Kids' party and cheap pizza paradise Chuck E. Cheese is coming to the UK

A restaurant where a million formative childhood memories are made — happy and traumatic alike — for US kids is coming to the UK. We’re talking about Chuck E. Cheese.

Chuck E. Cheese is famous for its low-rent but nostalgically delicious pizza, and we in the UK will finally get a chance to give it a try without a long-haul airfare attached.

The restaurant brand has confirmed plans to open up shop here in what’s described as a “multi-site” deal.

If you want a hint of what we’re in for, here’s a taste test video from The Try Guys:

That’s right, Chuck E. Cheese has far stranger roots than you might guess, having been co-founded by Atari legend Nolan Bushnell.

And if you can stomach a more, well, enthusiastic look inside the doors of a Chuck E. Cheese venue, here’s another video from the perennially unnerving Ryan’s World.

Chuck E Cheese Indoor Games and Activities for Kids! - YouTube

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While we can imagine something like the US venue opening up in the UK, the plan is apparently not just to copy-paste the US take on Chuck E. Cheese over here.

The company claims to want to make it feel “tailored specifically for the market.”

“We will be reimagining family entertainment in this market, and Chuck E. Cheese is the perfect brand to lead that transformation,” says Alistair Burnett, managing director.

“Our focus is on delivering a destination where kids can be kids, parents can relax, and unforgettable memories are made every day.”

We can still picture the UK venues combining pizza and other moreishly trashy food with games, then.

The info we want to know most is still under wraps: where the first Chuck E. Cheese UK venues will be. We are yet to even hear a firm mention of cities, let alone addresses.

However, the nature of Chuck E. Cheese suggests retail parks, rather than city centre locations, where space is at more of a premium, may be a better fit. More Croydon, less Chelsea.

As part of a scouting operation reported on late last year, target cities for the first wave of sites reportedly included Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester and Milton Keynes. The wait for a London Chuck E. Cheese may be a little longer.

This move is part of a wider expansion of the Chuck E. Cheese brand across the world, including Australia, whose inaugural site in the perhaps unlikely Perth opened earlier this month.

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