Wilmette Bowling Center Inc — Local services in New Trier Township

I do not feel super compelling to write reviews very often, but this one is one I feel I absolutely must make to prevent anyone who is serious about bowling from making the mistake I just made.

This place is not a place for serious bowlers. It is not a good place to practice. It is not a good place to bowl. It is not a good place for anyone who is trying to work on their game in any way. It is probably a good place for kids birthday parties and people just blowing off steam after work, but that's about it.

Lets start with the prices. I showed up around 3pm. The lanes were completely empty. The person at the counter gave me a long speech about how they're renting me the lane so they don't care about how many games or bowlers I have. Its 55 dollars for an hour and 27.50 for a half hour pro rated to how long you actually bowl. Ok, I say. So when does it start, from when I throw my first ball? No, it starts when you tell them you're bowling because that's the point at which you start "taking up a lane that we could rent to someone else." he again told me with a straight face in his completely empty bowling alley at 3pm on a friday afternoon. "If you stay on the lane after you're bowling we have to keep charging you because you're taking the lane from other people." I again looked around trying to find these mythical other people.

This pricing structure makes sense when you've got a small alley (and it is quite small) during peak times. It does not make sense when you're completely empty to charge peak rates and say its because you cant rent the lanes out to others. I was told ball and shoe rental was included in this but obviously I already have my own ball and shoes.

Lets get to the lanes. The lanes are bad. I don't mean bad in the sense that the oil pattern has been worn down a bit or whatever, I mean they're bad in the sense that there was not oil on them at all. My ball started hooking as soon as I released it and went straight into the left gutter. The only way I could consistently hit anywhere near the pocket was by standing off the lane on the left and trying to throw the ball directly to the right gutter. It was not acceptable. No one can actually bowl under these conditions if they're actually serious about it. Again, maybe this is good for kids parties with gutter guards but for anyone who puts any spin on their ball at all and anyone who is actually trying to bowl as a competitive endeavor, its just not useable.

Then, when I went to pay I got up to the counter and though I had bowled for 24 minutes (3 games going as fast as I could because I just wanted to get my release practice out of the way as fast as possible and get out of there) he tried to charge me for a full half hour and seemed completely baffled when I told him that this wasn't correct by his own asinine pricing structure.

I will not be coming back. I suggest that all serious bowlers go literally anywhere else. This place is for kids parties and nothing else. If you don't want gutter guards and rock and glow ambiance, do...

This is the 3rd birthday party in as many years we've hosted there -- and it will be our last.

It was an unbelievably stingy experience. Last week we hosted a party at WILMETTE BOWL (WB) for 17 Kids -- 11-year olds. Our extreme dissatisfaction was with the sparce amount of food and drinks they provided and the surly attitudes of the proprietor/staff. The kids left the party hungry and thirsty and us hosts felt cheated and $341 lighter.

We used to like this place, but hugely disappointed by our experience. Total cost to us was $341.00 or $23 per child which included bowling for 2 hours, shoes, food (pizza and drinks), plates and cups. We bring cake, decorations, cake plates and forks. All well and good, this is what we signed up for, we knew the drill.

HOWEVER, Wilmette Bowl provided 3 large (and we're talking NOT large at all) very thin cheese pizzas, 2 bottles of Sprite and a pitcher of water for 17 KIDS...and a few parents who happened to be helping. That's it.

After an hour, I had a lot of hungry and thirsty kids on my hands, Wilmette Bowl brought out 1 large thin crust pizza - 10 minutes later they brought a second pizza. Then 2 bottles of Sprite, a pitcher of water and exactly 17 paper cups. That was it. It felt like prison rations. Not everyone even got 1 piece of pizza. We had to argue with them to get more drinks (We were told when we booked the party there'd be lemonade, orange crush, Sprite, etc.) A bottle of lemonade finally appeared. We asked for a few more cups. I was told there were 17 kids bowling and they had provided us with 17 cups - she even went so far as to count the paper cups on the table. We had to haggle with them to get a few more cups and a third pizza. Those were eventually provided, but in meantime the kids went to the drinking fountain instead. Thing is, WB doesnt allow you to bring your own food so we couldn't run out to the grocery store or pizzaria down the street to augment the sparse offering. So we were stuck there hungry and thirsty. They should served AT THE VERY LEAST 5 pizzas and 7 bottles of drinks for 17+ people. Also, some of the adults bought alcoholic beverages for themselves - at least those had some usable calories.

This was also embarrassing for us - it was an early evening party, parents expect their kids will be fed at least a lite dinner, not starving when they're picked up.

We'll be taking a good long break from WB - we've liked the intimate 10-lane bowling alley and easy parking, but the shoddy and stingy treatment will take a while to get over. Future...

This place appears to steal money from kids and the owner doesn’t seem to care much. Sent our Son(11) with another family/friend with $50 bucks and he bought 2 pieces of candy. Easy to describe guy working there gave him $16 in change. We called the next day (2:15 on thanksgiving) and talked to a girl and asked her to check the receipts in drawer as $16 change is not enough for $50. She put us on hold and came back on the phone and said we were right and so sorry that happened. My wife went to the bowling alley the following Monday to get the balance that was not given to our son, and the man working rudely said “lanes aren’t open Yet” and she politely said “no, that’s not why I’m here”. Before she could even say why she was there, the man said (in angry twitchy kind of way) I know why you are here and we don’t do that….the girl who you called has no access to the drawer and receipts so she wouldn’t know anything…and so on with examples of we can’t just give money back to people who claimed they lost it here. My wife left the establishment and my son asked her, “where is the money” and she said they didn’t give it back. My son asked, “was the guy you talked to bald” and my wife said yes. My son said “that is the guy I gave the $50 to”. Called the owner (JP) to try and have a reasonable conversation and he said, this employee is having medial problems and it seems he might be having even bigger problems than I realize. He offered me free hour of bowling and a pizza which I declined and said I would not support an establishment that from my perspective, allows employees to steal from kids. He said there is no way to know where the money is, and blamed the child for potentially loosing the money on the ground. The Money is not what makes me most upset. It very much so appears that they stole from my son, they were definitely rude to my wife, and the owner said “I would be willing to offer free bowling and a pizza”. I said the guy who stole should be fired and they should apologize to my wife and child. This place is awful and it starts at the...