Safari Sam’s

My son has always been a big fan of animals, I decided that I was going get a reservation and throw him a surprise party at Safari Sam. I’ll be honest my son was not pleased. As a 35 year old man he did not shriek at the idea of playing with little kids. However with unbeatable prices how could I say no. My son has since disowned me, but I still go to Safari Sam’s every day.

While the play area is ENORMOUS, there are no staff inside «Oregons Largest Indoor Play Area.» This becomes a problem when you have big Kids (14 and up) running over the little ones. The party host we had, while he was nice, was woefully unprepared. We ordered like 5 pizza’s, and none of them were cut. He took about 30 minutes looking for something to cut them with, and when he finally was able to cut them, they were already cold. Not counting the fact that while he (the host) was cutting our pizza, he was wiping his hands on his pants, then back in the pizza he went. The host also told us the kids were not able to play put put, or go into the jumping house. Come to find out when we left, they could of played put put. Hey thanks man… And the absolute worst thing that happened, they have all kinds of games. Not all of them are video games. About half are basically sucking children into gambling. Anyway, on this one gambling game, my son won a Wii and a GPS. But the person in charge of giving out the big prizes, decided that he wasn’t going to give my son both, because «the person whow hung them, hung it up wrong.» I’m sorry, but Vincent (I think was his name) you totally F-​ed my son. He won both. I don’t give 2 rats behinds if it was hung wrong. You don’t own the machine. It’s not YOUR money. But you know what you DID accomplish? You got me to tell everyone never to step foot in your rip off restaurant. The games are rigged like Carney games. My son bested your game, and you screwed him.
Then as an even more slap in the face, the Wii that he won… It wasn’t even new. The employees of Safari Sam’s had opened it and played it. There were profiles on the Wii…
If it wasn’t against the law, I would burn that place to the ground. It’s such a shame. That place has such great potential. But it CLEARLY needs new management. From GM to assistants, to supervisors. If the owner cleans house, he could have one of the best locations in Oregon. And i would keep coming up from Eugene. But until that happens, I will never set foot in there again.
My wife is the GM of Roundtable Pizza in Eugene/​Springfield. I know the things that should and should not happen in restaurants.

Great play structure but a waste at the arcade. Expense and the machines take your money half the time.

My first impression was, this place is decent. Until I ordered food. I ordered a specific menu item for the sauce, turns out they didn’t have it. The staff is attempting to create it for me, which is nice but by the time I get back to my food, sure it will be cold and disgusting.

I had my sons birthday here today, 11.15. We had a party package which included a room.
Pros: Great space in party room, pretty good food.
Cons: Room should have started out equipped with everything included in the party package. We had to wait a LONG while for tokens, cake cutting supplies, etc. If you wanted drinks, you had to sit in line and order, which took forever… room party service. By the time we got our pizza and sat down, it was close to time for us to give up the party room. If the room would have been equipped with everything from the start, table service of refreshments for adults, we could have made good use of the party room. Instead, we felt VERY rushed and as if the place was not prepared for our party. Also, no attendants supervising the bounce room or in the jungle gym area. This is very odd as you would suspect they would be very good at protecting themselves and the children.
We spent well over $ 250, and I don’t believe it was worth the money at all. Employees need to have more training and the place needs to be prepared for a party.
Overall, disappointed. I can’t believe I wasted so much money on a place that was ill prepared, lousy service, and not safe.

Great place for kids but most horrible place for service. Be prepared to reorder at least 5 times for them to somewhat get what you’re ordering. So annoying.

We love Safari Sams! Great for adults to hang and enjoy a beer and watch a game… while the kids play and have fun. Pizza is AMAZING! We even order it go when we want pizza at home :)
Our daughter does the after school program there and Summer Camp too!
It is a nice and clean place… with a very NICE and great at communication staff.
HIGHLY recommend for all the above… eat there and let the kids play… get pizza to go. and for child care.
Thanks Safari Sams–

Surprisingly good pizza and a place for the kids to play all year long, from the awesome indoor jungle gym to black light mini golf to a small selection of arcade game and prizes. Safari Sam’s beats out the mouse with a cheesy name any day!

Its a great play place, but the cost is high and the food is ok, but also expensive. Sometimes the $ 50-​$ 75 you have to spend here is worth it just for the energy the kids exert and the break I get while they play play play…
They are overly strict about bringing in your own anything… even water. I usually bring my own water bottle (empty) and fill it up there. They don’t seem to have a problem with that. They offer coffee, beer and wine too.

The kids love it. Prices are alright, good selection of food for adults and kids. The only suggestion is that the staff should be more diligent about helping customers at the counter. Other than that, will most likely come again.

Everything is fun for the kids. I would recommend eat before you come the food was nasty. We will be back to play but never to eat. The tables were also very sticky so maybe a little more clean up would make it a better place.

Disgusting, disgusting, disgusting. The up keep at this place is terrible. Just about every single game that gave tickets was broken, or was jammed, or just plain wasn’t working. I put in money to several games, got no tickets, said something and was given a 20 ticket card. If the coins I’d put into the machines, had given tickets I would have gotten a lot more tickets than 20.
One of the guys that was fixing the machines had said to me, after I asked him to fix it, that he would give me the tickets that popped out. But no, instead he gave then to another person who he had already given a couple stacks to.
At the end, this person got «the hook up». I get that there’s a party for a specific kid, but if you say you’ll come find me and give me the tickets, than go back on your word. That is terrible.
Like I said earlier, over half the machines were broken here.
Don’t waste your money coming here.
The food and drinks are terrible, the service is terrible, the machines are broken down and nothing and nobody at this location even begin to know what they are doing.
Save your money and go to chuck e cheese. Which sucks too, but not as bad as this place!!!
I can tell you, I will tell EVERY SINGLE person I meet about how terrible this place is, specially if they have kids.

Good place for kids to play. Its on the spendy side. I would come to play but the food was terrible !!

Rite Qik: True family fun! Biggest jungle gym ever! Good food & café drinks. Young staff is good with kids, patient but can be a bit unprofessional. Coin eating games are annoying!
Safari Sam’s definitely worth a few hours of family fun! We had an absolute fabulous time when my kid has her birthday party here in March.
*Staff all seem friendly, kind & patient.
*Nice selection of games to play and win tickets.
* Mini-​golf if your not the gaming type.
*Bouncing castles if your kids it to squirrely for golf.
*Finally a HUGE jungle gym for when the golfing and gaming have run out and your kid has what seems like 5 hour energy pumping through their tiny little veins!
*I will vouch for the pizza, the healthy selection of Umpqua ice cream plus the coffee drinks are not bad!
So onto what annoys me but is not necessarily a deal breaker…
#1 So I really LOVE gaming, that’s why I let my kids drag me anywhere in OREGON that has a decent arcade! Its pretty annoying that several of the game take more tokens than advertised. Especially plants vs zombies & Star trek Voyager. I still played any way and the staff were kind enough to replace my token when I asked (I was too ashamed to ask for them all-​I like to play WAY more than is healthy but don’t like spending $ 1.50 on average to play a game that $ 1)
#2 The only complaint about the staff is this: When a customer first walks end, do not finish your NON work related conversation before greeting them. But they are a bunch of younger worker so since they were really nice to my kids (& me with the game issues) I would still return.
#3 there seemed to be lots of issues with the ticket machines and some of the games weren’t turned even on last time.

Very fun with 10 kids under 8 … prices were ok… paid $ 18 per kid… includes 40 tokens.gym.bouncers.. Totally worth the money.. fun. fun… a work out for adults too…

My son loves this place! He has fun navigating through the jungle gym.
It’s a great place for tiring out your toddler especially during the cold winter months. A great alternative to parks or outdoor play. I have to knock down some stars though because twice that we’ve been there, a few of the arcade games were broken and not allowing to use our coins. Although my son has lots of fun here, he’s gotten sick just days after visiting this place on a few occasions and he is not exposed to many kids unless he’s here. Also, there are many older kids that appear to be teenager age that run through the jungle gym and don’t seem to regard the little children they run by which always makes me worry they’ll knock over one.
They also have 2 bounce houses for kids ages 3+ and a mini golf area lit up by black lights and neon colors.

Fun place for kids and adults alike. Their pizza is expensive but actually quite good quality (daily fresh made homemade crust).
Look for deal on Groupon.

Disappointed is an understatement.
Very few of the games work and the place is dirty. There is hardly anyone here and you can’t pick up the cups on the floor? Come on. The bathroom had pee on the seat, the freshener was beeping because it was out and there were no paper towels.
The blacklight mini golf was pretty cool and the play structure is big, but the rest of this place blows. The price for what you get totally isn’t worth it. Save your money.

After a failed effort to go to Glowing Greens in downtown Portland we looked up indoor mini golf on Unilocal and landed here.
Hubby wanted mini golf as his birthday activity. So, Sherwood. Ok.
It is his birthday. I was going to be a good sport. I hate golf. Got golf clubs for my 16^th birthday when all I really wanted was the keys to my dad’s extra old beater car. Oh, and lessons to go with. I still harbor anti golf resentment.
Yay.
I digress. Ahem. Back to Safari Sam’s.
Its in a strip mall. Its full of kids, families, bday parties, cheap pizza, umpqua ice cream, espresso, video games, a jungle gym, and glow in the dark black light mini golf.
Let me back up a little. I loathe kiddy places. I refuse to do Chuckie Cheese. Bullwinkles I have braved twice, ugh. I do like OMSI and the Zoo. Bouncy house places? Ugh. Papa’s pizza? Not for me. I do like Big Als a little bit (the fact they serve alcohol might have influenced me, a little). Oaks park is tolerable. I can manage Skateworld ok. Anyway.
So they checked us in, giving us bracelets and stamping our hands. Adult admission is free. Kid was $ 12. Golf was $ 5. Every activity you want to do costs more I think.
Yay.
The kid who admitted us didn’t tell us where to get putters and balls so we had to figure that out. Later I would help a random lost grandma figure that out too (she thought I worked there) so this appears to be a sink or swim kind of place.
Yay.
Princess fell apart halfway through the golf course so we sat the last bit out while the boys wrapped up their game. I think they enjoyed it. The golf course was kinda neat.
If you have a sensitive kid like mine who is averse to noise, crowds, smells, and dark places and especially all at once, skip it. It was hard on her.
If you like all that stuff, this is your spot.
I did get a hole in one. ;) the boys were astonished. Golf lessons paid off I guess.

I’ve been to Safari Sam’s a few times. The main attraction of the place is a giant indoor play structure; the website touts it as the «largest play structure in Oregon,» and if you came here just for that, your kids could probably be entertained for a least a couple of hours. It’s a great place to burn off extra energy on rainy days.
There is also a bouncy house room (+$), a putt putt golf course (+$), and an arcade (+$$$). $ 21 a kid for access to everything + 40 tokens. It’s definitely not an inexpensive afternoon, but kids will be stoked to come here.
The pizza isn’t bad, and they offer beer and wine (all day on weekends, and 6 PM and later on weeknights).
I’ve only every been to Safari Sam’s on Saturday, and it definitely starts to get pretty crowded around noon. Additionally, not all parents are keeping that close of an eye on their kids (I saw a kid climbing up a large decorative boulder in the putt putt golf area!), so it can get to be sort of a free for all.
Also, be aware, there is a «black diamond» course in the play structure area that is a little advanced. Don’t help your kids get up there (I’m 5’1″ and had trouble getting up there on my own) unless you’re planning on going through the whole course with them — there are definitely some challenging spots that they would get stuck on.
There wasn’t any music playing when I was there most recently (as mentioned by some other reviewers), but there were a few different baseball and basketball games shown on some flat screen TVs around the dining area.
The employees use black light ink to stamp you and your kids’ hands with the same number so that they can ensure you leave with the same people you came in with, and they keep track of what package you purchased with different colored wristbands.