MFA Bowl WHITSTABLE — Local services in Canterbury

Would not recommend to anyone wishing to have a fun game of bowling!! We took my 9 year old son for his birthday and his 2 brothers for 2 games of bowling and were shocked by the quality of the balls and the amount of time the pins broke down. We eventually ran out of time as there were lots of kids in attendance, so the lighter balls were in demand, and also our 10 year old is disabled so he takes longer to complete his go. I had to ask for time to be reset so we could finish our final 3 goes each and the manager (balding, fat, 40+ and a terrible attitude) agreed this once to add 15 minutes to our time but was not welcoming. Then, the icing on the cake for our MFA Bowl experience, after the time had been reset and the lane lights came back on for us to continue, our eldest took his go and after he released the ball, the barrier began to come down to block the pins and the ball met the barrier full force. With this, the manager came prancing out from behind his safety counter to shout at us over the tables that we had deliberately rolled the ball at it and broken it and when we attempted to explain what had happened he decided to berate us to leave and ran as fast as he could back to his office. His customer service is appalling and other families witnessed the barrier come down and offered us there support, but it would have been nice if he would have stuck around to listen to what us and others had to say. Never will we return and if i was the CEO of this company i would look at the person you have in charge and decide if this is the way you want your company to be represented. As a retail manager myself, I'm disappointed to see the behaviour displayed by this...

Really disappointing visit. We took our kids here for their first bowling experience while on holiday in the area. Our lane was faulty from the beginning. What should have taken an hour took almost two. With constant stops due to pins falling, pins not being reset etc. Staff wouldn’t move us to another lane but instead offered us a free visit next time. But we explained we were on holiday in the area. The least we should have got was half our money back or something as it was impossible to enjoy the experience and the kids got very restless and became hungry as it overran their lunch time due to the constant delays. The original plan was to bowl and then eat there and play the arcade games but we left as soon as our game was finally over as we were so fed up with the place and if the lanes were that bad I hated to wonder what the food would be like and I didn’t want to give them any more of my money. Kids were disappointed in the bowling experience and disappointed we didn’t stay to eat or play the arcade games. I actually don’t mind the retro feel of the place, it’s ancient and clearly hasn’t been invested in for many years…and that’s ok…as long as they invest in the lanes actually working, which clearly they haven’t done. There’s literally no point going bowling if the lanes/pins don’t work! And zero staff training in how to deal with customers who’ve wasted money on visiting this place. Also, the booking process is ancient, you book online line but then have to wait for a confirmation email which only arrived 45mins before our session so up to then, we had no idea if we were...

I rather like this bowling alley in Whitstable – time has left it behind so it remains firmly stuck sometime around 1985. It reminds me of the bowling alleys of my youth where I first learned to bowl. A memory of a thing revisited.

There are 10 lanes – it would be fair to say that the equipment is somewhat old and temperamental, but that doesn’t detract from the game too much. You get the occasional pin fall over on a reset, but that’s hardly the end of the world for your average attendee. It’s supposed to be a bit of fun, not a league game. I think it was about £30 for two games?

Played two games and had no issues aside the odd fallen pin – scoring system worked fine. Tiny hidden step up from main floor to bowling alleys was difficult to notice, but you will only stumble once.. 😊

Small area behind bowling lanes offering a smattering of arcade machines, pool table etc and some basic diner-type food. Didn’t eat but looked fine – burger and chips, stuff like that. Can’t go wrong with chips.

More importantly, there was a bar with pints available – the pints in this instance were Coors. Coors for the people. Small gaming machine next to the bar area featuring lesser games – didn’t appear to offer Rise of Anubis or Thai Princess.

Convenient car park outside, maximum stay 2 hours which is generally plenty for a couple of games. Be careful if you have many bowlers though.

Will visit...