South Bowl — Restaurant in Philadelphia

11/29/2018 Update I spoke with both Mariah (events coordinator) and Leemore (Co-Owner) and they were both GREAT! Both of them were very receptive with the situation and responded quickly. They took the situation very seriously and showed true concern with how the bartender treated me.

It's unfortunate that the bartender showed and continued to show her not so good character with lying in her statement when she was asked about what happened.

Leemore openly told me what the bartender wrote about the situation and then we discussed what had actually occurred that night. I feel bad that this had to happen in such a great place that clearly has great owners and employees. There was a true lack of communication, a lot of rudeness and obvious sneakiness that the bartender displayed that night and try to lie about in her statement.

Leemore really wanted to make this situation right and asked if she could give our money back or anything else. She also told me to email her the next time I come so she could reserve lanes and give us the first round of drinks. I told Leemore that the only thing I wanted was to help prevent this kind of situation from happening again. She told me that she was going to speak with the bartender about her actions and how to communicate properly with customers.

I truly hope the bartender takes this to heart and learns/grows from it.

5 starts to Leemore and Mariah. I hope my negative experience creates a positive ripple effect for SB's customer service.

11/25/2018 Very poor experience!! Very sad since I was really excited to go here!

I was there for the first time last night for a class reunion and was flagged after my 2nd beverage for unknown reasons.

My friend and I took a break from bowling and went to order 2 cucumber vodkas with soda and a lime. Exact words that came out of my mouth “May I have two cucumber vodkas with club and a lime”. The blonde bar tender (with the ponytail) returned with 2 cranberry clubs and handed me a full alcoholic priced bill. My friend and I waited waited for 20 minutes to ask her for the correct drink unaware that I was “flagged”. And when she finally stopped ignoring us she said that I ordered a cranberry vodka soda and that I was wrong. It was my third drink at the place and I knew exactly what I ordered and how I ordered it. She was completely rude and incapable of communicating the situation at hand.

In no way should I have been discriminated against or “flagged”. I was not extremely intoxicated after 3 beverages Not once did I slip/fall/stumble I didn’t speak to the bartender in any negative way unless she took offense to “may I” I wasn’t slurring my words I was not causing a scene or being loud with another guests

I was simply ordering a drink with a friend.

I understand the whole flagging of a person and I 100% agree with that tactic but not when the person is singled out for no reason, and showed no signs of that kind of intoxication.

After this experience I would never recommend any one going or having any sort of party there when they have bartenders who treat their guests like that.

I was embarrassed to be treated like that at an event that’s supposed to be a joyful occasion. I am also very upset that the bartender lied about the bill and intentionally charged me for beverages I did not receive. Which I think is actually illegal. I was a waitress before for many years and I have never treated a customer in a way that the...

UPDATE!

After emailing South Bowl customer support, they said they would give me a free game, including shoe rentals, for six people as compensation for the horrible way their staff treated my family and I. I was told to contact them anytime to claim my free game, and then they would set everything up for me before I arrive at South Bowl. However, when I contacted them saying that I was going to be attending South Bowl for my free game; they never got back to me. This was about a month ago, and they still have not got back to me.

South Bowl is a horribly run business and they need to reassess themselves.

TLDR - Mike is a scumbag human. Waitress is a liar, but did the right thing. Manager lacks basic human interaction skills and seemed uncaring.

My family and I were bowling for no longer than five minutes, when we noticed the balls were getting stuck. We contacted the front desk, and they sent Mike, who we later find out is a complete scumbag, over to fix the lane. After he pushed the balls through, he came over to us and blames us for clogging up the balls. We then told him that those balls were there already, as there were about ten balls clogging the machine. In disbelief he responded, "I'm not a mind reader" in such a rude manner. He then made a miserable face and walked away. He is scum.

Our waitress who was standing there , right next to me, heard a good bit of what he said to my mother and father. My father then asked her if she heard what he said, and she said no. I began laughing hysterically when she said that, as she was clearly telling a lie. Our waitress was a liar, but she was the only one who actually apologized and did the right thing by sending over the manager.

The waitress sent over the "manager" if you want to call him that. This man walked over, and looked like some dude they pulled from some random lane to come over and talk to us. He looked miserable as well, and didn't even introduce himself as the manger. Actually he leaned up against the wall, and just stared at my parents while they told him what happened. As far as I know, there was not even an apology from him about what his horrendous employee said to my parents. He seemed to not give a flying hoot about what had just happened.

All in all, this was the worst experience I had bowling. My family and I will probably not ever be attending South Bowl again, and will just drive over to Jersey like we were...

This was my first time back at South Bowl since they first opened and I was excited to check it out again. A couple pros, mostly cons unfortunately.

The woman at the front desk for bowling was very kind, helpful and accommodating of my large group and my many questions. My group hung out at the bar while waiting for a lane (which ended up only taking about a half hour which was great for a Friday night).

The service at the bar was pretty subpar. It took a long time to get our drinks and some bartenders were definitely nicer than others. The bartender with the purple glasses was very friendly even when there were issues with our food order at the end of the night (we ordered tater tots, watched them get delivered to another lane, and then when we asked about them, were told that the kitchen was closed. He apologized and gave us a refund).

One of the reasons we chose South Bowl was that we were told they had vegan options. They definitely have vegetarian options which is great and you can sub fake chicken for some items but when looking for items with the "V" for vegan, it's laughably just plain tater tots. The bartender said everything is "fried in butter." Please don't even bother putting the "V" if you don't even have the option to make most of the vegetarian items vegan. I ordered the chicken souvlaki, subbed fake chicken and without the feta cheese in the pita and on the tots. Tots came out with feta on them. They were good once I annoyingly picked all the feta off. Vegan wings came out cold to the point that I don't think they were actually cooked.

Once we were at the lane, we all had a fun time bowling. I love the large wooden benches and the lanes look nice. The balls are organized nicely and color coded by weight but are weirdly greasy though and stained one of my friend's shirt. It was easy to add more games and the woman at the desk even transferred my friends lane over to be directly next to mine. That was very kind!

Unfortunately the music was so loud that we had to yell over it even when standing next to each other. Music doesn't need to be that loud in a huge cavernous space with all hard surfaces. Also, not once did a server come over to the lane to take more drink orders so we just went up to the bar which again, took a lifetime.

I would probably go back just to bowl if someone invited me because again, the lanes are nice but I definitely wouldn't bother ordering...