Tabletop Board Game Cafe

I am so happy to have found Tabletop! For $ 5 (only five dollars! for as long as you want to play! I can’t believe people think this is expensive!), you get unlimited access to nearly 1000 games, ranging from childhood games (remember Don’t Break the Ice?) to complicated strategy games (like Settlers of Catan). The service is good, the desserts are delicious (I’ve never had any of the food though, so I can’t speak to that). Anytime we have questions or want to learn a new game, Joshua is there with an idea and an encyclopedic knowledge of the rules. Considering how expensive board games are, a place like this is a treasure! They do get busy on weekend nights, so go early, call ahead, or be willing to wait a bit at a nearby bar. It’s worth it!

Just went here for the first time and it certainly won’t be my last. It’s fairly small with 10 – 15 tables so it fills up quickly. It’s best to go as early as you can so you don’t have to wait in line at night. This place has a hip vibe and cozy feel to it. I stayed for four hours and time passed by quickly. Staff were kind, including my server Candace and a worker who was very helpful in explaining the rules for a game called Machi Koro. I didn’t get his name but he had long hair and a beard. There is also a «Staff Picks» area if you are stumped on what to play.
I would give five stars if it weren’t for the food. I ordered the avocado brovado sandwich. It took a long time to come out. The sandwich was decent but tasted a bit bland. Bread was hard and it didn’t make me full. However, that won’t hinder me from coming back. Besides the food, this place rocks! I am now officially a board game fanatic.

Every week they host the best trivia in Cleveland. Tons of board games, and a great selection of food and drinks.

I had a pretty A-​OK time here.
While a really good idea for families, this made for a questionable weekend spot because it was strangely quiet when we came in and games make already-​loud drunk people even louder. I felt like we were disrupting everyone the whole time we were here.
The cover charge is a little strange, especially when you’re likely going to spend money on drinks and food anyways. I think if they restructured this payment system, I’d be more likely to come back. Something like if you buy 2 drinks, the cover is waived.

This place is really neat! What a great idea. They have TONS of board games. If you don’t know, you pay $ 5 to play games for as long as you are there. I also really like the atmosphere. They have a limited snack menu, but the stuff we ordered was decent. They have a couple of beers on tap. I really like this place, but I so wish they had liquor. (I get why they don’t, but, still…)
I’ve already been here twice and I definitely plan to go back.
The only thing I didn’t like is that the service is pretty slow, but since you are pretty engrossed in the game in front of you, it’s not a huge deal until its time to get the check and go.

Incredibly fun, casual, friendly atmosphere with unlimited board games to play. Perfect for either a date night or a group of friends, they have beer, smoothies, and sandwiches, small bites. Definitely recommend!

Would love a different cover charge. Would have stuck around for more drinks if I wasn’t hit with a flat charge on top. Cool idea great atmosphere hard to stomach cover charge.

Great atmosphere with helpful and courteous staff. Only drank, but menu looked appealing. Seems like their cover charge encourages people to camp out, rather than stop in for a quick game. Would like to see a better deal than minimum $ 30 for 6 people — regardless of «all day pass» status — is a bit steep.

It’s not a paradox. Introverts like to go out too, and this is the perfect place for them.
This is a nice low-​key gathering place to hang out and unwind with a group of friends. There’s a very large selection of games, conveniently sorted by category. They have everything from party games, to word games, to trivia, to strategy. Whether you want to try something new, or stick to a well-​known classic, everything is here. They have a nice beer list, and some pretty good snack food and deserts.
One minor issue that we ran into was that many of the games didn’t seem to have instructions. When the place isn’t busy, the servers can help you out; but on a busy Saturday night, there were only 2 or 3 servers, and they looked pretty busy fulfilling orders. We ended up looking up the instructions on my smart phone, which was fine, but I can see how some people could be frustrated by this.

If you’re looking for something new, this is the place. My girlfriend and I checked this out a couple weeks ago and we aren’t board game people. I mean we like them, but our experience is limited to Monopoly and Sorry.
We showed up, were quickly greeted with a beer, and a friendly waiter. I forgot his name, which is absolutely critical to this review. I think it was Josh or Joshua. He had a beard — I know its 2015 and I’m at a board game café, lots of beards. Given the beard, I’m going Joshua.
Well Joshua came over and asked us what we wanted to play (I want to play Mortal Kombat (they don’t have that)), and so I asked Joshua «what’s good for two people».
He rubs his little genie beard and hands us «Jaipur». It’s nighttime, I’m drinking, I’m not reading instructions. Luckily you don’t have to. Joshua explains the game incredibly well in under 2 minutes, and we were off and running. After a couple hours of absolutely dominating in the game (if you meet a girl named Christina that’s bad at Jaipur, that’s my girlfriend), we settled up and went home happy. As we were leaving, we noticed that there was another couple waiting for Jaipur.
So thank you Joshua. Thank you Jaipur. And thank you Tabletop.
But get another couple sets of Jaipur.

As someone who really enjoys board games, I’ve been eagerly waiting for a chance to check this place out. I came away really impressed. The guy serving us was very helpful. He even set up and cleaned up our game for us and explained how to play so we didn’t have to read the directions. I love that they have a wide selection of beverages and foods to choose from. We had just come from lunch, so I can’t really comment on the food. It’s nice that they have it available though. I also really liked the weird décor. I love that angler fish wall hanging/​light fixture. There is no cover charge before 3:00pm (at least on Fridays), which was just a bonus for us. There is also a maker space in the back where they do classes and workshops.

From one who doesn’t play many board games, I still give this place five stars. My other half though, is an avid board gamer, and he was super impressed with this place as well.
I’ve been here plenty of times since it’s opened– being roped into friends’ gatherings, and specifically friends who love board games, I’ve ended up here many of a time.
For only five bucks, you can enjoy unlimited time of playing all types of board games– from old school (aka Hungry Hungry Hippos) to more complex strategic games to international games– this place has it all.
And the board games are clean– I was expecting them to be all nasty from people playing them, but it’s quite clean.
The café also serves an arrangement of nice refreshments to fuel your playing– tea, kombutcha, smoothies, etcera. It’s quite refreshing and convenient.
This place is usually very full, but we’ve always found a table to play at. It’s chill and just a fun way to make all type of «gamers» happy, with their large variety of games.
If you’re looking for a different way to spend the night, go hang out at Tabletop– it’ll be a fun way to relax with friends.

I love tabletop. Shiva is so nice. The wait staff is so nice, informative and attentive to everyone. Some will play games with customers and actually take the time to explain them. They have hundreds of board games to pick from — most I’ve never even heard of. They’re so much fun though. I had the white wine smoothie and it tasted amazing. I forgot there was even alcohol in it because it just tasted like a smoothie. They could use more or different beer choices though but the food is also good especially the coffee pudding dessert.

I don’t remember how I first heard about this place, but when my board-​game-​loving husband and I found ourselves about five minutes away, right at opening time, with absolutely nothing on our schedule for the rest of the day, we knew the time had come to visit. It was a bit awkward at first, as we were obviously the first people in and we had no idea what we were doing, but after confessing our newb-​ness to the staff guy we quickly found ourselves set up at a table with fast-​refilling water and makeshift coasters and a zillion board games to choose from.
Since we ourselves own and play a lot of board games, we made sure to choose only ones we’d either never heard of or not yet had a chance to play elsewhere, with mixed results. Games that were awesome included Splendor and Jaipur, while on the other end of the spectrum we found ourselves with a weird zombie deck-​building game with a terrible instruction manual or terrible gameplay or, more likely, both. On the plus side, once we realized it was bad we were able to put it right back on the shelf and try out something new!
We spent about four hours checking out various awesome games, and so when we got hungry in the middle of that we took advantage of the happy hour specials to get a tasty-​sounding appetizer. It was definitely tasty, but also teensy, and didn’t seem worth even the discounted price. We would probably have had better luck with a regular sandwich, but we were too cheap to order one that day. Next time, perhaps?
Food woes aside, this is definitely a fun place to come spend several hours and absolutely worth the $ 5/​person cover charge to check out the huge variety of games that is hard to come by in the demo section of a regular game store. I will definitely be back on a future Cleveland visit, probably with a few more friends in tow!

I had a good time here. Walking down Ohio City– wow, a new board game shop? I like board games.
Went in– tons of games, good selection. I sat down to eat with some friends as I showed them how to play a game, food was good and the staff was friendly. Totally worth going in and spending the $ 5 to play games.

Really unique place. So many game options and the staff takes the time to teach you the rules and recommend games. Stopped in with a friend on a weeknight. Nice selection of craft beer to enjoy. Definitely will return.

If you like board games, you’ll love this place. They have an entire wall of every single board game that you can think of, from your traditional monopoly, sorry, scrabble, taboo, cranium, cards against humanity, whatever to your settlers of catan, dominion, puerto rico, bang, citadels, to the weirdest games that you’ve never heard of in your life. For $ 5 you can play board games here all day.
They also serve sandwiches here, an drinks and things. The smoothies are pretty decent.

I have been to Tabletop several times now, and always have a good experience.
The food is reasonably priced, especially for being on W 25^th. The orange and goat cheese appetizer is bright and delicious, and the Club Awesome sandwich is truly awesome. They don’t have as wide of a selection of beers as some of the other bars on the strip, but they do have a good selection, and the draft beer list is different almost every time I’m in there, so there’s something for everyone.
The main thing is the games. There are so many, and a huge variety. The staff are always willing to teach games. Brady is awesome and very helpfully taught my group how to play Camel Up, which we loved.
It gets a little loud on Friday and Saturday nights, so if you’re with a group trying to play a very involved strategy game, I might recommend going on a weeknight, as you’ll likely have more space and also an easier time focusing on your game.
I learned a lot of games I would not have expected to play here; I usually play strategy games, but I’ve learned some quicker games that are extremely fun. $ 5 per person is definitely a reasonable value for an activity like this. It offers a nice change of pace, something to do besides just go out for food or drinks or to the movies. Great for groups or a date night.

One of my friend took note of this place as it striked his fancy: games were involved.
He mentioned that this was one of the top board game cafes he has been to in a long time. He visited the area from New Orleans for a week and came here bc the people made him feel welcomed. Brady took the time to teach him new board games and the rest of the workers had a really positive attitude.
If you ask, they will take time to help you with the rules for learning new games. The next time you feel like you need a place to hang out to «save the world» or capture the «spy» in your group of friends, check out Tabletop Board Game Café. They made the week visit to Cleveland one to remember. :)

This place is so much fun. I absolutely love playing board games… So this is the perfect place to get coffee and games.
The location is great. You can find a ton of parking around. And the place is beautiful! Tons of wood and pallets. The place is so bright and open. I think it would be so much fun to have a party there!
The concept is fantastic! So original. It’s just a different place to go. It’s more interactive. And the employees are willing to teach you how to play the games. That is awesome.
There were a couple areas that brought it down 2 stars.
(I’m sorry! I really want to give you 5 stars)
First, there is a five dollar cover. So every person in the group automatically pays $ 5 to play the games. I understand the idea and need for a cover, but we were paying an additional $ 10-​$ 15 in food for each person… So it gets pricy.
I would recommend a deal — maybe free games if you spend $ 15 in food/​drinks? Or just a flat $ 10 per party?
The food is okay. I really like my grilled Munster and Jam sandwich, but the turkey club was kinda boring. The cookies also tasted like they were store bought from a box :(
Overall. I will definitely go back. It’s a fun/​chill date night. Or would be great for a group of friends.
I hope that I can change my review soon and give more stars!!!