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Nickel City As we continue to follow state and county guidelines, we have new sanitation and safety practices. Face Masks/Coverings are recommended for all guests entering Nickel City over 2 years old per the CDC and IL/Cook County Health Departments. Nickel City continues to use EcoLab cleaning/sanitizing/disinfecting products. These produces are EPA approved and we will be sanitizing/cleaning the store throughout the day. Social Distancing guidelines should be followed in all areas of the store maintaining at least 6 ft.
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Here at Nickel City, games operate with just nickels. We have a wide variety of redemption games that dispense tickets that can be redeemed for prizes. Play games like Skee-Ball, Bozo Buckets and Basketball. Our incredible prize counter has hundreds of prizes for the entire family. Nickel City is the perfect venue for all types of parties, get togethers and celebrations!
Nickel City is the greatest Arcade and Family Entertainment Center with the Hottest Video and Redemption games. A $2 entry fee provides kids of all ages and adults with a diverse selection of over 100 exciting video and redemption games that operate with nickels. That's right, here at Nickel City Arcade and Family Entertainment Center, we operate with JUST NICKELS. There are also video games that are on FREE Play, no nickels required! These free games include classic video games such as Pacman and Tetris.
Nickel City is the perfect venue for all types of parties, get togethers and celebrations. We have been specializing in children's birthday parties for over 20 years! Nickel City has provided unforgettable parties here in the NorthShore. Northbrook's Nickel City can accommodate parties up to 150 people.
Nickel City is one of the largest family entertainment centers in the North Shore area. For over 10 years, we have been providing entertainment services for families, camp groups, school outings, and various other organizations. Our services include affordable entertainment for children ages 3 and up as well as a vast variety of food services for groups.
Reviews (23)
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Georgey Z.
Jun 24, 2022
Too many broken down games and run down building. It does have 1 functioning ski ball and basketball game though.
The Punisher
Jun 22, 2022
Wonderful place to play some old arcades and some newer ones. Great prizes and amazing place to have a memorable birthday party.
Aaron Hagopian
Jun 12, 2022
Had a birthday party there for my 5 year old. Overall it was great, and the staff was very helpful. Only complaint is there is always a decent amount of games totally out of order or only partially working. Would be 5 stars if they could fix some games that are basically there for storage and never seem to get fixed.
Amy H.
Jun 11, 2022
Great service, Covid safe and kid friendly. Go early in the morning to avoid the cowards. Bag of $5 last a good 2-3 hours of fun.
Erica B.
May 28, 2022
It is a good place but the nacho chips were stale and a lot of the games were out of out of order. Staff was very nice, patient and helpful.
Kris M.
May 24, 2022
Hadn't been to Nickel City in years! Brought some family from California in and was impressed with the cleanliness of the business. The two young men who were working there were very friendly and helpful. We had a fantastic time!
Elly Lim
May 12, 2022
Nice service and fun. They'll give you extra nickels to enjoy more. My daughter loves to take time there!
Rabia Haider
Apr 17, 2022
Workers have a lot of attitude. Paper Cups look reused. Moldy food. Food taste really bad. Workers swear in front of kids. Don't let kids take a lot of prizes because "it's bad for business" even though you won a lot of tickets. A lot of games break easily. One worker at front to fix games give prizes and work the cashier everyone else in the back. Would not recommend.
Huma
Apr 10, 2022
Kids and adults had a good time, some games didn't give tickets, but friendly and accommodating staff when we needed to pray, thank you so much! Also free play games were awesome too
Jeff Fuller
Mar 27, 2022
Compared to other locations (e.g. Dave and Busters or Chuck E. Cheese), this is a fantastic value for your money. I demonstrated this to my daughter by giving her $25 at D&B versus $25 here and seeing how much play and prizes could be earned. The machines weren't all operational (typical for this location), but there was always machines available despite how busy the location was at the time of our visit.

Roughly half the 'free-to-play' arcade machines in the back were turned off, but there were still plenty to enjoy. It was a lot of fun to introduce her to some of the 'retro' games from my childhood.
Halley Burns
Mar 06, 2022
My husband used to come here when he was a kid, and now we bring our daughter here. So much fun! There are games that are fun for a 3-year-old and also for adults. Super cheap, nice place to relax and enjoy some family time.
Maya S.
Feb 28, 2022
Nephew Loved it - especially Natalia who served us some delicious pizza and soda - so friendly and kind, would love to see again!
Bruno Fakebeagle
Feb 25, 2022
It's a really depressing place. So filthy. Smells bad. No care taken at all to clean. Many games broken. Just very old and dirty and run down. That being said my daughter did have a great time which is most important and staff was nice. So 2/3 stars is ok. But man it just looks feels and smells run down
Caren S.
Feb 22, 2022
It's disgusting, broken games everywhere, dirty, smelly, just plain gross. Stay far far away.
Heather P.
Nov 03, 2021
This place is a blast from my past. It's been here since well, before I was in high school and that's going back twenty some odd years. Goes to show you, it doesn't have to be fancy to be fun. If you're looking for bells and whistles, move along. However; if you're looking for some good family fun that's affordable and memory making, head on over.

Check first for a groupon, it's a great deal. You get tokens and pizza. Seriously, the best way to kill a few hours and not feel like you had to take out a second mortgage to provide ample entertainment.
Cb
Sep 11, 2021
If you want the kiddos to have some fun for a couple hours on the cheap then this is the place to be. Yes it's more old school games and some of them are broken but considering it costs nickels to play still worth it in my opinion. The staff are always nice and many of the bigger games always work so the kids can play for a while and it costs very little for a couple hrs. Not many places like this left and they still use tickets love it or hate it our kids enjoy it once in a while.
Liz H.
Jul 17, 2021
Take time to indulge in the nostalgia of this arcade. Nickel City is fun for all ages. With a small admission fee and nickels needed for most games, this is great for a family budget friendly time out. I love that real tickets are still used unlike many switching to digital cards.
Sarah L.
May 02, 2021
I reserved the party room here and it was overall such a great experience! Will definitely be doing it again soon. My friends and I had such a blast! We were allowed to bring our own food and I booked us the room for 2 hours. Everyone kept telling me how much fun they had and we all wanted to stay longer and keep hanging out. We're all in our late 20s and it was something fun and different to do on a Saturday night.

The staff was super nice and so professional! Nickel City has all of the classic arcade games and I've been coming here since I was a kid - it's still great! The staff prepared $10 cups of nickels for us and that was a perfect amount for 2 hours of gaming per person and they just billed it with the room rental fee that I paid at the end of the night. Will definitely be booking this room again soon!
Kim A.
Apr 25, 2021
Had a fun time games range from 1 to 6 nickels. And you earn tickets for prizes. Ita fun small place to play arcade games and air hockey. You also have to love the address being 555 and the place called Nickel City.
Jasminee D.
Aug 04, 2020
I love this place. Its my date spot with my boyfriend. Its like a chuckee-cheese but the games actually work.
Jen R.
Aug 24, 2019
I had never been here before but I love arcades (especially SKEE-BALL!) so hubs took me here to indulge me. It was $2 per person to get in, and we got a $7 bag full of nickels to fuck around with. We immediately went to the skee-ball area (I wish there was more than 3 machines!) and I went to town on that shit. After a bit, we wandered to the free play section and played TMNT (note: don't play as Donatello because the joystick is busted) and tried to play Mario Kart but the wheel was also jacked up.

We made a shitload of tickets at this ball drop game and then played more skee-ball with the rest of our nickels. We gave our tickets to a well-behaved child because the prizes were shitty - although I did see a giant plush avocado that I wanted to take home but at 2500, I didn't feel it was worth the trouble. So 2 hrs of playing games for $11. Can't really beat it!

A few of the machines were out of order and it is kind of loud in there - which is fine. I'd rather hear loud machines than children screaming. We didn't eat there but I heard the food was pretty bad. It had a "$1 Jewel pizza" smell to it, which is nostalgic for me but I can make that shit at home. I'd go back to play more skee-ball :D
Glenda M.
Jul 01, 2019
Nickle City needs to have their staff go thru an attitude adjustment and some general tips of customer service. The staff is extremely rude. Two were beyond ignorant and almost made me loss my cool. Rolling your eyes and pointing fingers is not something I suggest to paying customers. We booked a party and it almost was a complete disaster but Only one of the staff members was patient and understanding. And went beyond words to accommodate us. I thank the one young lady that helped us in any way she could but the rest really need to get fired.
Angel A.
Dec 05, 2018
This is an arcade of a dying breed. And, for people like myself, a breath of fresh air at the same time. If you're looking for a place to have an hour or two of fun, without fighting ridiculous crowds, screaming kids, blaring music and still leave with money in your pockets when you're through, this is exactly that kind of place. They don't have all the new high tech virtual reality games. This is good old fashioned fun like original skeeball. Highly recommended!