Lakeshore Lanes — Local services in Albany

The food is okay, the drinks are okay. The bowling is fun but the pins get stuck a lot. Some of the staff I have encountered are incredibly rude (probably because of the stress they are under at being alone to work the entire building).

They closed the coffee/cider shop to make more room for their arcade. That coffee place used to be my favorite. There is a mini golf course which could use some maintenance. It is pretty fun and quite challenging at some of the holes. However, the golfing used to be run by the coffee shop, and now that responsibility has also been given to the solo worker.

There is food and a bar there, but I would rather go to Favorite Mistake which is attached to the front of the building. The food, drinks and staff are way better at favorite mistake, and you dont have to wait an hour to get everything.

The bowling alley has 1 person running the whole building. She is on charge of the food/drinks, bar, bowling, arcade, and mini golf, as well as sanitizing all of the tables, balls and shoes. She has no help, except on weekends. This makes wait time for anything to be extremely long. If you have a problem, the help button for bowling does not work, so you have to hunt down the only person working.

And on top of all that, their covid-19 precautions seem a little silly to me. When I walked in there after they opened back up from the shutdown, they had plastic hanging all the way from the cieling. It looks like they are remodeling. Also, even inside of your own plastic bubble, masks are required at all times. If you drink, you have to life your mask up, then put it back on to swallow or else you will get yelled at by the staff.

However, it is obvious that any money that is made at this establishment is not being put back in. Most of the lanes are broken, you can't get a pair of shoes that are not falling apart, and they are extremely understaffed.

Oh, and if you used to partake in 2 dollar tuesday, that is gone. So the prices have been jacked up, you have to make a reservation, and all for bad service and bad equiptment.

However, it is the only bowling in town, so if you are in the mood to bowl, it's either Lakeshore lanes or drive to the next town over. My husband and I...

WORST kids birthday party experience: Lakeshore Lanes

We brought 14 kids for our son's birthday party, which was priced per child, and received the same accommodations as the party of 4 children next to us: two bowling lanes (7 kids per lane) and a single-layer 8" cake that was 1.5" high. There were four parties going on simultaneously with two lanes out of commission, no manager present, and a total of three employees who were understandably overwhelmed.

Their pizza oven wasn't working properly, so the pizzas were more than a half hour late, though we were told several times that it would only take "another 5-10 minutes". The kids said the crust tasted "not right".

Our guests waited over 20 minutes in line to receive bowling shoes. Even though there were no pizzas AND no bowling available for that 20-30 minute timeframe, no offers of other activities were made. Though our guests behaved quite politely while waiting with no activity to do, it was stressful for the kids and for me.

The handling of the party was particularly disappointing because I had taken the time across a couple of phone calls to clarify details and ensure that 14 guests could be nicely accommodated. I was told, "Yes, we do that all the time".

Clearly, we caught them on a bad day. Hopefully, most of the time, all lanes are operating, the ovens are working properly and all areas are sufficiently staffed. The combination of poor maintenance of the lanes and ovens plus poor management and understaffing was compounded by poor customer service throughout the event. It was a birthday party we won't forget, but for all the...

UPDATE: the owner reached out to me immediately following my review and wanted to make it right. I have since returned and am pleased to say the facility has been renovated and looked great. We had the opportunity to “redo” our experience and I’m very pleased to say that it went great.

I recently hosted my son’s birthday party at Lakeshore Lanes and reserved the Triple the Fun package, which was supposed to include bowling, arcade cards, and mini golf. When we arrived, I was told by a staff member that mini golf was no longer part of the package—despite it being clearly listed when I booked. I even showed her a screenshot from their own website that listed mini golf as included, but she told me it didn’t matter and they wouldn’t honor it. After pushing back, she finally allowed the kids to play mini golf this time, but told me it wouldn’t be honored in the future.

This was incredibly frustrating and unprofessional. If the package has changed, it should be updated on the website or customers should be informed at the time of booking—not when they arrive with a group of excited kids.

The pizza was pretty gross, and the entire facility felt dirty. The bathrooms were especially disgusting. I think the kids still had a good time, thankfully, but as a parent who paid for a specific experience, I was really disappointed. I will not be booking another party here.

I attach the photos, the screenshot of the party package that I purchased and a screenshot of my receipt for everybody to see that I did pay for that...