Token of Gratitiude (and Games)

I was so very excited to get to go to Token, the new venture by the well known Record and Game Emporium (RAGE) in Dublin. Smithfield is already a favourite spot of the city because of the wondrous Lighthouse Cinema and the little shops and restaurants around. Also if you're into whiskey the Jameson Whiskey distillery is there. Token is something completely new to the area and the city- a retro-arcade bar. I've been waiting a year to here when it would be open, and after a few ups and down in their progress, they opened in June this year. A few friends and I decided to try it out, so we reserved space for us all (this may not be required now, but in the first few weeks it was), and ambled down to Smithfield.

Inside the door was a claw machine (THE CLAW!) and we were all given a token to have a go at winning a special prize, as seen below.

Grappling with the Claw machine was tough.

None of us won a prize in the claw machine but we were too giddy to get into the main space and get food to care. I went in the early weeks of opening, so the ordering of food was done at the bar, but I think they have more staff waiting on tables now. Their menu had a lot of different things, mostly inspired by the type of food you would get from a classy food truck- burgers, hot dogs, tacos, chicken tenders etc. with vegetarian and vegan options as well. Obviously being a bar they also had a variety of beverages.

I got the Side Chick Burger and fries with aioli.

After thoroughly enjoying the food, we started off with the pinball lounge downstairs to have a crack at being pinball wizards. Of course like any real arcade you have to buy tokens to put in the machines (or else they'd make no money for maintenance and running of the place). I split a bag of 50 tokens between my friend, so it ended up being a pretty reasonable price. Most machines take one or two tokens.

Secret fact: I can be pretty terrible at arcade games, and some video games as well, but I absolutely love playing them. I got very excited when I saw the Simpsons' pinball machine, being a true child of the 90's/early 2000's. Downstairs was very dark, but they had movies playing in the background, so I presume the lights were dimmed for the projector. Also the pinball machine do look amazing lighting up the room with their wacky colours.

The OG arcade game.

Gotta watch out for those slippery bananas in Token, and in Mario Kart as well.

 After failing to graduate to pinball wizardry, we ventured back upstairs to the main area, which was chock-a-bloc full of machines and people playing them. The queues for machines weren't too long, so I got to play a variety of games: I was still terrible at Mario Kart although it was great fun; I had a go at a four person Spiderman and Friends side scroller; I crashed into more cars and people in Crazy Taxi Driver; and tried to improve my accuracy skills with Point Blank. The most surprising event was when I beat several people at Wrestlemania, a game I have never played before, but was quite good at. My hidden skill is button mashing, which aided me in beating up all wrestlers who crossed my path. I was eventually taken down when one of friends discovered my secret and beat me at my own button mashing game.

Crazy Taxi Driver lives up to its name.

We were there for a couple hours, and I really enjoyed playing a few games, eating the food, and being a bit silly with friends. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to unwind some evening, and play some good old fashioned video games with friends or by yourself. Token have a website and a facebook page, I'd suggest looking up what's going on (their events look fun), and if you need to reserve space or not. 

Until the next 8-bit adventure,

Aoife