The Malted Meeple
| Address: | 5100 Darrow Rd, Hudson, OH 44236, USA |
| Phone: | +1 330-655-6919 |
| Site: | maltedmeeple.com |
| Rating: | 4.6 |
| Working: | 4–11PM 4–11PM 4–11PM 4–11PM 4PM–2AM 12PM–2AM Closed |
Location
Photos 100
Reviews 5
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Tim Ross
My friends and I have gone to the Meeple on and off for about a year now. Early on we went ahead and purchased the $100 yearly membership. The concept is great, pay the small fee and enjoy a wealth of board games at your leisure. The selection of games is great, and most of the staff know the rules to most of them and are willing to explain to new groups. If you havent been, definitely give it a try! Where it unfortunately falls apart is atmosphere and service. I reeeeeally wanted this to be our local haunt, somewhere we could get together regularly and enjoy drinking and playing games. But the environment that is created between the atmosphere and the service just makes it uncomfortable once the novelty of the games wears off. When you realize that you could go out and get a new game between your group for the table fee alone, not to mention save yourself from overpriced drinks and snacks, you realize how important atmosphere is, and for our friend group, it just wasnt worth it. Once again, I really want this place to succeed, so Im going to make this review a list of suggestions to management rather than complaints, as I would love to see the place thrive. -The florescent lights and lack of music can make the room feel very sterile. Some light tavern music and atmospheric lighting would go a very long way to make it more inviting. -Im ok with spending $6 or $7 on a beer every once in a while, but when I do, I would like the glass to be filled to the brim. Ive never been to a bar that deprives me of an ounce or so on my drink every time. -It consistently took 20-30 minutes from the time we wanted to leave to the time we actually left. The checkout process needs to be streamlined. -The following are subpoints under the point: LOOSEN UP. +A few of the staff would recognize us and call us by name, but we would still be IDed Every. Single. Time. This feels awkward. What are you expecting when you look at it? +It also feels very weird to have to be seated in a place that is like a bar in every other respect. +The wait staff just has never felt comfortable or inviting, and they always seem overwhelmed when it is busy. This could be either training or hiring practices, but something needs to give when we wait 10+ minutes for a water refill most of the time. There were multiple times when I would have ordered another beer but nobody came for a long stretch. -It was cool to have reasonably priced salty snacks to eat while we drank. Then the prices went up. Then you guys started serving soup. We laughed on the way home at the price vs. portion ratio. Its just ridiculous. If you dont serve food, you need to allow outside food in. Also, for the love of Pete, let my friend bring his water bottle in. I promise its not vodka. This list probably seems petty, but this type of place is getting more popular, and these things are going to make or break the business in the midst of competition. I wish you the best of luck, and Ill probably be back soon to check it out!
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Kyle Aldrich
Such a neat place. The location is perfect (its listed as a strength and weakness because its out of the way; perfect for being out of the way, yet its out of the way to get to). The decor is fantastic: Its rustic and out of the way, yet well lit, well organized, with great tables and an excellent selection of games. They have gas firepits outside for cool nights, but no gaming outside. They dont have as many games as Tabletop, in terms of pure numbers, but the games that they do have are carefully selected and most are unique, not spin offs or throwbacks of the same game series. *** The tables are purpose built for boardgaming. Theyre stained pine with acrylic sheeting tops inset with a slight lip to catch dice, cards, and anything else that might slide off during gameplay. There are multiple sizes of tables, including a couple duos, some quads, a couple 8+ seaters with benches, and a private room for larger parties that accepts reservations. *** Their games are organized by genre, including deck building, board control, party games, trivia, card games, dexterity games, and others. We played Elk Fest, Deck (The deck building game), Summoner Wars (Master Series and Alliances), and Cthulu Realms. *** A great companion to gaming is the milkshakes, craft import beers (they dont have any local), and flavored popcorn. They have a great selection of milkshakes, including limited editions. If they still have the pistachio when you visit, highly recommend that. Theyll make whatever milkshake you want, adding whatever alcohol or other ingredients youd like (if youre of age.). I tried a Left Hand milk stout (german) with kahlua/baileys in a mocha/chocolate milkshake, respectively. Both were amazing. We also really enjoyed the buffalo ranch popcorn. They had 6 flavors when we were there. *** Strengths: Location, decor, friendly staff, milkshakes, popcorn, game selection, tables, *** Weaknesses: No real food, location *** Recommendations: Summoner Wars (great for 2 people. Harder for 3-4 players. Not a difficult game to learn to play), Cthulu Realms (great for 2 people. Really easy to play as well). *** A note to the owner(s): Adding a toaster oven would be a really economical way of offering actual food. You could serve both hot and cold sandwiches (as well as other hot food).
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Melissa Erikson
Just because: It is situated at the end of a tough to find gravel driveway in the basement of another building. I would never have found it if I had been driving there in the dark. Pros: Friendly staff. delicious milk shakes, and a decent selection of hobby games to play. We brought our own game and had a blast for well over 4 hours, including the staff showing up every now and then to see how our progress was. Cons: A bit pricey on the food/drink end of the spectrum (compared to other board game cafes Ive visited), staff is a bit slow when it comes to proactively refilling drinks or asking if the table needs anything (although they were more than willing to refill my coffee then and there when I walked up to the counter), no atmospheric music (can be a bit oddly quiet if the place is pretty empty), and it.is.cold. I spent a solid 2.5 hours of our night there shaking so much I could barely place pieces on the game board.
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Christine Francisco
I love this place! Im giving it 5 stars even though I spend all my money here! It is a $5 sitting fee and you can play as many games as youd like for as long as you like. The staff is SUPER friendly and put up with all my annoying friends! The Dream Bar (or heaven bar) is amazing and I highly recommend. They have lots of snacks and some soup, but I recommend eating before you go, just to save a little bit of money. Its really easy to rack up quite a tab. I recommend anyone go here!
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Matt Depew
Best place that Ive been to for board games, friendly+attentive staff, and good times with friends! Also, rest assured there is an abundance of games from which to choose, in addition to non-alcoholic drinks (as well as some for the over 21 crowd, too!), and weekly organized events (DnD, etc), too, if youre into that sort of thing. Thanks for the opportunity to visit (late hours are a definite plus), and I hope to be back soon!
