One and some change year ago, after a daily staring contest with The Drunken Moogle's website, I decided to Google "gaming bars in London" just to see what would come up and up popped Meltdown. I'm an American. Now, I frequent England pretty often but not usually London (which is a whole different animal). Recently I found that I would be moving to London and found myself having to spend 8-days in the beautiful multi-cultural Metropolis of a city filled with Museums, Landmarks, History... and I was most excited about visiting here.
I just recently got into the eSports scene, particularly League of Legends, and I found that there are more of us out there... and we're growing every day. I found a nice place at home (and wrote a review about it, see "Battle and Brew") and began frequenting it more often but now that I find myself moving across the Atlantic I need to find a new place and I was thrilled to find it here.
The place is a bit... dark but I like it that way. The hardwood floor looks very worn and the walls are painted black and have definitely seen the rough nights of the pub. My boyfriend and I visited with a friend we met on League of Legends and thought it would make the most sense to go for drinks there and play some games. We waltzed in RIGHT as it opened and had some time to chat with the young-looking bartender. He was friendly, but not overly and made us our drinks good and strong. Luckily and unbeknownst to us we came during Happy Hour which means £5 Cocktails which made the first trip even better. Unfortunately there are no craft brews on, nor is food served (though most pubs don't serve food). The cocktails, in my opinion, are not really worth the money out of Happy Hour but they were very tasty.
We plopped ourselves on three computer and began playing and by the time three or four games of increasingly difficult ARAM games the place was packed and there was a line for the computer I was on.
So why the deduction in stars if I'm such a fan? Well the drink selection could be a bit better but with prices in London I can understand from a business point of view why it's not bigger. Then there's the service... Now service between American bartenders and English bartenders are drastically different and I recognize that but there was just an aura about one of the bartenders. Unfortunately, I get it from most "nerdy guys" and stems from my two "X" chromosomes. It's almost a condescending and immediate judgment that because I was wearing make up and a dress with nice sandals and not donning a shirt with the TriForce or proudly sporting oddly dyed hair or wore full Cosplay attire that I am a "fake girl gamer."
Meh, maybe I'm over thinking it. Maybe the bartender was having a day off but he did at one point tell me to "calm down" when I rushed over to grab drinks I ordered during the death timer. Maybe I was just being too American. I just thought it was a bit rude and unnecessary but no permanent emotional damage was done... just a little miffed enough to mention it.
Honestly, the best quality about this bar is the niche it fills. It is geeky, it's nerdy, and you know the other patrons at this bar share the same geek nerdy hobby that you share. It's definitely worthwhile though it is a ridiculously far trip for me to frequent, though I will almost certainly be back.
So come here, grab a drink and game on. read more