Burr Oak Bowl Inc

Had a cosmic bowl party on Saturday night for my 10 year old cousin and it was amazing. They had a blast. Including the adults. Jay and Carmella were amazing and a huge help. We will definitely do another party here.

If there were a rating for ½ a star or no stars I would have given it that. This place sucks. It’s not so much that it is old school, old school, when done properly has a nice homespun family feel. This place is managed poorly. The facility is dark, dank and nasty. The lanes are not reliable and a smell of old standing water greets you at the ball return. The lights are dim at all times. The bathrooms are nasty and smell of Urine mixed with air freshener. If the manager, Joe spent more time maintaining his facility and treating his customers like he actually wanted to be bothered with them, the place would do a lot better. The bar service SUCKS and is worse than SUCKY when Joe puts on his pretend bartender hat. The ceiling shows stains of old water damage. The place smells like old moldy water so get your sudafed and benadryl ready before you come here. Last but not least, when you treat your customers derisively, you are telling them (JOE) to take their hard earned money elsewhere. I hear you loud and clear.

I like Burr Oak and come here fairly often. The staff is helpful and the facility is clean and well-​maintained.
I have heard complaints about fights breaking out, etc, but if you go during the day, that should not be a problem. OK, maybe a bunch of geriatric bowlers disputing handicaps will get into it someday, but not that I’ve seen.
Like the game of bowling itself, this place is very hit or miss. Sometimes you get a great deal ($ 2/​game until 5in the off-​season) with friendly staff, and other times it’s bedlam. We tried today at 10 am, for $ 1/​game Thursdays, and there was a huge, unhappy crowd waiting for lanes (at least an hour, the manager said). I’m glad business is good for them, but it seemed like there could have been a better system for letting people wait comfortable.
The arena is very old-​school, which is fine, and I’ve attended parties here where they do a very good job catering.
I may be back, on off-​times that are less crowded, but it’s good to have another arena in mind as a back-​up.

Sat., Nov. 8, 2008 10pm-​1am
This place was horrible. The facility was not terrible but the equipment and balls could be updated. The horrible part was the service. First, food server gave off the impression I was bothering her. Then she overfilled my drink, put a lid on it, and failed to wipe it off. It took 10 napkins to wipe up the mess after I put in a straw. She didn’t bother to offer her help or apologize for her mistake. The man at the counter (tall guy with glasses) was extremely rude. I witnessed from a distance an incident involving him and some male teens. Wrongly, I assumed that the teens were being rowdy. However, when I approached the counter and began asking him questions about shoe rentals, he was completely mean and lewd. He was also interacting the same way with a second group of teens standing at the counter beside me. I’m not sure what his issue was but I am almost 30 and did not appreciate his unprovoked, condescending tone or mannerisms.
I am from a family that loves to bowl. We host parties of 200+ several times a year at different facilities. Too bad for Burr Oaks that their facility will not be on our list! I will NEVER bowl here and again! I gave my FREE bowling coupon to one of the teens.