So many great pinball machines and some cool retro games. Bar service is not great though. I've…read morewaited somewhere up-to 20 minutes to get served. And the bartender doesn't know he basic drinks or what there is on tap. She asked us what tap was the beer my friend asked for. I get it though. They need more than one yet it at the same time isn't quite busy enough for more employees. Just need someone who can handle the bar. Games are amazing though. My son loved it!!

Did an escape room here. They were very friendly and accommodating. The escape room was fun and two…read moreof us were able to complete it in time (after our friends couldn't make it). A couple of the puzzles were a bit unclear but the game master gave us great hints and we had a fun time.

Ok place. They have a large beer selection. Games are free to play with purchase, but it seemed…read morelike some of the buttons of the games I played were off. Something fun to do for a little bit. It does get cramped in there.

Review Visit: July 24th, 2016…read more Beer, arcade games and friends. My kind of place. Growing up, I got involved in playing video games thanks to my father and friends. Everything from Atari to Sega Genesis to Super Nintendo to Gameboy; everything in-between and everything after. Once I was legally allowed to enjoy adult beverages, I grew to enjoy beer a few years later. Shortly after, 8 Bit opened up. Having a lifelong love for video games and a recently acquired taste for beer, I gathered a few of my nerdy friends up and headed that way. 8 Bit is a pretty unique place. It's a bar that is also an arcade. It looks like a normal business situated at the end of a building but inside is a different story. Upon walking, you get the feeling you are in a house. You have some stairs that lead up to... somewhere. Off to the right of the entrance is the smallish bar. Between the bar tables and the machines, it can get pretty packed with just a handful of people. As you deviate from the bar, you'll find yourself in a hallway that has one machine at the end on the left, that is tucked under the stairs. Next to that is a room that full of 6-8 games (it could vary, I am not sure). Going back in to the hallway, you'll find the next room down on the left. That room is L-shaped and has maybe 12 games in it. At the end of the hallway, are the bathrooms. All the games are free to play as long as you are ordering drinks and spending money. Instead of loading your pockets full of quarters, you just have to load your belly up with beer. A fair trade off in my opinion. The beercade has a nice beergarden to enjoy. On my first visit here, my friends and I ordered a few drinks and headed outside to play some Pokemon Go. After polishing off my beer, I noticed there was a window in which you could order beer from the bar through. That is exactly what I did. I ordered another beer through the window. I thought that was pretty cool. While we were there playing Pokemon Go, another group of people came in and was playing Pokemon Go. We noticed they were playing as we kept battling for the Gym that was located nearby. At one point, that group sent someone out to spy on us as we battled for the gym. After noticing the other group was taking this too serious, we decided to close the app, head inside and play the arcade games. The selection of arcade games is about your standard fare. There are your usual games but they also had a few games I've never seen before. We played games for a bit longer before heading out. Now, this wasn't my only time I have come here. Ever since this visit, I have been back a few times with various other friends. Each visit has been unique. The first time I went, they offered food. The subsequent visits had no food options due to law changes. The last time I went was in late 2019 and they had this sweet system set up at the bar. It was operated with some aftermarket SNES controller and had almost every retro game available. My friend Nate and I spent more time browsing the catalog than gaming. It was such a sweet system and I wish I had it at home. 8 Bit has expanded to a second location in Bloomington, IL. I have yet to check it out but it is on my short list of places to visit. I feel like it's my duty as a gamer to check out not just the 2nd location but all beercades across the world. If you have the chance to check one out, you don't even need to be a gamer to enjoy these kinds of places.

Laser Tag + Arcade Birthday Party was HUGE hit for our 7 year old son and his buddies. Staff was…read moregreat and not uptight about the number of attendees etc. Totally reasonably priced too. For the amount of fun they had in 2 hours it was WELL worth it! I believe the max is 20 players for laser tag. We had a few dads stay and play both sessions and everyone loved it. Each player gets a printout of their gaming score to see how they did. For the record, you can bring your own cake but other food (pizza, ice cream, pitchers of drinks) need to be bought onsite.

Awesome place for family fun. They have a great package that includes bowling, pizza, arcade…read moretokens, etc... A cost effective way to keep the kids busy for a couple hours. Food is great, full bar, clean and helpful staff. I had the pleasure of talking with the manager who is a truly outstanding customer focused individual. She was so helpful and kind. You can't go wrong with this place. Make sure to call ahead to check for lane availability, as they stay busy and accommodate leagues as well.

Review Visit: July 26th, 2016…read more A mountain of shenanigans has been had here. Disclaimer; I've been to Mt. Hawley to play mini-golf quite a few times. It's one of the casual things I like to do to spend an afternoon hanging with my friends. Plus, who doesn't have fun playing mini-golf? Especially if your friends are in to shenanigans. Matt, Tim, and I came here in late 2011. This was the year before I started to travel as my main hobby. When we came here, we had intentions of just playing mini-golf and that was in... but once we go inside, we knew we were going to stick around for some shenanigans. Before we even paid for our clubs and ball, we got distracted by the little arcade they had set up inside. We probably spent more time than we expected playing the games and winning those cheap candy prizes from some of the machines. Eventually, we worked our way to the mini golf area. It's been a few years since I've been here so my memory is a bit sketchy of the layout. But this place has your typical 18 holes. I believe the 18th hole is one where you can try to get you ball in a certain area for a free game. I can't say I ever won that prize but the price of admission is cheap enough that you don't feel bad for making a crap shot. The course itself is pretty spacious and sprawling. Each hole feels distinct and away from the next one that you never feel like you will be bumping in to people playing at the adjoining hole. I've had that happen a few other places. During my visit in 2011, I remember making a hole-in-one shot on the 15th hole. I took a victory shot with the number out of excitement. I suck at mini-golf so to get a hole-in-one was a miracle. Or black magic. Or luck. It was one of those 3 things. I came back in 2016 to add this place to my Travel List and... I almost got another hole-in-one on the 15th hole. How awesome would that have been! I did some close on a few of the other holes but no dice. My girlfriend and I get pretty competitive during a game of mini-golf. We usually make a bet before we begin for ice cream and I usually end up having to pay. At least its a delicious loss. They do offer bowling here as well. I like to dabble in a game or two but I've honestly never played here. There is also a bar but I've also never used it, so I don't have much to say beyond that. Should I get to experience either of these two things, I will update this post with information/photos. Mt. Hawley is one of my favorite places to go for mini-golf. I'm not sure why but there's just something about this place that draws me to it. Maybe because it's usually not busy and they have some arcade games to play before or after partaking in mini-golf and/or bowling. Time to text my friends and see if anyone wants to beat me in mini-golf.

I have bowled over 35 years at this establishment and the owner and staff that he employs are…read moreamazing. A great place to take your family miniature golfing and bowling. I wouldn't bowl any place else.

Who closes at 8 on a Friday? Terrible business. This would be a fun thing to do for families that's…read moresafe after dark. But closing at 8 leaves minimal time. Do better

My boss wanted to do a team building event so he decided we should go bowling. Uncle Bucks is next…read moredoor/attached to the Bass Pro Shop in Peoria. Upon arrival it looked like a massive place but once in side it was easy to tell that Uncle Bucks has seen better days. For being a family fun center/bowling alley its decor was very grim with bad lighting and the TVs are very old. We ordered food and drinks from the bar and the bartender was friendly and took our requests with no issues. The buffalo chicken tacos were below average, they needed more chicken and less lettuce. They had fried pickles on them which were good. The french fries were decent too. My coworkers didn't have great things to say about their orders. If you're looking for a cheap place to bowl and have a few drinks then Uncle Bucks is a good option, but I wouldn't go solely for the food.

This has got to be one of the hidden gems of Peoria…read more Although this place is a little on the old side, it's a great spot. Located just a few minutes from the Northwoods Mall (aka Old Mall), this place has an arcade with some throwback games like Sonic and Pacman along with some great others, an 8 lane bowling alley, 2 ping-pong tables, and of course lots of pool tables. A great place to hang out with some good friends. Did I mention that this place also serves food?! A great fries and burger joint and the prices aren't bad either! A couple of dollars makes for a great time here. I'll definitely be coming back for more!

Some of the staff are friendly, some are judge mental. The free ping pong is a lot of fun!! The…read morebowling lanes are taking care of in a rough manner - not a lot of oil most days. Great place to bring your family as it is a Christian environment. However, don't step your toe out of line, the staff will call you on it.

Review Visit: February 2nd, 2012…read more Where a kid can be a kid and adults can look for some ibuprofen at the ticket redemption counter. A first for this blog is having a Nostalgic Rating on top of the normal Rating. I decided to do this since, as a kid, I had been to this location for many birthday parties and such. While I wish the ratings were the same, the place just isn't what it used to be. I'm saying that without rose-tinted glasses on. Chuck E Cheese was one of the first places some friends and I visited at the beginning of my travels. All of us had been here before. Not as adults but plenty of times as kids. It was time to see if the place still had it's charm after growing up. As a kid, we would have birthday parties here and it was a great time. Running around, drinking an obnoxious amount of sodas (I even mixed different sodas together), getting pizza grease all over our hands and the games. It was always a blast. Then the animatronic band would perform at random intervals. Good times. Fast forward to when we all have jobs and can afford as many tokens as we want. There was a lot of worry that we wouldn't be able to get in since we didn't have a child between all of us. I told them that it shouldn't be a problem and it wasn't as we strolled in without issue. The first thing I noticed was that the place basically looked the same. The same layout. The same kids running around screaming about needing more tokens or how many tickets they just won. It felt familiar. We stepped up to the counter and ordered some pizza, drinks and some tokens to come with our food. We snagged at table in the dining area, where there just happened to be a birthday party going on at the same time. Luckily it was a tame party and they kept to themselves. Our pizza came out and it looked and smelled just like I remembered. Cheap and terrible for you. Not only did it look and smell the same, it tasted the same. Thin, cheap and barely scraping by with a decent flavor. This was to be expected but it still would've been nice to see The Chuck put a bit more effort in their food after so long. As I said, it was to be expected so no complaints there. We finished up our pizza, divvied our tokens and hit the gaming area. It was nice to see some old familiar machines while also exploring some new ones. They had classics like Skeeball and a really old Simpsons Arcade game that my friends and I could never beat. They had some new stuff. It was nice to see the old mixed in with the new. It is also nice they try to keep the machines somewhat new and exciting. While we were exploring and gaming, we kept having kids run in to us or be rude. That was frustrating as I know I didn't act like that when I was these kids age. Not only that, but some of the parents were the definition of rude. Cutting in front of us, giving us nasty looks, yelling directly next to us at their kids. Other parents were letting their kids run around with no control at all. This all lead to a ton of frustration as we tried to just play a few games and have fun. I know, I know. This is a place aimed at kids. There were a ton of well-behaved kids but the ones who were awful were extremely awful. At one point, we were playing around on this horse-riding machine and they had The Chuck some out and do some dancing games with the kids. During this, the person in the Chuck outfit and his dancers would throw tickets up in the air for kids to pick up. When this happened, the adults wandered in and started snatching up all the tickets in a very greedy manner. While we watched in amazement, I just thought... is this what the place is like now? Our visit probably lasted about 2 hours between pizza and trying to play games. We did manage to have fun despite the chaos of everything going on around us. The pizza was just as I remembered. The games, while some were new, were the same as when I was a kid. We managed to turn our tickets in to some cheap toys and candy, as one normally does at a place like this. Luckily, if anyone that isn't 3 feet tall needs to get their gaming itch in Peoria, there is now Round 1. If you don't have a Round 1 in your area, there is always Dave & Busters or GameWorks to check out. Save your sanity and only come to Chuck E Cheese if you have kids or are attending a child's birthday party.

Phone disappeared from game area, girl behind the counter said they didn't have it and after I rang…read moreit with my watch the cook suddenly appeared with it. Very suspicious

Phenomenal store with a great staff. Slew of options to choose from. Outstanding deals for valued…read moreproducts. 5 starts all around.

I've been coming here with my dad for several years now. We used to trade in games and movies…read more We just came in recently and the selection on movies has diminished drastically. It's mostly Funko Pops now along the walls. Kinda disappointing. Now that all the streaming platforms are upping prices, I figured more people with be looking to buy back their physical copies of movies again, but they are mostly selling memorabilia now.