Had to write about one of the most dissapointing experiences of my life to date, and I’ve had a few !
For my flatmates birthday I decided to try and book a group of us a night of 10 pin bowling. We’ve never done it before and it makes a welcome change from the bars and clubs typically associated with these sort of occasions.
I decided I would book with All Star Lanes (hence this post title, catchy huh ??!) as they appeared in the google list for ‘London Bowling’, their website looked quite well put together and the food menu sounded great.
In hindsight, it’s my own fault, I should had read up more thoroughly and maybe tried to find some reviews of the venue in question.
The selection of actual bowling balls was quite limited (there was a girlie with us who could have done with one of the lighter balls that had been nabbed by the group in the other lane).
The balls were sticky and could have done with a bit of a wipe with a anti-bacterial agent to be honest.
When we finished our game, we stood looking confused not quite sure what to do next. I had booked a post game table for some of their amazing sounding American style food. But not one of the staff asked if we needed any help. When I enquired at the reception I was told to ‘ask a waitress’.
So we waited for 10mins for one to appear and then asked where we should go for our table. This took a further 10mins to sort out.
The food took an extremely long time to arrive (almost half an hour), but in their defense was very hot and clearly not microwaved in any way (finally a positive note !).
But the single biggest issue had to be THE VOLUME OF THE MUSIC BEING PLAYED !!! This place could give Ministry of Sound a run for their money. I’m pretty certain that all of the communication issues we encountered on the night were a simple case that their poor staff just plain could not hear us. They smiled, they were I am sure polite (coluldn’t hear them to be certain) but ultimately the evening was a resounding failure.
We will probably try bowling again, but not at AllStar :-(
16-04-2010 addendum :
All Star Lanes sent me a feedback email request which a put most of this detail into and sent back. Their manager has responded saying he takes the points on board and they will *monitor the situation*. Possibly worth going again in a few months to see if it’s any better
