Hollywood Bowl

Update… I am so glad it’s gone. It went way downhill between the time of my last review until now. Lane conditions varied from average to «did they even oil these today?» Some computers did not work, so anything we needed to fix, we had to visit the counter… if someone was even there. If you had a frozen rack, a pin in the channel, or a lost ball… you could expect to wait 7 – 10 minutes for a fix. This is during league, mind you.
The only shining star was a waitress who always came down to make sure we had water at our table (and beer for a few others). If only I could remember her name… I hope she picked up a good job someplace.

Great chicken and stiff drinks from an adorable bartender… too bad most of the toilets are broken

I’m pretty bummed this place is closing down soon. I was only introduced to these lanes fairly recently through a causal co-​ed league but it quickly became my main spot to bowl (partly due to proximity).
The lanes themselves are pretty hit or miss with oiling. Some of the ball returns are slow. A couple lanes don’t sense certain pins. But overall they do good for the price. They have good deals for unlimited bowling at night during the beginning of the week. The staff are pretty much all nice and the proshop repaired my friends’ balls for free when the ball return dinged them up pretty good.
All in all, I’ll be sad see Hollywood Bowl go but will be enjoying the last few days until they are gone.

Can’t believe they’re closing 5÷18÷14. They’ve been here forever. Cheap strong drinks and good nachos (fake cheese!!). Could use a little makeover but at this point it doesn’t matter. Wish I woulda went here sooner.

We were visiting from NYC and had some time to kill… Luckily groupon was running a great deal and we decided to check this place out despite some of the bad reviews. The parking lot was defiantly creepy especially considering we were from out of town and it was dark out, out car was not damaged and we had a great time bowling. Staff was very pleasant and helpful, facilities were well maintained and it is defiantly evident they are undergoing renovations. All in all great time for the buck

None of the video games work, the food is bad and their selection of balls sucks. But it’s still a fun place to hang out on a rainy Sunday. And the beer selection is pretty good for being a dive.
This is an old school spot so expect nothing and you’ll love it.

Where to begin with my beloved Hollywood?
Luckily the smells and horrors of underground parking stay underground. :) And as of yet, my car hasn’t ever been hit or broken in to. Bonus.
48 lanes — plenty of room for most people. Beware of league time — as that reduces the available lanes.
The lanes are sadly (truly and not a pun) hit or miss. I’ve been here when the lanes are so dry I gave up and threw a 10lb ball as hard and straight as I could just to hit anything. And sometimes you get a real surprise and find yourself bowling after a tourney on some crazy oil that leaves you feeling like a new bowler. Occasionally (ok, about once a game) your ball is going to be eaten by the return. Usually the staff are quick to fix this!
Can’t speak for shoe rentals — have my own.
Love most people at the counter (who get to know regulars) — same with the bar staff. Pretty sure the food comes with a side of botulism — two times I’ve eaten here (hot pretzel once, tots another time) and become violently ill with food poisoning. How does one hand you a doomed pretzel? The world may never know. I have been safe a few other times — and everyone I know says I’m nuts. And truly — I’m the only one I know to have had this happen. *sigh*
Rohn in the Pro Shop is the zen master of all things bowling — whether drilling your ball or standing watch over the lanes like Yoda. Guy is amazing.
Karaōke on weekends. Bar is always dark and casual.
Tons of kiddos on the weekend having parties. Lots of noise, spilled soda, and errant children laying on the floor. But that’s to be expected.
I have no serious gripes about Hollywood. I bowl here on two leagues and spend quite a bit of time here — so clearly I like the place. (Three stars seems low, but I cannot justify four. And I think three is decent!)
They take care of regulars and keep the place pretty clean for an alley; I guess my point is — it’s bowling. I wish the lanes were kept more consistent — but can’t imagine the average hipster on a Friday night gives a crap.
Ignore the sketch parking lot and don’t expect Grand Central and the crowds that go there.

I like my lanes waxed and my alleys divey. Hollywood hits the spot. The bowling is spot on — updated, modern, über spacious. The ambiance is a little off. Too spacious. A little odd. But hey, all bowling alleys are and who the heck goes for ambiance. It’s a tad pricey for my bowling blood, but not the robbery of Grand Central’s prices.
The gem is the back bar area. It’s dark and smoky and the friendly bartenders mix great drinks. While we chugged cheap beer and sipped authentic-​ish mai tais, we enjoyed the musical stylings of some of the better karaōke in town.
Oh, the underground parking is sketch. That is all.

I purchased a groupon for Hollywood Bowl and I went last weekend to redeem it. I had never been there before and thought it sounded like a great deal. I was supposed to have 60 arcade credits with an hour of bowling, 6 shoe rentals, 2 popcorns and a pitcher of soda.
The place was filthy, the 1 attendant at the front was incredibly slow and seemed high. We stood in line for 20 minutes before being helped. He had no idea what I was talking about when I said I had the living social/​groupon deal. I showed it to him and then he informed me they don’t have the arcade anymore but said he would give me an extra hour of bowling. But they ended up closing an hour and a half later at 10pm so I didn’t even get that.
Then I went to the snack bar and was helped by a 12 year old (the son of the guy at the front) They were out of popcorn and he didn’t know how to work the machine. He said he would go ask his dad and get it started but he never did. The snack bar itself was disgusting. I didn’t even want to eat anything from there after seeing it. Empty spaces for pizza with old crumbs, sticky spilled soda on the counter.
Then, when we went to get our assigned lane the table was covered in old food and dishes. I had to go stand in line again for another 10 minutes to ask the attendant to switch my lane to one with a clean table. He looked at me like I was crazy.
I would not recommend this place to anyone, especially if they are bringing kids for a family fun night. Don’t waste your time.

It had been years since I last stepped foot into this place. The alley seems a little old, but the pricing of games is cheaper than others in the area. The parking downstairs is a little creepy because there is little light and needs to be more lit, just be careful when you are down there.
The gaming area (arcade) is a little small and offers little selections of games to play. The card dispenser that allowed you to play games was not operating and we had to get a card from the front desk. The attendants at the desk provided exceptional service, but nothing to «wow» us and make us come back.
The bartenders in the back room were very kind and at times funny. The area seemed a little «too open,» I do not know if it is the lack of furniture, it just seemed like it was a new addition to the building. There are about 3 lottery machines.
On Fridays and Saturdays there is karaōke in this bar.

I met up with several friends here on a friday night for cosmic bowling. We got there a little early to secure a few lanes, expecting it to be packed but it wasn’t, it was easy to reserve lanes next to eachother.
I expected more of a party atmosphere for cosmic bowling, but at Hollywood the whole experience was a little too mellow for me, and the music was awful — the cheesiest auto-​tuned garbage ever. Everything else was fine. The bowling itself is good and functional. And I appreciate that it’s OK to drink at your lane.
However, the aim of this review is a WARNING: BE CAREFUL at Hollywood Bowl — keep an eye on your stuff. My friend’s phone was stolen from her purse which was hanging on the coat rack just behind our lanes and table area. And the lounge was not an inviting scene whatsoever, something just didn’t feel right there. I doubt I will return.
In conclusion: bowling experience was fine, but just way too sketchy a place !

Sunday morning bowling and beer is where it’s at!
Games on Sunday mornings are only $ 1, so you can’t beat it. The husband and I played 2 games each and shared a pitcher of PBR for a total of about $ 20. I could really see this being a lot of fun with a big group of friends.
They also have cosmic bowling, which I haven’t done since high school, so obviously it’s something my life has been missing for a long time. I think alcohol, music, crazy lights, and bowling shoes is a winning combination for all!
I could really see us making Hollywood Bowl a regular weekend stop!

Oh Hollywood Bowl, the years have not been kind to you.
It’s a bowling alley, and old one and noth super exciting but they have 40 lanes or so, The most basic of snack bar selection, cosmic bowling offtered late evenings, bar with karaōke on Friday and Saturday nights. The place is clean but run down, needs a make over. Tip make reservations on Friday or Saturday night, otherwise you mght have to wait up to an hour for a lane. The parking garage is torn up, beware of the giant potholes! Seriously te whole place is in such need of a renovation but unless bowling makes a major come back, that’s probably not going to happen. It’s fun but know this is not one of your new bowling alleys with other games, decent bar food and such.

2 stars with an extra star for having cosmic as well as nice scoreboard graphics.
The rest of this place is run down and is in need of a drastic remodel. The ball selection is horrible. I guess maybe it might be time to get a custom fit ball. YAH RIGHT!
The overall feel just seemed filthy. Walking down to the parking lot you can see a leak from overhead which possibly comes from the bathroom pipes. who knows, either way, $ 40 for 3 games which included supposive free rental for my friend on her birthday. Those kind of charges with people packing every lane should raise up sufficient money to give this place a facelift.
I would go back due to the location. This place has been there forever, it would just be nice to see it look nicer.

Dude… bowling is so fun, am I right? Well — usually. I actually suck at bowling but I had fun here. The music was crazy good, the equipment was great and the lanes, balls, seats and machines were all pretty clean. Nothing like those nasty bowling alleys I visited as a kid. Hollywood is perfect for a party or large group event. I came as part of a group of about 100 people and we had an absolute blast. They managed to wrangle our group and keep us entertained for hours — Kudos to that!

I dislike bowling, but stopped by for an event. This place has so much potential! They need a brand update, or backdate. Slightly divey, vintage 60’s outside with a disused lava rock waterfall that would be great to restore. Purple accents and a backdrop that was obviously designed for the black light nights. Clean. The place is vast with a separate bar, plenty of video games. Pretty awful pizza, thick crust swimming in a sea of cheese, some micros on tap. About an acre of underground parking. I don’t know what the crowd is like when it’s busy but seems like good old-​timey neighborhood fun!

No starstruck at Hollywood Bowl love for me. Try ghetto. as in GET TOE (for the emphasis aspect).
I had called a few days back to see if I needed to reserve a lane. I got a no — point blank. I had my suspicions, being a Saturday night and all. Sure enough, we get there and the drama clerk nazi point blank responded with, «I don’t know who you talked to but yes we take reservations. Now get in that line,» as she pointed to 2 folks across from her. «Um. do you want our names?» «No! That would take way too long», she irritatedly replied. So we stood there like ducks in a row, and talked to the folks next to us who looked just as confused as we were. Also, this so-​called line has no rules. We basically had to tell people that the line was on the right, not the left as well.
Anyway, enough with the logistics, now that we were all feeling in a good mood and all after that. We navigated around a sea of people down to our lane, and find that there are no house balls anywhere. Once we managed to locate something that resembled a ball, we had to clear our table of the food scraps that looked like they had been there since the Mesozoic era. OK all set to finally relax and play a few games.
The space you get is so small that there are other folks basically blocking your lane so you have to ask them to move out of the way. The chairs are not moveable in the sense that you can pick them up, but they are, in the sense that you can move them back and forth, like some old carnival ride.
The lane, you ask? Don’t even bother. We think we figured out that there was a not-​so-​sweet spot out there where the balls always liked to end up heading — in to the gutter.
Finally, we did not EVEN bother to get drinks as we figured that would take an act of Congress. I kept seeing this same person, (I assumed worked there), walking through with 2 empty pitchers. I never once saw him with a full one at any given time. I think that’s just what he did all night.
With all the bowling joints in town, I won’t miss you.

It’s a bowling alley. They’re all the same, aren’t they?
The staff was very friendly and helpful. Our lane jammed up a couple times and they were always right there to get the ball rolling again. No pun intended.
The sweetest part of the deal is that we were on a Groupon and they offered a card with 2 free games on the next time around. Bonus!
Worst part? They have a horrible selection of balls. The holes are drilled to fit, oh I don’t know, a 10 year old maybe. So, lousy ball selection is my only complaint.

I am not much of a bowler I will be honest about that. This place was nice. I really liked the bar actually. It has a lot of TVs and you can be sure to get a good Blazers game on. We watched a game here first and then played a few games of bowling.
This place is pretty nice. It looks well kept. We had a little bit of trouble with the guy figuring out what players were in what lane but everyone we were with was pretty patient and didn’t seem to mind much.
We were there for a party and brought a cake. They hooked us up with some napkins and forks. That was pretty nice. The music they had playing was rockin! Bowling was fun. They had some really cool backgrounds you could choose from. We went with the underwater theme.
Good times at Hollywood Bowl. I would recommend this place to a fellow bowler.

This is my impression of everyone I met at this bowling alley:
«didjooo woah that yeah man haha sorry imm drink woo!»
Visiting Portland I got in contact with a buddy that I’d lost touch with to see if he wanted to get together. He mentioned he’d be bowling in the leagues here so I should stop by and say hello. I did. I figured I’d have a chance to try out a Portland bowling alley since most of the alleys in Seattle are either closed or terrible.
It turned out that when the leagues are playing they wouldn’t let anyone else bowl. That was kind of annoying since at this point I’d already trekked my way down there in the blistering average terrain, and I was ready to get my roll on.
Still, after they turned me down they pointed to a sign they had that mentioned something great — apparently from 9:30pm until closing on Monday — Thursday, it’s $ 6.50 for unlimited bowling. That’s unlimited, with a «UN.» They closed at 1am, so for 3 and a half hours I could bowl essentially for free. So I stayed.
Even though it’s an innuendo oxymoron, the balls at this place sucked, but I was still able to find one that fit my fingers. From there, I was able to show the Portlandians how an OB (Original Bowler) does it with the between the legs spin that the ladies love. I got a few glares, but you know how it is. They see me bowlin’, they hatin’.
The chairs are way too close together and almost everyone there was drunk, but it’s a bowling alley so you’ll get over it. Besides that and ball selection, this was a cool place.