bulldog lanes

I try not to give bad reviews on businesses but this must be spoken. Bulldog Lanes received a big F for service and hospitality tonight. I took my middle son for a father-son night on the town for some quality bonding. Bulldog Lanes ruined the experience. First their was the 8 dollar cover charge. Really bars and clubs have cover charges. Skating rinks and theme parks have admission. Cover charge? Immediately I questions what I might find around the corner. Was I entering a family friendly environment or am I going to find strippers and a cocktail waitress wafting smoke in my face. Luckily that my fears where not realized. Well you best bring cash because they don't have a credit card reader at the door. So I must walk around to the main counter, where they have to run my card for cash so that I can inconveniently return to the door to pay the bouncer. To soften the blow and make it seem a bit more than some cheap attempt at making more money, I get a $2.00 off coupon for either a game of bowling or food from the restaurant; and a $1.00 worth of game tokens. So $4.00 a person to get in, $1.00 back in tokens for games I don't want to play, and $2.00 off my choice of food or bowling. Ok, a little put off I am at this point but its father-son night and I'll be cool. Well, originally we were going to play two games which minus the $2.00 came to $5 a person including shoe rental, totaling $10 per game. $20 in all right. Well I blew $8 getting in the door, so naturally we decided for just one game. Bulldog Lanes instantly lost $2.00 by charging a cover. Well, despite the parking lot being empty and plenty of lanes open, they did not have my size shoe, or the next size up. I guess it was Size 12 and 13 night. Some of them ladies present must have some Yeti Feet. Well it was no go folks, but hey its father-son night, I am going to make it work. I get a refund on my portion of the Game and Shoe Rental, $5 in all, the $2 coupon they kept. They must of really needed it seeing how they originally lost it when I went from 2 to 1 game. Not much bonding when your watching your son play and he wants you to join. He plays his 10 frames, or what should have been a 10 frame game. You see the lane malfunctioned and all computer logic skipped town. I didn't bother with talking to the staff, not out of disgust but because I felt sorry for them. I didn't give them a tip due to the lack of return own investment, and they themselves seemed to be ashamed that their management has lost any compassion for his/her customers. Well moving on, my son and I have 8 tokens, a consolation prize for paying the cover charge at the door. The first game he puts a token in, eats his token, game over. Well my son is trying to enjoy himself and I am still too disgusted to even attempt to be amused, so I give him my tokens. He plays a few games, gets a small stack of tickets. Go to cash them in and the ticket counter is broken. Big surprise at this point, right? WRONG. Well, all in all, my son has 30 tickets. Not too bad a hall if we were at the skating rink, there you can get some candy and the sugar would pick your spirits up. No luck at Bulldog Lanes. The prize case was about as empty as a Walmart shelve after Black Friday. No candy, nothing even remotely along the lines of a reward for a time well spent. Down trodden, my son picks two sad plastic army men, partly because he doesn't want to leave empty handed, but mostly because the poor guys looked like they were ready to take their own plastic lives for having to reside in a place of little mirth. As we return to the parking lot, I take notice of my surroundings. Where is everyone? It is Friday night and there is hardly anyone at the place, nor at the Hunt Club. I remember when you had to park at the end of the street to get to the Hunt Club. Well folks, this will be the last visit me or my family makes to Bulldog Lanes. I feel like not only did they take my money but at the same time they spit in my face and asked for me to come back again for another round. I don't think I am out of line when I say this, but should Bulldog Lanes shut its doors, would it be missed? By the looks of the Friday Night crowd and the need to charge a cover, they would not be missed one bit..... Oh and if you are looking for a great place to eat, check out Firehouse Subs, their staff is great and more than cheered me and my son up. I even enjoyed giving them my money.

Its an average place with average prices, service, and etc. However, there is a new place open in Columbus which runs circles around Bulldog Lanes. GTR Lanes has bowling, a laser thing for the kids, a game room, party room, and a HUGE jumpers thing for the kiddos in the back. Plus did I mention they also have monthly specials :-) Sorry Bulldog Lanes, you finally have a worthy competitor.

I remember when Bulldog Lanes first opened - we were thrilled to have something else to do in town. It's still one of those fun places that everyone of all ages can enjoy. For a bowling alley, it's in good condition, and I've never had bad service.

They have great specials like lunch and bowl. The food is also really good. The alley is clean and affordable. Service is suspect sometimes but that's what you get with high school kids.

I love to go and do the lunch and bowl two games and a sandwich or pizza and drink. I am a ups driver and I have even went while on a route and did this for my lunch. My kids always beg me for this everyday they are out of school

Good place but I do NOT like having to pay to join my family when I don't even bowl....play games or whatever. I mean, I'm disabled but yet have to pay. Not fair!

Monday-Friday Lunch-n-Bowl is the bomb! It's a great price for lunch, two games, and shoe rental. Other than than, the place needs some updates, although it's obvious that they are slowly but surely working on that. They just got some new bowling balls and once one of the old TV's go out, they replace it with a nice flat screen TV with a screen you can actually read. The lanes mess up every now and then and some of the employees have a little attitude, probably because people do stupid things there, like throw two bowling balls down the lane at once, but they'd rather you tell them something messed up than for you to try to "fix" it yourself.BOTTOM LINE: Great value and lots of fun for lunch and bowl and not to crowded in the middle of the week.

When you walk into bulldog lanes, it looks like it hasn't been updated in about 20 years. My boyfriend brought me here and the bowling was fun but the arcade area was a joke. A lot of the games ate my coins and the ticket counter broke. The lady working there seemed clueless as to what to do. The place was dead. Very disappointing since I will be attending school here in the fall and love to bowl!

The lunch special may be very good, but at $12 the evening package of two games, shoe rental and all you can drink is not that wonderful if you only want to bowl and not drink. The music is good, but the bowling balls are in terrible shape, which is no wonder because drunk patrons pitch them down the lanes and mishandle them. It's plenty of space for a large group of friends or a party.

They have lunch specials - two games, shoes, sandwich and drink for about $7 or $8. Haven't been there in a couple years, but was always a nice place to go when it's cold here (for a few weeks in the winter).

We really enjoy the lunch and bowl. You can't beat the price. We take our children there and we also enjoy meeting friends there.