The Bowling Alley in Owen Sound

Had an absolute blast here. Good price for a couple hours of fun.

Firat time bowling. Not my game.lol Alot of fun and inexpensive. The fella on staff was amazing. Next time we plan to eat there. We will be back!!!

Kids and I loved laser tag

It was fun but a little expensive for family fun.

Havent tried the bowling yet but the chicken wings are huge and amazing! The service was incredible and the staff are super friendly. Cant wait to go back.

The staff is very friendly and helpful.

Lots of fun, good prices, and the food was amazing!!

I have bowled for over forty years. This is very overpriced for what you get. Super humid, so there was no chance you could slide on those lanes. No amount of baby powder was helping, even though it was offered. They charge enough to invest some money on lane conditions.

Lots of fun .. price seems fair

It was great nice place theres a bar and bowling is fun

Great place to visit. Fun environment and great food!

#cringe

Had a birthday party for our 8 year old and everyone had a blast. The owner is fantastic and service was amazing. Best hassle-free birthday ever!

Great experience and very friendly and helpful staff!! Such a fun day!! We will definitely be back!!

I really like the ambience. The screens are quite old and unique. I really enjoyed bowling with my friends.

Had our daughter s 9th birthday party at the Bowling Alley! Amazing service from start to finish from our first phone call until we left Kids had an absolute blast! Thanks for the great day

Ok, so the people who write reviews about affordability must work here or are still hammered....$50 an hour to bowl, plus tax, not including shoe rental is insane!!! Smoking crack would be cheaper!! They wont even give you the option to pay by the game...if you went as fast as you possibly could, not taking any time to enjoy yourself, you might be able to squeeze 5 games in an hour... thats $10 a game... completely ridiculous, should be half that price! At least let a guy pay 10 a game, so I can pace a little bit and attempt to enjoy myself, or make a mid day special when no one is there, youll get more business in the long run, PLEASE!!!! I love bowling and cant afford it since moving from Hamilton where it is 5.25 a game or 21.99 an hour before 5pm

We arrived at 9pm and they let us extend our time past 10pm JUST to let us finish our game! Amazing crew and owner! Tons of fun! Good food and drinks :)

guy with the baby gave us extra minutes to finish and gave us tips. shout out to him and the baby. :D

All very nice, multiple guys were holding a baby. They were all very nice though

This place was really fun and enjoyed a great time plus really affordable and good parking. The only down side was the wings werent the best and my pop tasted pretty flat and watered down

Fantastic service. Great food. Lots and lots to do!! We had a great time.

Amazing food! Great service and amazing staff! My special Olympics bowling team LOVE IT here every Tuesday

On the March break we decided to take our grandchildren bowling. We were told it would be 45 minutes of play time. Unfortunately the machines were resetting after each ball thrown for several frames. We informed the staff and they said well its still recording the score. Unfortunately a young child wasnt happy that it wasnt showing that they were hitting any pins?? It takes the excitement away. Then the machines then gave us a 5 minute warning and shut down after 30 minutes instead of 45 minutes! When I inquired about this, there was no explanation given. Our grandaughter was crying. When I used the restrooms, none of the soap dispensers had soap. There was a small bottle that contained very watered down soap. Im sorry but after handing bowling balls there should be soap in the dispensers. Very disappointed with having to pay for bowling and feeling very ripped off. I feel like you should have a childs/adult price per game as it was very expensive to play for only 30 minutes.

Tried to make reservations for my kiddos 5th and NO RETURN PHONE CALLS ON ANY RESERVATIONS. BEEN WEEKS.

Absolutely amazing place been my go to to since I was a kid. Come have so much fun

No music, very old tv system

Took my kids today for an activity on March Break. This place is looking pretty tired. I didnt have high expectations, really, but since Ive had occasion to bowl a few times recently around Kitchener Waterloo I came with recent points of reference. The balls are chipped and many have wonky holes and various repairs. The whole facility was pretty run down. Computer scoring is 80s vintage and glitched a couple times but didnt keep us from playing. Just a bit amusing to see the old tech. Would I go back....doubt it. Would I recommend this place....doubt it.

Great bowling alley and awesome staff. Adam was great !

Great atmosphere and service

Had a great time at The Bowling Alley in Owen Sound! Special thanks to Giordano for all his efficient. & friendly customer care

It s a fun place to go and hangout

Had a good time! But our lane was messing up our scores and when we made it know nothing was done to change the situation

Highly recommend birthday parties with the bowling alley! So easy! Bring the kids and they supply everything else! Staff were wonderful! Food was good, price was great, kids had so much fun! Havent been to the bowling alley since before owner change. John, youve done a wonderful job with the many choices of activities! Ill be bringing my kids back for sure!

had a great time and the food was so good

Had planned for skiing this week but had to pivot because of weather. Booked 2 lanes and yes its a little dated but the staff were good and the lanes worked and we enjoyed the bowling. The big disappointment was the axe throwing. My butter knives are sharper and the area was badly designed and looked like it was erected last minute. Will be back for bowling not axe throwing.

Held my kids birthday party there today , was lucky enough to pay admission for all the adults $280 for 8 kids, to eat pizza, a cup cake and play two rounds of laser tag, so glad at spent $300 on top at the arcade in 2 hours in that digusting Mess.

Fun bowling but very expensive.

Called to get my cash back buddy decided to change my cash only purchase to debit in the computer with a fake card number as a way to not give me my cash back and only gift cards its been here since I was a kid the past 26 years never again this is why Owen sound folk go to actual cities

I have bowled many times in the past there. Used to be about 15 bucks including shoe rental for a game. Maybe five bucks more if you wanted a second game. I was just there in early 2024 and it was SEVENTY DOLLARS for me and the little lady to bowl. That gave us an hour which we didnt really want, but I guess thats the only option to get. So I guess if its just you and one other person dont go to Westside bowl unless you want to spend $70 to bowl about a game and a half (because of the 1hr cutoff)wearing crummy shoes using extremely aged equipment on not so great lanes. We went with the intention of bowling, shooting some pool, having a few drinks, playing in the arcade. We did only the bowling and left feeling hosed. Checked out the arcade, looked terrible. Pool table looked nice. Wouldnt take a coin. Had to buy tokens(didnt). Yeah. Its THAT kind of arcade. Even when I was in high school with very little money coming in I could afford to go to Westside bowl. I sure hope the poor kids that work there get free bowling, I would imagine it would probably take them approximately 6 hours working there to be able to afford just one hour of bowling.

Fun place on a Saturday night for the glow in the dark bowl. Great music. A very budget friendly place to take a family or have a few friends chip in.

If I could give this zero stars I would. We went this past Saturday for the first time in years. We had called ahead around noon on Saturday to book 2 lanes for rock and bowl for 830pm and laser tag. When we got there a polite young man greeted us and told us we weren t booked in the system until 930pm. We had told him that we called and booked for 830pm. He wasn t sure what to do so he had another employee come help us. This employee (older guy with a plaid shirt) was ignorant and rude to us. He told us we weren t in the system at all. We explained we had booked the lanes ahead of time for 830pm. He snapped on us many times telling us too bad, he didn t take the reservations and we couldn t play until maybe 930pm and that even then he possibly only had one lane available for us. We ended up leaving. We had 16 people with us all together. 12 to bowl and all of us to play laser tag. We were treated so ignorantly by this employee that we just left. Someone said he was maybe the owner. If that s the case then I don t know how the guy is still in business. He s extremely unprofessional with zero customer service skills. After our experience, I d rather drive a few hours to support another bowling alley with polite staff professional staff, then I would support this place.

Loved it was big group my mental health group we had blast thx

Great place to have a family night with the kids or a date night. The food is reasonably priced and tasty. They offer both five pin and ten pin bowling along with laser tag, arcades, and a play structure for the kids. Make sure to make a reservation way in advanced as they fill up fast. They are renovating the lanes and system currently since they didn t get to do it during covid.

Amazing place for birthdays, a night out and their summer camps they have for kids are amazing! Highly recommend.

Nice place to do bowling in Owensound with in surrounding area.

They did a remodel of the bowling alley portion if the building. It looks ok. The indoor play area is really basic, the arcade area is terrible (75% of the games are out of order), and everything costs way too much. The whole place is a poorly executed great idea.

My son s whole kindergarten class had a field trip planned at The Bowling Alley in Owen Sound on May 1, 2023 - a whole group of 4-6 year olds took the bus from their school in Grey Highlands to Owen Sound. As it turns out, whoever booked it FORGOT THEY BOOKED THE EVENT AND DIDN T SHOW UP so the kids weren t able to go bowling. The bus turned around and the kids went back to school. Sorry to go full Karen here but like really? It s a group of kindergarteners. This is actually laughably unbelievable.

Agreed to host 4-6 year olds and then did not open the alley. Its easy to say human error but the correct answer is I am sorry, we screwed up I take full responsibility for my business and the error that took place. Accidents happen and you are doing the right thing I believe but was really hard for our kids. My little one was teary the whole bus ride back to school. Im sure this is learning lesson all around. We just want the best for our kids and today you let down close to 30 children. Thank you for connecting with our teacher and making it right. We do appreciate that but please remember the children who have been eagerly counting down and the poor teacher that had to give the bad news. And of course our bus driver who turned around while in the middle of his lunch to take our kids home, thankfully the weather was on our side. Wishing you all the best in the future.

Very nice atmosphere.. would be better with a group here

It is very old and dingy... the shoes are very tired. The ceiling has so much water damage it looks ike it could fall down. The food prices are ridiculous. The machines that run the bowling alley are very loud and dont work well. Its just not that awesome. All this could be excused if the service was good. But it wasnt. The two guys running the place seemed like we were an inconvenience to them and didnt make anyone feel welcome. Probably not going back.

It always a good time getting a little expensive

Had fun with the grandkiddies

Friendly staff, fun way to spend an afternoon

ABSOLUTELY LOVE this place! Super easy going and laid back. Great variety of drinks! Seriously recommended place to go with family or friends!

Very nostalgic, fun bowling and games. The food is alright. Would recommend for birthdays.

So much fun

Staff were great and the food was awesome. Keep up the good work

We reserved two alleys for 1 hour. One staff was rude about us being 5 minutes late. The TV/score system is old. The whole place is dated. We did order some drinks, the barman was great. After bowling, we looked at the arcade section. Most of them were broken and not serviceable. Old selection of games. We wont go back.

Great time

Lots of lanes to bowl also laser tag here

Good afternoon fun

A perfect place to spend time with the family. We loved this place.

Great fun time. Not expensive. Had a blast with some friends. Cant wait for Lazer tag

I ve bowled a few times and enjoyed it each time. Excited for laser tag.

Loved the bowling, great service, looking forward towards the laser tag!

Fun time to spend with friends. Cant wait for Lazer tag!

it is a very good bowling alley and I would definitely recommend it to everyone I know

I like bowling. Its a good activity

Recommend coming here if youre looking for a good time . Customer service was 10/10

Quality bowling alley. Best in owen sound

Drinking alcohol is alcool

Great fun

Great fun!

Great service definitely recommend doing the throwing axes was a ton of fun

Awesome owner! let us stay late to finish up our games and made the experience a blast

It was great

The food was really good and bowling was fun, but the arcade only had one fun game. My biggest problem was with the axe throwing, I paid $80 to stand in a tiny room for an hour and throw dull axes with broken handles that give you fiber glass slivers in your hands. If I would have seen the set up I never would have paid that much, everyone got fiberglass in there hands. I would have asked for my money back but I signed the waiver.

Grandchildren had a great time

Took the two kids here for an afternoon. When we arrived we waited at the desk for awhile. There was two employees working. No one came to help, so we went to the arcade part. Most of the machines were broken down. Kids played for awhile. After that we went back to the front desk and picked out a small prize we could get with our points. We waited. And waited. I could see the two employees so I know they could see us. They were in the backroom, so we waited some more. We gave up on the idea of bowling and left.

Have been back several times since all the closures and I am very excited to see all the changes taking place!! A great time every time I go!!!

The concerns with customer service in previous reviews is a real issue and don t let the previous comment responses fool you into thinking it s the hired staff that has the customer service issues. It s the owner John that is the issue and I can t imagine someone like him conducting any sort of customer service training when he has zero customer service skills himself. He is miserable and acts like you are inconveniencing him by coming into his business, really welcoming not. Every single interaction our group had with him from the moment we all individually entered the business to the end he was miserable. It s really unfortunate to have a business owner like this in a small community where what is offered could be a lot of fun for people of all ages. He truly doesn t care about the people trying to support his business not to mention I have witnessed him being miserable and just plain rude to people while out in public.

I m super stoked on the owner John your kill in it

It was fantastic. MY Granddaughter had her 3rd birthday there.This is her first Birthday Party with frien s cause of Covid. 1st time bowling. All the kids loved the new play area..Thanks again for the wonderful party.

We had a fabulous birthday party at the bowling alley! This is THE place for a kids party! The kids absolutely loved the laser tag. The service was , thank you ! We will be back !

Attended big brothers fund raiser bowling and a great time was had by all!!

So much fun for every age group. My three year old twins had a blast.

The prices are okay but definitely could be better. They are more concerned about what else to bring in than fixing what they already have. They claim to have a birthday room which in reality is actually just church seats sectioning an area off from my observation. They claimed it was a half hour wait due to a birthday party and that he would discount the play area if we wanted while we waited. We where there when he came over to tell us he had already started our lane for us... We ended up only making it to 7 frames before the game claimed we ran out of time for our hour of play, for $89 total I just expected a bit more bang for my buck. Having gone to many other bowling alleys before I feel this one is a tad stuck in the 90s for myself, unfortunately I dont think we will be coming back.

It was a great time. The only thing is that if your hour is done you cant finish game

I went in today for my first time in... 10 years. Its way cooler than it used to be. There is a small indoor playground, and laser tag as well. There should be signage at the front for rates of play at the front desk for the playground. We thought it was just part of the games, and my kids went running to the slide (cause lets be real who doesnt love a twisty slide) and we were stopped by the younger person who works there and told we had to pay to enter that portion when we are bowling. Fair. I just would have paid for that access when we first arrived.

Good place to have fun. Also, staff is friendly.

Awesome spot! Staff was awesome. They have pool and a small arcade as well. Definitely recommend!!

Family always has fun

Good family fun excellent service enjoyable place to go

Last Wednesday I think it was, I decided to get the family out of the house for some fun and ended up deciding on bowling, we did 5 pin. We had the rails up, I assumed because my kid is only 10 yrs old and would have trouble hitting the pins but... He out scored me in the first 3 frames, I couldnt hut the broad side of a barn. We had a good time for the duration we were there, it looked like they were undergoing some renovations. We would have stayed longer if the weather didnt turn into Tornado warnings. The only down side of this place is that because of the renovations the arcade section of the ally was closed. The best part of the bowling experience for a kid is the arcade after the bowling,,, or before.... Or during lol.

Had an amazing time! This is a great place to go for a bite to eat and bowl a few games with the family. They even have a bar if youd like a drink.

Great people, awesome service, tasty pizza an fries to boot .we took our son an friends for his birthday party very well organized. You get what you pay for. Definitely be back.

It was great got to see how to throw axes

Its still a fun place. After all these years, its definitely in need of some TLC, but its still fun

Great place to have a family night with the kids or a date night. Always friendly and accommodating staff. The food is reasonably priced and tasty. They offer both five pin and ten pin bowling along with laser tag, arcades, and a play structure for the kids.

I had my husbands surprise 60th birthday at The Bowling Alley & had an awesome time. They looked after everything. We had pizza, wings & cupcakes - the wings were awesome! Thanks for making it a memorable evening!

Pros: - It is open Cons: - Expensive($22 for 30 minutes) - Average food. - Outdated software. - More of a retro trip than a bowling experience.

Small fun place. Has both bowling and axe throwing.

I would not recommend coming here to anyone. I was really disappointed with the service, and the way we were treated when we arrived at the establishment was shocking and truly terrible.

I have been visiting this establishment for a few weeks, but recently I had a bad experience. There was some misunderstanding between booking a lane and moving times. As Mr. Ducan I only booked one lane for 5 individuals not two. I moved the time of the booking from my original booking twice. Each time I called I was not notified of their COVID policy and the employees did not seem to mind. Also, one the of the employees mentioned they booked our lane one of the times I called to move the booking. Once there, they informed me that I would have to pay for the extra hours we were not there. At the time I accepted the extra costs because I wanted to bowl. The bowling alley was essentially empty and it did not seem fair that I had to pay for extra time when no one was there. The demeaner of the bowling alley employee was rude, pushy, and irritated. Not impressed. In addition to this issue, the overall lack of attention and care in this establishment is a problem. The venue is outdated and in need of serious updates/repairs. Their bowling balls are also in a bad shape. I really like bowling and this was a huge let down. Also - I am in support of Delaneys review.

Lady owner not friendly. No plan of coming back here. Not recommended.

After bowling today and having a terrible experience I looked at the reviews. CLEARLY, nothing has been done about the horrible customer service that people keep mentioning. The man working today was incredibly rude and made us all feel very uncomfortable. Very condescending. Would not recommend. The place is in bad shape too which makes the rudeness from staff that much more unreal.

It is unfortunate that we are living in a time that people who dont want to work can stay home and get paid The downfall that hits this place is that cant get help so on a big night like a Fri there is not enough staff and that is the problem here. 1 staff member to 50 customers is not a winning business plan Great way to spend a night price is ok but needs staff to make it a good time

The bowling alley is a great place. I thoroughly enjoyed playing baseball here, and would definitely do it again

Its a bowling alley well past its prime. The bowling is cheap enough to still have fun without spending a ton. Stay away from the arcade as the majority of the games/machines are either out of order or malfunctioning is some way.

The entire place is getting a make over. Laser tag, new games, new lanes, new seating are coming soon. Cant wait for the new menu of food from the smoker. The samples we had were amazing!!!

very helpful and friendly staff for our kids birthday party. the arcade games were fun except they had a problem with eating a ton of tokens.

Great fun and great staff. Needs some upgrades, but they are working on it!

Very poor attitude and customer service. Scoring systems are very old and outdated, and the service is not upto standards at all. This is unfortunately one of the only places available to bowl nearby, but would definitely not recommended.

Pretty fun time. A little expensive, and many interruptions due to mechanical issues.

Food expensive and from what I ve noticed it s became very outdated, this place used to be the place, now i don t know if I could say that! They need to stop cheating out and need a Reno so people will stay bowling

Family friendly place love to go there and unwind and great food.

AXE THROWING

Fun fun fun!!!

Nice place had great time playing fosball ....

Kindof outdated

Yeah yeah!

Good fun for anytime, axe throwing available

Great time

I would not suggest going here. Unfortunately there is not enough fun things to do in Owen Sound but when it comes to bowling youd think it would be a lot of fun. But its not. As much as I tried to make it fun for my family and I, it didnt make up for the fact that their bowling alleys are always malfunctioning, the staff just didnt care and gave nothing but attitude and I was also told that a 10 pin would be available in 30 minutes, so I said Ok Ill wait the staff member then said Actually we wont have it available in 30 minutes. It blew my mind. Instead of arguing I just continued onto 5 pin. Also the pool tables are all in poor condition. I paid $10 for an hour of pool and I only played 10 minutes due to their being no chalk at all, and even the staff couldnt point me in the direction of any, also half the pool cues were bent and warped and the other half were missing the tips... The side walls of the pool tables were also broken and would raddle when a ball hit the side which changes the outcome of the game drastically. I then happened to glance around and I saw nothing but Out of Order signs on everything, almost all their game machines and vending machines were out of order. I then happened to look closer and everything there is just out of date, the roof is falling apart above the arcade area and the carpet is all ripped up and the walls all have paint scratched off them and it just didnt look like a nice place at all. It was disgusting. Definitely not worth as much as they charge. 10/10 would not recommend.

Gone bowling many times, will go many more. Lots of lanes, lots of drinks, great evening out.

Great place, friendly atmosphere, took great care of our group while we bowled and threw some axes even. Great deal, great fun, great times! Highly recommend!

Kids had a really great experience on the bouncy castle and bowling the pizza was a little burnt in Plain so we ended up throwing out most of it. The food was the downside of this place or I would have given it a higher score. For anyone that is read this and is looking for an answer coming here is still the right choice.

Nice place for a family outing

Had lots of fun. Had some problems with the mechanics of the lanes. Hope they get it fixed so others can have fun too.

A great place to go with the family or group of friends.

Everything was a bit expensive, but for the most part the service was good and so was the place- cheesey but very fun.

Great family place well kept and ran by an honest gem of a human hard working people

Very rude employee. Gets upset when no reservation and berates customers for asking for clarification.

Loved it everyone had a blast. Clean well maintained.. thanks..

Family friendly fun. So happy i can take my kids bowling and play pool and have an BLAST!! Just like when i was a kid. Will return!!

Always friendly staff and a great time!

Where Friends hang out

Place was rocking on a Saturday night

Had an awesome time, staff are so nice.

They need free Wi-Fi

The employees are realy nice, and know me by name, wish they had the money to fix the place up but its hard, they are awsome go there every friday night!

Good old bowling. Alittle out dated but kind of in a vintage kind of way. Great service and good drinks, we enjoyed our time here.

I used the be in a bowling league and it was the most fun ever. Cool atmosphere with new ax throwing facility. Did some new renovations which improved the place a lot. Food and drinks are available as well. Great place for family and friends to hang out. Really close and bowl is always a great time, its so much fun!! This place is always fun and exciting

great awsome place to have fun.great bar as well.

The lanes didnt work right and the pool tables were not maintained. Still had fun...but not $$$ worth of fun

Great had fun lil pricy for vendin machine drinks

Smells a little funky, has some pool tables which is nice other than just bowling, owner is not the greatest. As far as bowling places to go to, this would not be my first choice, but being the only one in owen sound you cant be choosy unless you are willing to go out of town to bowl which may be worth the extra gas for a better experience.

Very friendly staff.. Pool table will breakdown alot

Great places to do birthday parties!

Great deal for a birthday party

The nostalgia is real here. Nice establishment, and great owner/operator.

Only one person working so no one able to serve food or drinks. Might go to a different bowling alley next time for better service. Disappointed.

Looks better then It did when previous owners had it, lanes could still be replaced they are always messing up..

The only bowling alley around Owensound. Its an alright spot but really overpriced for drinks.

had great time