Highland Lanes

Reasonable prices for enjoying a few games with some friends. We didn’t have to wait to get a lane on a sunday afternoon and would be fun to join a league at some point.

Totally hated it. Here’s the story. The Billiards are First Come First Served basis. So sooner you come, you get the table IN AN IDEAL WORLD ! (8 $ per hour) .We were 5 of us. There were 10 Billiards table. 8 of them were full. When i went to reserve, I was told THERE ARE NO TABLES FREE NOW, though there were 2 free. Waited for 30 minutes right infront of the counter (AS INSTRUCTED & BY THE RULES). But both the tables were given to people coming at RANDOM & those whoever tip someone working. So I complained to the manager. NOTHING USEFUL. Moral: Don’t ever go. or expect yourself to be served properly.

I worked in the bowling industry for over 12 years of my life. Needless to say I’ve been in A LOT of bowling centers. Good and bad. This isn’t the best bowling center I’ve been in, but it’s by far the worst. They actually seem to care about their customers here — which seems rare nowadays. The counter staff always says hi when I walk in for league and goodbye when I leave. They keep things clean in between shifts and have always been attentive when I need something.

Hooray for getting up early and driving from Buda to take advantage of, for my first time ever, the awesome Sunday Morning Special at Highland Lanes, and getting dropped off by the wife only to find that Highland Lanes has decided to cancel the special, today only.
CAVEAT EMPTOR TO THOSE LOOKING EXPECTING HIGHLAND LANES TO HONOR ITS DEALS.
Of course, a quick scan of the alley shows approximately 20 open lanes, so the 16 of 40 lanes reserved for a special event, which was the basis for the cancellation of the special, wouldn’t have prevented Highland Lanes from honoring the special, if only on a limited basis. I have decided I won’t pay $ 25/​hr early on a SUNDAY MORNING to bowl, since I was only looking for some leisurely practice time, and I won’t support a BAIT AND SWITCH on principle. And, for Pete’s sake, $ 25/​hr early Sunday morning — come on!
So, I’ve got time to sit and watch to see if these lanes actually become occupied at some point. But after about an hour, with 6 of 24 non-​reserved lanes occupied, signs point to NO.
Furthermore, if you’re not going to honor deals, based on a choice, rather than unavailability, you ought to provide notice. Didn’t think it’d be necessary to do so beforehand, but I’ve now checked the website and Facebook page, and was not able to find any information that would have saved me a long trip out here for nothing. If I ever decide, bravely, to attempt this again, you better believe I will be calling up here to find out if they’ll be honoring their deal on that particular Sunday.
Needless to say, this experience has pretty much soured me on Highland Lanes, and it’s been a pretty disappointing way to spend a Sunday morning, to say the least. So, I’ll wait for the wife to finish errands and pick me up, while I stare at empty lanes, so I can then drive 30+ miles back home and get on with the rest of my day.

Wanna bowl? Come here.
Wanna bowl and get some shitty nachos and fries and tots. Come here.
Wanna bowl and there be cool black lights and some dance music. Come here.
Live up north and are bored and never tried bowling. Come here.
Nothing spectacular, just an average bowling place with good prices and clean bathrooms.
3.5 Stars!

Walking into Highland lanes brought back a flood of childhood memories. Highland Lanes does a good job of maintaining the nostalgic 50’s bowling atmosphere without the musty dingy smell that haunts other bowling establishments. Just walk into their bathrooms and you will see what I mean. Their bathrooms rival Buc-ee’s in cleanliness. I loved that they had socks for purchase in the vending machine. They also have affordable quality food available at Lebowski’s grill inside, which also has a full bar. The music playing was from all eras. We bowled several games and never had any equipment problems, or breakdowns. The service was friendly. Just pick up your shoes and get a lane when you enter, and then pay when you are ready done. I will definitely be coming back here for some future bowling fun.

Nicest bowling lanes I’ve been to in a long time
Service is normal
Tip: if you want a bowling ball for the ladies or the kids you have to ask the front desk for a 6 or 7 lb ball
Smallest size is 8 lbs all around so don’t even look for them out there.
They said it’s because they don’t want them to break as they are fragile
I have respect.
The lanes are great. Excellently waxed and I here they have professionals that bowl there
Have fun

Had a great time, 2.5 hours and shoes for $ 7 a person is a great deal. Sundays 9:30 — noon.

To be quite honest, I didn’t pay here, so I can’t judge the prices. I do remember in a past life (many years ago, much more broke), I walked out after checking out the prices. However, I grew up in the bowling capital of the USA where 2.50 $ was expensive for a game. Now it’s like 50 $ per hour + 10 $ for shoes or whatever. In my day, sonny, we paid 1 $ for a game and bowled uphill both ways on crooked lanes and we liked it.
…I digress.
The line was long on Saturday night, but it went smoothly. My friend and I admired the high heeled sparkly bowling shoe, but went for the traditional fare. We were able to get a lane, however, balls were slim pickins at 10pm on a Saturday, but we made do.
It’s your standard bowling alley. You have electronic scoring, your typical set up, the only thing I remember noting was that they had chairs that swung out that were attached to the tables. They were fine, just different.
I believe they had a full bar there, but we just had a few dos equis, which I also didn’t pay for, but I remember them being decently reasonable for a bar. They also had a grill (that’s one thing I don’t remember bowling alleys having when I was a kid but I won’t complain!!) and had pretty damn awesome fried pickles and queso fries. Which… if you reflect on that, is kind of gross after sticking your fingers in a bunch of balls (that’s what she said?), but a few beers in, sanitation goes out the window. Oh well, I’m still alive.
They turn the lights to «glow bowling» at 11, and I think I actually got better after that.
I had fun, I’ll be back, though having to pay myself might make me crankier about the whole thing.

Went and checked this place out on a Friday night and I was very impressed with the overall experience. There was no wait, the drinks were great, the music was great as was the staff. We had a gentleman by the name of Cedric who had awesome customer service/​people skills. Despite us being a large group Cedric took care of us from start to finish without missing a beat. I will be back to visit again for sure!

A great place to bowl in Austin. This is one of the only bowling alleys left in the Austin area.
They have good prices and a grill with a decent selection of food.
For birthdays they put the person’s name on a bowling pin that you can keep, even if you are not a kid. They have great private party rooms as well.

Bout the only bowling alley left in Austin, good specials, the grill has good selections of what looks like fresh foods, full bar, and after 8pm on Sunday its $ 10 a person till midnight.

Ah this place, for me it is nostalgic. So I don’t mind the warn look of the carpeted murals or the million dings in the bowling balls. It certainly isn’t new and to be fair could be fixed up here or there but I’ve never not had a blast here. Set up with 6 beers and come late and relax with friends. I know there are better places or perhaps even cheaper places to bowl but I do like this place a lot. The staff is friendly and the bathrooms are clean so this place certainly isn’t bad. I would say it’s great for a comfortable, cheap place to bowl with your friends or kids. There are times where it is cheaper than normal too so you can always check before coming in but they are never crazy packed so you can always grab a lane.
Overall, it’s average but it’s been around a while and I frequent it. Although, I would bring my own shoes and ball if I owned them.

Wow. This place is kinda pricey for bowling. I honestly think its the most expensive bowling alley (with lane & shoe rental) I’ve been to in a while. I went with some friends on a weekend afternoon and we had a good time.
The place was packed with families, as I suspected. Parking was ample, bathrooms were clean. I hear the food is decent (for a bowling alley) but all we had were popcorn & beers. Agree with some of the other reviews, some of the staff reminded me of grumpy cat but overall we got our bowling fix. Don’t think I’ll be back any time soon but will keep it in mind for the future.

Not quite as centrally located, cheap, or well-​staffed as Dart Bowl (owned by the same company), Highland Lanes is still serviceable. We went there as a party of four recently after Dart Bowl turned us away on account of being booked up for a private party (but gave us some free game vouchers for our trouble – good on them).
Anyway, Highland Lanes is a traditional bowling alley, meaning cavernously big with many lanes and carpet and décor suggestive of a rare combination of blindness and insanity. The crowd here on a Sunday ranges from teens to middle-​agers. As with everywhere, teens are pretty spotty on their lane etiquette, so a sign explaining the rules of courteous bowling might be in order.
The Sunday night all-​you-​can-​bowl (8pm-​midnight) with shoes included for $ 10 a person is really good, especially if you maximize the value by staying a few hours. Neither the food nor the bar selection are as cheap or good as DB (which, in fairness, is better than it has any right to be), and the 90s R&B station that they had playing while we were there was unspeakably obnoxious. But the price is right, the lanes all work (and the touch screens for entering your names are less worn out than at DB), and past that, well, bowling is pretty much bowling: either you like it or or you don’t. I do, and I’ll likely be back.

Highland lanes has been here as long as I can remember and overall it is your typical bowling alley. Nothing here is going to wow you, but it’s no dump either. It has your typical cheesy bowling themed carpet and general old feel, but there are some nice Austin murals painted on the walls along with some nice modern flat screen scoring monitors. The monitors allow you to see a range of stats as well as change the animation themes which is nice. The lanes themselves are in good shape and properly cared for. Balls don’t come back super oily (that’s what she said) and the lanes aren’t dry either.
My favorite thing about Highland lanes is the Sunday early bird special for $ 7 that includes shoe rental and all you can bowl for 2 and a half hours. If you play through you can easily get 15+ games in and really get your money’s worth. They’ve got a café which smells like a place that fries all their food typically does, and they have free water as well as drinks available to order too.
Nice place to go bowling.

I came here for the first time to the morning bowling on Sundays. They have a special for $ 7 you can bowl as many games as you can in 2.5 hours. Awesome deal! There was a line when are arrived that wasn’t too long but it took us about ten minutes to get through and pay. Staff were friendly. Bowling shoes were incredibly comfortable! I had a lot of fun here. We got about eight games in (two people) in the time frame. They do offer food there but I didn’t check that out. There are a ton of lanes and it seemed like everyone there got a lane at the opening. Lanes started opening up again probably 1.5 hours or so into the morning. Probably best to get there at opening to gaurentee yourself a lane without a wait.

$ 24/​h for one lane, it was 4 of us.
The atmosphere was nice, the lights would go off every once in a while & smoke would come. Didn’t try any of the food. It was oddly quite for a Friday night! I wonder why? Maybe if it wasn’t so expensive.
But either way we had fun :)
The cashier wasn’t having any of it either, she was grumpy! It really turned us off how she was TRYING to explain the rates. If she was more pleasant, I’m sure the place could upsell and make more business.

I love bowling — Grew up duckpins, graduated to tenpennies, would do this erryday if I could. Everytime I smell the wonderful mélange of alleysmell: smoke, lane oil, shoe spray, grease… it takes me back… and I remember my first slice of Boston Crème Pie/​Cake… First time in an alley I had it — fell in love with it and bowling (and Kim… she of the short bowling skirt, wearing a jacket with the name of bowling alley on the back… but I digress…)
Dang you Highland Lanes for making me misty!
The Good:
— Friends were happy with bar (we got there too full for food).
— They announce last call for the bar, the grill and the lanes
— The staff was REALLY friendly
The Meh:
— Paying hourly at night (Remember when hourly rates was during off-​peak times? Pepperidge Farms remembers!)
The Bad:
— Shutting off the lanes 2 mins (or one ball left in the 10^th frame) early…
I really should fill out the comment card: Please add Boston Crème Pie/​Cake… but even without the cake… I will have to add this place to my bowling addiction rotation.

Physical education was always the most ridiculous thing about school to me. I mean, gym sucked. Family and friends always told me that in retrospect, it wasn’t that I was completely un-​athletic (as the stereotype of me might be), but that I was unmotivated. I’d also like to add I found 99% of my gym coaches to be complete oafs or militant lesbians, so they weren’t really in my target demographic of authority figures I wanted to get along with. Especially the dude ones. I loathed them because they were one chromosome away from killing a woolly mammoth for lunch, and they loathed me because I was a spoiled, smart ass kid whose mind could work faster on my worst day than theirs on their best day. It was a vicious cycle, but apparently they still had the power to make me do laps or play dodge ball. Jerks.
As a sophomore, I did some dodging of my own, and selected «Outdoor Ed» as my PE credit. It was a blowoff class of archery, badminton, and hiking. As I recall, I refused to even pick up a bow and arrow at the archery range, and Coach gave me – gasp!– a «B» for my insubordination. We also went hiking in the hills, and our genius coach got us lost… which led to a horrible/​hilarious situation where a student in a wheelchair had to be carried across a small stream. He even tried to capture our imagination with Frisbee golf, but the only thing we got out of that disaster was that one of the students stole a part out of the school bus, stranding us in Old Settler’s Park for two hours. Good times.
But the ONE activity I could get behind… the ONE bright spot in that bumbling fool’s entire syllabus… was bowling. Because bowling… was awesome.
What does this have to do with Highland Lanes? It has to do with the fact that when my coworkers suggested we go bowling at Highland Lanes at least once a month, I could say «That would be so much fun!», and actually mean it because I have history there.
We met on Sunday evening at 8:00 PM. We did so, because Sundays starting at 8:00, it’s $ 10-​per-​person for unlimited bowling, including shoe rental. I have loved Highland Lanes for years, and even though I prefer more fancy-​schmancy ways to occupy my time these days, there is nothing wrong with letting my hair down and really getting in there with the people, and having a friendly game of bowling. A friendly game… in which I must always, always win.
I met my coworkers and the fun began. Contrary to popular belief, I actually love the sights, sounds, and scents of a bowling alley. I let them wash over me as I threw my hot pink bowling ball down the lanes and tried to do something different each time I turned around after a winning strike or a miserable gutter ball. Like a different face or a different jig, so I wouldn’t be so predictable. That’s harder than you think.
Eventually, Liz and I grabbed food from «The Lebowski Grill». Which was appropriate, since I was instinctively quoting the movie the entire time. When one of the guys we were with kept going over the line, it took everything not to channel my batshit-​crazy John Goodman and scream: «Over the line! Mark it zero!»
A tip jar was set up for «The Dude» working behind the grill, announcing: «The Dude abides». The Dude was also dude enough to offer to put grilled onions on my bacon burger, no charge. The Dude abides, indeed. It was a fantastic bowling alley burger. I also ordered tater tots. That was probably the strangest part of the evening. Oh well. Go big or go home.
Midway through, we floated the idea of starting an amateur league. So far, all we have on that right now is that we want Of Monsters and Men’s «Little Talks» to be our theme song. Because I think I danced to it that night for just a minute longer than I should have, and distracted our bowling neighbors.
We played two games, and I utilized my Outdoor Ed skills to the max. I knew where to stand. I knew where to throw. I even remembered a twist here and there. I won both games. Since I have to see these people on a daily basis, I congratulated everyone on a good game, and truly remained humble. Something about pointing at them and yelling «SUCK ON IT!!!» might not translate well when we’re back at work.
Clean, friendly, all-​American fun is to be had at Highland Lanes. I noticed some disco balls, too, which I believe means they occasionally host disco bowling… or someone was thoughtful enough to put them out for me, to herald my arrival. Either way, it’s cool.
Bowling is truly one of life’s great equalizers. No matter who you are or where you’re from, everyone can enjoy the lanes. Highland Lanes, specifically.
Also, it’s nice to know if we’ve had a crappy day at work, I now have other people who will stand up and join me when I quote Walter from «The Big Lebowski» and declare: «F*ck it; let’s go bowling.»
5 Stars.