Worth It Wednesday: iPic Theaters

I’m all about killing two birds with one stone and hitting dinner and a movie all at one time.  My hubby and I are big movie goers and our theater of choice is generally Alamo Draft House.  But, last weekend, sadly, Alamo was no longer playing a movie I wanted to see (Silver Linings Playbook)!  So, we tried out a new place … iPic Theaters in the domain.  Was it worth it?  Hmmm.  For an ordinary date night out?  Not a chance.

It’s certainly swanky.  Even though it’s in Austin, I could have stepped up my wardrobe a bit to fit in with the rest of the clientele.  And the food was indeed fabulous.  My chicken breast was the best chicken I’ve had in a restaurant.  It was perfectly cooked and not like any normal ‘movie’ food.  My husbands nachos were also quite fabulous.  They have cloth napkins and beautiful food presentation.  So, you know, there’s that.

But, the price of the tickets?  Premium seating is $18.50 each.  Just for the seat.  Premium Plus seating is $29.00 each and once again, just for the seat.   And what they aren’t clear about on their website is the difference between the two other than the price.  They show pictures of the seats on the website  …one reclines and one doesn’t, but they don’t explain the *real* difference.  Since it was our first time and we didn’t want to spend almost sixty bucks just to see a movie that I can see at the dollar theater, we went for the cheap seats.   And we regretted it.   Why?  Because unless you like to sit in the first three rows and get your food yourself, you have to have the Premium Plus seating.

Maybe it’s because I’m closer to age 40 than I am to 30, but I like to sit in the back or I feel a little car sick from being too close.  So, when they printed out our seats and it said ‘Row B’ … I knew I was in trouble.  When I asked for anything further back, they kindly moved us to Row C (which is the farthest they could move us back because the Premium seats are only those first three rows.  They are for the cheap-os and there was plenty of room.  Wouldntcha know it —  Premium Plus was sold out.  All of those patrons had been there before, I’m certain of that.

AND … even though we spent almost $40 on our seats, we didn’t have a waiter … if we wanted a refill on water or wine … we had to leave the theater and stand in line to get our own refill.  When our food was ready, we had a buzzer and had to go get it.   In those Premium Plus seats where people have blankets and are reclining, they have a waiter making sure they have everything they need.

Sooooo … if you want to drop $150 to see a movie, have an excellent dinner and a glass or two of wine, then iPic might be worth it to you. But for $150, I’d rather go to Flemmings!

PS:  Silver Linings Playbook — TOTALLY worth seeing.