Dinner and Games at Draughts Hackney

[Ad- gifted experience] Draughts is a board game bar that has a few different locations in London! Dann and I decided to invite a bunch of friends to Draughts in Hackney, where we had some food and enjoyed some board games. As you can play both longform and short board games here, they work on a sort of booking slot time, where you can pay a fee to come in and enjoy their collection of games for a set amount of hours, ordering any food and drinks you’d like to have on top of that fee.

Food at Draughts Hackney

When we first entered Draughts, we had the smaller, bites menu. We ended up grabbing a massive tray of nachos to share, which came with tons of toppings and was very fun to eat. Towards the middle of our time at the venue, we were told the kitchen was closing, and we said we ordered from the menu – and the staff realized we had not been given a full sized menu. In the full menu, there are tons of foods and snacks, so I am glad we ended up with one. We picked out some Korean chicken tenders, which had a lovely sauce and glaze, some well cooked fries, onion rings, battered shrimp, and churros. Some of these felt like proper bar snacks, which is always fun. Summer got a sticky toffee pudding, which looked fantastic too.

Drinks at Draughts Hackney

When playing board games, you often want a good drink to go with it. While most of our friends stuck with coke or beer, myself and Summer wanted to try some of the cocktails. I got a classic pornstar martini, which is one of my favorites, and this did not disappoint. Sumer tried this coconut milk drink, which I then tried one after here, which was creamy and like a super smooth Pina Colada. It’s just a good menu of drinks if you are looking for one.

Board Game Collection

The most important part of Draughts Hackney is their board game collection. I’ve been to a large number of board game bars in my time in England, and really have seen it all. Draughts not only has a well organised, expansive collection of games, but they’ve taken the time to ensure their staff know all about the board games that they have on display. They were easily able to recommend and suggestion board games, as well as explain all of the rules and walk us through a round. With so many board games on hand, it was very impressive. There is also a guide on the wall to help you pick board games for your specific tastes and group.

The tables themselves were designed for board game playing, with a sort of shelf that you can place the game box and unwanted pieces in, so that they aren’t taking up room on the table. This is such a clever idea, especially when there is the possibility of ordering food. The venue also has a big area full of bits that are used in board games. Things like meeple, paper, extra pieces, pens, etc. It’s got everything you possibly need if your board game is missing something. This is extremely handy, but the board games themselves were also in very good quality. When it comes to board games, I actually wrote up an article on my favorite board games that we played, if you want a more specific look at a few party games that Draughts Hackney had. I really enjoyed their collection and found it to be very vast and covering a lot of variety of games.

You can check out our other Days Out to see what else we’ve been up too!