Level 257

The concept is great and the place is very well designed, but my boyfriend and I found the menu to be on the expensive side, and service was just okay. Food was good, but not worth the cost. I really wanted to love this place, but it was just okay. My favorite part of the restaurant was the gift shop; they have some really cute items, and I bought a cute bag with store name and pac man logo for less than $ 5.

Food is actually really good and not outrageous, got the pulled pork nachos and fed my boyfriend and I on 8 bucks, score! The bowling was fun, the place is outrageously cool looking. The games are a little pricey, but not game works bad, and honestly more fun. Boyfriend and I had a good date night. Decided to bring my little brother back here and he enjoyed it too, but I realized if you are only there to play arcade games it’s not really enough for what you’re paying. I recommend doing this place for a date night, but bring your little siblings to a real arcade (not gameworks, please God) unless you plan on getting dinner and bowling too. Still coming back with friends for drinks to see what that’s like!

Beautiful design and décor. Fantastic brunch. Fun games! We love it.

I love everything behind the concept of this place. Food, alcohol, bowling, video games, and Pac-​Man. It is unfortunate the execution fell through horribly. We came as part of a large group for a fundraiser; the positive point of the visit were the super-​comfortable plush booths. Besides that, it was mostly failure. Let me break it down:
Service: One person took the order for drinks, another brings the alcoholic beverages to the table, a myriad of others ran the food out, and one person seemed to only refill the water glasses. We had the hardest time managing to get someone to bring a diet Coke to the table. It took twenty minutes for that, after numerous pleas to various staff members. Then our server went completely missing, and a member of our party had to call the restaurant to find our server for us. Of course, we then received a shit-​ton of attitude for the rest of the night, Yes, we of course still tipped, but since you pay your tab on the servers tablet, we even go major eye-​roll and mumbling from our very lax yet dramatic waiter. This was quite possibly one of the worst service encounters in recent memory.
Food and Drink: Lots of craft brews, which was good; specialty cocktails were strong and fairly priced. I did enjoy my Moscow Mule. The food was a mixed bag. The menu was a bit creative, but all over the place, with no apparent theme. We had fried calamari and about three sushi rolls to split. The calamari was great, crispy with a hint of salt and pepper. The marinara on the side clearly came from a can and was not even warm. Sushi was OK. I didn’t expect anything special, and that’s exactly what I got.
Can’t say much about the bowling or games, since we spent most of our time playing «Hunt for the Missing Server.»

Named in honor of Pac-​Man, this establishment is relatively new to the area and attached to the mall. Gift shop downstairs, restaurant and gaming upstairs. Food is decent while the drinks are nothing to right home about. Games are classic arcade style machines; there is also bowling and billiards.

Welp. After a glowing Unilocal Event, I went back with a group of friends to grab some drinks for my birthday.
We walk in and go to the bar in the restaurant area. We stand at the bar. Waiting, waiting… waiting. While two bartenders are standing together counting their tips and talking to who I assume is a customer where some plates were opposite them on the bar. When one FINALLY comes over to us, my friend asks to order a drink and the bartender almost scoffs and says the bar is closed but their other bar is open until 1.
Seriously? No one could have mentioned that as we passed the host stand going to that bar. Or one of the two bartenders couldn’t have come over right away to let us know? A group of 5 people standing waiting.
So we go past the host stand to go to the other bar — which is where the girl I thought was a customer at the bar — apparently a host (and 3 other people, one of which looked like a manager) were standing and let them know they may want to let people know that as they are walking in. They didn’t even seem to know that bar wasn’t serving drinks — and the guy that looked like a manager didn’t say a single word. We decided to leave and go to another bar in the area.
Needless to say we will not be going back, and my friend who had never been there before was appalled and said he wouldn’t be going there either.

You should go to this restaurant because of the arcade and the giant Pac-​Man game. You should also come here because of the food and drinks.

1 out of 5 is not low enough to describe my dealings with the staff at Level 257
As a grown up I planed my birthday celebration with a few weeks of planing. I thought it would be fun for up scale bowling and games. I called saying I was having a birthday of 15 – 25 people and would like to book lanes. I was informed that they only take reservations 48 hours in advance. I then Asked if there looked like there was going to be any issue with my selected date and time (A Saturday at 7). They informed me there would be no issue what so ever. SO I called 2 days before. It was early after noon and I was told I was still too early for booking for Saturday evening but again was told I would have no issues.
When I called to reserve my lanes I was informed that they were completely booked with contract events and they take priority. At no point did anyone bother looking up to see if there would be availability despite me asking multiple times.
The manager on duty acted like it was no big deal and never even apologized for messing up the plans I had made weeks ago. I asked to speaker with there boss and was told they would have a GM call me with in the hour. When I received a call i assumed I was speaking with the GM and was even less impressed with this conversation of constantly saying it was corporate policy and not their fault. When I commented about a GM should have better customer service skills Andrew told me he was not a GM. I apologized saying that I was expecting a GM to call me so you could see my confusion. He told me he’d have the GM call me.
When I received my next call I started by asking if he was the GM which Bob was. If I hadn’t had so my negative experiences leading up to this conversation may have run a little different. I was still told there was nothing they could do for the date in question. and then he told me I could be scheduled for Sunday afternoon. At which point I reminded him that as adult most people need more than 48 hours notice for scheduling. I felt that Bob should have start by acting sorry offering solutions instead saying it wasn’t their fault and nothing they could do and what do you want me to do. At this point all I wanted to hear was how they plan on resolving this issue so that other wouldn’t have to go through the same issue.

This place is great! I love the pac-​man theme! They have arcade games, food, drinks, and bowling.
I have had the chicken piadini twice. The second time wasn’t as good as the first, I don’t know if it was prepared differently or the fact that it was plated differently threw me off.
CHICKEN PIADINI
wood-​fired flatbread with oven roasted chicken, mixed bell peppers, spinach, feta cheese, house-​made hummus and Cholula chili oil 10
I also had the banana pretzel bread pudding. The bread pudding was very soft and it came with cinnamon ice-​cream. The drizzle of caramel over everything made it perfect! I didn’t feel the pretzels mixed in was necessary.
Overall my food was pretty good and there were definitely more items on the menu I would like to try!

Very fun place with good food and delicious drinks.
We ordered the Spring Rolls and Salad with Salmon as entrees. With chocolate filled donut holes for dessert
Bonnie Meets Clyde was the cocktail of my taste for that night. I’d recommend substituting the cranberry juice for grendine.

Came with a date. We didn’t play the games, we only ate. The food was good but I was honestly impressed by our waitress and staff.
We ordered a Godzilla roll, quesadilla bites and the lobster Mac n cheese. She immediately knew we were going to share and she told us she would bring us separate plates and split our lobster Mac in two dishes to share.
No places I’ve been to had split our meal for us and made it look like it was two. Other places just put it in one dish and just give us one plate to give the other person. Our waitress was really adorable and convinced us to get dessert lol she knows what she’s doing.

It’s one of those places where you go for the experience but you don’t necessarily need to return. That pretty much sums up my whole experience at this place. Food was okay. Nothing extraordinary but I wasn’t expecting a 5 star restaurant. Service was okay. Drinks seemed overpriced. Bowling was pretty expensive and wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. They had a nice little arcade section. Definitely go for the experience.

Ok so I am really impressed this time! The last two times that I went here, I was really disappointed. I actually wrote two really bad reviews on this place. But this time, they NAILED IT!!!
Good Parts:
1. The Power Pellets taste a lot better than before.
2. The bowling machines don’t break down anymore.
3. The food was really delicious.
4. The Games were really fun.
5. The games don’t say free to play anymore even though you had to pay for a card.
6. Place is better decorated.
7. Good customer service/​waiters
Bad Parts: (aren’t too serious)
1. The ceiling is dirty and exposed.
2. One of the basket ball machines broke.
3. It’s still really expensive.
4. One hour is not a lot of time to play video games.

«IT’S PACMAN!!! THIS IS A DREAM COME TRUE!» Pacman has truly never gone out of style, as evidenced by the adoration that Level 257 has for everything Pacman. I’m a huge fan of Pacman, but clearly my fandom is nothing compared to whomever opened up this place — their love for this addictive game is clearly on a whole other level… level 257 to be exact. (Now that I’m thinking about it — do you think that this place is called Level 257 because that’s the highest level someone go to? Woah — mind blown.) If it’s still not clear to you why exactly this place is the epicenter of the revered Pacman game, you need only know that there’s a Pacman gift store, Pacman paintings on the wall, Pacman arcade games — both big and small — and appropriately named Pacman cocktails. I think you get the picture now, yes?
With all the thrills and frills that Pacman and his lady, Mrs. Pacman, have to offer, I was left with some ambivalence towards Level 257 after having attended this 80’s-inspired, chic adult lounge for a private event. Before attending this event I was like, totally psyched to check it out and to be honest I’m really glad that I was able to check it out. With that being said, however, if I’d gone to Level 257 and had to pay for the food and the games I probably wouldn’t have had as good of a time as I did at the event. I only say this because the food and beer, although pretty good for the appetizers that they were, seemed a little costly. if the cost isn’t really a concern for you, though, then you’d probably enjoy the food that’s offered. Granted, I didn’t get to try any of their entrees, but I was able to have some of their arancini, vegetable dumplings, pork sliders and regular sliders. All of these were very good and I couldn’t stop swiping them as they came out of the kitchen. I wish that Level 257 would have had more of a beer selection to wash down those appetizers though. For as large as Level 257 is and for the lounge that it claims to be I’d have thought there would be more of a beer selection so that was a bit disappointing. I think, though, that what they lack in beer they make up for in the selection of specialty cocktails, all of which looked pretty good.
Although the food and beverages may be delightful and all, its the bowling and arcade games that are the main attraction (at least that’s how I feel). There’s about 12 or so lanes for bowling — about 6 on each side of the lounge and bar area — and there’s an entire area dedicated just to playing those beloved arcade games, both new and old. The arcade area isn’t actually that big, though, and I would have thought this arcade area would be bigger given the enormous size of Level 257. They have the basketball hoop games, leap frog, race car games, pacman (of course) and several others but unlike other arcade games, you don’t get any sort of «reward» (i.e. tickets for the purchasing items, etc). I understand that this is an «adult lounge» so it’s not a typical arcade, but a neat idea might be to make it where any accumulated points from the games could add up to getting a free cocktail or something. It’s just an idea; it could work because you buy time (i.e. 15 minutes, 30 minutes, etc) of game play.
Now that I’ve covered the essentials for you I should also mention that the service is pretty good and all of the waiters I came in contact with were pretty amicable so I can’t say anything that would slight the service we received there. It seems that these waiters and waitresses were pretty used to serving large parties (as this is what the venue is probably used for the most) so you can rest assured that they won’t be running around like chickens with their heads cut off when a huge party comes in.
Overall, I’m super glad that I was able to come her and experience everything that Level 257 had to offer, but it was kind of like a one hit wonder for me… just like all those songs from the 80’s.

It’s hard to hate on Level 257. It’s the suburbs and there aren’t many things to do, so kudos to Level 257 for operating a venue that allows for some entertainment.
This place offers arcade games, board games, ping pong tables, bowling lanes, and of course food. The arcade is okay. The ping pong tables are free so that’s a plus. The board games aren’t that great. And the bowling lanes, though shiny and seemingly nice, are terrible! The tables for each lane are nice and the bowling set up screen is interesting. The bowling shoes available for rent seem newish, which is a winner. However, the lanes are not oiled correctly, are very cramped, and the furthest lane is way too close to the arcade and can be a hazard to kids that run around there. In addition, service is very spotty when ordering food/​drinks.

Came here for the work holiday party.
Level 257 is located on the second floor and is an arcade/​bowling alley. Walk in and find the «dining» and bar area in the middle. From here there are bowling lanes on both the left and right sides. There were about 6 – 8 lanes on each side. Lane seating is not traditional as you have tall chairs, tables, and booths. 257 is like a Pinstripes or classier Dave and Busters like bowling alley. I can’t comment on the game selection as I did not play.
The bowling experience was average. They do not have the traditional scoreboards. They have touchscreen portrait LCDs that display your name and team members scores. The format is strange as you can’t see your overall summary and only the person bowling at the moment can see their last 2 or 3 frame results. There were no mid-​bowl animations, no display of pin placement, nothing.
The lane setup was kind of tight. For a lane that had 8 people bowling and many others watching, there was not enough space for people to walk through or sit down at the tall tables. We were cramped and it was awkward at times trying to get by people. The lanes were your average lanes but there was a strange error that kept occurring where bowling balls would just fall off of the ‘tray’ where they normally sit. It actually fell on someones foot while we were bowling and balls rolled across to other lanes from time to time.
Overall, 257 is just a middle of the pack place when comparing it to a Gameworks or a Pinstripes. Not fancy enough to hold their own with a top of the line corporate experience.

257 is pretty much a Chuck E Cheese for big kids. I have actually been wanting to try this place out for quite awhile since I am a huge gamer and I have the utmost respect for retro. However, the fact that I despise going anywhere near Woodfield Mall has managed to keep me away. Woodfield is a mall that, even on a good day, is a monumental cluster F. During the Christmas season? My God, you would think they were giving away free beer and lap dances in the place from all the people. Also, be prepared for your GPS to go haywire if you have never been here before and are using nav. Mine was attempting to send me straight into a brick wall next to a loading dock on the entire opposite side of the mall from 257. I thought it was just me, but as soon as I got inside all the other people I was with reported similar issues.
You can enter 257 either through the mall itself or from the parking lot. On the bottom floor is gift shop that has inventory similar to what you would find at Think Geek. I scored a PacMan mousepad for my desk at the office. The restaurant itself is located up a double tiered staircase (or elevator) to the second floor hostess stand. 257 was hosting our company X-​mas party, so we had an entire wing and open bar all to ourselves. Ahhhhh, «open bar»! There are few two word combinations in history of the English language with such delightful connotations. People in the advertising buiz generally drink like fish.
As for the games, they have tons of old school favorites in restored cabinets like Pac Man, Joust, Dig-​Dug, Q-​Bert, etc. Granted that it is not difficult to find an emulator if you just want to play these types of games, but getting the opportunity to actually play them on the original hardware is always a treat for us nerds. I was really hoping they would have a Neo-​Geo MVS cart machine, as these are a blast for old school games like Samurai Showdown, Metal Slug, etc. but no such luck. I never got an opportunity to try out the bowling as I was too busy checking out games, drinking and talking shop with everyone, but others certainly seemed to enjoy it.
Food wise I was not really expecting much from 257 given it’s theme. I was counting on maybe TGI Friday’s type of food at best, but I must say that I was pleasantly surprised. We got tray after tray of several different types of sushi, cheese and meat, sliders, pasta, etc. It was friggin fantastic for buffet food. I was taken aback.
Service was also on point and extremely pleasant. They were continually clearing dirty dishes and glassware and had new food out rapidly. Having a huge group is always a challenging endeavor for any restaurant, but they handled it great!
This is yet another occasion where I wish Unilocal allowed the use of half stars as 257 was a solid 4.5 with a bullet in my book. If you have a friend or significant other who is a nerd, this place is a must visit.

Take a restaurant and bar. Add an arcade. Make it 80s themed with a bent toward Pacman. Throw in a bowling alley, a few pinball machines, a lounge and a gift shop.
Blend well and attach to Woodfield and you’ve got Level 257.
I came here with my husband and his best friend, two 30 something geeks. The crowd was mostly people our age and a bit older, and a lot of families. Lot of birthday parties too.
We wandered around a few minutes, checking the place out, then sat for dinner. We were at a high top in a bar area, honestly not the most comfortable spot and with three of us a bit tight on table space. But we managed.
Here’s what I liked: food was good. (Chips and queso to start, two burgers and a turkey banh mi, two fries and a side salad — all tasty.) Service was solid, with plenty of refills and plate-​clearing happening. I like the atmosphere even though it was a bit loud (no sound dampening happening), the spaces are pretty comfortable and you could just as easily sit with a drink or run around playing games. The décor is nice and it’s a bit on the upscale side without being stuffy.
Awkward bits: our waiter was a little pushy about wine, started listing off options before we’d even asked, and stood close by as we entered our tips (bill is run on a tablet, so I’m sure they’re making sure you don’t screw anything up, but it’s still a mite awkward). The high top tables are not great for a full dinner.
And it is a bit pricey. They have things like steak frites and fancy pasta dishes which are more fine dining than you’d expect while watching a giant Pacman face off in a noisy mall restaurant. You could easily spend $ 50 or more a person if you get drinks, apps, or dessert along with your meal. Of course, most things at Woodfield are $$, and it’s a unique experience overall.
All that said, it’s a fun experience, and I’d go back, knowing what’s what.

Cool layout. Fun games. Fancy décor. Bowling, a giant 4 player version of pacman where you can play against each other. Friendly staff and great bartender. Expensive! $ 12 glasses of wine. 2 bloody mary, 1 flight, and 1 beer was around mid 40s
Not as fun as dave and busters, but nicer.
I don’t know if they are trying to be like a D&B or gameworks place but they obviously have far fewer games. Essentially it is a dressed up, upscale, version of one of those places with a lifted price tag and pac man theme.
For those wondering, no they did not go overboard with the pacman theme. I def though it was gonna look like Pacman threw up in a bar but it was done much differently than what people thought.

I attended Level 257 for Pacman’s 35^th birthday. They offered free bowling and arcade games, so I knew the place would be pretty packed. Free stuff draws out the crowds. We did show up to the venue about 20 minutes early, but even at that time the wait for bowling was already 2 – 3 hours long. Since we had no intention of staying that long, we moved on. We did get to play some pinball, which was fun but I felt bad playing for more than a few minutes since the lines quickly formed. The event was kid and adult friendly.
Overall, the space is pretty cool. There’s lots to do a la Pinstripes or any of these fun gaming/​dinner places that are popping up in the area. All the servers and staff here were incredibly nice and even though they were busy, we had an enjoyable time. I think my favorite part was the little gallery downstairs of all the Pacman art.
The food and drinks are ridiculously overpriced. I do understand being at this kind of establishment, you’re going to spend more. However, two cocktails cost me $ 26 (we’d gone to another place earlier that night and got 2 appetizers and two drinks for $ 32.) Just based on that alone, I’d never drink here, therefore probably never come back in the future unless there was another special event.