Free Kids Meals At Tasty Bite Off Ridge Road: Here's How

MINOOKA, IL — The proud owner of the Tasty Bite restaurant off Ridge Road in Minooka is offering free meals at his restaurant for kids 12 and younger — if they come to play his virtual reality video arcade called Infinity VR Adventures.

Tasty Bite owner Emre Kok has achieved the American dream. When his family came to Minooka from Turkey, he said he didn't speak any English. In 2011, he worked as a dishwater at the Tasty Bite restaurant. He immersed himself in learning to speak English and by 2016, he became the Tasty Bite owner. He also speaks fluent English, he's proud to say.

Tasty Bite is best known for its gyros, Italian beef, hot dogs and burgers.

By May 2021, Kok opened Infinity VR Adventures adjacent to Tasty Bites in the same shopping center. It remains one of the few virtual reality indoor arcades in the entire Joliet region.

The Minooka virtual reality arcade pulls in a lot of customers from Joliet, Mazon and Dwight.

Over the winter, Kok has been offering the free meal specials for kids ages 12 and younger in hopes of generating more interest in Infinity VR Adventures.

"Families come out for our specials," Kok said. "If you've got three kids, that's $20 in savings because at $6.25 plus tax per kid, you save a lot."

Kok said his virtual reality arcade has the capability to download hundreds of games for players. He has simulators and therapy games as well.

"It works just like Netflix," Kok said of his virtual reality arcade's gaming ability. "You can even walk around a carnival."

He suggests that families with children come to Infinity VR Adventures first and then head next door to Tasty Bites for their free meals.

"For kids 12 and under, we're going to do a free kids meal, and it's valid right after they play. It's been working very well. It's just getting the publicity and people knowing what it is."

Kok said the free meals for kids is available exclusively for walk-ins.

He said that Infinity VR Adventures already has special pricing packages for birthday parties and other large group events.

Infinity VR Adventures offers plenty of sports games including baseball, softball and racetrack simulators. Kok said he has a lot of educational virtual reality games for people with ADHD and "autism friendly games."

While most of his customers are teenagers and adults, Kok said he recently had an 82-year-old great-grandfather patronize Infinity VR Adventures.

The man played virtual reality golf and had a blast, Kok said.

The educational games feature job simulators to let kids can learn to be a butcher, working at a restaurant or being a cashier at a convenience store. Kok also has multi-player options as well as laser tag games.

Infinity VR Adventures is open 3 to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday and noon to 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Tasty Bite is open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

So, if someone came to Infinity VR Adventures with children on a Sunday when Tasty Bite is closed, they would get a free kids meal voucher to return on a different day, Kok explained.

He encourages everyone to follow Infinity VR Adventures on Facebook because "there's a lot of discounts posted on our Facebook page."