Vestavia Bowl

Saturday night, vintage entertainment. Yes, bowling is an old-​school type of activity, but when there is beer flowing and good friends, campy sports are ok, right? This bowling center was BUSY on that fateful Saturday night… so much so that we had to sign in onto a waiting list that we were told was 45 minutes long!
We decided to get some dinner and drinks while we waited. Snack bar actually has a pretty extensive, albeit basic, menu. We were expecting nacho cheese type sauce, but my grilled chicken nachos actually had melted cheddar and monterey jack cheese as well as grilled chicken breast that was seasoned with some VERY tasty mystery seasoning (I know, sounds ominous, but get your mind out of the gutter… see what I did there? Gutter? At the bowling alley? I digress.) The hubs got a bacon cheese burger that looked REALLY good (it wasn’t shred, so that’s a good sign, right?) and a friend had a Philly Cheese sandwich, which she said was very good. (She’s from Pennsylvania, so that holds extra weight).
Went to order drinks and I was again impressed at the selection. There was a HUGE menu of fru-​fru drinks and shooters (not my style, but appropriate for the crowd, it appeared), but the specials were surprising! They had Avondale’s Spring Street Saison as one of their beer specials! Seemed fancy for a bowling alley… that façade was smashed on finding that their «premium pour» gin was Beefeaters… but hey, I did’t have a problem with that… they have a clientele that they cater to, and that, too was appropriate.
BACK TO THE BOWLING-​the 45 minute wait was actually much shorter. We paid what ended up being about $ 14.00 per person to bowl for 2 hours. Pretty good deal, I would say! There were a few bumps in the road… our lane kept freezing, so I felt like we wasted at least 20 min of that time waiting for them to reset the lanes. They always did, and at one point they added 5 minutes to our time left, but it was a bit of a pain for our games to keep getting interrupted like that. The balls that were available to us by the time we got there were also kind of a pain… they were either WAY too heavy or way too light. There were lots of balls in the building, but the most commonly used ones were all already taken. All in all, a fun night with friends. Decent food, especially considering the venue, and good drinks made up for some of the trouble, but I think they could have done better.

This place can be split into 3 parts. Bowling. Food. Bar. The bowling was ok. Lanes sent in best shape but the scoring computers work well and they have plenty of balls to use. They have little ramps for small kids to roll the ball down. Problem we had was our lane kept dying and we had to call maintenance. You rent by the hour so loosing time for maintenance sucked. They gave us some but not enough.
Food was surprisingly good. Very slow but tasty. I got a cheeseburger that was very good. My wife got grilled chicken nachos. The chicken was actually very tasty.
Bar was sooooooo slooooooow. We had enough time for 6 people to take 2 turns a piece waiting. The people in front of me ordered 1 pitcher, 3 shots, and 3 sodas. I waited for 15min for them to get there stuff. So slow. Also the bartender had to look up how to make the drink they had on special.

Came here while visiting some friend in Birmingham. Very cheap beer and the lanes times are too. The shoes are a little bit worn (luckily I had thick socks). Overall, a typical bowling alley.
unlimited popcorn too!

Beautiful facility. Everyone there is extremely friendly and helpful. They had a $ 5 bowling special when we went and we bowled all night for just $ 5! The arcade is very clean and the bartenders there are extremely friendly. This is without a doubt the best place in Birmingham to bowl. It’s perfect for kids and great for tournaments and even the other bowlers are friendly to you. The perfect place for a date or any size group!

Vestavia Bowl… what to say?
Not the largest, cleanest, coolest bowling alley ever, but definitely gets the job done if bowling is what you’ve gone to do! The only staff we had a chance to interact with was definitely nice. Just taking a glance from one end of the facility to the other, something about it says a little cramped and a little outdated. Of course there are people everywhere as it was a Saturday night, but still could use a little more room. This could also be attributed to the fact that there was a kids party next to our lane and they had extra «props» along with them. By props I mean large, orange dinosaurs that allow kids to roll the ball down their back and tail to get good aim and speed.
It has a separate game room as well as a bar area, neither of which we visited this go ’round. The balls and lanes themselves were just fine, although with so many people there it was difficult to find balls of certain weight/​size. I do like how all the same sized balls are placed on the same racks though.
All in all… enjoying a bowling outing depends on your group and whether or not you actually like to bowl. I’m sure I’ll return to Vestavia Bowl at some point… not my go-​to pick tho :)

I took a small group recently on a Monday night and was easily able to get three lanes next to each other. The hourly bowling wasn’t too bad at just under $ 20 an hour (that didn’t include shoes).
We were sipping on pitchers of beer that were easy to get from the nice lady working the beer window. The first couple of kegs we tried were all foam, but we settled on an equally watered down light beer. It was just right for washing down the really good pepperoni pizza that we shared from the snack bar.
All of the employees were very nice and the entire place was very clean. Its smoke filled days are a distant memory.

This place is not amazing, but it certainly gets the job done. One might consider it slightly dirty, but how many bowling alleys in the world are not? I only experienced one pin malfunction over a couple hours of bowling tonight. I have always had a great time here with friends, and have probably been here near 10 times. There is also the back area with arcade games and billiards if you’re interested in that. The 280 lanes might be a bit flashier, but this place certainly fits the bowling alley bill. And of course you can order food and beverage here at their grill. I have had no qualms here, and the staff has always been very friendly to me!