Take a group and go late.
There are two key issues that present hurdles to having an all around good time at Dave and Busters. The first issue is the food is terribly overpriced and the quality was not impressive as I have found it to be greasy at times or overcooked. The second issue revolves around the bloody ankle biters, why you would want to drag your kids to a bar is far beyond me (I do however see why having kids can make you want to drink heavily) so the only obvious circumvention is to go later in the evening to avoid the annoyance. The variety of arcade games is not bad. They have several group play racing and trivia games but they are missing some staple crowd pleasing games like air hockey and strangely absent are the fighting style games (Tekken, Street Fighter, Mortal Combat, etc.).
In a nutshell go later in the evening with a group for the games and stick to a simple faire of bar food or you might find yourself sorely disappointed. Tempe Market Place is a great place to wonder around in this time of year (spring) with a variety of restaurants, shops, etc. Dave and Busters is worth spending an hour or two in but if you want decent food I would look elsewhere.