George Aronstein – Food and Beverage Director, Apex Entertainment Center: “Apex Entertainment Center is the premiere place to be in the MetroWest. It has got something for everybody. We have go-karts, laser tag, an awesome ropes course, 30 interactive bowling lanes. If you can’t find something to do here, then you just don’t want to have fun.”

Towering just off I-495 in Marlboro, Apex Entertainment is big, in just about every way you can measure it. It’s more than eighty-thousand square feet. On a busy day more than ten thousand people come to play. Its restaurant has more than five hundred seats, and serves portions big enough to feed the whole family.

George Aronstein: “Everything is so big. There is literally something for everybody all day, every day, non stop.”

That’s George Aronstein. He’s in charge of the food here, and he’s also a fan of all the fun.

George Aronstein: “If you’re looking for something fun to do in the area and you haven’t experienced Apex then you’re missing out. Our ropes course is pretty awesome to get 30 minutes in the sky. Our laser tag course, it’s two floors, it’s super fun. I think I played laser tag every day for the first two weeks that I worked here. We have a state of the art go-kart track. It’s a bi-level, the karts get up to 40 miles an hour. We have racing contests all the time through our track staff, as well as with guests that come in the building. The bumper cars are really fun, it’s very carnival like. The game room is state of the art. There’s cool interactive games everywhere. We have simulators that are just out of control. You can play zombie dodge ball, you can play 18 holes, on one of your favorite courses. You can play Home Run Derby. It’s pretty cool. The food menu and the drink menu is really why I’m here. The food menu, I think it’s pretty awesome. It’s fun. It’s exciting. You get what you expect, and then we surprise you with how good everything is.”

The restaurant itself is enormous. It spans two floors, has multiple bars, and serves all the fun foods you love. Like an enormous mountain of nachos, big blazing Buffalo Wings, and addictive Buffalo Chicken Wontons.

George Aronstein: “The Buffalo Chicken wonton is something that everybody loves. The filling is super fresh. We make it every single day. We run out of wontons every day, because we have to make them every day. It’s a great, great appetizer.”

But the greatest appetizer of all has to be this giant fresh baked pretzel.

George Aronstein: “So we serve, the biggest pretzel in New England. It’s two pounds of pretzel. It’s crispy, it’s doughy, it’s delicious, it’s exactly what you want a pretzel to be. There’s no pretzel better than the pretzel we serve. And it’s super shareable, four or five people get in on it and it is the perfect appetizer for the lanes, for the tables, for the kids, it plays so well with the bigger bigger bigger that we are here.”

Sandwiches here are big too.  Like this one with buttermilk fried chicken, crispy bacon, and chipotle ranch, and the towering Double X Burger.

George Aronstein: “The Double X Burger is just the burger to get. It’s double patty, quadruple cheese, quadruple bacon, eggs, fried onion strings, on our brioche bun. Everybody likes it.”

Want fries with that?  Of course you do, because Apex offers four different styles, from the classic straight cut, to spirally sidewinders, sweet potato waffles fries, and golden fried tots. And if you want really go over the top, there are all kinds of ways you can get funky with your fries.

George Aronstein: “You get them loaded with cheddar cheese sauce, and bacon bits. You can have them chili style, you can have them pulled pork and BBQ, we can do pizza style. It’s just a play on a shareable appetizer. You come to a place like this for fun with friends. You want to share some food. Funky fries are the perfect shareable appetizer.”

Rounding out the menu are hand tossed pizzas, like classic cheese with housemade tomato sauce,

Tuscan Grilled Chicken with roasted red peppers, and a pesto drizzle, and a Southwest Taco Pizza you need to try.

George Aronstein: “The Southwest taco pizza is a chili base and it has melted cheddar cheese on it, and it’s literally like a taco salad on top of the pizza, because when it comes out, we have fresh lettuce, tomato, sour cream to go right on top of it, crushed with some tortilla chips, so it eats very nice, it eats like you’re eating a taco on pizza.”

For dessert, you really can’t go wrong with whatever you choose.

George Aronstein: “Our fried dough bites are great. They’re super shareable. They’re fresh fried little donut holes topped with cinnamon sugar, little powdered sugar on top, and then hot fudge on the side. The molten chocolate cake is really nice. It’s ooey gooey chocolate with fresh whipped cream and chocolate drizzle on it. And we also do a pint of ice cream. And you think of a pint of ice cream like a pint that you get in the store, but this is done in a pint glass and it’s layers of ice cream, chocolate sauce, whipped cream, and it’s served in a pint glass, so it comes out like a play on words.”

And whether you come to Apex to play, or eat, you should definitely come ready to have fun.

George Aronstein: “If you want to ride go kart tracks, we have a state of the art course. If you like laser tag, we have the best laser tag around. If you want to bowl, we have 30 interactive lanes. And on top of that we have really cool food. Our beverages are great. And it’s a great blend of ‘what do I want to do? Where do I want to spend my hard earned money today?’ At a place like this, you get value in every dollar that you spend.”