On Valentines day, Chris and I visited the recently opened FairGame venue in Canary Wharf, London. For those of you that have never heard of FairGame before, allow me to explain. FairGame is a new indoor amusements/arcade that incorporates all of your favourite childhood fairground games with street food and fairground inspired cocktails. One of the best parts about FairGame is that it is only for adults, allowing you the chance to release your inner child and play all of your favourite games without feeling like you have to give way to children!
FairGame opened in October 2022 and has brought in a lot of custom since, due to the venue being a large safe space for everybody to enjoy and relive their favourite childhood memories. When you arrive you are given a scannable card which you are shown how to activate by one of the extremely friendly staff members. Once activated, this works as a way to keep scores and enters you into any relevant leaderboards. It also works alongside the website to give you LIVE leaderboard data straight to your phone. This is a particularly nice touch if you and your group are competitive (which Chris and I are, so after every game we were frantically checking the website to see where we stood). Not only does the leaderboard show you your overall score, but it also compares you to everyone in your group and narrows down to an individual leaderboard for each game, so you can see exactly how you ranked against your team and which games were your downfall - darn the 'Phoney Island' shooting game!
At the price of £15 a ticket, I found the experience to be very good value and there are 9 games altogether which you play twice, straight after each other. The area is quite small so on particularly busy days it can get quite crowded in the gaming area. Although, this is where it being adults only comes nicely into play, as everything is well organised and you won't be waiting too long to have a turn. Plus you don't have to worry about any kids hogging the games, which is a big bonus!
We of course are all at FairGame to embrace our inner child and relive some of our favourite fairground memories, however a positive of being an adult, is that you can enjoy a drink alongside the amusement games, which I personally feel should be an option for all amusements from this point forward🍹 The games even have a space for you to put your drink whilst you're busy shooting targets and throwing balls into a trash can, seriously what is not to like about this place?! The bar is referred to as the 'Bumper bar' and is decorated in all your favourite funfair décor, making you feel that you really are reliving your childhood. The drinks menu is extensive with some fairground inspired cocktails which includes a special topping of a funfair essential: candy floss. I made my way through the cocktail list whilst Chris enjoyed a few glasses of red wine and we both praised the quality of drinks that we received, with my cocktails being especially delicious. The bar is large enough to be served fairly quickly, giving you plenty of time to enjoy all of the games on offer.
Anyway, back to the games! There is a good variety of games with probably the most familiar one being whack-a-mole (I don't mean to brag but I got a high score on this one😏). There are also many twists on the classics such as the much loved basketball game and the current popular arcade game of throwing balls at clowns. However instead of clowns, you're going to be throwing balls at grandma's pantry items. See, I told you this place is unique! Some of the games have a chance to win a Teddy bear if you beat the high score and being the competitive couple that we are, you can be assured that we tried our damned hardest and secured the bear with less than a second to go on one of the games. This made the day even more special and the bear is a beautiful reminder of a fantastic memory. You can see pictures of our new family member below where he was enjoying the lovely cocktails from the Bumper Bar. Overall, all of the games were very enjoyable and my personal favourite game was one that includes quick reaction times to spray water at relevant targets, as they appear before your eyes.
Once we were all gamed out (and I warn you that some of the games are quite tiring due to having to put force into your throw/roll), we decided to grab some food because all that hard work deserves a reward!
Within the facilities there are multiple street food vendors all serving a variety of different feasts, ranging from delicious looking Mexican cuisine, to some hefty and mouthwatering burgers. We were spoilt for choice but eventually came to an agreement to go for a pizza, which was absolutely delicious. Whilst we enjoyed our delicious food and cooed over how wonderful it was to own a brand new cute Teddy bear, there was only one thing left to do: find out who won. We each eagerly looked up our team leaderboard, analysing which game each of us performed the best in, and whilst I came out on-top on quite a few of the games, unfortunately my shooting skills let me down and I can begrudgingly inform you that Chris won out of the two of us. I would like the record to show that it was close though and I will be back stronger than ever, probably after a few sessions at a shooting range🎯
FairGame genuinely is a fun and unique place to visit and is extremely reasonably priced for the amount of fun that you are guaranteed to have there. I can't recommend FairGame enough and it is a perfect date idea for couples but is also a fantastic venue to visit as a big group. Whether you're competing against one person or ten, you are sure to have an amazing time.
Please let me know if you decide to visit and if you do, best of luck winning a bear. Mine will be taking pride of place in our house for the foreseeable future🧸
Useful things to know before your visit
• There is a free cloakroom which I would highly recommend taking advantage of because the venue is quite warm within the games area.
• Your ticket price includes 75 minutes of game play and each game will be played twice. Your first game will happen straight after your first game has finished, so stay prepared💪
• Drink and food prices are standard London prices (around £10 a cocktail) but are definitely worth the price
• You will be sent a registration email before your visit, make sure that your whole team registers before your visit to make the check-in process a breeze
• Your 75 minute game period will start 30minutes after your booking time. We booked for 12pm and our game slot began at 12:30pm, giving us enough time to grab some drinks to help improve our aim and hand-eye coordination before the chaos🙃
• Only some of the games have an opportunity to win a bear and this will be made clear to you when you enter the area to begin your game timeslot
You can book tickets via the FairGame website here
