Reviews of Shelter Arcade Bar (Restaurant)

Jack Rudder

Awesome barcade connected to an awesome music venue. We often trek out here to see bands and wind up staying in the arcade, filled with great pinball tables and classic video games. Once we caught the members of deafheaven in here playing games after their set.

Mason Bourdeau

Cool place to hang out and play classic arcade games & pinball!

Mike Tedesco

Great games and atmosphere

Erik

Old school arcade bar is a must!

Bryan Thorne

Awesome arcade bar with good selection of classics, and free to play!

Tyallure

Ton of fun

noel/daniel Cortez

Date night

Justin Poirier

Great games, good pizza, good beer!

Shawn Murdoch

Great place to hang out with friends

Rosie G

Drinks are pricey but great service and a very fun timeb

Chris S

Owner and staff are great people. Not sure if still valid, but pinball was free on Sunday nights for many weeks during a tournament. Interesting beer selection, some video games, cheap and decent pizza slices.

Eagle Scout

Fun

Roland Smith

Nice games and relaxed atmosphere with friendly people.

Mike Pare

Tons of games, most cost a quarter and good drinks

John Barbosa

Fun place, Nice people, Great Games.

Justin Paplauskas

Amazing game selection, cozy bar with great selections.

Darren Beckler

Best retro arcade bar in providence

Phil Scavitti

It gets very crowded making it difficult to actually get to games to play them

Bryan Labus

Freeplay was wayy better!!

Ray Menard

Punk

Bill S

Try the Angry Bird pizza!

Matthew Swanlund

A fun and inexpensive way to spend the night.

stephanie Cunha

Ton of fun! Vintage arcade games+food+beer=a winning night! Just be careful where you park your car...have heard lots of breakins in the ares

M. P.

Great classic arcade games in a nice place to bring friends

Jorge Hernandez

It was great to play some arcade games again.

Fidget Blik

The car game ate all my quarters. And a shot of Fireball was 9 bucks! I can get a whole bottle for that price! And the bartenders were rude as hell. They should never assume the change is their tip. They should also tell people the price of a shot. I would have ordered an actual drink for a the extra dollar.

Erik Edson

Sadly this is no longer a free arcade bar, even though they still advertise it on their website.

Zack Starikov

Showed up at 9:30pm on Saturday with my wife and the place was locked. After trying the door multiple times we figured maybe we had the wrong entrance so we walked around the back through the sketchy alley and there was no other door. We went back to the address google maps had and the windows looked dark and door locked even though the little sign was outdoors. We checked all social media sites yelp, google maps, etc and everything said open from 6:30pm-1am. What a waste of time getting there and trying to figure out how to get in. It’s possible this place went out of business and no one updated google or yelp.

Will LaRose

Great barcade. The atmosphere and crowd here is way better than other barcades in Providence. No cover fee is the best part. Solid selection of games and pinball machines in decent condition. Good selection of drinks at a fair price. Right next door to olneyville weiners, perfect for drunk food afterwards. Parking can be difficult to find especially on the weekends, suggest ubering

Lisa Esser

great retro arcade in the heart of Olneyville around the corner from NY system and next to FETE music hall. Excellent selection of old fashion pinball and arcade games including skeeball, friendly staff.

Ben Rittmann

I'm not too much of a bar person but this bar is always the exception. This is one of the only few bars I will go to. All their games are now free to play and they occasionally have live band performances and other special events!

Daniel Roberts

Great pinball and video game bar. Food and drinks, all the games you want. Tables for all skill levels

Damian Bero

Cool barcode, video games are a quarter pinball machines 50¢, really cool place

Jamie Osta

Free to play, awesome cocktails, and not too crowded!

blime 02

Very affordable, great for a date night

A R

This place is amazing. A really good mix of old retro arcade games from Donkey Kong to NBA Hang time...then a big selection of pinball machines. They had my favorite one (the old guns n roses one) which is awesome. They have a good selection of great beers. Limbo IPA on tap? Hell ya.

Chris Kraeyzie

Awesome place. Classic games. Great drinks and staff.

Erin S

Great games and drinks!

D Blanchard

Great

Matthew Martinez

Great hidden gem.

Peter Le

It's a free arcade filled with old school arcade boxes and pinball machines! The only thing that isn't is the skeeball, which cost a quarter or two. (They even tell you on their page.) There's a bar filled with your basic wants for a chill time. They have bouncers at the door after a certain time.

Samantha Roman

Cool games, especially in the booths. Great atmosphere.

Ruhlaxes

Was there last night, it was great. Highly recommended. Love to support local businesses and can't wait to go back. ✊

Ben B

I really wanted to like Shelter, especially since it was started by a retro aficionado and the variety of games there was impressive. Two machines, including Addams Family, appeared in near perfect condition. Unfortunately, many others, though playable, were not very well maintained. The service was also poor--I showed up at midnight expecting to get an hours play in but machines were turned off at 12:35 when I still had 5 credits live. Whoever was running the place that night did not strike me as someone who cared very much about customers or pinball. Among the issues I noticed: Theatre of Magic's trunk magnet does not work Lord of the Rings's skill shot is broken; plunger feeds only to flippers Walking Dead's right flipper sticks

George Kane

Games change often, great atmosphere.

Jason Flanders

Too small with too many games down at a time. Plus the music from next door is overbearing.

Joan Maria

Fantastic arcade selection, decent beer selection, & great locally hosted events by the nearest and dearest geek community. Perfect for the Gamer who wants to meet knew people & possibly drink and dance the night away

Johann Von Sachsen

Great atmosphere, decent crowd. Excellent selection of pinball and classic arcade games for the size of the venue. Not too rowdy, even on weekends, although it may be too crowded for some. Drink prices went up when they made the games free.

Amber Pettaway

Fun hidden gem to visit. Drinks are great and all arcade games are free to play

Kate F

SOOOOOOOO COOOOOOOOOOL!!!! 1. Yes, all the games are really free! 2. The drinks aren't the cheapest but the GAMES ARE FREE so you're kind of a jerk if you just come to play the games and don't buy a drink complaining about the price. 3. NO COVER 4. Sometimes they have bands, the last time I went it was an all girl 80's hair metal cover band which was awesome and there was NO COVER CHARGE! 5. Classic bar food: pizza and stuff. Cheap, good enough to get something in the belly. 6. A lot of people go dressing in 80's leather jackets and jeans and the whole place just has such an awesome feel of nostalgia and pure joy that it turns any aged person into feeling like a kid at Christmas. The only negative this is the single bathroom that there is always a line to get to. Overall a wicked cool place that you really need to give a shot because your going to love it.

Jennifer doktor

Went here last week for a 10 year anniversary party for #tightcrew it was awesome! Never seen another place quite like it. Arcade games are iconic and so is house, D&B, etc. So it's a perfect mix. I'll be checking it out again very soon.

Katterine Herra

This place is awesome! They have free pinball Wednesdays and Sundays and the drinks are sooooo good. And have really cool names haha

Jennifer Powell

So much fun!

Kyon Piche

Great old school video games. Theme cocktails and snacks available. Also, just around the corner from NY System.

Jack Powell

Place is awesome, gives me the nostalgic arcade feeling I crave while also catering to my desire for alcohol.

Sarah Paiva

Interesting crowd

Geegee Mathis

Really nice.

Rachel Ferreira

They were having a promotion where the games are free so it was awesome just had to pay for drinks

Joe Kaplan

Totally frickin sweet! Tons of pinball machines and old arcade games and many are only one quarter per play

Greg Guernon

Fun x

Amanda Maloney

Great closer to close, when you can have the place to yourself

Kenneth Medeiros

Really awesome place ! Can't wait to go back !

Lauren Tellier

Really cool arcade with great drinks. So cool to have all the old school arcade games! Definitely a fun experience.

Gary Hays

Big selection of pinball games and for some reason everything was set to freeplay last night. It was a blast. Arcade cabinet selection had a couple of standouts, but felt limited due to the available space. Beer selection was limited, but the choices were solid.

Luis Luis

Free pinball and arcade games all day with no cover charge is great! They also have craft beers and then cheap beer like PBR. They no longer serve pizza which sucks.

Israel Correa

What a wonderful place! Lots of older arcade games. All the games are free too, so make sure to buy a drink or something to eat to support this wonderful establishment.

Keith Templin

Awesome place to go for a drink and some old school arcade fun.

NÖ NÖ

It was really fun ☺

Peter Carnevale

1980-2000 arcade games. Arcade games were the way old people used to play "Video games " you had to leave your house to play something not like Xbox or PlayStation. Pinball is 50 cents games are a quarter. Booze, food, street parking. Get up off your Bum and come see.

Erika Munoz

Chill atmosphere, free games, and next to the new York system place. Some games have sticky buttons but that's all part of the experience. At the same time, ehhhh, maybe fix some.

James Drohan

Nice place. Staff friendly. Free arcade games. What isn't great about free arcade games? Nothing at all.

Asmitty Smith

Great time

Jerome O'Neal

The best barcade in the city of Prov

Brittany Leigh

Who doesn't love free arcade games???

Misty Blux

It was wicked....Now it’s 18+, I’ve been asked to buy drink for under aged too many times, the vibe just isn’t there anymore. It’s a small dive bar, free games so that’s still cool

Kalidass N

Awesome place for game lover

Richard Suls

Fun

Mason Francis

.25$ per game so worth it, drinks are a bit expensive but who cares they have Gauntlet and time crisis 3

Nicholas Smith

This place is amazing. So many dope games, amazing staff, welcoming customers... I can't say enough good things about it. Amazing, reasonably priced drinks. Plus, it's attached to Fete, so if you end up at some concert you aren't stoked on, just hit the arcade! Free pinball on Thursday is super rad. I'm definitely going to start frequenting the heck out of this place, and I live all the way across the city.

Eric Dunton

Best bar in town

Andrew Bartley

Great selection of arcade, pinball, and console games with reasonably priced drinks

Stephanie L Johnson

Definitely suggest a visit, this place is awesome.

Dana Collins

Definitely a cool space. Pinball and arcade machines on free play, and they serve beer. Beers are priced $5-8 which isn't bad considering the entertainment is free. They don't have a huge selection of drinks, but try to get a few craft beers in there, they also have cocktails. Didn't have any, but they have a pizza kitchen on site. Games vary from newer to old with classics like Street Fighter 2, Time Crisis and Ms. Pacman.

Jim Dimitri

Like walking back into my childhood.

Kyle Averill

Good place with solid beer options and some great pinball and arcade machines.

Kim Andrade

Cool spot for old school video games and pinball machines. They host pinball tournaments and many other gaming events too. The bar adds the nice adult touch to gaming too.

Nicholas Mulhern

This place is awesome, conveniently located right behind Olnyville System. Throw back Arcade serving great beers (or cheap beers). Slices of Pizza and 1 credit (25cent) games. The only thing to be cognisent of is that the area can be dangerous. We always go early and are aware of our surroundings and have never had or seen an issue.

michael Paliotta

Ok, this is the coolest place ever! An arcade/pinball emporium with a bar and grille! Half the time the machines are on free play! Attached to Fete, a very hip night club, I come here all the time. Try the craft cocktails while you play Mario Brothers Classic NES at the booths or any one of a hundred classic pinball and video games like Tekken or Dig Dug.

Mark Ahlquist

Cool place.

Matthew Ricci

This place is awesome. $3 tall boys of pabst and free pinball on Sundays makes for a cheap fun night. Plus they have a really good selection of classic games, my favorites being raiden and time crisis 3. The games are in great working condition and everybody is friendly and welcoming

Jake Hurley

Great decor and unique atmosphere. Lots of pinball machines too.

Anderson Nance

The staff was so friendly. The guys at the door were so helpful. The signature cocktails were gooood and on top of that ,free video games.

Cliff Lindsay

Great idea and nice atmosphere.

My Google

Very chill crowd, huge selection for pinball, and laid back employees

Adil luke

Love the vibe everything it's awesome

J. Romeo Aldana

Great selection of pinball and arcade games. friendly staff and good place for beer and cocktails.

Christian Mendez

Love the place

Justin Sullivan

Cool place to chill, have a couple of beers, and get wrecked at some good old arcade games. Plus everything is a quarter!

sean murphy

come grab a beer and relive your teens. great lowkey spot.

george figueroa

Great atmosphere!