The World Will Finally Be Getting A Pac-Man Themed Restaurant

After more than three decades of Pac-Man, Namco Entertainment Inc., the company behind the loveable yellow circle, will be getting into the restaurant business. The restaurant, aptly named Level 257 — after the original Pac-Man game's last, and impossible-to-reach level (because of a technical glitch) — will be opening this January inside a mall in a Chicago suburb.

"This is very much a serious restaurant," David Bishop, executive vice president of strategic project development at Namco told Crain's Chicago Business. "But there's obviously a game component. It's playing off the nostalgia of Pac-Man. The idea is that it's OK to have fun as an adult while you're having a good meal."

The giant 40,0000-square-foot restaurant will be somewhat of a culinary-themed Dave & Busters, with room for a bowling alley, table tennis, pinball machines, and old-school-style arcade games, complete with some newer Namco titles, as well as the classic Pac-Man game (of course). The menu, produced by corporate executive chef Aaron Whitcomb (Seattle Fish Co.) and executive chef Bradley Godinez will actually feature gourmet food, with some gamer "Easter eggs" hiding on the menu, if you look carefully.