Pips Board Game Cafe - Calgary

A group of 11 made a reso for dinner, drinks and games. We all had a blast. Excellent selection of games. The food is Ok, Rosso coffee is excellent, service was very good. We will be back for more games and Laughs!

So, here's the deal: this is a board game cafe where you pay $5 per person for 3 hours of all-you-can-play board games. They have a huge (and awesome) selection of games (for every age and party size) and, in the evenings, there is a game master available to teach you how to play pretty much any game. There is, obviously, always the option of just coming in and having a drink or bite to eat without playing games. Notable: they have the most drinkable house beer of pretty much any pub or restaurant we've been to in Calgary. We've generally had good service (we've been here 10+ times since they opened and only had less than good service once but that was for brunch and it seemed like they were understaffed). There is always a grilled cheese sandwich of the day which is delicious (worth the price) and lots of snacks to choose from if you don't want a meal (we always struggle not to blow all our weekend budget here). Occasionally you have to wait for a table but they have a neat system where your name is added to the list and they text you when your table is ready (plus you can check the status of the waitlist online).

My wife and I were visiting from the US (Philadelphia) and I had seen that Calgary had a few Boardgame Cafes. Visited the PIPS Boardgame Cafe for dinner and a relaxing game or two. After being seated, we were told of how the gaming works and we found a couple of nice 2-player games (Patchwork and Trambaun) that were short and relatively simple that we could enjoy while eating and having a coffee. The person teaching the games came by more than once to check on us and ask if we had any questions. That is the way to do a boardgame cafe. Had a great time!

We love spending time at Pips - as a couple, double date nights, with kids or Monday Mingles. Staff is friendly, good food, delicious desserts, many drink selections and there certainly is no shortage of games to choose from. The best part is the readily available game masters willing to teach you a new game on the spot - way better than spending time reading through all the rules. Worth checking out.

Pip's is great. They have hundreds of games and serve plenty of local beer, plus the teas/coffee/other more standard cafe drinks. We only ordered a few snacks, which were good, and they have a full menu. They also have knowledgeable "game masters" on staff to help you find and learn games, as well as to suggest new games that would fit what your group is looking for.