Banbury Bowl Reviews Summary

Facility and Environment

Pros:

• "A welcome revamp and return to a much loved facility."
• "Had a lovely time - the alleys have been recently refurbished and have a good bowling surface, and the deals are great."
• "It has a big arcade and a karaoke room."
• "Great to have bowling and an arcade in Banbury and close to the town centre, public transport and has a car park on the doorstep."
• "The bowling is right in the city centre, a couple of minutes away from Castle Quay."
• "Modern bowling alley with well stocked bar and small arcade."
• "Massive improvement on its previous and tired incarnation. Refurbished top to bottom from decor to carpets."

Cons:

• "Refurb, what Refurb??"
• "The seating areas are looking tatty and worn. It feels like the place needs a good clean."
• "The place itself is run down; loads of the games are out of order, the toilets are pretty gross."
• "It's not bad really but it's far from good. Quite expensive and the lanes are not in great condition."
• "The party room was dirty and the toilets absolutely disgusting."
• "Filthy place, cringy pop music way too loud to the point where I can't hold a conversation with a person next to me."
• "Honestly, after visiting the men's toilets I personally think is a bit more work to be done to bring them to a descent cleaning standard and the smell...was not great."

Staff and Service

Pros:

• "Staff lovely, nice environment."
• "Staff were attentive and quick to help."
• "Staff kindly refunded us."
• "The Ladies working at the time of our visit were super efficient, very polite and very welcoming."
• "The staff were very helpful."
• "The staff worked hard to keep the venue clean and inviting whilst all the while remaining friendly and helpful."
• "The staff hosting it were helpful and sorted anything that propped up for us (nothing was too much trouble)!"

Cons:

• "Hello, I have a complaint. Today my daughter had a birthday party at three o'clock, but the service was unbelievably bad, nothing was ready when we went."
• "Staff very rude."
• "Terrible organisation. Only one member of staff seemed competent."
• "Service was really bad, went in and first had only 1 person behind the counter and had to wait 15 minutes to be served."
• "Staff at reception and at the bar were quite snobby."
• "Girl on reception needs to remember why she was there...if she smiled her day may have been better..."
• "Bowling balls were very sticky, and the staff seemed bored out of their minds."

Food and Drinks

Pros:

• "Reasonable prices for games and food, food came quickly and was delicious."
• "On the positive note food was delicious and portions were generous."
• "Very pleased with the included unlimited soft drinks and generous portions of food."
• "The food was good and they had more than enough."
• "Food came quickly and was delicious."
• "We waited an hour for food which the chef did come and apologise but her food was absolutely delicious and she was so polite and kind."
• "The staff were lovely and even changed what the birthday girl was having as she didn’t like the milkshake."

Cons:

• "Food wasn’t being served until half an hour into our visit for an unknown reason."
• "Chips wasn't cooked properly."
• "Cold food."
• "Food not on."
• "Ordered some food for the children took over 30 minutes for some chips and chicken, once it was ready it was sat on the bar for nearly 10 mins was cold by the time we got it..."
• "£3.60 for a tap coke is a joke!"
• "Dirty, non of the machines work."

Value and Pricing

Pros:

• "Was pleasantly pleased that it was fairly cheap to bowl too."
• "Some good offers, especially Sunday unlimited bowling, but otherwise can be expensive."
• "The price for a one hour family session remains very reasonable."
• "Booked a bowling party package for my 13 year old son, very good value for money and he and his friends had a great time."
• "It's great that they offer lanes by the hour and unlimited bowling - when you are practicing you don't want just a few frames, you want a period of time to bowl and this alley offers this for really good prices."
• "Cheap bowling (£8.50 a game per person, compared to £25 for two to play a 40 minute game at The Light)..."
• "Only positive is that it is cheaper than other bowling alleys."

Cons:

• "Great place but some stuff from MFA we're missing that I wanted to see."
• "Lanes that simply don't work (when the mechanism lowers after first bowl it actually knocked over additional pins that were not counted but of course you couldn't then knock them down)."
• "Gaming machines need looking into as many have issues or are unserviceable."
• "Also missing were some arcade games I would've liked to see like Mario Kart Arcade GP Deluxe or PAC-MAN Slam Hockey."
• "The pool tables were all ripped so unable to play."
• "Toilets messy and machines either got coins stuck or were out of order."
• "Some stuff I wanted to see or got removed disappointed me."

Accessibility and Maintenance

Pros:

• "Had a brilliant night at Banbury Bowl as part of a large group with ages ranging from 10 - 50."
• "The bowling is family friendly."
• "The venue was fine and my grandchildren enjoyed going on some of the different games."
• "We enjoyed our game and the arcade area."
• "The Arcade Games they do have makes up for it."
• "Place is clean and well run."
• "The venue was fine and children enjoyed the time there. The part that wasn't great was the organisation of the children party itself."

Cons:

• "Many other machines already had signs in saying, words to effect of do not use and engineer is on his way."
• "Only one star as the lift has been out of order since last November (2022)..."
• "Service was really bad, went in and first had only 1 person behind the counter and had to wait 15 minutes to be served."
• "Teenagers hanging around inside and outside the front door."
• "Lanes could do with being maintained (oiled) more often."
• "Drinks arrived quickly, bowling was absolutely fine but the lift seems broken every time we come which is really off putting having to carry a toddler and pushchair up the whole of the stairs."
• "When we got to our lane, it was disgusting the whole table was covered in someone else's empty drinks and pizza plates."