Okay, so this is a chain restaurant, with 55 locations around the country. And until recently, I had never heard of them before. I vaguely remember driving by a Dave & Busters somewhere, and wondering if it was something like the now defunct college-inspired men's clothing chain of stores Steve & Barry's. Thanks to a co-worker who wants to try this place, I was educated that this is a Chuck E. Cheese's for adults. Since my co-worker told me that, I did manage to catch one TV ad for this place as well.
We were a bit lost when we first walked into this restaurant. You have three choices when you go in--1) head for the bar, 2) walk through a dining area, past some pool tables, and head for the arcade, or 3) walk past the bar and the high tables to a hostess podium which was unmanned. It seemed like a bit far to go to be seated, almost as if you were walking half way into the restaurant before being greeted. But for a place that seems to be only about a quarter of conventional dining space, perhaps that's appropriate.
In looking at the menu, this is the first place we have dined that has now started listing calories on its menus for their various menu items, in accordance with the new Health Care Act. That alone was almost mind boggling. We looked at one item we were interested in, saw the calories listed, and moved on to something else. Well, it seemed like all of the subsequent dishes only went up in calories, so we returned to the items that we started looking at after all. We decided to order off of the Eat and Play menu--where they offer 8 entrees plus a $10 arcade play card for $15.99. They also offer additional entrees and the play card for more money, or you can upgrade your play card for more money as well. We informed our waitress that we had never been to a Dave & Busters before, and she was nice enough to explain how the arcade worked--how we should keep our credit card-like cards for the arcade as the credits and the tickets from the games never expire, plus it's $2 to activate a new card.
I went with the philly cheesesteak sandwich, sans mushrooms--why ruin a good thing?--for my meal. I've only had a philly cheesesteak perhaps twice before, and never once actually in Philadelphia. That hardly makes me an expert in this particular type of food, and I suspect that unless I (or someone else from Minnesota) spent considerable time in Philadelphia, I could never be an expert in this. And again, this is a chain restaurant, but yet, I thoroughly enjoyed my hoagie filled with melted cheese and thinly sliced steak, topped with sauteed onions and peppers. A cheesesteak is a simple enough sandwich to make, and it's hard to imagine someone making one wrong--unless it's dripping wet and the hoagie were to become soggy and then utterly gross. I didn't have to worry about that here, though. The seasoned fries were your typical sports bar fries, nothing spectular, but yet, better than many places. I never use ketchup for my fries, nor did I need to with these.
The waitress was attentive, bringing a refill on my Diet Coke without being having to be asked for it. She also offered a third refill if I wanted, saying that it can be taken into the arcade with us as well, which I declined. I was also asked if I wanted a refill of my drink by another worker (perhaps a manager?), and when I declined, he asked if I was sure I didn't want another one. There is obviously no sitting at a table with an empty glass here.
The gaming arcade had some interesting game choices, some that give you tickets for playing, and some that don't. They don't have that many classic arcade games, but they do have a number of shooting games, games of skill, games of luck, some sporting games, some shooting games, and racing games. Games tend to cost about 4-5 points each (and usually some odd number, like 4.2) but they can go up as high as 11 credits per game play that we saw. Well, until you play 2000 game credits, when you can get a discount on how much each game costs. That's only another 1952 for us.
As you walk out of the restaurant, you can join their promo club to receive emails and specials to be sent to you, just by swiping your gaming card. It's easy and free to do, plus by joining, you will get $10 in free gaming credits. We don't get up to Maple Grove that much, so I don't know how much we will return to eat and/or play here, unfortunately, but I am sure we will return here when we are able.
Travelling through the mountains from Skagway, Alaska, on the way through northern British Columbia to the Yukon territory, you will find (as we did) a pink blossomed weed standing in brilliant contrast to the greens and the blue of the mountain lakes. It may surprise you to learn that this plant, known as fireweed, could be used in cooking. You will find fireweed in such things as jelly, syrup, candy, and ice cream. Fireweed nectar honey is also common.
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