Review: Kokomo Joe's Family Fun Center - St. Peters

By Chelle Dohrmann

Kokomo Joe’s Family Fun Center opened in March 2013 in St. Peters, in a space previously occupied by America’s Incredible Pizza Company. My family had a free afternoon on a surprise snow day, so I brought my 13-year-old son and his friend to check it out.

The Nuts and Bolts of Kokomo Joe's

Kokomo Joe's has several popular arcade games, plus skeeball, air hockey, pop-a shot (most games seemed to range from $.50 - $1), and Bounce Beach (two large inflatables for the under-8 crowd). Plus, they have a smaller arcade area for the younger set that includes a small, 3-horse carousel and little air hockey table.

Kokomo Joe's has no admission fee, but you can load any amount of money onto a card and use that to pay for each game/attraction. The card can also be used at the Snack Shack (cash accepted here, but not for games). You can earn “tickets” at many of the arcade games, but Kokomo Joe’s is a “ticketless” facility – all awards are tracked and stored on your card as you play.

There is a shop in which you may redeem your awards for prizes, ranging anywhere from 80 tickets for small items to 27,000 for the biggest item.

The games

On Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays there are specials available (see their website: www.kjfun.com) to get a little more for your money. So on a recent Monday, I purchased a $40 card and received a bonus $10 (total of $50) worth of activities that the boys split between them. They chose the bumper cars and Go-Karts attractions, and spent the rest on arcade games. This amount lasted them 1 ½ - 2 hours on a non-busy day.

I really liked the ticketless feature, so no one had to worry about keeping track of winnings or mom constantly being handed piles of tickets. The prize shop had some decent items (ex: 600 tickets–Disney diary, 1,700–lava lamp, 2,400-Wilson basketball, 7,500-cake pop maker, 10,000-Razor scooter, 21,000–Bushnell camera binoculars). The cards never expire, so you can accumulate points over many visits if there is a larger item that you are trying to earn.

Food: The Snack Shack

We finished our visit with a trip to the Snack Shack. The Snack Shack offers a nice variety: beverages, hot dogs, pizza, wraps, sandwiches, salad, french fries, pretzels, nachos, cheese sticks, chips and candy.

We sampled the 7” personal pizza (very good!), the hot dog (no complaint) and the pretzel w/cheese (outstanding!). I was disappointed that drink refills were not free, but this was my only complaint. There are a couple different areas for dining that would accommodate larger crowds, and there were two flat-screen TV’s showing sporting events while we were there.

Groups and parties

Kokomo Joe’s has rooms to accommodate small birthday parties, as well as larger corporate events.

The bottom line

So…should you go to Kokomo Joe’s?

YES, it is a lot of fun! If you have a family with kids of a variety of ages, there really is something for everyone ages 3-4 and up.

The best part, for me as a parent, was that there is no admission fee to enter the facility. I would not have liked having to pay to get in when all I did was watch the boys play. This allowed me to willingly go in and provide supervision for the children I brought.

The center was clean, the games were all in working order, and when a ball got stuck, someone came and took care of it right away and gave my son an extra game for the trouble.

Overall, we here at KidsOutAndAbout give Kokomo Joe's a “thumbs-up!” Though it was not a cheap afternoon, the boys were entertained for a couple of hours, and it was no more expensive than taking the three of us to lunch and the movies. We will definitely go back!

Kokomo Joe’s Family Fun Center is located at 4105 N. Cloverleaf Dr., St. Peters, MO 63376, 636-447-5656 (KOKO).

Chelle Dohrmann, Editor of KidsOutAndAbout-St. Louis, is a wife and mother of two.

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