to make it manageable while still searching to find the beauty within it, growing up in a shotgun house on Monterey, family pictures, watching old family videos and listening to the record player, the clay from all around Houston, the inability of seeds, fruit trees and Lucious tropical plants to be able to grow within it due to its lack of moisture retention and minerals and being thrown into a fairy tail, one with diverse characters of color as the main characters! This project was incredible with unspeakable artistry by some amazing artists! The winner received a monetary donation of $25,000. Best of luck to them all and thank you for the incredible installation!!

We came here for an event for Safiya Sinclair's novel, How to Say Babylon. There are few allocated…read moreparking spaces, but plenty areas to park on the street. The space is clean and organized, and everyone was extremely helpful. I cannot wait to return to visit the actual houses/exhibit offered. Third Ward is an absolute gem.

Great comedy club if you're visiting Houston for the first time like me. We attended the showcase…read moreof their best comedians. My friend and I ended up having a great time! Plenty of laughs. Parking was also easy to find a few blocks away.

I was here a few months ago for the Ballyhoo! concert; saw this was near the Truck Yard bar so I…read moreknew I could find parking on the street (which I did). Previous reviews mentioned this venue serves as a bar, dance club, comedy club, and concert setting all into one. And they are correct in that regards. There is also an upstairs area with an outside patio if you want to catch some fresh air or take a smoke break. As for the inside stage area, it has some nice sound quality although it can get hot due to the amount of people it can pack inside. Ballyhoo! drew quite the crowd which I'm not surprised with. There's a bar in the main lobby area and in each room where it's full bar and a decent amount of beers on tap. Drinks are pricy as it's during shows so dont' expect dive-bar prices when you're planning to get your drink on here. I'll probably be here for future shows should I find any artists that suit my music/comedy tastes.

Pros: my friend loves meow wolf. She's been to several and loves them. This one is alien radio…read morestation themed. The attention to detail is amazing. Cons: clean and safe and interesting. Not actually in one cup of tea, but I know people who make it a life goal to go to these.

We liked it, 7 out of 10 for sure..but color factory was less oppressive and dark side. Meow Wolf…read moredidn't appeal to the littles (under 10) because they were too eager to move to the next thing to fully enjoy each thing in the moment. The first room you get to was the dj booth and it was severely underwhelming...only the one 40 year old male in our group liked it. The littles couldn't figure out how to make it work well enough for them to enjoy...and they refused to let anyone help them. The 1950s vibe with its paneling felt cheap and aesthetically reeked of Grandmas house. Just my opinion but I'd modernize those 1950s elements to make the experience less "Munsters" and more "Monsters Inc."...but with todays "Maxamalist" trend, most people will probably appreciate the "WKRP in Cincinnati" vibe. Overall, from an artist perspective it was too much junk and not enough art in the mix. They still could have used all the junk...just in a better way in some areas. I did really love the teeny tiny bar built in to the bottom of the metal pole in cowboix hevvvven, it was an unexpected treasure and the monster bartender smoking not one but three cigarettes cracked me up. I liked the doors disguised as other things..vending machine, elevator, fridge and etc., and the concept of the tornado room but I thought it was weakly executed if the goal is to portray a tornado I would have liked to have seen the car tilted on one side like it was lifting off and possibly a bit of "wind" in the room,..the water hoses all over the place needed an exaggerated shadow or something.. but the little kids and 20-30 year old's and non artsy people would easily love it and artsy people who can just throw random paint on a canvas and call it art...those people would love it too. Maybe I've grown old and judgy because I kept finding things I wanted to "do over" or "tweek" for them. If I could just turn that off and appreciate what is already there it would have changed the whole narrative for me. Apologies to the masterminds who created all of this, on the whole it is a brilliant masterpiece. The seek and find room was fun for the kids and the rotating blacklight was a nice touch...but it was soo doomsday with all the brown and black..and I get it that its supposed to be stuff submerged in dirt but the 80s girl in me would have preferred sand instead of dirt or at least a layer of sand near the top and possibly a tiny ray of breakthough sunlight from the ceiling and maybe a layer of "water" (clear turquoise epoxy maybe?) on top to give it a ray of hope among the gloom. The dungeon room where you line up the radio waves to make lightning overhead had all the elements of being a fun room with its little alcoves, cute little cave monsters, musical wall and etc but only one person in our group of 8 was inspired to try all the things in that room...but to be fair, she's the one who downloaded the app that helped you discover all the things the room had to offer and it took a long time to make the cool ceiling light up. The little kids were so excited about going through disguised doors they forgot to look in all the cabinets to discover all the cool stuff in the break room and a few of the other rooms. Seriously, if you go, download the app..it makes the experience way better. Its not really a place you'd enjoy as much if you had mobility issues..there is an elevator but going to the elevator breaks of the flow if you are with a group with kids who want to go up and down every 5 minutes. Actually, there was a second elevator but it wasn't operational when we were there. The bathrooms were very clean and we appreciated that there were places to get a drink (cowboix hevvven) or snack (the littles got rice crispy treats) inside the attraction.

Joystix is a pinball and arcade dealer with an incredible showroom full of both classic and modern…read moremachines. A lot of people think it's a public arcade. There are numerous signs clearly displayed letting people know it is not in fact an arcade. Even the company's voicemail message makes it clear. Joystix Classic Games & Pinballs is actually a working showroom that opens once a month for Pac-Man Fever Night, when every game is set to free play. It's one of the most fun and unique experiences in Houston. We hosted my wife's birthday party here, and it was fantastic. Renting the space was simple, the staff was awesome, and having the 1820 Lounge next door made it the perfect setup for a group celebration. Everyone had an amazing time. I highly recommend booking the showroom for events, you will not be disappointed. The owner is Charlie, he is outstanding. He is friendly, passionate, and deeply knowledgeable about pinball and arcade history. You can tell he truly cares about preserving the hobby and sharing it with others. He takes care of his customers and is very courteous to those who are considering a purchase. If you love pinball, classic arcades, or just want to do something different, Joystix is a must-visit Houston gem.

GAMES. I was supposed to interact with a party but instead I played Mario Kart for 2 hours. Lovely…read moreplace and nice bar. Tonsssss of pinball and arcades.

I was invited to this show by my brother and his girlfriend who rescue stray cats and help them get…read moreadopted. As a cat-lady-in-training myself, we were surprised that we had no idea that this event existed even though this is their 61st year. Tickets were relatively inexpensive ($9.50 for adults) and it is held in the GRB. Though it is a smaller event than other events held in the GRB like Comicpalooza, I was impressed by the ample size and attendance. I parked at the meters in Discovery Green and only paid for an hour-and-a-half, but I had to run out and pay for an extra hour because we ended up staying longer than I thought. There are plenty of vendors in attendance, as well as booths by local animal shelters with kitties for adoption and informational booths by the veterinary schools (like A&M's) in Texas. I bought a couple of new toys for my kitty that were recommended to me by one of the vendors -- I tested them out on the kittens on display and they work! Haha The real stars of this show, of course, are the cats that are up for competition. Since I'm an amateur, I wasn't exactly sure what the rules were or how the competition works, but from what I can tell you enter your cat into a category based on its breed and age. There were several partitioned areas where a judge will examine each cat competing in a specific category, with spectators watching and applauding as the judge interacted with the cat and the audience to explain what they're looking for in a winner. Afterwards, there's an "Agility Contest" where the owners try to get their cats to run an obstacle course (by having them chase a toy) that is pretty hilarious -- because cats. It was also fun interacting with the various owners and watching them groom their cats. A rule of thumb though, is never to pet a cat unless the owner gives you permission, because you'll either mess up their grooming or you might transfer diseases from cat to cat. This event is definitely like heaven for cat lovers, and I'll definitely be back next year with my posse of cat ladies.

I have never been to a cat show until today and now I want to go to all the cat shows. It was so…read moremuch fun! I loved seeing the multitude of beautifully groomed and socialized animals. They are clearly loved! So many different breeds and colors. I'll be back!

Excited to try something new for my birthday , upon arrival I noticed that there's nonody there …read more No posted hours , no phone line, community center gentleman didn't know the hours either . After waiting a while I then decided to come back about 2 hours later to check again to find the same result I'm assuming this is no longer active even though the google ad is still up.website is also down. Please update or remove google ad/ website

This place was one of the coolest Houston hideaways I've ever been lucky enough to visit. Free to…read morethe public, Cherryhurst House is currently a giant art piece created by Havel Ruck Project. The artists had no boundaries as they sawed designs into the body of the house: through door frames and into the floor, ceiling, and bathroom. It is really quite a site to behold. It no longer has regular open hours, so to visit you will need to contact inquiries@cherryhursthouse.com. I just happened to contact them the day before they held another open house, so I was lucky enough to see it the very next day. Be warned, there are a few fans but if you visit in the summertime it is HOT! I heard they may not open back up until August because of this, but I'm really not sure on that front. Very cool spot that makes you think outside the box, or "house" in this case!