Thirsty Meeples in Oxford

Can’t say enough good things about this place. Awesome board game cafe, for with and without kids. Amazing game library; super friendly staff will help you choose and teach you rules (unless you are after something obscure). Old classics and new releases. Great food, from savoury to cakes. Quality coffee and tea. Very good range of beer and cocktails. And can buy games there. Was UK’s first board game cafe and has become an Oxford institution. We have been going for years and never not been brilliant.

Great selection of games but need to improve on those people who can teach you to play games. We picked three different games and no one could teach us them so we spent most of our session trying to figure out how to play them.

Staff are always happy to go through the rules. However sometimes staff can be a little distant/bored. I picked up an ordered game a few weeks ago and it was as if I was being an inconvenience to that staff member. So 1 star off for hit-or-miss staff.However they do have a great selection of games and the menu is reasonably priced for Oxford. Another issue I have is sticking to 3 hours otherwise paying an extra £6/person if you want to stay even just an extra hour. A £2/hour rule would be much better and allow me to relax during my time there - and I'd probably stay longer and go more frequently for a quick coffee and game. Also, if they close early and you loose an hour they don't offer any sort of refund or e.g. a free drink/snack. So 1 star off for the pricing/time slot system.

Absolutely loved it we went two nights in a row during our trip to Oxford. We had so much fun trying out the games. Mark was so lovely to us, even giving time to fully explain the rules of one of his personal recommendations despite the cafe being busy. Yes it’s a bit pricey, will definitely add up for a big group and the drinks are on the expensive side. However my hot chocolate was lovely, and the game selection is great.

We visited here for my daughter's birthday as we both love playing games. It was a lovely afternoon and I actually won a game! Very welcoming and helpful staff who give you advice on games to look at and how to play. A decent selection of food and drink is also available and a wide range of games. I never come out empty handed!! 🤦

Unfortunately alot seems to have changed here with the expansion, I dunno if this was a one off, I don't go regularly.However when I last went the staff were attentive came over and asked about your likes and recommended games and i loved it, however this time the staff were only interested in taking food and drink orders and we were pretty much left alone to find our own games without any advice from the staff , I really wasn't happy that we paid a table charge per person when the staff offered nothing but a cafe service.Most likely will go to the other game cafe in future that doesn't charge a table fee.

Very strange place. Arrived and was told to sit at a table then told no we had to order first, the staff seemed very confused. We went to use a board game and was told it was a £24 charge for the 4 of us. So thought the kids could entertain themselves with their own game and they said we'd still have to pay despite it being their own game and having already paid £18 for coffee and cake.We asked for a refund and they put the cake back in the display 🤢 needless to say we went to cafe Nero and had no issues. We won't be going back!

We like this place. Lots of boardgames to choose from, they get new games fairly frequently. Food is cafe level and pretty tasty. Staff are knowledgable and can offer various levels of assistance, from teaching to just advising.

We had a great time playing board games at Thirsty Meeples in Oxford. A cafe plus board games is right up our street so we had to visit. As you can see from the photos there are lots of board games to choose from. Our server/games expert recommended games to us based upon on games we had previously played and liked. It was good to try new games and to have a very quick and informative explanation on how to play. The food and drink menu was also great - lots of choice on hot drinks and cold ones; alcohol and soft. A couple of coffees, a sausage roll and a sarnie in the space of 3 hours of playing was enough fuel to keep the enjoyment and mind sharp. We will be back to enjoy an evening of board games with friends and family in the near future and we would fully recommend Thirsty Meeples to anyone visiting Oxford.

Have visited this board game twice now and enjoyed the wide variety of boardgames and good selection of food and drinks :)! There were a lot of space both in the front and in the back area and booking online was very easy as well. Their website is really well made and you can check all the 2700?? Boardgames they have online to prepare and when we asked for certain boardgames they found it quickly.We were struggling a little bit to set up one of the game and the staff member gave us an alternative one which was a good suggestion. Monday evening was quite quiet so felt they had enough staff but on Saturday morning our slot was from 10 but the shop did not open until 10 minutes pass 10 but was told to leave at 13 on dot. It felt they were quite under staffed and I think a bit more customer care could have been lovely because we were told they cannot help with choosing a game.I have had other board game cafes that have higher customer service but overall when we had questions they came to help and I also liked that there were so many varieties of teas in pots rather than tea bags! Also the staff member explained to us that coffee beans comes from UE coffee and it was really delicious :)!! Will be back definitely ! Also having some student discounts or rewards could be good :)