Review Highlights
“We did not have anything to eat at Bowl-A-Vard.” in 5 reviews
“Just wrapped up playing in two volleyball leagues and will be back again next year.” in 3 reviews
Location & Hours
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in Arcades, Kids Activities, Pizza
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Amenities and More
About the Business
A Madison Bowling Tradition Since 1950 3 Locations For Your Entertainment Fun! State-Of-The-Art Lanes For Bowling Fun.
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Recommended Reviews
Overall rating
45 reviews
5 stars
4 stars
3 stars
2 stars
1 star
- Morgan C.Atlanta, MI20241Jan 29, 2024
A good bowling alley for fun and food! Great selection of food and tasty, too. I liked the arcade as well. Sometimes you'd have to wait a few minutes for an employee to be free but that's understandable. Clean facility and fun place to hangout no matter your age:) :)
Helpful 0Thanks 0Love this 0Oh no 0 - Larry R.Sun Prairie, WI04814Mar 9, 2023
The staff is very friendly and always willing to help. The lanes are always clean. Overall, the whole place is pretty clean. The food is pretty darn good as well.
Helpful 0Thanks 0Love this 0Oh no 0 - Sarah R.Skokie, IL823134Jun 22, 2022
Always a good time! Clean with friendly personnel & a nice bar. You can play pool & bowl while enjoying some favorite local brews & cocktails.
Helpful 1Thanks 0Love this 0Oh no 0 - Jamison R.Sun Prairie, WI466Aug 29, 2021
Sticky lanes. And staff that acts like you're bothering them when you order food. Really really subpar lame
Helpful 0Thanks 0Love this 0Oh no 0 - Ari W.Madison, WI131410735Jul 1, 2018
I like Bowl-A-Vard for the most part. It's kept up really well. Always seems clean and tidy and the lanes rarely ever malfunction (at least in my experience).
Staff has always been awesome. Just yesterday, we arrived with some Bucky Book coupons, and the guys said sure no problem, but also pointed out to us the current "special" which was a much better deal than our coupons would have been. Told us to hold on to the coupons for another time and gave us the special. He could have easily just taken the coupons and made more money off us, but didn't. I really appreciate that sorta thing.
The only complaint I have, and it's minimal, is that I really having space around me, and when it's not busy, I prefer lanes to be spread out. The guy was doing a good job of doing every-other for the most part, but it was super empty when we arrived and I would have liked even more space.
Unfortunately a loud group of bro's showed up shortly after us and were given the two lanes directly next to us. We ended up leaving early 100% because of how awful and annoying they were. Had nothing to do with the service or bowling alley. Just.. ugh. Bro's. Loud, drunk, shouting at each other, one of them wearing street shoes on the bowling floor (HUGE pet peeve of mine.)
This alley offers a decent sized bar, a large arcade area, bowling leagues, volleyball leagues, a pro shop, and probably other amenities. Overall, it's a pretty legit place. I've been in many times and will certainly return!Helpful 1Thanks 0Love this 0Oh no 0 - Amanda F.Madison, WI05Jul 11, 2019
I'm so MAD at this place and there Thursday evening live music event because I live in behind this place and the music is vibrating the walls of my home. This place DOESN'T care about people's well-being at all. Don't do business here at.
Also the having really bad customer service too because I when call about the issue: the person who answered the phone just brushed me off and sounded like they were on something tooHelpful 2Thanks 0Love this 1Oh no 1 - Paul B.Janesville, WI52018Aug 12, 2019
We've had probably 10 birthday parties during open bowling for my kids at BAV over the years. This year will be our last.
In every instance, we've given them our credit card, took out however many pairs of shoes we needed, threw as many games as we wanted, and then settled up when we wrapped up. This time around, everything had to be prepaid - lines and shoes. We had to estimate how many bowlers we were going to have and ended up coming in too high. Setting up all of the bowlers we originally estimated seemed to screw up everything. We had to skip bowlers that weren't actual people. The skipping caused more problems abruptly ending several games that needed fixing by the less-than-accommodating staff.
When I asked why we can't just open a tab, I was told that everything was now prepaid. When I asked when that changed, I was told at least two years ago. That's a line of bull because it wasn't that way when we were here last year. It's one of the reasons we came back this year. Between all of the prepay garbage and the games ending before completion, we're done. There are other houses in the area - one of them will get our $300+ business next time.
I will say that the food was on point this time. The worker handling that area was quite accommodating attentive to us.Helpful 1Thanks 0Love this 0Oh no 0 - Oct 31, 2016
The place is relatively clean. It can get crowded during big events with not much room to walk from one end to the other - you do your best. The staff are friendly. Food comes out quick, but you have to go to the counter to get it. That can be a challenge during big events - just to hear your order being called up, but then to get there to pick it up.
They do a good job with the Special Olympics bowing events. It's a challenge to keep things moving and operating smoothly, and they manage to handle it well.Helpful 1Thanks 0Love this 1Oh no 0 - Caitlin K.Wauwatosa, WI192290421Dec 12, 2018
Bowl-A-Vard got the job done. We had booked a party there which was for 5 lanes, pizza, breadsticks, salad and 1 pitcher of beer per 5 people. The value for what we got was pretty good I would say.
The food was kind of what I expected for bowling alley food. The pizza was average and the breadsticks kind of lacked all flavor but it fed us.
They seemed to have a much younger staff working who weren't the most helpful but definitely had some hustle. They wiped down all of our lanes between parties which was nice to see them do.
The computers to enter our names were user friendly and the scoring was accurate and the pins all fell properly and didn't get jammed.
All in all it got the job done, but I have definitely been to nicer bowling alleys!Helpful 1Thanks 0Love this 0Oh no 0