Dave & Buster’s is moving forward with its Back to Basics plan, an effort to correct missteps from prior leadership and refocus the business on core fundamentals.
CEO Tarun Lal, who joined this summer, told investors during Tuesday’s Q3 earnings call that the company has been working to improve its marketing engine, strengthen food and beverage, tighten operations, refresh its games lineup, and overhaul its approach to remodels.
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That work began to show early results in the third quarter, with sequential improvement in same-store sales each month and the final month of the quarter down only about 1 percent. On a quarterly basis, however, comps were still down 4 percent. The company reported revenue of $448 million and a net loss of $42 million.
A key driver of improvement was the launch of the Back to Basics menu earlier this year, which helped produce positive same-store sales in food and beverage during the quarter.
Lal said the company identified that a smaller share of game players were also dining than in prior years, and a major focus has been restoring that behavior to historical levels. Earlier this year, Dave & Buster’s updated how its existing menu was presented while simultaneously testing a new menu that included “significantly more items and brought back numerous fan favorites.”
The new menu test delivered strong results, leading to an official launch in October. Since then, the platform has helped accelerate the F&B momentum. Lal said the new menu, along with “a number of other food initiatives,” is driving higher average checks through improved product mix and stronger volumes.
The company also reinstated its Eat & Play Combo (EPC), positioning it as a central value driver within the Back to Basics strategy.
“We have continued to improve this offering throughout the year and guest attachment to EPC has improved significantly to a double-digit percentage of our guests since the beginning of the year,” Lal said.
Marketing has been another major focus of the turnaround effort. Dave & Buster’s has moved toward simpler, more disciplined planning by reducing the number of promotions and putting more emphasis on fewer, clearer offers such as EPC. The company has also taken a more strategic approach to balancing television and digital media spend. In addition, it created a dedicated revenue management team to test offers, promotions, creative, and messaging before rolling them out systemwide.
“This process ensures that we make data-driven decisions, which has led to smoother execution and strong results, which we expect to continue in the remainder of 2025 and beyond,” Lal said.
Two other pillars of the Back to Basics strategy center on training and culture, as well as the games business. On the people side, Lal said the company is revitalizing field operations through expanded training programs designed to equip teams with the tools, knowledge, and confidence to deliver stronger guest experiences.
“By fostering a collaborative culture that receives strong support from our shared service center, we are reducing turnover, enhancing engagement, and creating an environment where our people and our brand can truly thrive,” he said. “We have high confidence that these initiatives are working as our guests are staying longer in our stores and spending more while continuing to provide high guest satisfaction.”
Within games, the company is sharpening the alignment between marketing campaigns and major, IP-driven game launches. Lal teased a broader slate of new games coming in 2026, declining to share specific titles but noting the lineup will be built around “highly relevant cultural IPs” designed to drive awareness, engagement, and traffic.
He also highlighted strong guest interest in the Human Crane game, which is now installed in roughly 70 percent of Dave & Buster’s locations and is expected to be fully rolled out systemwide by year end, before expanding into Main Event locations in the first quarter of next year.
“These are incredible games,” he said. “People absolutely love them. There’s a strong TikTok or Instagram value to them, and we are seeing less than a year of return on investment on these games.”
On the real estate side, the company has launched a revamped remodel program focused on more cost-effective updates. Prior remodels have generated meaningful sales lifts but included expensive, overbuilt features that did not always translate to better guest experiences. Dave & Buster’s has now shifted its approach to optimize the remodel prototype and modernize stores while keeping costs more disciplined.
“I think our biggest learning is that remodels work,” Lal said. “That’s almost a fundamental truth, right? You need to refresh your assets to ensure that your guests have the right experience.”
The prior remodel approach overinvested in areas that did not materially impact the guest experience, he added.
“It was kind of a wasted investment,” Lal said, adding that through consumer insight work the company has identified the areas where there is a direct correlation between the investment in guest experience driving repeat visits and it focusing on that now to save “a significant amount of capital” with the remodels. “That’s kind of a general message, that we will be far more responsible with our CapEx and general cost management. We will continue to invest. We have the capital to invest, but we’ll use it purposefully and meaningfully.”
On the development front, the company opened one domestic Dave & Buster’s location in Washington and three domestic Main Event locations in Michigan, Oklahoma, and North Carolina. That brings year-to-date new store openings to nine, with a path toward 11 new domestic openings and one relocation in fiscal 2025.
Internationally, the company opened its third franchise location in the Philippines in October and expects to open four additional international locations over the next six months.
