Bowl Madison — Local services in Madison

If you’re a parent looking for a fun, welcoming place to take your kids—avoid Bowl Madison.

We visited Bowl Madison on June 9, 2025, and I’m honestly still frustrated. My neighbor and I brought our 6 kids hoping for a fun afternoon. Keep in mind, this establishment advertises “Kids Bowl Free” in the summer, but this place turned out to be anything but family-friendly.

From the moment we arrived, the staff seemed annoyed that we were even there. No greeting, no smiles—just unwelcoming and frankly rude attitudes. Our initial check-in process was less than pleasant thanks to the clerk at the register whom never greeted us, and truly lacked in customer service altogether. Simple requests for different shoe sizes seemed like we had all but ruined her day. When our lane malfunctioned (more than once), it was like pulling teeth to get anyone to help, and when someone finally did, they acted like we were bothering them.

They showed no patience, empathy or understanding for children who were clearly just trying to have a good time. They prioritized their league participants as soon as they came in. In doing so, they actually turned our lane off, and cut off the screens mid bowl before our game was even over. The excuse was “our league players like things a certain way”. In other words, they want the kids kicked out. This was actually at 4:45pm- 45 minutes before their advertised Kids Bowl Free ending time which is 5:30pm.

It’s obvious this establishment doesn’t want to cater to families or younger bowlers. Quite a shame since we spent over $200 dollars in shoes, socks, food and drinks- there was zero effort to create a positive experience. I left feeling like we’d wasted our time and money.

To top it off, just before we left we caught a few of the workers behind the counter huddled together gossiping about our group. Imagine how unprofessional you’d have to be to openly gossip about a couple of moms and their 6 children while we were still in the vicinity? Whether their intention was ill or not, it was a clear display of poor management, while also being highly inappropriate.

Needless to say, we won’t be back. Again, If you’re a parent looking for a fun, welcoming place to take your kids—avoid...

I'd like to respond to Denetta Williams post. Wow, that's not what happened at all. Her lane was never shut off. We were in the lane next to her and we ask the staff to clean up the mess she and her kids made for safety reasons. They had popcorn everywhere that covered 3 lanes and a full drink spilled on the floor (not at the table but right up next to the lanes) that ran into our lane. She was standing in the soda spill in her bowling shoes, so I told her to be careful because walking out on the waxed lanes with wet shoes is a serious fall hazard. Her children would run right in front of us while we were bowling to the point that we had to stop for safety reasons.

The staff at Bowl Madison were polite to her and worked hard to keep all guests safe. After they left, it took the staff over a half hour to clean up their mess and we had to wait until that was done to bowl.

Madison Bowl has made tremendous improvements over the past year to their alley and equipment. It's a great place to go bowl. Hundreds of kids bowl there each week without issues and have a great time. I take my wife and grandkids there every week! It is by far the best place to go bowling...

After planning a nice day trip with 7 children and 3 adults, we were appalled with our visit here. We paid for 2 hours of play and had intended to feed the very hungry children in between games. Upon arrival at approximately 2:15 pm we were told that the grill would not open until 3 pm. We distracted the children with a game, or tried to. The pins would not reset and the balls would not return. By 3:30 the grill was still not open and we were then told that it would open at 5pm. This was unacceptable so we decided to cut the trip short and attempted to get a refund or a partial refund and leave as the fun was over. We were informed that there are NO refunds period. Now credit where credit is due; the two young men that were trying their best to be helpful and were very apologetic could hardly do anything about this problem. They were "not allowed" to open the grill or do any maintenance on the lanes. It was not at all their fault that there was NO managerial support for them. Even with that, they were patient and courteous and also embarrassed for being put in that position. Shame on the management of this...