My Little Town Kids

About

Three separate visitors across three months walked in and found the same thing: toy kitchens with nothing left in them, ball machines that will not run, cash registers with dead batteries, and a ball pit of broken balls with the vacuums out of action. "Why doesn't anything work?" is a three-year-old's verdict, quoted by their parent, and it summarizes the complaint more efficiently than any adult managed. The concept underneath is good — a miniature town built for pretend play — and toddlers who came for the role-play rather than the machines still have a lovely time, which several parents say plainly and warmly.

Go in knowing two things. Much of what looks included is not: rides and arcade machines take tokens on top of admission, and that catches people out. And sessions are timed, so the clock runs whether or not your child has warmed up yet. Weekend afternoons are the busiest window by a comfortable margin, and one regular's advice amounts to simply going when it is quiet, which here means a weekday. Best for walkers up to about six, with older siblings tolerated rather than served. If your child is at the age where a plastic supermarket is the entire point, the broken machines will bother you far less than they bother the parent of a seven-year-old.