Arcade Bar | Greta Bar YYZ

May 28

Written By Nhi

We visited Toronto’s newest arcade bar! GRETA Bar YYZ is located on popular King St. W. You can spot it as the building with the giant inflatable legs hanging off the side of it at 590 King St W, Toronto, ON M5V 1M3.

When we first came in we were surprised by how spacious the place was. There were two floors each with their own bar and games placed throughout.

We did book a reservation beforehand and got a booth for us to eat and place our things. There is a coat check for those coming to play without booking a table.

They specialize in street/bar food dishes and have a cute food truck kitchen display. My friend Anh and I tried two dishes but didn’t find the food to be all that special but we really enjoyed GRETA more for the games and the fun vibes instead. So we recommend maybe stopping by here as a post dinner activity especially since there are many notable restaurants in the area. We spent dinner time just talking and catching up. The music wasn’t too loud and 7pm wasn’t busy so it was a good atmosphere to do just that.

You can purchase their game cards from the Merch booth or from kiosks on the floor. We got one of their re-chargeable game cards and loaded $50 onto it. You do get more bonus credits the more value you put onto the card. This gave us 360 credits to use on games at the arcade. Our server told us there are also time cards available for unlimited play for an hour as well. But time cards don’t let you play some games simultaneously where as credit ones do.

Photobooth pics! We were confused on when the first pic was counting down.

Each game uses 4-12 credits and we tried majority of the games they had and we played our favourites more than once. They even had a photo booth that you can use your credits on and we each got a cute photo strip to take home!

Their game variety includes retro video games such as Street Fighter and PacMan, a variety of racing games including MarioKart, and multiple shooting games. They also had the classic fair games such as skeeball and basketball. Our favourites were the more active multiplayer games. We really enjoyed Connect 4 Hoops and Twister (this one with 4 players would be really interesting). Giant Bop It was also a fun and stressful one to try! Watch our tiktok to see some of the games we played!

The overall vibes of Greta was really great. From their funny signage and their kind staff it really was “good vibes only” as their game cards say.

Rechargeable game card and cute GRETA pin!

While you’re playing games you collect tickets based on how well you do. At the end of your evening you can check out the Merch desk to redeem prizes. Their prizes are Merch of their place but done very cute! We definitely didn’t make any high scores or anything so we had enough tickets for badges/pins. We went home with a cute pin of their game truck logo. With more tickets their were bucket hats and other apparel and practical items.

We went on a Monday evening at 7pm so we didn’t expect it to be busy and it wasn’t. But there was still a decent amount of people. I can see how the place could get busy and games might not be free at all times but I think with the right people its just a good place to hang out, grab some drinks and snacks, and play games in between.

We both agreed that we would love to come back another time. We saved the game card with our tickets and leftover credits just for that!