After nearly 15 years as an anchor tenant at Ward Village, Dave & Buster’s is one of those places that’s become easy to overlook when deciding where to go for a few drinks. For many, the thinking is that unless you’re planning to watch a game (or play a few arcade games), there’s no reason to be there.

Until just a few weeks ago, I had the same mentality. Why visit a chain restaurant when quality craft cocktails can easily be found nearby? Then I had a Painkiller and my attitude changed almost immediately.

No, I’m not talking about anything pharmaceutical. The Painkiller is a classic tiki cocktail with a history that can be traced back to the 1970s when it was first served at the Soggy Dollar Bar in the British Virgin Islands. Composed of dark rum, cream of coconut, pineapple and orange juices, and topped with grated nutmeg, it’s a deceptively mellow sipper that packs quite a punch. Pusser’s Rum eventually acquired the rights to use the Painkiller name and is now the brand most tiki cocktail fans associate with the cocktail.

At Dave & Buster’s, Pusser’s is used along with Coco Real Cream of Coconut to create a drink that holds its own among more trendy concoctions served elsewhere. And after having so much fun drinking a few, I was motivated to continue exploring to see what else I might have missed. Turns out D&B’s offers an extensive drink menu meant to be just as entertaining as the midway of games located upstairs on the second floor of the restaurant.

What could be more fun than a bottle of Corona and a margarita? A bottle of Corona inverted and placed into a margarita, of course! While the Coronarita isn’t a new concept, D&B’s adds flavor twists like watermelon, coconut and black raspberry to make them more fun. A plain mojito is refreshing, but the X-Rated Passion Fruit Mega Mojito takes things to another level with flavors of passion fruit, mango and blood orange to go with Cruzan Mango rum and Monin passion fruit liqueur. And I’ve never been a sangria fan, but the Spiced Strawberry and Cinnamango versions served here are worth a try.

The fun continues with the Glow Kone, which Dave & Buster’s promotes as an “adult snow cone,” served with ice cubes that actually light up inside the drink. Snow Cones don’t glow, but the sugary sweet blends of flavors like strawberry mango, watermelon and coconut are unlike nearly anything else served in town. And the five different types of Long Island iced teas served here are more palatable than the Long Islands I used to drink at Pipeline Cafe back in the day.

Some of the drinks are relatively new thanks to recent menu updates, but for the most part Dave & Buster’s is simply executing the same game plan that helped it reach opening weekend sales records when the 40,000-square-foot space opened in 2001.

Upstairs at the third-floor Sunset Bar, college kids and those who like to party with them continue to rage on Wednesday nights during the popular Lite the Roof on Fire party that’s been a staple for years. On the midway level, a full service bar and plenty of lounge seating makes it possible for parents with families to not only keep the kids entertained, but treat themselves to something enjoyable as well. And the upgraded sports lounge near the main entrance and dining room, with its abundance of big screens, continues to keep this place popular with its core customer base of sports fans.

Did I have the best drinks of my life at Dave & Buster’s? No. And I didn’t expect to. But I’m also not going to overlook this place simply because it’s corporate-owned and not considered cool enough by the hipster crowd.

I had a blast picking and choosing drinks I wouldn’t normally get and then being surprised by how much I liked them. Add in the happy hour factor from 4:30 to 7 p.m. on weekdays, when all cocktails are half-priced, and this place starts to look better and better.