Best-of list
The seven best arcade and game bars in New York City, from Barcade in Williamsburg to Wonderville in Bushwick. Where to drink, play, and win.
The short answer
7 ranked rooms follow. How we picked is at the end of this guide.
An arcade bar has to clear two bars at once. The games have to be maintained, well chosen, and available without a 40-minute queue, and the drinks have to be worth ordering on their own merits. Most venues that chase the format nail one side and treat the other as an afterthought. New York has a small number that get both right, and a wider set of game bars where skee-ball, pinball, or bowling stands in for the cabinet.
This guide covers seven of them. We have kept it to venues that are open, verifiable, and still worth the trip in 2026, rather than padding the count with places that have closed or never existed. Two-Bit's Retro Arcade on Essex Street, a fixture of older NYC lists, has closed, so it is not included here. If you want a broader sweep of the city's drinking, our full New York bar guide covers every category.
We weight three things: the quality and upkeep of the games, the seriousness of the drinks, and the room itself. A venue that treats its cabinets as decoration drops down the list even if the cocktails are good. Sourcing draws on Time Out New York's arcade-bar coverage, each venue's own listings, and reader reviews on Yelp and Google Maps. Prices and hours change, so confirm before a special trip.
The original, opened in Williamsburg in 2004 at 388 Union Avenue and still the standard every other arcade bar is measured against. More than 30 classic cabinets from the late 1970s to the mid 2000s share the room with 20-plus rotating craft drafts. Time Out singles out the Galaga high scores and the deep beer list; arrive before 9pm on a weekend or expect a wait at every machine. Sister rooms in Chelsea, FiDi, and the East Village add full kitchens.
Brooklyn's all-independent arcade bar, at 1186 Broadway in Bushwick, built by Mark Kleback and Stephanie Gross around custom, locally made cabinets you will not find anywhere else. Every one of the 30-odd games is free to play, and the calendar runs to game tournaments, D&D nights, and board-game events. This is the pick for people who care about games as a medium rather than a nostalgia trigger.
A working laundromat at 860 Manhattan Avenue in Greenpoint hides one of the city's best pinball rooms behind it. The back bar holds a rotating bank of machines that skews toward serious tables, plus a tight beer list. It is a genuine neighborhood oddity that pinball players treat as a pilgrimage, and the front-of-house gimmick keeps it from ever feeling like a theme.
An East Village staple at 531 East 5th Street since the early 1990s, and proof that the game-bar idea predates the word "barcade." Two large rooms hold pool tables, dartboards, skee-ball lanes, and pinball, plus a photobooth and jukebox. Happy-hour drafts run $3 to $4, which is close to extinct in the neighborhood. Come for a low-stakes night with people you already know.
A skee-ball temple at 318 Grand Street in Williamsburg, running for more than 15 years on cheap beer and free games. The bar is built from old skee-ball machine parts, the three ramps in the back are free to play, and a front TV runs a live feed of the action. Genesee Cream Ale is $4, and pitchers of lime margaritas come with hand-cut fries.
A pinball bar in Woodside, Queens, at 53-22 Roosevelt Avenue, started by the founder of the Pinball New York league. Ten machines, some dating to the late 1970s, share space with 18 draft lines dedicated to New York State beer and cider and a rack of board games. Group-friendly and rarely so full you cannot get on a table, which is more than most pinball rooms can promise.
Less arcade than alley, but the Williamsburg original at 200 North 14th Street earns a place for eight vintage hardwood bowling lanes, a strong American craft-beer list, and a midnight-to-4am unlimited-bowling special. Trivia, comedy, and after-parties fill the calendar. Bring a group and treat it as the finale of a longer crawl rather than the main event.
How we picked
Barcade earns the top slot because it does the hardest thing well: serious games and serious beer under one roof, at scale, two decades in. Wonderville is the one to visit if you want to see where the format is going rather than where it has been. Everything below is a specialist — pinball, skee-ball, or lanes — and worth knowing for the night the mood calls for it. For the wider picture, see our complete guide to New York's best bars.
This guide is maintained by James Harlow, who covers New York nightlife for barsforKings. Last updated March 2026.
Last reviewed 2026-03-19 · The editors recheck hours and closures against current local coverage.