Guild Board Game Restaurant

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Posted 2016-12-08 by Sue W ⇒ follow

Guild is a board game restaurant in the heart of Canberra's busy CBD. It is Canberra's only board game restaurant and after opening in January 2016, it has steadily grown in popularity. The restaurant has a menu designed to be enjoyed while playing the games, so diners can have an uninterrupted night of board game fun - with pages of games to choose from on their "Games Menu". Piled high on shelving units around the restaurant, there are board games for every generation - from Hungry Hippo to the Cards Against Humanity and everything in between. Diners pay an extra $3 "Gameage" (each person) to use the games, which just gets added to the bill and you can play for as long as you like. If you just want to play a few smaller games however, you can also choose from their "Breadsticks Games" for free.

This restaurant is popular day and night with families, uni students and friends of all ages, coming together for some old fashioned, board game fun. Technology is put aside for one night as friends and family battle it out, learn new games and enjoy each others company - and of course, the tasty wood fired pizzas.

On our visit on a Tuesday night for their "2 for 1" pizza night, the restaurant was wall to wall with happy and hungry diners. There are large tables all around the room to choose from, however our group of six were lucky enough to get a cosy booth for our Christmas get together. I had all the intentions of taking photos of this buzzing venue for this article - however I have to admit - once we started playing the hilarious Cards Against Humanity game (for over 18's) I got so involved in the game, that the night just flew by. This shows what this restaurant can do - time really does fly when you are having fun here. These photos (below) are from Guilds' Facebook - which also captures the fun and mayhem of by night.

The staff are particularly helpful when playing the games, with some handy pointers so you don't have to read through all the rules. This really helped our table on a few occasions, as we were a little lost playing some of the more complicated games. Some games require some brain power to get going, whereas others are easy to play and may challenge your memory on trivia or history. Others are just sheer fun and giggles - so you can pick whatever game suits you. If you aren't sure, just pick a level from their list and ask the staff to find you something suitable. While we were playing adult games on our table, the family in the booth behind were having a lot of laughs playing Boggle and the High Five game, making this a family friendly restaurant, day and night.

The menu has a tasty range, with an extensive mocktail, cocktail, craft beer and alcohol menu. On our "2 for 1" pizza night, which I highly recommend for great value, we tried the Zombicide, Pass The Pigs, Angola pizzas and also created our own pizza combination. A small pizza ($16 - $17) had six slices and is a filling meal for one person, so this Tuesday night deal makes it a cheap night out. The pizzas take a while to arrive, however it means that you have plenty of time to get involved in your game beforehand. The pizzas are a tasty accompaniment to the games, where you can still hold your cards with one hand and eat a pizza - or enjoy a cocktail - with the other. See here for more details and menus.

The noise level in the restaurant is comfortable - with laughter and banter heard all around the room as people play their games, however it is not so overwhelming so you can't play your own. Although everyone will have their own experience, this restaurant quickly became a favourite place for our group of friends to go out for dinner in Canberra. It is easy to lose time here, as when we checked our watches on our visit, we realised we had been playing games for over 3 hours and the restaurant was ready to close. If you would like to join one of their events, trivia nights or see their latest dinner deals, see the Guild Facebook here .

When trying to find Guild, just walk along London Circuit in the CBD and look for a restaurant down below street level that is full of people laughing and enjoying themselves. With so much fun happening inside - why would you want to go anywhere else?