Archie Brothers Bowen Hills — Attraction in Brisbane City

This place is not a real bowling alley, it's an arcade.

The pins are held by string so they don't fall properly, most people don't wear bowling shoes and the game scoring and function is not akin to a real bowling alley. Our first game had one pin that didn't score despite being knocked down repeatedly by usual 200+ point scorer.

It can be a bit of fun, but I am a little unsure why Strike would put their name to it. It's advertised as a real bowling alley.

Then there are many other overpriced amusement video games, Skirball, basketball and those games where you collect tickets. (Or in this case virtual tickets - which is far less fun).

There is nothing to spend the tickets on other than lollies (unless you have 20k tickets) which was disappointing.

The staff are lovely and the drinks reasonable.

I would suggest to Skip the food entirely.

Did I hate it, No. Would I repeat it, No.

EDIT: After writing this post I became aware of the significant controversy of string pin bowling and the league's attempt to support lower budget venues to participate at competition level, even if their machines are inferior. Many claim it as an inevitable.

While I can understand the short-term appeal of this transition, I wholeheartedly disagree with the conclusion that it's a positive inevitability.

Practically, this approach will rob any chance of a renaissance in the sport, reducing it from a competitive endeavor to a mere amusement. Many sports go through periods of decline, but fundamentally altering the core mechanics strips them of their integrity. It's like replacing a finely tuned musical instrument with a toy version—it might look similar, but it no longer performs the same. The nuances, the skill, and the authenticity are all compromised.

In the same way, string pin-set bowling is like swapping out a professional orchestra for a karaoke machine. It might be entertaining, but it’s a far cry from...

Upon the demise of my credits, I was fufilled yet felt something was missing from my experience. Enter the man, the myth, the legend. Alberto. Whilst short in stature, he had the confidence of a giant as he moved over towards us lesser beings and extended his generosity towards us. A test of our aptitude, a simple match of basketball. “Pfft, this shall be no match for someone of my size” I thought to myself, overzealous of my 6’3 height. A fair and at the time unbeatable to nobody except my score of 43 I landed. But alas, my skills were out balled by the greatest hooper to grace a ball since Shaq. Alberto humbly prepared, seasoned and served our buttocks. And so I congratulate him, a noble opponent and a wonderful individual.

Edit: Shortly after publishing this review, for reasons unknown, I was pinned down by enemy fire. Alone and accepting my soon to be untimely demise, I was quickly saved by my guardian angel. Alberto. Retrieving a RPG from underneath the Hungry Hungry Hippos arcade game, Alberto resisted enemy fire and countered the rapidly advancing opponents. Had it not been for Alberto’s expert marksmanship, I would have simply been toast. Therefore, I recommend Alberto for both a Victoria Cross and a pay bonus. Thank you Alberto, I am forever in...

Was so disappointed with our Christmas party at archie brothers our boss paid a lot of money to cover bar tab, game card, bowling + dinner not to mention getting 30 of us there and the only positive thing I have to say is the pizza was tasty and the host was nice they gave us 1 hour long game cards to play the ticket machines but we where not allowed to claim any of the tickets they also gave us our own area that had a red rope blocking it off that other people (not with our group) happily ignored and jumped over where all our personal belongings where kept and the bar staff seen them and said nothing we then had to wait a extra 30 minutes for the group before us to be done with there bowling game when they where finally done we got taken to our lanes (that we had to argue for as we booked 4 and we where told we only got 3) after that they crammed 28 of us into 3 lanes and 3 of us into one lane we all got 3 turns each before they canceled our game telling us we where taking to long considering we where not evenly spread out over the 4 lanes we paid for and also had to wait for the previous group who hired the lanes to finish we missed out lucky the boss paid such a large bar tab to make up for the rest of the nights...