Review: IT'Z Family, Food and Fun Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico

iT'Z is a fun family establishment where you can eat pizza, play endless games and be entertained for hours. iT'Z has been open in Albuquerque for a few years now and I have never had the opportunity to experience it until recently. My family and I took the kids to a children's birthday party there and were pleasantly surprised at what a cool place it was for the entire family.

From the outside, the building is huge! As soon as you step inside you can see there is a million things going on and it all seems very confusing. In fact, I'd say for most newcomers it probably is. Hopefully this review can shed some light on the many aspects iT'Z has to offer so you can decide whether or not to treat your family there one day.

Buffet:

Start off at iT'Z by purchasing a buffet. This is basically your "entrance fee" as you are required to purchase one to get in. Prices are as follows: Adult buffet $5.99/$7.99 on weekends and evenings. Children's buffets range from $2.99-$4.99 depending on the age and time of day you arrive. Children under 2 eat free.

At the buffet you can eat a variety of foods from salads, to pizza, pasta, and desserts. Eat your food in one of their themed rooms from Toon'z that plays cartoons on the big screens to others such as Game Day that airs live sports games on the gigantic tv's. If you or someone in your party has rented a private room, you can eat in those as well but they are pretty small and don't look as fun as the themed rooms. Also, we had a juggler come by and entertain us in the free Toon'z room.

Games and Rides:

In order to play the games in the large arcade room of over 100 games, you must first purchase a game card, called an iT'Z Fun card. We purchased two $10 cards for 40 points each. The cool thing I discovered is that many of the games are only 1-3 points each! Some examples of 1 point games were skeeball, a motorcycle ride and various video games. Both the toddler and big kids bouncing arenas were free of charge, which was great.

There were also bumper cars, an indoor rollercoaster and a spider-looking ride called the Spinoli. The kids in my family loved them all. We also bowled in the kid-sized bowling alley for 12 points. It was worth it. The photo booth also costed 12 points which normally would seem expensive to me, but since I have a toddler and there wasn't very m any activities for him, we splurged on some photos. Overall, the kids over four had a lot of fun but there weren't enough games and activities for the little ones.

Movie Theater:

We ended our adventure at iT'Z by visiting the Galaxy Drive-In. It was the perfect environment for families as children could be themselves and we could eat free ice cream cones during the movie. I wish that movie theater existed outside of iT'Z as a regular theater we could take the whole family to on a regular basis.

Tips:

If you have the Entertainment Book, be sure to utilize their coupons for a buy one-get one free buffet or buy one-get one free game card. All in all, I enjoyed it and so did my family. We plan to return if we can get our hands on some more Entertainment coupons. It was a way better experience than both Chucky Cheese and Peter Piper's.