Games Are Meant To Be Played at Ludo BoardGame Bar and Cafe

"Games are meant to be played."

That is the philosophy behind Ludo BoardGame Bar and Cafe. 

"Ludo" - Latin for game or play.

Ludo BoardGame Bar is jam-packed with diners on a nightly basis! As in! And it's pretty obvious why that is...

Board games. Tons and tons of fun, exhilarating, board games! 

DINE AND PLAY

All 6 owners of Ludo are board game hobbyists. They meet up every week to play new designer games and they have HUNDREDS of games in their collections between them. And fortunately for us, they thought they'd share their collection! Hence, Ludo was born - a place where everyone can come DINE AND PLAY!

The coolest thing to happen to happen to restaurants since they invented unli-rice!

Classic board games are your monopoly's and snakes and ladders'. Stuff that's been around for decades. There's not a lot of these in Ludo. Most of what they have are Designer board games - games that are, well, made by designers. Think of these designers as singers. They come out with new material that are better, more innovative and more attuned to the times. Board game design is an evolving art form, and designers are its rock stars.

Example of a designer game. Notice the gorgeous art and the unusual looking game mechanics.

Some of the games' artwork even made it to Ludo's walls!

LOVE FOR THE GAMES

When you go to Ludo, you need only to order food and beverages and you can already grab a game and play. Choose between more than five hundred different designer games!

Yes, you heard right. 500 different games!!!!!!!

And don't be intimidated if you don't know how to play the games because they'll TEACH you!

The game selection is RIDICULOUS!

The owners are usually there to teach you themselves. They know most games by heart! But if they're not around, even the staff are equipped to teach some of the games too! This is what's great about Ludo - there's an obvious love for the art!

Owner and manager, Sir Jay Mata, gave us the lowdown on the board game world.

GATEWAY GAMES

Whether your a casual or hardcore gamer, Ludo's got something for you! For casual gamers, Ludo has relatively accessible games they call "gateway" games - Ticket to Ride, River Dragons, Tokaido, Dixit, etc. 

Our first game for the night - King of Tokyo. It was a fun monster versus monster game! And it's pretty cool 'coz it features some of the more notorious monster archetypes - Godzilla, King Kong, Alien Robots and the like. WE LOVED IT.

King of Tokyo, one of Ludo's gateway games.

It's really not that complicated.

Doc, one of the owners, was the one who taught us King of Tokyo.

The winner: CYBER BUNNY!!!!

We then played a railway building game - Ticket to Ride. It seems obscure, but trust me, this isn't even the most obscure one there! There's a game about building a fashion empire, go figure.

My brother listening intently to the rules because building railways is complicated work!

Sometimes it doesn't even have the conventional board game parts like dices and cards. In Cash'n Guns, we played as bank robbers trying to split our loot by using force and deceit. Sounds awesome, right?:)

A board game with...guns??

A game where you play the people as much as you play the game.

As you play more games, the owners can gauge how much "deeper" you can get or how intense a game you can handle. They might suggest games with deeper themes (like religion, history or politics) or an elevated complexity. (Did I mention how awesome Ludo's owners are??)

A game about manufacturing goods, another about physics, and another about slavery. 

The themes have range and vary in difficulty!

And there's still SOOOOOO much more games to learn and play! 

OH YEAH, IT'S A RESTAURANT TOO.

Not only is it a fun place to go to, they also serve some really good food! Ludo has a Japanese/Asian cuisine, and it ain't too shabby. No surprise there though, since one of the owners has a restaurant background. Their bestsellers here are the cheese gyoza, chicken yakiniku, chicken wings, and milkshakes. 

Nachos (P250/good for 3)

Katsudon (P195) and Cheeze Gyoza (P130)

They also have a wide selection of drinks that are playfully named after pop culture stuff! Bear in mind though that this is not a place to get sh*t faced drunk. So the drinks here aren't too hardcore, just enough to give you a fun, light buzz.

Salted Caramel Milkshake (P220) (it was amazing, btw.) and Mi-Go Brain Cylinder (P150)

Let's take a closer look at that brain...mmm....braaaaiiiinnnsss.

RESERVE!

With all the people already itching to go here, and with a pretty compelling reason to not leave, getting a table is obviously going to be difficult. So reserve! Walk-ins, especially during dinner time, wait an average of 3 hours for a seat. It's insane!

We stayed there for hours and we didn't even notice it!

Everyone's having fun so expect it to get a little loud and rowdy there. Sometimes it even got hard to order. But in the end though, we didn't notice it that much. 'Coz we were having just as much fun and we got just as rowdy as everyone else! It was a blast!

***

Play new games! That's the Ludo way!

Ludo's owners want you to try new games. You don't go there to play Monopoly or snakes and ladders or Magic the Gathering, you can do that at home. Go there with friends and family and try new things! Enjoy their wonderful collection! And play all you want, they don't care! Ludo has one of the most welcoming and friendly and encouraging atmospheres I've seen and it's because Ludo embraces the spirit of board gaming! We all should too!

Ludo BoardGame Bar and Cafe is open on the following times:

Mon - Thurs, 4pm - 12mn

Friday, 4pm - 2am

Saturday, 12nn - 2am

and Sunday, 12nn - 12mn

They're located at Scout Fuentebella Street Corner Scout Torillo, 
Near Tomas Morato, Sacred Heart, Quezon City

Get in touch with them at 0920 921 8482
or thru their Facebok page by clicking the pic below!