Chuck E. Cheese’s

During my college days in the Columbus, Ohio area, when a buddy and I found out that our friend, Jen, was from Cincinnati, Ohio, somehow or another, my buddy brought up the Chuck E. Cheese in Cincinnati, and how his family used to drive from Dayton, Ohio just to go to it. I told about how my family drove from West Central Ohio to meet with my aunt and cousins from Northern Kentucky at that same Chuck E. Cheese. When I mentioned how that Chuck E. Cheese had an employee who wore the Chuck E. Cheese costume who loved to dance in the suit and teach children how to dance, my friend, Jen, and my buddy burst out laughing, because they remembered the same guy in the Chuck E. Cheese suit. It turned out that the three of us might have been in the same Chuck E. Cheese location at the same time when we compared dates. Back in the day when Chuck E. Cheese was first getting started, Chuck E. Cheese used to be cool. It had some of the latest name brand video games. It had the main stage and side stages with other characters as cabaret shows. People used to travel for miles just to go to Chuck E. Cheese.
Sadly, I really don’t see that happening with this location. I went to this place over the week end to attend a child’s birthday party. First off, while driving up to the place, if they hadn’t put up banners in the parking lot, I would have missed the place, because the location is undergoing a remodel and the outside signage is missing. The place also lacks the distinctive exterior look of some of its sister restaurant locations. Going into the place, the interior no longer has the pictures of the characters on the walls. It has some of the interior separation areas removed and carpet duck taped to cover those areas. All in all, it has more of the look of a generic banquet hall to it with a children’s game arcade on one side and an animatronic stage on one end. This location lacks that special quality which made families want to drive from other states and other cities that Chuck E. Cheese used to have. The Chuck E. Cheese branding is weak inside.
The food was good. The pizza was a thin Sicilian style crust pizza. Some places manage to get such pizzas either too crisp, ie burnt, or too underdone. This pizza had the crust just right. The salad bar was lacking in proteins for vegetarians who do not eat eggs. Their only protein option was sunflower seeds. They might want to add some beans to the salad bar for the vegetarians to have more protein options.
As for the entertainment, it is almost like Chuck E. Cheese is giving up. They had a flat panel, large screen TV set up on the stage playing cartoons of the animatronic characters, cartoon commercials and music videos. I’m not sure why they had this TV on stage in the first place, because the location has two flat panel TV monitors hanging from the ceiling just in front of the stage which could be used without taking up space on the stage. This stage TV was set up on the wrong end of the stage, because it was set up in a position which prevents the curtains from being closed around the Chuck E. Cheese animatronic character like it used to back in the day when an employee was going to be on the floor in the Chuck E. Cheese costume. This means that children could see Chuck E. Cheese on stage and on the floor at the same time which destroys the old illusion that Chuck E. Cheese had left the stage and went out on the floor which you used to get in the old days. The costume worn by the employee on the floor used to match the animatronic on stage perfectly to contribute to the illusion. This place has the old Chuck E. Cheese on stage and the redesigned Chuck E. Cheese costume on the employee. The illusion is no more. The magic experience for the children is diminished. This location really needs to have their animatronics updated and refreshed. It needs for there to be a consistent Chuck E. Cheese branding throughout. And it needs to look back to the history of Chuck E. Cheese to get some of that retro cool which the children would love without even knowing that it was retro cool.
If I were rating this location based upon nostalgia, I would have given it a perfect 5 stars, because Chuck E. Cheese used to be the coolest children’s restaurant and entertainment experience. If I were rating this location based upon where it is in terms of its present remodel, I would give it 1 star, because the experience is just lacking. I am giving this place 3 stars, because I am going to give this place the benefit of the doubt. The employees clearly enthusiastically love to entertain children. They are still putting out good food. They are still going all out to make a children’s birthday party a special event. And they are still smiling genuinely while doing it. Hopefully, the remodel does them justice and brings back the cool fun. These people deserve it.

This place is a Circus, always crowded too much people screaming, its like chuky in the ghetto. Pizza is good though

This place is understaffed or maybe just lazy. I had to clean my own table even after asking for help. Everything was dirty. It took a half hour to get our pizza. NEVER AGAIN!