Kongs in Cardiff

Great fun! Kongs is always a great place to spend a few hours, great selection of beers and other drinks, lovely food and a nice atmosphere. The table tennis is fab, and there’s such a great selection of arcade machines. The staff are always lovely, and allow cash back behind the bar so you can stock up on pound coins for all the games!

Great location. Really fun. Table tennis. Video games. Great music. Helpful staff. Great selection of drinks. We spent an hour or two here and had a very fun and relaxing time, came out more relaxed and we would recommend people to go and try this pub/bar/games location. Thanks team…

A decent pub to enjoy a beer and play some table tennis. It costs £5 for half an hour of play and requires a £5 deposit (though I wish the playing time was an hour!).

We were there to play table tennis. We were having a great time and then the bloke took the ball off us regardless of what we had paid. There was no one else in the bar, and we had ordered 4 rounds before he took it off us. Can’t think of a worse place to spend my money. Manager ruder than his staff (I’d name him but he refused to tell me his name) Do not go to Kongs! (Staff working 5/6th May 2024 are hella bad)

Dingy looking bar with expensive drinks (£5 for a pint) and overpriced games (£1 a go). Sticky tables and dark.

Staff and Bouncers all need training. Very unprofessional

Great drink selection and atmosphere. Always enjoy a few drinks and the retro arcade games in kongs!

Bit run down, but bar staff are friendly and the prices aren't too bad. Recommend the Raspberry Ripple cider

Great hidden away bar with good selection of beers. Also full of arcade games.

Unfriendly barman who decided to kick our group out because they didn’t want us to play doubles in table tennis rather than singles

Everything here is a little run down, not a terrible place but we didn't end up staying here long due to the shoddy atmosphere

Odd place although not unpleasant

Loved it! We ended our company Christmas evening at Kongs excellent music, an awesome retro 80's - 90's bar. Pinball, arcade games etc, bar service was ok until one of the barmaids refused us service with no reason so only 2 stars for service. We didn't eat here as we ate beforehand. Other than that this place is a hidden gem we will definitely return on a future visit to Cardiff.

Nice atmosphere and friendly staff. Limited choice of drinks and no cocktails was a slight disappointment

Loved the experience of this place with all the arcade games, ping pong etc. Fab!

Nice time playing games with friends

Went there to play table tennis and bought a whisky. While I was playing, a member of staff took my drink and binned it, thinking it was empty. I asked for a new one and was told that I couldn't get one and that it was probably empty. Not gonna spend money there again

Kongs is a pretty decent place to spend a few hours. There is a good selection of drinks, and some nice food options. The music here isn't very consistent, sometimes it's really great but other times not so good. The atmosphere of the place can sometimes be impacted by that. I wish there were more arcade games! I would recommend checking it out, it may be your kind of place!

Best sour beer selection in Cardiff!! Fun atmosphere, chill & friendly staff

Always enjoy coming here, bar staff are incredible and amazingly skilled. Best ever. 10/10.

Nice selection of craft beers and fun games to enjoy with friends.

The tea and cakes at Kongs Cardiff are tremendous. Brilliant hipster spot to go to in the heart of Cardiff @ st Mary's St. 10 outta 10 would shag again

Brill place with awesome staff especially Hattie.

Brilliant bar, the food here atm is tacos and omg, outstanding 👌

Great fun. Lots of arcade machines, good selection of pinball machines, ping pong, table football. Didn't try the food but enjoyed a couple of hours here.

Message from a disgruntled twink. Unfortunately denied entry due to fancy dress code which is understandable. However only my fancy dress outfit was deemed inappropriate despite the collective group being in fancy dress. My outfit was a woman’s gay pride outfit worn by myself a man. Disappointed by the hypocrisy and irony when the street the establishment is situated on is itself lined with pride flags in support of pride month. When a fancy dress code rule is used against a single outfit it leads one to question whether the establishment has an anti fancy dress code or anti what the fancy dress represents. Anyway went down to gay bar down the road and had a lovely time.

Quirky underground gaming pub/club

Great place for retro games and a good night of ping pong. Staff friendly and welcoming.

Great selestion of ales and fun playing ping ping while drinking. Not sure I'd eat there, many, many flies around the place. Edit, they've got rid of the flies! And added more arcade games. So up to 4 stars!

A chill place to hang out with friends to an upbeat night out on the dance floor- kongs has the versatility to suit everyone! Their vast range of facilities, includes authentic and highly engaging arcades, table tennis tables and a DJ. These and the carefully curated ale menu help shape the incredible atmosphere that Kongs is encapsulated in. I would highly recommend a visit for anyone in the area, I have also never had a less than amazing experience with one of the staff- something that is certainly not a usual recurrence in Cardiff.

Great bar, friendly staff and an awesome bunch of arcade games to go for - top tier night out

Broken Games & Bad management. We came in last weekend for a busy weekend in town the venue was pretty understaffed. We came to celebrate a mates birthday, but most machines either had broken joysticks, which made it almost impossible to play. Others wouldn't recognise you had payed and swallowed any credit you put in the machine. To top it off we thought we would get a photo and even the booth failed to print. Been to a couple of Kong's branches. But this was the worst.

Got asked to leave after 2 drinks because of the conversation I was having. Nothing to do with being drunk or unruly (which I wasn't). Turning down paying customers isn't good for business. I used to be a regular in Kong's but after the last two times where staff seem to ask myself and friends to leave because we don't fit their customer ideal, fair to say I won't be going back.

A good retro bar with games I haven't seen in years, the big bar area is a nice too

Great music, good drinks, great game themed club/bar. Lots of arcade machines and such with loads of unique games to play. Nice and open space with a good atmosphere.

I like Kong's. It's great. Tell your friends, if you have any, and bring them along.

Usually have a good night here but the bouncers kept us put saying it was a full house but I saw empty tables from outside.

Couldn’t imagine telling someone what to wear. Went out for a hen for and was told I’d have to take anything insinuating it was a hen do off because they don’t allow hen do’s, fair enough if we were acting rowdy or being rude but purely for wearing a badge and sash saying “friend of bride” they threatened to kick us out🤣

Absolutely shocked but staff, I was tagged as being to intoxicated but on inquiring as to who had said I was no one would identify themselves and no explanation was given to me, at which point three bouncers picked me up and proceeded to carry me to the base of the stairs to my protests of please l let me get my belongings and I will leave. My friend assisted me in getting my jacket at which point I left with no protest. Shocking effort on the part of the bar staff and the security! Do not go here!!!!

As a long time patron of Kongs Cardiff for the past 6 years, am really disappointed at the treatment I received 20 minutes ago. I got past the security and when I reached the end of the stairs I felt a tap on my back by a bouncer and was was to leave. I said why? He didn't reply but I just obeyed and am very annoyed and complexed as I am at an joining club writing this and the security have no problems with me! I won't ever set foot in Kong's Cardiff again, even if you get better bouncers!

Turned up sober to meet friends and bouncer accused me of wobbling. Let me in still but strange thing to say. I think he got his doorman license from toys r us.

Great fun playing table tennis. Plenty of beers on tap and a friendly atmosphere!

Lots of classic arcade games, friendly staff and a great selection of drinks

Amazing bar, long story short met WWE Wrestler Austin Theory in here 👌

Was having a great time with a group of friends on the table tennis. Spoiled only by one of the bar staff (young fair haired guy). He made a mistake with the bookings (no biggie) but then refused to refund us the booking and then tried to have us removed by door staff when we complained about this. Luckily his female colleague recognised his error and paid us our refund. The door staff could also see who was causing the issue and ignored his request to remove us but we decided to leave not long afterwards. A good venue but terrible customer service from one entitled individual

Very unfriendly and hypocritical staff. There are two table tennis tables there and me and my mates went to play and have a few pint.Manager told me table tennis was closed but we still stayed for a couple beers anyway. Ten minutes after I saw people going to the bar, grabbed balls and paddles and started playing. When I asked the manager why are there people playing, he answered simply that they had a reservation even though they were only using one table and the other one was free.

Great bar, food and games... Bar staff are really cool. Doormen were really helpful with me and my friends and spoke really politely to us which is not common as many door staff can be quite rude at times x Really appreciate you Kongs

Had Deya beer on tap, what's not to love.

Good place with different games to keep you entertained but staff were very unfriendly. Lost a deposit on table tennis because my 60 year old auntie accidentally hit the table twice. Guess it's a way of keeping tour deposit for games.

Great bar with a good choice of music. Love the various games as well. Arcade games and beer are a great way to spend the evening!

Annie and Arron I love them 😍 they are soo amazing I love them very much they’re helping me for my friend birthday celebration day with my friend soo amazing from Africa

Annie made us feel super welcome. Great night!

Arcade machines looked great but really dropped in for the craft beer as there was a really good selection. Sadly this was well hidden behind the bar, scrawled on some tiny light up blocks in marker pen. As this looks as rough as it sounds, no-one appears to order them instead of the mainstream big pump stuff on the front of the bar. A shame as there was some really good stuff on. I say no-one orders them because despite some friendly service at the bar, both beers we had were bad. The better one of the two smelling unpleasant as well as both tasting iffy. Would guess unclean lines? Didn't have time to take the beers back as we had a restaurant reservation to make but sadly, a real disappointment.

Awesome drinks, great games and really good pizza that can be ordered by the slice ( 3rd of a pizza 👌)

Great beer selection. It may seam a little pricy but it's worth it. And you get entertainment in the form of ping-pong or arcade games what ever takes your fancy :)

Felt a bit old manly for young bucks nice atmosphere thou and the retro games are blast

Group of 7 and they told us they will not serve us unless we were 6, the bar was very quiet hardly anyone in there. If you’re in a group, avoid.

There were seven of us in a group and were told once we got to the bar that they only accepted groups of six. 100% avoid if in a group

Good music, good atmosphere, young crowd.

West pizza is great and they are massive

Good service, awesome arcade games inside, table tennis and disco floor with catchy tunes, loved it here I had so much fun! Defo would go again when I’m back in Cardiff.

We visited Kongs in Cardiff as a large group, the Pizza was really good we all really enjoyed it and it was the best part of our visit! Unfortunately despite the amount of staff on the bar service was slow and the drinks selection was really poor! The Arcade machines were good fun! But unfortunately a lot were out of order, we enjoyed the 4 player pac-man the most though!

Rules vary from staff member to staff member. Couldn't get in with family as I hadn't had an ID on me, sounds like it makes sense, and I look young, but this was at 3pm and I wasn't looking to drink myself. Stern employee told us that it has "always been like that" when it never has until I can only assume it reopening after covid. Apparently I'm not the only person who's had trouble getting in as many seem to have even with ID. I'm not surprised though, the rules on the side as you go in are ABSURD.

Great selection of craft beers!

Surprised by other reviews being very negative as I have always had a great time at Kongs. Staff are nice, good range of booze, reasonably priced for being in a city. It's a bit dingy but in an underground dive bar kind of way so it works for them. All the games are fun, especially the table football! Would be cool to have some kind of signage to explain what you have to do if you want to play pingpong. I've always been in small groups of 2-5 people, but have never had an issue with the door staff. Can't comment on the food.

A pint of Blue Moon, retro games and table tennis all on offer here, banging!

Dropped in for a quick pint and a blast on the machines. Great beer, cool place I need to get better at arcade games...

On the two occasions I've been here not only is the service great but they have always let us stay longer on the ping pong table.

I used to go here a lot, with anywhere between 2-20 people. Randomly one day, 4 were inside, left, and came back with us, so re-entered with 6 and were told "no groups allowed". An odd policy for a bar. We checked this with the manager via telephone, who said no such rule exists, but they still wouldn't let us in. We were sober, just starting the evening. Never went back.

Good food, decent selection of drinks and friendy staff. For arcade fans there's a good selection of coinops and pinball but some of the games use flat screens, not CRTs which is a shame.

Interesting place a throw back to the 80s game culture with a bar thrown in. Quirky

I’m not one to write a negative review but We went to Kongs for my friends birthday and they kicked us out after excusing us of throwing up when we hadn’t because we were sober. They also told me I couldn’t stay as I was falling asleep but I was actually having a bad panic attack but they didn’t care about that at all instead they wanted us out! The staff were sarcastic and rude! No wonder why the place was so quiet with staff like that working there…

Best pub experience, great selection of games, staff were friendly and welcoming

Video parlour meets abattoir. Unusual and very cool. Seems to attract an interesting selection of people.

Great selection of beer, fantastic atmosphere and if you're into your retro games and pinball then this is a must visit location in Cardiff!!

Busy late evening, not much cider choice

Staff were friendly and helpful and I had a good night out here, in my opinion its very student-oriented which suited me but it may not be to everyone's liking (informal setting, arcade games, quite minimalist seating/decor). I thought the prices weren't too bad - have definitely been to more expensive places in Cardiff. Very good overall.

Pinballs now in excellent condition. Older ones have been swapped-out. Now playing: Deadpool, Jurassic Park & Mandalorian. All 3 machines set at £1- per credit, £2- for 3 credits. 1 credit per person per game. Updated 4 August 2021

Good prices, nice atmosphere, would recommend to a friend.

Rough and ready surroundings with some classic arcade machines and pinball tables. It could do with a few more machines but there is enough there to keep you amused.

We attended Kongs Cardiff on 10/07/2021 and ordered three different rum and cola mixers. Upon arrival the waitress did not know which runs were which and left us to guess. Upon trying to rums it was clear that two of the rums contained the correct alcohol as per the order. One drink clearly did not contain any rum and was just Diet Coke. When this was reported to the barman he was very direct and rude and stated that he definitely put rum in the drinks. It wasn’t his fault as he had told the waitress which was which. A second member of our party spoke to another member of staff who said they would speak to the manager / bartender. We were advised that there was nothing that could be done and next time to order a double instead. And that they only thing we could do was to request CCTV footage to prove he poured the rum in. This is a very extreme response and we experienced zero customer service. Any other facility would simply apologise and either add a shot of rum or make a fresh drink. We were told that the company was too small to be able to afford to make everyone new drinks but that she was a small fish in a big pond. Quite frankly, this level of service is disrespectful and as a customer feel completely disregarded. This could have been so easily resolved and we would have happily stayed for more drinks. This has given a terrible impression of that facility and I would certainly not recommend this to anyone.

Always a relaxed atmosphere with a wide variety of arcade machines and games such as table tennis,etc(these were not available due to covid). Sometimes you will also get pop up restaurants in here serving up great food. Recommended.

Absolutely awful service, really rude staff, our waitress was very rude when we did not pay for our drinks within 10 minutes of ordering (even tho they had not brought over the card machine once in that time). Also no atmosphere, would not recommend

Love this bar and great to play some retro games

Arrogant, rude staff member ruined our experience (think he was the host, however the waitress was lovely) Unfortunately we will never return.

Fun arcade. One pound per token seems pricey to me but I'm guessing it's the same in other arcades

Been here before and enjoyed the beers and experience. However, have just been served by the most passive aggressive waitress I have ever met. You need to order using a QR code, which is totally understandable in the current situation. However, there were 6 of us who all tried several times to use the QR code only to receive error messages after a few minutes trying each time. The waitress wouldn't believe us and made each of spend a few minutes each trying again so that we could show us the error message to prove we weren't lying to her. Not great service when you suggest your customers are lying to you, waste their time and get them to prove one by one that they were telling the truth. Won't be coming back if she still works here!!

App wouldn't work, slow service, flat coke which I could t drink and wasn't offerd a replacement so ordered a bottled ginger beer, waited an hour for two burgers told they went to someone else on accident. Had to ask for an additional portion of fries due to the long wait when really they should have been offered. Burgers were pretty small for a tenner a burger and super greasy couldn't tell it had gone straight from the fryer onto the bun. No napkins offered so had to go wash our hands in the toilets. I know it's the first opening week but we won't be eating there again.

App wouldn't work, slow service, flat coke which I couldnt drink and wasn't offerd a replacement so ordered a bottled ginger beer, waited an hour for two burgers told they went to someone else on accident. Had to ask for an additional portion of fries due to the long wait when really they should have been offered. Burgers were pretty small for a tenner a burger and super greasy could tell it had gone straight from the fryer onto the bun. No napkins offered so had to go wash our hands in the toilets. I know it's the first opening week but we won't be eating there again.

App doesn’t work, had to register just to order a drink, couldn’t order a drink, walked out.

Get yourself down there for some chronic chicken & Street fighter II

La comida es buena aquí. He tenido algunas cosas diferentes del menú. La cerveza no es demasiado buena. No es tu cerveza corriente. La razón por la que aparezco aquí es por los videojuegos y las máquinas de pinball. El software de estos juegos se ha ajustado a ultradifícil, por lo que si eras bueno en estos juegos en los 80, tendrás dificultades en estas máquinas. ¡Los juegos también son demasiado caros! Realmente no vale la pena el dinero.

Fantastic bar amazing idea bar and arcades this is amazing I can't wait to go again

Awesome selection of beers and games. All you can want!

Absolutely love this place. Amazing setting for an awesome and unique date night, the staff are always helpful although some of them stand around on their phones when you're waiting to be served. But the venue itself is epic and the food and drink are lovely.

It's the best bar in Cardiff for a chilled out few pints of decent IPA and always decent music on.

Love the place, great alternative to the rest with plenty to do. Looks a bit too dark inside and needs to work with interior

Great place to go in Cardiff. Lovely staff. Great variety of drinks. Beautifully unique

Como pub esta bien pero como recreativo falta variedad. Solo tiene 2 mesas de pin-pon un futbolin y un par de maquinas recreativas. Aun así hay buen ambiente

Hadn't played table tennis for years! Had so much fun losing to a few colleagues after work. The perfect place to wind down and bond with your team mates, after a long week. Plus, they have NBA JAM!