Cristina R.
Yelp
After the incredible Yelp Elite event here, I was excited to return. Unfortunately my "regular patron" experience was pretty mediocre.
My group of 5 arrived around 3 PM on a Saturday afternoon, thinking it would be a slower time. Wrong. The wait for one lane was 1-2 hours. Which is a big time range, to say the least, but they have a bar! So I guess we can hang.
We grab a table at the side bar area and let the waitress know we have a gift card. She informs of that there are limitations. Of course. It can't be used on alcohol, and you can't use just part of it, ensuring that we have to spend more than the amount to use it up completely. Well great.
We order an appetizer sampler as well as an order of tortilla chips with guacamole and mango salsa. The app plate was pretty good with personal faves being the southwest rolls and the mac n cheese bites. There were too many chips and not enough dips, so the tortilla place was just ok. The drinks were also fine - we got a variety of daiquiri/margarita concoctions - although very sweet and overpriced.
After nearly 2 hours, our buzzer goes off for our lane. We grab shoes and head over to the far corner of the space (that I didn't even know existed) for cosmic bowling. It was dark and the music was good, which led to a fun environment and us forgetting that it was still afternoon. More drinks!
Bowling started off fine, but after a few rounds the machinery started malfunctioning and not counting all the pins that we knocked down. We alerted the staff, who looked into fixing it. For about thirty minutes. So we just hung out at the lane without bowling in the hopes that we'd be able to eventually continue with the accurate number of points (maybe that's why the wait for lanes is so long). Unfortunately, that didn't happen. They couldn't fix whatever bug was causing the inaccuracies, so we were forced to keep bowling and just not trust the score on the screen. We're all winners, right?
Lastly, the waitress we had at the lane was in a funk. We ordered a brownie sundae, and when the glorious creation arrived, it came with just one spoon. There are 5 of us. We asked for more spoons when we eventually found the waitress again, and she rolled her eyes, returning about 10 minutes later. She asked how many we wanted (again, there are 5 of us) and dumped about 8 on the table. Luckily the ice cream hadn't completely melted at this point.
Overall, Kings is a good option for a fun group outing, but you have to set your expectations. I'd return only if I know I have hours to kill (you never know when you'll actually get to bowl. or if the lane will randomly poop out on you), and if I don't have to pay for it myself (work outing, anyone? or better yet.. another free Yelp event).