Mt Airy Bowling Lanes

Fine place to go duckpin bowling. Considering the few options we have this is the best and only in the area. Paid $ 45 for 2 adults and 5 kids to bowl one game. The balls are pitted and chipped. The place is dingy but clean enough. Staff is totally bored. They do serve beer and have a varied menu. You must enter your own scores an clean and reset the pins in your lane after each ball. I’m fairly ambivalent about this place but hey, I’m here for the bowling.

My husband and i along with 2 friends decided we would go bowling so we reserved a lane and was absolutely ejoying ourselves until we went to pay our bill. we bowled 3 games… yes 3… it was $ 100…i was in total shock. How are children going to be able to afford to go have fun at that price… absolutely absurd

Do not come here. The old guy and lady were so rude. We asked if we could have another lane and they gave us an attitude. Their attitude showed us that we weren’t welcome here. They only accept cash. Everything about this place is old. The bowling balls were clogged twice so it took 30 minutes of our time. You have to feed your own scores onto the screen. I would not recommend you to bring your family or friends here. It is not a kid friendly place nor a place to have fun with people with an attitude problem.

A TOTAL RIP-​OFF. If you’d like to be insulted and treated like crap, this is the place to come.
I called early this week to reserve two lanes for children. A day later, I called again to see if I could get two more lanes. They said only one extra lane was available; I confirmed not once, not twice, but THREE times, that our reservation was for 12:30 to 3 p.m.
I arrived early (about 11:30 a.m.) with my four children to get lunch. I went to the front desk – which wasn’t busy – and waited for someone to help me. An older guy standing at the desk looked at me, and walked away without even saying a word. I waited a few minutes as he did something in the office behind him, then he finally came back and asked what I needed. I asked for paper and pen, so I could write my request (am Deaf). He stared at me. I repeated my request, and still no response. I pointed to a notepad in front of him, and he slowly got it. Then a pencil.
I asked again if there was an extra lane available, and he said no – which was okay. I saw this other woman, maybe in her late 20s or early 30s, with a very annoyed look on her face, behind the desk. Everyone seemed really tense. I also saw that it was a cash-​or-​check-​only place (!), but they had an ATM on-​site.
I wrote out my order for the young fellow working the kitchen. I ordered hotdogs, grilled cheese sandwiches, and pizza, and then found out that I had to order fries separately. I asked if I could get a small drink for the kids and have them get a refill after that (I would have paid for it). The young gentleman said, «I don’t know. You’d have to ask her.» I nodded, «Go ahead.» He said, «Oh! Okay, I’ll ask her!» She shook her head firmly and said, «NO, no way.» More than $ 25 for the food, but no problem. (Never mind the lack of cleanliness I observed in the cooking.)
The food wasn’t the greatest – bowling alley fare – but the kids were happy. I went to rent shoes, and nobody told me that you didn’t have to rent shoes if you were under seven years old. It was only about 30 minutes later when other parents told me – so I quickly returned the shoes (saving $ 12).
Chaos reigned for a few minutes as everyone got settled in. The bowling was really cumbersome because we had to manually reset the pins, and do the scorekeeping ourselves. Not a big deal; it was kind of fun in a quaint way. One lane got balls stuck a few times, and that ate up a lot of time as the employees fixed that.
The kids were extremely well-​behaved and the parents were doing a great job of keeping everything calm. At about 2:00 p.m., that female employee walked up to me and stuck a note in my face, out of nowhere. She looked angry; the note said that we had the lanes until 2:00, it was 2:07 and that there was another group waiting.
I said we had until 3:00. She shook her head and said, «No, 2:00!» I asked her for a pen so I could talk with her, and she shook her head, refusing to get one. I asked again, and she said, «I don’t have one.» Her attitude was just shocking.
Another mother got upset and told the woman to lose her attitude. The employee said, «I don’t have an attitude!» I asked again for a pen, and she made a show of getting one for me from the front desk (which was a few steps away). I wrote that we were told we had until 3:00, and she said, «No.» I then asked her to get rid of her attitude, and she repeated, «I do not have an attitude!» I shrugged and said, «It’s not our fault you screwed up, but we have until 3.» She looked even angrier and walked off.
A few minutes later, even though we were in the ninth and tenth frames, they shut off our games. We decided to simply never come back.
Turns out the «other group waiting» was actually from our group – the remaining families who couldn’t get the fourth lane. And guess what? One of the parents told me that after most of us left, they were comped the game. Ironically, this group was a group of parents who hadn’t been directly invited but showed up (which was great – the more, the merrier), which is why they were willing to wait.
The staff, especially that woman, would benefit from watching shows like RESTAURANT IMPOSSIBLE or BAR RESCUE and see how attitude and customer service are key. It’s mind-​boggling to think that Mt. Airy Lanes has lost business from not 1, not 5, but at least 10 families totaling about 30 people – not to mention the negative reviews these families, including mine, will share. That’s a lot of money lost for a place that obviously needs to be fixed in every way.

This place, subpar in everything — Horrible customer service. People who run the place needs attitude adjustment 101. I am not sure if it was because of their condescending attitude toward us, the group, but they were not warm nor interactive when problems arise. For instance, before we were able to finish the game, they stopped the game on a monitor screen and no one was able to figure out what had just happened. Checked with the people at front, *Shrug — the game must be finished so go to the next game. What?! That, in itself says a wholly lot!
I would give this place half a star if I could. It may seem like a kid-​friendly place, but with people who work there, yelling at the kids half of the time, I would think not… Search elsewhere or go to White Oaks Lane in Silver Spring and you shall not be disappointed.
To the owners — I genuinely hope you all learned from this and other posts about today’s event and consider a course in attitude adjustment or take a culture sensitivity training.

Great place to bring the kids! The food is substandard but isn’t that expected at a bowling alley? Staff was helpful when needed.

Great place to take the kids. Get them involved in a league or have a birthday party..

Cute little place with cute little pins and cute little bowling balls.
BUT they don’t have automatic scoring. :(

Go for the bowling only.
Good for kids.
Do NOT order food!!!
I ordered soft pretzels and the person who took my money did not wash his hands. Pulled the pretzel out of a freezer, nuked it for two minutes on a paper plate, turned it nuked it again for another two, pulled the paper plate out and couldnt pulled it off the plate as it had gotten stuck. Finally, he got it off the plate and put it on a new paper plate… all while using his grimy hands. I got it from him, and when he wasnt looking I looked at the pretzel bottom with stuck paper on it and then chucked it.
And yes, the same hands were handling money and people’s bowling shoes.
What makes me sick is I had ordered nachos and ate them with my kids BEFORE ordering the pretzels. I knew something was off when the chips tasted as they’d been sitting out as they were semi stale.
And separate time, I noticed they were eating at the service counter.
If you are desperate, order something fried. At least they wont be touching the hot fried foods.

Way to ruin a soldier celebrating his son’s first birthday with family. Turn off the lanes before the games are done, and force everyone out after an hour, before presents are opened. Hitler called and wants his bowling alley back!!!

This is not your average bowling alley. This is duckpin bowling… Hence the name. its more for the kiddies under 5. The pins are small so are the balls. The place is soo small. I came there unannounced. Apparently, you need to reserve lanes here. The place was packed with moronic kids running around here like they lost their minds, while the parents who looked dazed and confused ignored their ratchet behavior. The décor is very old and outdated the prices are reasonable. It seems like its a mom and pop place. Mama bear running the show while papa bear sprayed just a tinkle on the shoes. Yuck. That really disgusted me. Whenever you rent shoes out, I thought they got a througho spraydown, this was not the case. The place was very busy for the weekend. Its small so they do dont big crowds. You have to call ahead of time to reserve lanes! Do not go there and waste your time. Pretty sure you wont have lanes. The pizza looked really bad, Like Jerrys Pizza type of bad. The employees seemed nice. But I was expecting better. Again, this place is more for the younger kids.

Recently, I have been touring Duckpin Centers up and down the east coast. Mt. Airy Lanes is the cream of the crop! Most of the other alleys are dirty and dingy. Not here! The staff was super friendly and accommodating. The actual lanes are in great condition and have an amazing sound. The crash of the pins is second to none.
If you just want a great place to go Duckin’, this is your place! Not to mention, they have Yuengling on tap, which is a rare treat for this West Coaster.

This is a cool little place. It’s a kid friendly, happy place. I love to bowl, but duckpins can be confusing if you don’t know how to score.
We were lucky to be next to some folks that knew their stuff. Now, the food is something to be desired. The pizza a just okay, as for the rest meh. They could do a little better with it but hey it’s a bowling alley not a fine dining establishment.
Just google how to score duck pins and take a printout with you.

What kid — or adult, secretly — doesn’t love duckpin bowling? Those little balls are so stinkin’ cute! For a little «local» place it’s kept up really well. Snack bar serves pizza, burgers, fries, soda, beer; there are arcade games for quarters, etc. Non-​smoking environment. Great little place for a child’s birthday party. Friendly staff. Leagues for all ages if that’s your thing. Just a nice overall place to have in the neighborhood.

Duckpin bowling… this is a fun place for kids (and adults). My sister and I have taken our kids there several times (all 3 kids were aged 5 and under). The small balls are much easier for little kids to lift than a regular bowling ball, and you can use the gutter guards also to prevent those annoying and tantrum-​provoking gutter balls. Nothing is computerized so it’s a little confusing for a non-​bowling expert such as myself, but we managed. There is a snack bar and a small arcade. The facility is not very large, so it’s probably best to call ahead and reserve a lane. We were lucky and a lane opened up quickly for us, but I’m sure that is not always the case. The woman at the counter was a bit surly, but I think that’s almost mandatory at a bowling alley…