14 Best Barcades in Los Angeles

A woman-owned gaming lounge in Pomona with nine current pinball machines (Godzilla, JAWS, John Wick, Pokemon and Star Wars among them), a wall of retro cabinets, a big board-game library and its signature video-game beer glassware. Relaxed, creative and worth the drive to the eastern edge of the county.

Highland Park's other York Boulevard game room, and the better choice if you want dinner too. Thai street food and cocktails share the room with pool tables, arcade cabinets and six modern Stern pinball machines, from Foo Fighters to Venom.

A neighborhood bar built around ten-plus vintage pinball machines, rotated from the owner's collection of 120. Surf Champ, a 1976 Gottlieb, never leaves the floor. Games run 25 to 50 cents, Wednesday is tournament night, and the patio is dog-friendly.

A horror-and-heavy-metal pizza bar in Long Beach with a full liquor bar and a small lineup of games: House of the Dead, Cruis'n USA, a pool table and a 1979 Stern Dracula pinball. The pizza is the reason to come, and the games are the reason to stay.

A working craft brewery in the Arts District with skee-ball lanes and a small arcade to go with house-brewed beer. It is more brewery-with-games than pure barcade, and the beer is the real draw. Under-21s are welcome until 7pm.

The Brooklyn original's LA outpost on York Boulevard: 70-plus classic games, about a dozen of them pinball, at 25 cents a play, with change machines on site. The 24-tap craft beer wall is the co-star, and the kitchen runs until 2am on weekends.

The flagship of the LA barcade scene. More than 55 vintage pinball and arcade machines, most still on a quarter, spread across a pinball hall, a video-games-and-bar room and a courtyard with food trucks and DJs. Entry is free and there are no reservations, so it is first come, first served.

Wrapped in an '80s and '90s purple-and-pink neon aesthetic, Player One pairs TRON, Jurassic Park and Super Smash Bros. cabinets with about nine pinball machines. Add trivia Tuesdays, karaoke, live music and dance parties, and it's a full night out in NoHo.

The bowling-and-arcade spot formerly known as Jewel City Bowl, now a retro '80s-themed alley with 24 lanes, an arcade, billiards, a bar and DJ nights. A dependable Glendale hang that covers a few kinds of night in one place.

The former Bowlero Mar Vista, rebranded as Lucky Strike in 2025: bowling, an arcade and lounge seating on the Westside. Family-friendly by day and a solid group hang by night, open until 1am on Friday and Saturday.

A country-themed Koreatown speakeasy you enter through a general store selling cowboy hats. Behind it: Jurassic Park, Space Invaders, Super Bikes 3, skee-ball, air hockey, DDR and pinball, plus line dancing, karaoke, live country music and a $5 mechanical bull.

A gloriously divey Koreatown hang and one of LA's oldest arcade bars, with '80s cabinets like Burger Time, a Terminator 2 pinball and DJs spinning most nights. Small, dark and unpretentious, the antidote to a slick night out.

It looks like a sports bar and plays like an arcade: driving cabinets, mini golf, ping pong, darts and beer pong, with a wall of TVs and DJs on weekends. The best pick when your group is split between a game on the screen and a game on the machine.

The big-box benchmark: 100-plus ticket and video games, 40-foot sports screens and a full bar at Ovation Hollywood. There are four more in LA County, in Westchester, Northridge, Arcadia and Long Beach. Not a hidden gem, but the easiest call for a mixed group.