Nakoko

tl;dr: We had a ton of fun and won 5 medium plushies and a keychain with 30 tokens ($25 with the soft opening promo). Highly recommend this claw machine arcade! --- Nakoko currently has a soft opening promo where you can get 30 tokens for $25. (Each try is 1 token.) When I bought my tokens, they gave me a giant plastic bag to hold my winnings, which I thought was optimistic because I rarely win anything with claw machines. It turned out that giant bag was exactly what we needed. We won our first plushie (a turtle) after only 2 tokens. We then won our second plushie (a cat) after another 2 tokens. I was stunned and elated at our good luck. We did encounter a challenge trying to get a campfire plushie - after trying ~8 times, we gave up on that one. But we had good luck with a few other machines (winning a lemon tea, Snorlax, and another turtle) By the time we spent our last token, our bag was filled to the brim with prizes: 5 medium ones and a keychain! We ended up trading in 3 of the medium plushies for points, which can be used to trade-up for more expensive prizes (mostly plushies, but also mugs and other things). You can save the points for later and don't have to use them on the same visit. The arcade was clean, and the service was friendly. Thanks for a great time, Nakoko! <3

My kids and I had a great time playing and winning a handful of plushies! I like how the machines aren’t too hard to win and the ability to trade or bank individual plushies for larger ones. Will definitely come back!

The shop owner is super kind and accommodating. Our family had so much fun there.

Amazing new claw arcade in the Bay Area! Like other claw machine places, you can either keep your winnings or trade up for a larger prize. We went during their soft opening and were impressed by the selection of plushies to upgrade to. Lots of Pokemon plush to upgrade to for Pokemon fans. We ended up trading for a massive size Kirby plushie that could barely fit through the door of our car 😝. Friendly staff as well. Will be going back to play more next time we’re in the area.

Had the best time here! Great for all ages, so glad there’s a claw machine place in San Mateo now!

So much fun! Great value with the soft opening promo and much easier to win than Round 1 ;)

Very fun! Can trade each plush back for points and trade up. Personal high score: 30 token for 8 plush another visit 30 token for 4 plush

So fun and such good plushies!

So excited to have a fun, winnable claw machine place near me! This is like the claw machine arcades I've seen in Vegas or in Asia, where they're not super hard to win or super expensive. I love the trade in program and think it's generally priced fairly, especially with the current $25 for 30 token promotion. We won 12 plushies with the 30 tokens and traded them in for a sakura rilakkuma, which is essentially about $25 for a large plushie + 20-30 minutes of entertainment. For me, the joy of claw machines is playing + winning, but I don't really want to keep most of the prizes. It would be great if there was a subscription or program to just play the claw machines but not keep the prizes.... For the right price I would keep coming back for just that, and maybe add an area to hang out with friends. Overall really happy to have this place in San Mateo to break up the monotony of food places. Plus service is friendly and attentive!

A trade up shop that's great for getting your feet wet for learning how to play claw games. Trust me, I stink at them and to be able to get 5 out of 30 is nothing short of a miracle in my mind. Staff was nice and did try to arrange the plushies in a way that was maybe a little easier especially for all the little kids present. The nice thing is that you can trade in the plushies and save your progress here to earn the big prizes (30 points). If you step out of the store though, all sales final so think before you do. There are token deals right now just because it's the soft opening but otherwise it's about 1 token per dollar.

Brand new claw machine store in DT San Mateo that opened 10 days ago. We met one of the owners (Kelvin) who was very friendly and welcoming. He explained their vision was to get people to win and keep coming back, not to make the claw machines impossible to beat. There's a promo running through the end of the month where you get 30 tokens for $25. They also switch out the plushies pretty frequently, so keep checking back! You can trade in your winnings for bigger items too. They also have multiple levels that aren't open yet, but hopefully will have more things to look forward to in the future.

Nakoko is currently in the soft opening phase. I visited on July 4th 30 minutes prior to closing at 6:00 pm. There's roughly 20 claw machine games available. Each game is one token and one try. There's a limited time promotion where you can get 30 tokens for $25. The concept is really unique, where the arcade games that are eligible, allows you to trade what you win for a bigger prize through a point system. You can also keep the points in your "library" and redeem it later. For any unused tokens, you can either keep them for later use or get a voucher card to load the credit. The tokens are provided in a small blue or orange basket. A clear drawstring plastic bag was provided to hold the prizes (holds up to 10 prizes). There's also a mezzanine upstairs where private parties can be hosted via a reservation. I played for about an hour and was able to win 11 prizes to trade towards a large Cinnamaroll stuffed animal! Ambiance The claw machines were lit with bright blue lights. There's an open area to walk around the main floor, view the games and prizes. Location It's located one block away from the primary downtown area. There's street parking and a parking lot across from it. Customer Service I was able to speak with the co-owner, Anna, who was so helpful and sweet! She mentioned her passion for claw arcade games and another Nakoko location in the SF Sunset District. Looking forward to returning soon!

Great add on to San Mateo, I highly recommend this place to family and friends. Friendly and very informative staff. Will definitely be back!

Claw strength is weak and cannot win until it "eats" a certain amount of coins. Highly unlikely to get anything before this happens

As soon as we walked by, the games caught our eye and we had to stop. We were greeted right away by the friendly owner, who offered us each a free play as part of their grand opening promotion. He was super welcoming and took the time to chat with us, even explaining how to win the bigger prizes. You can tell this place truly wants you to win! Our daughter was thrilled to win a stuffed animal, and what I really love is that you can save your points and prizes to trade up for even bigger ones. She was able to trade in six stuffed animals for a Hello Kitty prize she had her eye on! They even have Labubus, which was such a fun surprise. We had a great experience and can't wait to come back!

So much fun! Great high quality prizes and very fair claw machines. They want you to win. Very clean and great variety. We were there for their soft opening and had so much fun. Highly recommended

I won't be going back .The claws in the claw machines are very weak. The literally pick up the stuffed animals, and then drops it. Somehow we managed to get 2 stuffed animals out of $20. But the chances are small. I will say that my daughter went with her father at the grand opening. They were not able win any stuffed animals , but the guy working , gave her one anyway . For that . I will give it 2 stars

I visited The Claw Arcade Shop today and had such a fun experience! All the plushies are super cute and great quality. I didn't have much luck winning , I only managed to get one, but the owner was incredibly kind and even let me exchange it for the one I loved most. Such great customer service! I'll definitely be coming back!!

This place is very clean and fun! I highly recommend and people should give it a try! The owners are very friendly :)

So many claw machines. The stuffies are so soft and cuddly. There are event spaces upstairs. Bathroom is clean and claws are strong.

Spent $25 and was able to get 10 plushies! Great place to visit near restaurants. Owner was helpful and gave a few extra tokens

Claw machines are rigged. They will pick up the toy but the claw immediately opens up at the top even after several tries at the same machine. Only able to win 1 prize for $25. I'm not new to claw machines and am very successful at round1. Super disappointed, never coming back. Reading the past reviews I am assuming they made the claws more difficult since then. I know it's easy to adjust the settings on those machines.