King Pins — Local services in Manchester

This is my review of the arcade in this venue - I will update it if I try the bowling out.

Here's what I like:

I like the machines here. You have my favourite machine (Nerf Arcade), and claw machines which are always fun - even though it's rare to win those!

It's nice that you get bonus credits for topping up certain amounts to your card

You don't have to spend tickets on the same day, they're all stored on a card, which whilst takes a bit of the fun out of the classic arcade nostalgia, you're not walking around with hundreds (or thousands) of tickets and you can just switch from one machine to another

Toilets are readily available and were clean when I used them

Here's what I don't like:

It isn't clear that you can't use your bonus credits on certain machines. I was having a fun time playing on a claw machine trying to win a prize I really liked the look of and when I used up my credits I had paid for, it displayed an error on the card reader saying I cannot use my bonus credits on that machine. Personally, I don't even understand why this is the case. Why does it matter which machines I spend my bonus credits on?

It isn't clear that some machines don't pay out tickets. Apart from the obvious ones, like claw machines, I assumed the other machines like the duck shooter and basketball would pay tickets. They didn't. This could be resolved by putting a note on them, preferably next to the card reader, that says something like "This machine does not pay tickets"

Some machines did not work. The coin pushers were not working because the "stages" or "shelves" were not moving. I had wasted my credits for a play on that machine, but I didn't think it was worth complaining about at the time to get the credits back

In the prize shop, the prizes don't have "prices" (aka amount of tickets required) directly on them. This means you have to ask a staff member if you don't spot the price list at the very edge of the counter (I missed it at first). This could be sorted by putting price tags on the prizes in the display cabinet so staff are not asked how many tickets are required to claim a certain prize every 10 minutes

Overall, I enjoyed my first visit here. I will be returning. A few minor improvements would make my future visits more enjoyable, but I definitely had a great time. It's worth a visit if you like arcades. Go shoot some hoops, grab some...

Hands down the best kids party we ever had!! I can't recommend this place enough. Our Son wanted a darts party and every other venue (Black Cat, Flight Club, Roxy) catered for adults only. Thank goodness for Tech darts at King Pins Arndale! Despite it not being part of an official party package. The team, 2 Jakes Olivia and co were so amazing in helping us to create a bespoke package of activities and making it all so seamless. We chose an hour of darts followed by duck pin bowling with pizza and cake(our own but sliced by them) being served in the seating that they had reserved for us. Each child had a goody bag and we chose to give everyone £5 credit to spend in the arcade afterwards. I'm especially grateful to the team for accommodating more children than we originally expected on a very busy Saturday (after my Son kept inviting people!) We have had an amazing response from children and parents since the party saying that we have raised the bar with this experience! Parents appreciated being in town to go off and have a wander but also had a great fun if they chose to stick around. The kids absolutely loved it. The place feels so fresh and clean, Staff are rushed off their feet but nothing was too much trouble. The pizzas are great quality as they're made by PLY from the Northern Quarter. The only slight issue we had was that half of the pizza order said mushrooms on top which I didn't order but we think it's down to just saying no meat. Tip is to stress: Just margarita if you don't want a load of 10 year olds saying yuk haha. HOWEVER - This was sorted quickly. Fries delivered while new pizzas were made. We know that every parent and child from our party will be rebooking so get this place booked...

Visited on the 12th June. We pre-booked the day before 3 games(curling, shuffle board and the batting cage). When we first arrived we grabbed a drink before booking in. We had to enter our booking reference on a screen to only be told to go over to the games desk, when we got there it was if we never booked. I practically had to walk the girl through everything we had booked. New place with new staff, I'd like to think this will improve given time. Went over to the curling first, we didn't really understand the rules so just done our own points system, we had good fun with this either way. Moved onto the shuffle board which was unplayable, the table was badly tilted and it was almost impossible to score points. We gave up after 5 minutes and I handed back the pucks to the games desk. Moved over to the batting cage, we got 1 turn each and the game malfunctioned and they couldn't get it working again. At this point I let the man know we weren't happy with our experience, he went to get some advice from his manager. Told us the shuffleboard and batting cage would be refunded and we could play a different game in the limited time we had left. Shame the manager wouldn't come over and deal with this though. I've had no communication about the refund as of yet. Or received this back to my bank.

Wouldn't return based on this experience. Been to Roxy's several times which is a stones throw away and a much better experience with similar prices. Go there instead if you don't have...