Draughts - Waterloo
Cafe Draughts - Waterloo, Arch 16 Leake St, London SE1 7NN, United Kingdom:
220 reviews
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Address: Arch 16 Leake St, London SE1 7NN, United Kingdom
Website: draughtslondon.com
GPS coordinates
Latitude: 51.5019627Longitude: -0.1157091
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reviews
Doeniel Rebotco
I’ve been to both this Draughts and the Hackney branch and I love them both. They are really nice, relaxed environments, the people who work there are lovely and happy to talk you through a new game, the range of games is great and the food and drink selection is really good quality too. I can’t recommend enough for those who like or would like to get into games.
9 months ago
Eden Abbott
Absolutely fabulous concept for a restaurant. Very friendly staff and a reasonable selection of food. Has a young and trendy feel and a unique atmosphere with a board game theme where you actually get to play the board games. This is a must for visitors and and party groups looking for that something special that you will talk about for ages.
Please note that this restaurant is young and trendy and squirrelled away under a tunnel full of artist who spray can in to express themselves. It has to be seen to be believed.
2 months ago
Chad Reischl
I love this place, it's a great social spot. This is my 3rd time at the Waterloo branch over the years and I always recommend it as it's great fun being able to play games whilst eating good food/drinks. Always a good option to avoid awkward silences too as everyone is engaged in the game- so I would not only recommend you come here with friends but also people you don't know well like new colleagues, dates...etc.
Theres a range of board game options (£6 per person for whole session), good food range including vegan options where I tried the vegan fish and chips and it exceeded my expectations was so tasty and the chips were very crispy too- I wish I had complimented the chef on the dish!
Great atmosphere and staff very friendly.
Only thing I wish we had a longer session but like most restaurants now you have 2hrs for a table but still great fun!
Note that the location is within a tunnel with art sprayed all over- very cool!
9 months ago
Thomas Bifano
Had a couple of wonderful visits, as a couple and with the kid. Friendly team, lovely drinks and snacks and a great library. Happily played family games and got some heavy Euros in when just the two of us. Looking forward to returning after lockdown
9 months ago
Kay Jesenovec
Nice place but no one says that you will have to pay 7£ per person for playing! Which is crazy, we were six so we could have bought most of the games twice for that price! The food is okay and the people was really kind. We had a nice time but we didn’t play which was a shame because there aren’t many options regarding food as the whole point is playing.
7 months ago
Nicole Kendrix
Brilliant place. Great selection of games ranging from the very simple to extremely complex. Good for two people, great for groups. Fantastic food, vegan friendly. Great selection of beverages hot and cold. Full recommendation.
8 months ago
Aurelia Washington
Great business set in a unique location on Leake St in the magnificent graffiti tunnel under Waterloo. Excellent board game collection and friendly, knowledgeable staff. Nice selection of beers as well. I hope to be able to return soon!
9 months ago
Christopher Jegam
Stumbled across this today after a new visit to the Leake St graffiti. What a great concept in a fantastic spot. A cafe with a bar and shelves of games to play with others. We had some very good Belgian waffles with honeycomb ice-cream. Highly recommended. Friendly service.
2 months ago
WILLIAM SAFREED
Definitely worth your £6!
Hands down one of the best board game cafes in London. It's located in a very shady place, a tunnel filled with graffiti, but look past that and you enter a new world of joy and wonder. Coffee is pretty good and vast selection of food and drinks to fill you up during your 2-3 hour board game session, but the food is just alright, nothing to rave about, then again, we didn't really go there for the food.
1 month ago
Leighann Elder
Another place were prices are higher compared to before the pandemic. I really cannot stand businesses taking it up to their customer if they can allow less people because of new regulations. I loved the place but these things make me sick.
1 week ago
Dana Miller
Really cool selection of games to play and the staff are super friendly and attentive. We picked games we've never played before and they were happily explained by the staff. The food is expensive for what it is and there is a £6 entry fee, but makes sense considering how expensive some board games are.
7 months ago
Ruben Pina
Great place to play modern board games and a full kitchen for nice food while you play. You book the table in 4 hour slots with a flat cover charge. Will defiantly go again.
1 week ago
Kaylee M
So the location is very lovely and no problems with the game layout. However, the fact that you guys charged us an extra 12.5% for the service charge on the ' gaming session' side is just appalling. It was only the 2 of us so we tried to ignore some of the small things until the end. I ordered a latte in which the latte was very cold. My boyfriend wanted to order a certain beer in which he was told it was not available so he had to pick another. There was a way too many staff members chatting their life away while we were trying to play our game. But what topped everything off was the fact that you not only charge £6 but also on top that you also add the extra 12.5% for the ' service' part of it in which we did not receive.
My friends were asking me how it was but the honest truth is it was not a great place to go when all you are doing is trying to charge us extra for giving zero services. Appalling and not happy
8 months ago
Gregory Frame
We had so much fun here. Amazing selection of games. Feels safe and secure , and really great to be asked to actually wash your hands rather than just sanitise.
The bookings were very much back to back, so we felt a bit pushed out as theyd clearly booked the table to be taken at exactly the time we had booked until. If there had been half an hour's grace period, we would have ordered another drink.
8 months ago
Dalailah Atuncar
Nice place! You can have lots of fun with your friends playing boardgames! Staff were really friendly and suggested a couple of games...
8 months ago
Grace Firmin
Amazing food and drinks selection and the staff were super friendly and nice. Oh and yeah - they have tons of games to play
6 months ago
Surendra Vishnoi
Really awesome pub with a huge collection of games, great place for groups and decent choice of drinks! Wouldn’t recommend the food though, it was very bland for the price.
2 months ago
Ryan McGinnis
The games are fixed. My wife won all of them. Otherwise it was excellent. Service was brilliant and huge selection of games
8 months ago
Maryanne Starbird
Really great games cafe. Has a good selection of games, food, drinks all combined with in a very nice atmosphere in a unique location! The railway tunnel that leads to the space can look a bit intimidating (because of all of the graffiti - which is worth exploring in its own right) but the cafe itself is really very pleasant/respectable.
8 months ago
Eryn Tomlin
Great place for an afternoon of gaming! Amazing selection of board games, great food and friendly staff.
6 months ago
Kelvin Ramos
Had such a good time here! The staff are so amazing and welcoming and very helpful in recommending games. The food is ok but you're really here to have a drink, hang with friends and play some games! Also £6 pp is pretty reasonable for the selection of games on offer. Already looking forward to going back.
3 months ago
Vishnu Pv
Great time here ..great food and perfectly sized tables for playing the great selection of games ..staff were really nice and made you feel welcome ????????anyone giving this place a negative review really hasn’t a clue about how to assess fairly either that or they need to really try and be a happier person and not live life being one of “those” kind of people !!
10 months ago
John Bundy
Great quite location next to graffiti tunnel. It's cool here during the hot days as well! Drinks and food are expensive, but I'm ok with it as it has great board game selection and very nice tables to play at.
3 months ago
Kalita Blessing
Great atmosphere. Very helpful staff. Best board game cafe/bar I've ever been to.
9 months ago
Denice hinkson
My partner was raving about this place for a while. We finally got here and I was not impressed. They didn’t have the beer I wanted, they didn’t have the tacos we wanted. The mains arrived before the starter. The ‘jackfruit’ burger tasted like a bean burger and the Cajun fries were fries with salt and rosemary. When we complained they argued they had Cajun salt on them - this is not Cajun fries. They said they would replace them, but the staff was so disorganised and confused, they never came in the end. I’ve been here in the past and the quality has gone downhill
Sorry to have to leave a bad review. I never usually do this
9 months ago
Georgette Dilworth
Don't waste your time going to this place. The table service was terrible, we was served warm drinks and cold food. We was served food without cutlery which we had to request and we also had to request serviettes. The staff were very rude when I asked for ice and pointed out that the drinks were warm.
The boards games had cards missing and looked like they came from a charity shop. £6 a head just to play very second hand games was a great dissapoint and waste of money. I could have stayed home and played board games instead.
9 months ago
Kristen Cox
Went there with my boyfriend tonight.
It was excellent, there are many funny board games to play with friends or even alone.
The atmosphere is great and the staff is awesome, mostly Francesco. He is great, his smile is charming, and he is absolutely friendly and lovely.
Highly recommended
1 month ago
Ismael Rifai
Perfect spot for a fun relaxing evening, also great jalapeño jam!
8 months ago
Michael Streff
Great fun, kind staff and good prices. I am not the best board gamer but still love Draughts. There are good games to play with any party size, the food and drinks are very good and perhaps above all is the staff that is very kind and welcoming.
1 week ago
Ahmed Faishal
A good selection of games; friendly, knowledge staff, and a decent selection of food and drink. Great stuff
5 months ago
Valerie Brown
Draughts Waterloo is great! We had a group of 7 and had an excellent time. Really good menu choices and drinks options, a massive selection of games, and incredibly friendly and helpful staff who are always happy to be asked questions. In particular we were helped by Rafa who stayed after his shift ended just to teach us how to play a game, and was very patient with us. Thank you to everyone at Draughts and we will definitely be back!
1 month ago
Alexandros Pappas
This restaurant is brilliant for anyone who likes good food and play board games. The vegan burger was absolutely delicious!
5 months ago
julianne hish
Cute game café with great selection of drinks. Great place for a date.
8 months ago
Denise Upton
Beautiful facilities, knowledgeable staff. Great place to spend way more time than you planned to! The food is good too. If I had one thing they could improve, it is quite loud when it is busy - it could do with the space being broken up a little more or even just something to dampen the echo in the vaulted ceiling.
6 months ago
Kalie Stern
Great place for board game lovers! Geek out on their varied selection. At £6 a head, it turns out quite reasonable for the amount of time you spend. Their food menu could do with some variety but the usual bar snacks & nibbles are up for offer.
2 months ago
Ali Kherallah
Nice idea, lots of games which is good. Quite noisy when we went though, made it hard to play.
7 months ago
Jrob
Great food and good board games but location's not easily recognizable
3 months ago
alena boyer
Don't bother going, the games library is full of ancient torn up games with missing pieces pretty shocking prices for such a poor library
10 months ago
Jessica Dunton
Okay so I'll start with the good, they have an amazing selection of games. Honestly it's huge and the staff know a ton about all of the games and they're really passionate about board games and can recommend different ones based on whatever criteria you might have. The food was also great and they have a good selection of drinks. However, this is where our experience wasn't what we had hoped. So we were a group of 7 which is a challenge as it does limit the number of games that are available, however, the first 4 games all had pieces missing. And by pieces I mean half the pieces missing. So unfortunately completely unplayable. And it takes a long time to understand the rules before you realise that pieces are missing so we lost about an hour getting games out, realising parts were missing, pack it up go pick another one same again. But hey we found a game eventually with the help of the staff. Then our food took over an hour for our whole table to come out, several dishes were missing, wrong, had extra sides we hadn't ordered. Then at the end of the night they'd over charged us for the spirit and mixers. They took them off the bill which was great but honestly by this point we were pretty frustrated and annoyed. Also, maybe this is just us being idiots but it's £6 per person just to play. We weren't aware of this, and it's not clear when you turn up and it doesn't say anywhere that you have to pay. I don't have an issue with paying to play but if I'm paying to play I expect that the board games should in the majority have all of the pieces in them. It's not good value for money as drinks are £6 a pint, you pay to get in, and food again on top and isn't cheap. For what we paid in the end I don't think it was worth the money as for what we spent we could have bought 10 or more board games and just stayed in and had a better night. Staff knowledge great, game offerings/selection good, state of the games and service delivery left alot to be desired
1 month ago
Alton Lewis
This is such a great place for a group of friends or for a date! Very young and trendy feel.
The food menu was pretty good and they have some cool drinks too (although that's not going to help you win!)
At one point we weren't sure what to pick so we asked a staff member who picked out two really great games from the crazy selection on offer! Even if you know plenty of the games on offer I'd 100% suggest asking for a recommendation anyway!
1 week ago
Nida Crotty
First time going here last week. Such a cool concept food, drinks and boardgames. Winner ????. So much selection of games and the staff as helpful as they can with the games and set up. Will visit definitely again.
3 months ago
Kimberly Hardin
Perfect retreat with a group of friends to share board games and refreshments. Food and drink are good quality and very reasonably priced, and the selection of board games was more than generous.
2 months ago
James Litten
Great place. Friendly staff and amazing food! Very clean and high ceiling with good lighting makes the place light and airy
1 week ago
Donald King
This cafe is so much fun and I cannot recommend it enough! You could go here hundreds of different times and still have a unique experience for each one due to the variety of board games offered. I would say that I was only familar with 5% of the games they had to offer. It is quite incredible how many board games there are out there and all of them so much fun!
The food is nothing spectacular though it is good. You are going more so for the experience though and the experience is what will keep me coming back!
2 months ago
Amanda Birkelund
Fantastic place to hunker down with a board game with friends. Whether trying so.ething now or settling in to a game you've played before this is the perfect spot to relax m, unwind and geek out. Reasonably priced drinks, simple food, awesome games. 5* fun.
4 months ago
Michael Thompson
A great venue, good food, I had the lobster Mac and cheese and was worthy of a main course. Nice beer selection and table service. A great selection of games and knowledgeable staff. Looking forward to go again.
1 week ago
Malika Ramsaroop
One of my favourite places to hang out!! Excellent games and very knowledgeable staff
10 months ago
Sabrina Rutan
Beer, food and boarding games what's not to love. Great place with plenty of choice, from the classical boardgames to the more geeky ones. There's a lot of groups playing Jenga so be prepared to ear some random screams. Also the music is a bit too loud so be prepared to scream at your friends if you are in a big group.
1 week ago
Tara Binder
A great place with lovely staff. Loads of games to choose from, however food is VERY expensive for what are small portions of cheap, essentially microwave looking meals.
Good atmosphere though, even if the trains passing over get super loud and often.
2 months ago
Anne Barrett
Great selection of games and friendly hosts - you can play however many games in your four hour slot for 6 pounds per person, which is pretty great imo. Lovely atmosphere, underground with the occasional tones of a passing train. Really enjoyable experience. Food was average quality. But we don't really come here for the food now do we.
2 months ago
