Video of Level 257

Nostalgia is a powerful thing. It’s the driving force behind the continued existence of ‘50s radio stations, drive-ins, and other monuments to Baby Boomers. But as Gen Xers like me find ourselves locking eyes with the unblinking gaze of middle age, nostalgia has an ever-growing hold on us as well.

Some of that I could live without—I'd rather not hear Human League's "(Keep Feeling) Fascination" while I'm grocery shopping. But nostalgia does have one upside: the revival of the arcade . I spent much of the early ‘80s dropping quarter after quarter into the likes of Gorf, Crazy Climber, Donkey Kong, Ms. Pac-Man, Moon Cresta, and many others. And today in the mid-2010s of Chicagoland, I can revisit my misspent youth by dropping by Wicker Park barcade Emporium or Brookfield’s massive Galloping Ghost Arcade . And now there’s a third arcade-themed destination around these parts: Namco’s Level 257

Namco describes Level 257 as “a brand new restaurant and entertainment destination inspired by Pac-Man.” With the restaurant opening up for “beta testing” this week in advance of the grand opening in mid-March, I grabbed my 15-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son (who has gladly accompanied me on visits to Galloping Ghost), and we drove out to the sprawling Woodfield Mall in the Chicago suburb of Schaumburg.

Level 257 is nestled into a 40,000-square-foot corner of the mall right next to Sears and just a couple of doors down from Rainforest Café. We could see the brightly colored sign heralding its presence from the frontage road as we exited the Eisenhower Expressway. Parking was plentiful nearby because the restaurant was still in the “soft open” phase (and because who wants to go to Sears anyways), so we found a spot fairly close to the door and made our way in.

We were greeted by a grinning Pac-Man statue standing atop his four ghost tormentors giving us a winking smile and a thumbs up. Immediately on our left was the gift shop filled with all things Pac-Man. And to the right were the stairs, beckoning us upwards and into the heart of Namco’s Pac-Man themed extravaganza.

Nom nom nom

Eric Bangeman

Eric Bangeman

Marlowe Bangeman



Eric Bangeman

Eric Bangeman

Eric Bangeman

Marlowe Bangeman

Eric Bangeman

Eric Bangeman

Eric Bangeman

Marlowe Bangeman

Eric Bangeman

Eric Bangeman

Eric Bangeman

The hostess stand was manned by four friendly staffers and flanked by two retro-looking lamps with stands containing four Pac-Man bowling balls. At either end of the space, to the far left and far right, were two eight-lane bowling alleys. Straight ahead was an elevated dining room with a massive bar and “wine station” at the back. The vintage arcade machines were off to the left in the “Lost and Found” area, so we grabbed a table near another bar, right in front of the Pac-Man Battle Royale multiplayer extravaganza.

The ambience and decor were nice and eclectic. This is a distant, upscale cousin to Dave and Buster's with superior food, more bowling lanes, and absolutely no Skee-Ball. The space is very open and nicely decorated with high ceilings showing off the ductwork and little homages to Pac-Man scattered throughout. The wall near us was decorated with a variety of bowling bags and shoes, but a display case dividing the dining area from the arcade games is filled with all manner of old Pac-Man merchandise.

Previous visits to Dave & Buster’s and Gameworks had me conditioned to expect two things at Level 257: a horrible cacophony of noise consisting of loud music, ringing bells, and game noises... along with really subpar food. Thankfully, I was surprised on both counts at Level 257. The music was audible, but not loud enough to make conversation difficult. Instead of a thumping bass and near-constant array of current Top 40, I remember hearing Hall & Oates, Florence & the Machine, and David Bowie at different points throughout the evening.

The menu was equally unexpected. The waiter was friendly and helpful, taking our orders on a customized tablet that transmitted things directly to the kitchen. We started off with the Hand-Crafted Meatballs: “hand-formed beef & pork meatballs, spicy tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, focaccia” for $11. They lasted about two minutes once they hit the table. For the entrée, I went with Fennel Sausage Pizza with homemade spicy fennel seed pork sausage, ricotta cheese, and shaved red onion cooked in a wood-fired oven ($15). The daughter chose the $21 Lobster Mac & Cheese, which was the best either of us have ever had, while the son went with the Filet Mig-Nom with Donkey Kong barrel potato, balsamic cipollini, and green beans ($34).

The waiter made a point of bragging about the locally sourced food and the chefs who were doing great things with said food. He had a point: all three entrées were delicious. Other highlights from the menu included Pinky’s Baked Lasagna, Clyde’s Chopped Wedge salad, a Turkey Bahn Mi sandwich, and I Can’t Believe It’s Not Steak: curry grilled cauliflower, roasted eggplant puree, herbed pastina, and sauce vert.

The cocktail menu was impressive too. I thought about the Split Screen (vodka, St. Germain, lime juice, grapefruit juice, and bitters) or a Game Over (tequila, chili liqueur, vanilla liqueur, and fresh strawberries) but ended up going with a cider. There are also a couple of fully stocked bars with a selection of locally brewed beers, including my favorite IPA from Revolution Brewing company. Got room for dessert? Order up some Chocolate “Power Pellets”: bittersweet chocolate-filled doughnut holes, coffee anglaise, and powdered sugar or the Mini Fried Cherry Pies with spiced cherry filling, almond sugar, and salted caramel ice cream.

Needless to say—even if you don’t care a whit about gaming, bowling, or ping-pong, the menu is compelling on its own.

Getting your game on

Eric Bangeman

Eric Bangeman

Marlowe Bangeman

Eric Bangeman

Marlowe Bangeman

Marlowe Bangeman

Marlowe Bangeman

Eric Bangeman

Eric Bangeman

Eric Bangeman

Marlowe Bangeman

Eric Bangeman

Eric Bangeman

Eric Bangeman

Eric Bangeman

Marlowe Bangeman

Eric Bangeman

Eric Bangeman

Eric Bangeman

Marlowe Bangeman

Eric Bangeman

Eric Bangeman

Marlowe Bangeman

Marlowe Bangeman

Marlowe Bangeman

Eric Bangeman

Eric Bangeman

Marlowe Bangeman

Eric Bangeman

Dinner finished, it was time for business—some gaming. Unlike the Galloping Ghost, where $15 gets you unlimited access to every machine until the arcade closes; or the Emporium barcade, where you need to purchase tokens, Level 257 uses NFC cards for gaming. There are a couple of kiosks where you can insert cash or swipe a credit card to get a reloadable Level Up card. $15 gets you one hour of gaming per card, while $25 buys you two hours. You’ll want to get a card for each person in your party—playing a two-player game requires two separate cards. And sharing is difficult, too: once you wave a card in front of a machine to begin a game, that card is locked for a couple of minutes, preventing anyone else from using it.

The arcade selection was modest, but weighted heavily in the direction of early-'80s hits. While you won’t find Defender: Stargate, Berzerk, or Crazy Climber there, you will be able to play Tempest, Dig-Dug, Donkey Kong, Qix, Asteroids, Space Invaders, and Q*bert. There are also a handful of updated cocktail table games, including three that let you choose from any of 20 titles like Galaga ’88, Rally X, and Xevious.

On the other side of the wall where the classic machines were lined up is a whole other gaming room. There are a couple of air hockey tables, four pop-a-shot machines, a few Super Mario Kart machines, the Star Wars Trilogy arcade game, and a first-person flight combat simulator called Dome Screen Dogfight, which was a big hit with the son. And if you want some real classic gaming, there’s also a shelf stocked with board games like Risk, Scrabble, Battleship, Operation, and more.

Off on its lonesome against a black-painted wall sat a game cabinet I wasn’t familiar with: Level 255. Upon further investigation, it became clear: it's Pac-Man, starting at level 255. I waved my card, was given five lives, and started playing. On my fourth life, I cleared the maze and was transported to the fabled level 256 of Pac-Man , a kill-screen where half the screen is the regular maze while the other half is filled with random characters (you can see a bit of footage in the video above). The kill screen owes its existence to the fact that the level counter is 8-bit, therefore maxing out at 255. The matte black wall it stood against was embellished, a gloss-black representation of the level 256 screen. One manager told me it took the artist a week to complete it.

Apparently, once you clear level 256, you’re transported to a Pac-Man themed eatery.

If video games aren’t your thing, there are a couple of ping-pong tables on the other side of the restaurant. Past those, and flush with the end of one of the two eight-lane bowling alleys, are five lonely pinball machines. Naturally, one of them is Pac-Man, flanked by The Addams Family and Twilight Zone, along with Gorgar and Black Knight. I took my revenge on the daughter at ping-pong, as she had bested me at air hockey, 7-6. Later, I summoned up enough muscle memory from college intramural basketball to destroy both the daughter and son at Pop-A-Shot.

If bowling’s your thing, Level 257 has you covered as well. All 16 lanes feature full food and beverage service, shoe delivery, and fully computerized scoring. The weights on the bowling ball are even rendered in a pixelated, 8-bit-styled font.

On your way out...

Marlowe Bangeman

Eric Bangeman

Eric Bangeman

Eric Bangeman

Eric Bangeman

Eric Bangeman

Eric Bangeman

Marlowe Bangeman

Eric Bangeman

Marlowe Bangeman

Eric Bangeman

Marlowe Bangeman

Eric Bangeman

After dinner, exploration, and an hour of gaming, it was time to get the check and head home. (After all, it was a school night.) Our waiter showed us our bill on his tablet, I approved it and hit the 20 percent tip button (other options were 10 percent, 15 percent, and custom). He took my credit card, scanned it right there, entered my e-mail address, and within a minute, I had a receipt in my inbox.

Of course, no visit to a themed eatery is complete without a visit to the gift shop. The Level 257 gift shop is stocked with all things Pac-Man. There were plushes, Pac-Man themed candy, Pac-Man themed shot glasses, Pac-Man themed t-shirts, and even a Pac-Man themed cutting board (why can’t chopping vegetables be an exercise in nostalgia, too?)

There were also a couple of end caps with Namco games for the Wii, PS3, and Xbox 360. On the shelves between the end caps was a small selection of Gundam Model Kits. Dead tired from all of the gaming and bowling? Grab a Pac-Man Bonus Fruit energy drink to guzzle on the drive home. Want to write about your visit? Record your thoughts in a Level 257 notebook. Winter temperatures getting to you? Steel yourself against the bitter Midwestern cold with a Pac-Man toque. Worried your iPhone might slip your cold-numbed fingers? Protect it with a Pac-Man case. And once spring finally does arrive to these frozen suburbs, you can venture out onto the links and drive your Pac-Man logo golf balls down the fairway while wearing a Pac-Man golf shirt.

All told, I spent $175 on food, drinks, dessert, and gaming (and a $3 Pac-Man plush for Deputy Editor Nate Anderson). It was more expensive than I anticipated, and, after having drunk deeply from Galloping Ghost’s all-you-can-play gaming well, I found the $15 per hour per person set-up to be a poor value by comparison (I did get five lives to start Tempest, and the game was set to dish out bonus lives every 10,000 points). Bowling is $5 per game with a $4 shoe rental per person. My pint of Seattle Cider was $6.50. Pizzas range from $12 to $15 and entrées from $13 to $34. In short, things can get expensive here, very quickly.

On the other hand, the food was excellent, the service was great, and we had a blast. There is enough variety in the video games to appeal both to kids and those old enough to remember the original arcade boom. If you’re looking for a full-scale immersion into the '80s arcade scene, there are places better suited for that, at least in the Chicago area. But if you’re after good food, good drink, and good fun—and you don’t mind paying for the experience—Level 257 certainly has enough to recommend it.

Listing image by Marlowe Bangeman