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    Spare Time Des Moines

    3.1 (27 reviews)
    Open • 10:00 am - 11:00 pm

    Spare Time Des Moines Photos

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    SPARE TIME DES MOINES ATMOSPHERE

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    Heidi H.

    Never been here before. Was excited to try out the happy hour. I met a friend. She had been sitting at the bar about 5 minutes when I arrived. There was one gentleman at the bar finishing up his drink. No employees. Menues were spread across the bar. We sat there for about 6 min more (so my friend has been there 10-12 now) and employees came out of the back area. She looked at us, did not acknowledge us. Went to the printer. She then went back in the back and came back out with gloves and proceeded to put them on. She glanced at us again and never acknowledged us. After 15 minutes and Noone acknowledging us we left. Was hoping to find a new place close to where a large group of my friends work, to hist happy hours.

    Bowling Alley
    Michael B.

    Spare Time is truly what Des Moines and it's suburbs was missing. This location provides an array of options for family friendly fun suitable for a kids birthday party or a dad looking to watch the Hawkeyes game with a beer. Spare time offers a bowling alley, arcade, escape rooms and laser tag. The service was great and present through the evening. I didn't need to look more than a few seconds to locate any employee. As it ranks, the arcade is reasonably priced compared to most averaging $1.50 per game. Game cards are reloadable and tickets are collected via the card as well which makes keeping track for future visits super easy. Bowling at Spare Time is great. The lanes are high tech with sensors that relocate pins and refund balls quicker than traditional lanes. There are also lots of fame styles available at the lanes. Shoes and balls were clean. and seating area is comfortable and spacious. Bowling at Spare Time is quite expensive compared to most alleys in the area, starting at $60 for 1.5 hours not including shoe rental. I paid $80 for three people for 1.5 hours. Nonetheless for the comfort and experience it was worth the cost. Will update review further as I experience more of what Spare Time has to offer.

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    2 years ago

    MADI is a 10 out of 10! The experience wouldn't have been the same without her! We will 100% be back because of her!

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    Ask the Community - Spare Time Des Moines

    Any gluten free options?

    Hi Alex, we do have gluten free 11" pizzas

    View All 2 Questions

    Review Highlights - Spare Time Des Moines

    “We came for laser tag and hung out in the arcade until it was our turn.”

    Mentioned in 4 reviews

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    Dave & Buster's Des Moines

    Dave & Buster's Des Moines

    3.3(27 reviews)
    0.1 mi

    Walked into Dave & Buster's in the middle of the afternoon on a Saturday. We wanted to grab a…read morequick bite to eat and play some games. Close parking to the front entrance can be hard to find at peak times even with the business being adjacent to Jordan Creek Mall. There's plenty of spots, but you might have to hike a little. My guess is mall guests utilize the parking right in front of Dave & Buster's too while they shop. The gentlemen at the host station said the wait for a table would be 1 1/2 hours despite there being visibly plenty of open tables... Not enough staff to cover all the sections maybe? Or maybe they were reserved...? There were seats open at the bar so we headed that direction. The full food menu is available at the bar too. Seating is mostly larger open booths, high top tables and chairs, and the seating at the bar. Our bartender/server was nice enough. We ordered the following: 1x Cheese Stick Stack - "Extra-large crispy cheese sticks topped with shredded Parmesan. Served with marinara sauce." 1x Bar Burgers & Wings Platter. Wings with honey barbecue - "Smashed burger sliders paired with Bone-In Wings with your choice of sauce or dry rub. Served with seasoned fries and celery sticks with your choice of ranch or bleu cheese." 1x Hottie burger and fries - "Two cajun-spiced smashed burger patties, topped with pickled jalapeños, pepperjack cheese, lettuce, pickles, tomato, onions, jalapeño ranch, and a fried jalapeño." 2x Fountain drinks (Coke products) 1x Dangerous Waters Island Punch - "Malibu Coconut, Blue Curaçao, pineapple, and fresh citrus mix." As nice as our bartender was I think he keyed something in wrong with the Bar Burgers & Wings Platter. The wings were forgotten. They (him and a manager) straightened it out and adjusted our bill a little. The food was all good. The stand out to both of us was the Cheese Stick Stack. This is an awesome app with an epic cheese pull! The wings were REALLY good too... After our food and drinks we spent some time playing games. Just messing around... A good mix of old or new arcade games. Skee ball, basketball games, clown ball toss, whack a mole, water gun race, coin pushes, wheels of chance, etc. The place was clean and there were staff available on the floor if you ran into any problems or had questions. A decent way to kill an afternoon. https://www.daveandbusters.com/

    I was organizing a company team outing here…read more The customer service on the phone was helpful as I was struggling with the options provided on the website for our small groups. IF you are trying to put together a group of less than 10 you cant utilize their offered company team building . I was informed there would have to be exceptions made to make it work. Once we figured out what would work for us we did 3 smaller groups in the middle of the week in the middle of the day. The atmosphere is loud. Even with no one else really in there. The waitress was fantastic with my group. I explained what we were doing and order the meal and play with play cards for our group. She talked me through what she was going to do and helped make sure it worked out alright. Hang onto your D&B cards, they can be reloaded. You will have to pay a small fee to reload, but no as much if you have reactivate a new card. There are some really big games. You can win "tickets" of course. I thought the place was bigger, but the gaming area is half and the eating/bar is on the other. Circling back on the food. That was a shock. It was really good. Far better than I had thought. I got the burger and was pleasantly full. Everyone in our group of 7 enjoyed their meals. Everyone left happy and full. Again my waitress was very helpful and accommodating. I want to try this again since she said the team building is actually pretty cool. I think I have an idea so that we can meet the team minimums.

    Photos
    Dave & Buster's Des Moines - Bar and dining

    Bar and dining

    Dave & Buster's Des Moines
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    Games

    Old School Pinball and Arcade - Pinball wall

    Old School Pinball and Arcade

    4.5(20 reviews)
    8.1 mi

    For almost a year, my youngest son and I would go up just about every week. Well worth the 45 min…read moredrive from home! A lot of times my oldest son would come with us. His girlfriend even came with us a few times. We always had a blast. Great place if you're into pinball , and classic arcades. The staff was always very friendly. Look forward to going back when school schedules and sports wind down a bit.

    With a wall of pinball machines, a special room full of even more spectacular pinball games and so…read moremany retro games (with a few newer ones in the mix) how can you go wrong? We could have played here for many more hours! One price gets you all the games you can stand until closing time. There's something for about all ages and skill levels. We loved the selection. They have a party room which would be great for a celebration or event. The menu has a variety of fun ice cream treats. There is a slightly higher fee if you're going to use the special room of pinball machines. It would be very worth it if you were intending to play yourself and not there with a small child. The only bad thing is the "all for one price" deal gives rise to many ADHD players who seem to hop from one game to another without having played for more than a minute or two. Many machines are sitting mid-game from players walking away. Plus there's no thrill of winning the extra ball at pinball or extra player in a game because there's no weight to the loss. The space also fills up so much there's little to no walking room so you have to squeeze between players once there's more than a dozen or two in there. As a tip: a couple of the pinball games were stuck at a selection screen or unable to provide any balls. The power switch tends to be on the bottom, front right side. If you reach under and power off for 10 seconds and back on they all reset and appeared to work perfectly. Our six year old loved it and we plan to be back again soon.

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    Gameday - Cincinnati Chili

    Gameday

    4.4(40 reviews)
    7.0 mi

    A group of six of us met for happy hour on a fairly busy Wednesday evening. They have great food…read moreand drink specials during happy hour so we tried a number of different items. We had a few plates of the loaded nachos with chicken and with beef... They were heaped high and delicious. Plenty on each plate for two or three people. The meat additions are not discounted during happy hour, but even at full price with the half-price nachos it's a bargain. Others in our group got the quesadillas and we shared some deviled eggs. All of them are very tasty. We also got some cheese balls. They were pretty much the standard fair but also very good. Drinks are another great bargain during the happy hour with discounted beer and mixed drinks. All the drinks were very tasty. Our server was Bailey. She was very pleasant, fun, and enthusiastic. The food came out very quickly, and the drinks came off the bar in a very reasonable time as well. There is a large U-shaped bar and plenty of booth and table seating along with that outdoor patio. There is a 4% non-cash adjustment for using your credit card. Definitely a very discounted happy hour, but the food was delicious and I would try it again for happy hour or just for dinner

    It's a fun time for the kids. A little pricey for what you're doing. Fun time to watch a game or…read morehave some drinks. I haven't had any food so I can't give an opinion on that.

    Photos
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    Gameday - Giant pretzel appetizer with cheese dipping sauce. Very good! Highly recommend

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    Spare Time Des Moines - bowling - Updated October 2026

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