Merivale Bowling Lanes

This is a great old school bowling alley arcade.
Lots of full on modern games, basketball, and PINBALL! Lots of pinball, and more to come.
They also have a _​really_​good buffet lunch.

First thing you’ll notice about the urinal is the giant pile of ice. I thought this was a nice bonus to the rinsing but then I hit the little black button then the metal box struggled and… Nothing. It had that much ice because the water doesn’t run through it. The other ones had a little bit of ice and working water. Maybe they all had a lot of ice at one point before it melts.
In general its a pretty nice place for a bowling alley bathroom.
The sink is automatic and so is the soap dispenser. The paper towl machine was easy to push and full. Extra paper towl was loose beside the sink in case someone rips through the machine.
The stalls and urinals are all clean and separated by nice thick metal walls.
Definetly a good enough bathroom if you bowling or near by.
General Comments:
Bowling was fun. 14.50 for 2 games. 5 pin bowling. And in terms of drinks the best thing I found was cola. But they do have a bar upstairs. Waitress was nice. Accidentally gave me an extra quarter.
Also some nice arcade games, football, air hockey, and pinball.

Went here for the second time on Saturday and couldn’t believe the terrible customer service. We walked up to the front cash to pay for a game and the girl at the cash was texting. Instead of putting down the phone and serving us, she kept texting and without looking up said, just a sec.
They turned off the music a half hour before they closed which ruins half the experience and then turned on the lights right as our last ball went down the alley. One of the girls there was cleaning up, looked at us and said «that’s your cue». Couldn’t believe it.
With that said, the bowling alley isn’t bad and I would recommend to a friend but I give two stars due to the terrible service.

go for the bowling. Its great. Don’t go for the food. This used to be the unsung hero of places to go for lunch. Gourmet meals at reasonable prices. I’m guessing the genius that ran the kitchen has left because now the food is exactly what you would expect from a bowling alley. A good place for kid’s birthday parties. Lots of room for them to open presents and eat together after their game.

Great bowling lane and mini arcade in the west-​end. Only ever been here on those rainy/​snowy days where kids can’t be outside so to me it seems quite popular as it’s been always very full! Just a warning — it can be loud for young very children with the bowling balls and the music. The do have a snack bar so you can grab a bite or drink while playing. The black light/​glow in the dark is a big hit with the kids!

This is the only 2 level bowling alley I have ever been to.
The interior was really nice.
The guard-​rails were up though. But it made for a pretty easy game.
I like how it waits until the end to deduct all your foul points, because it makes it look like you are winning then at the end, poof, your score it cut in half and it is hilarious.

Went here to meet up with a group — and had lots of fun! As someone who grew up thinking bowling alleys were always in basements, this ground level business was a pleasant surprise. There are actually two split-​levels of alleys — one up and one down — so you still get that basement feel in case you were missing it. But neon colours and black lights make the atmosphere a bit more fun than the dingy alleys I bowled in as a girl. :-)
Shoes I rented were not in great shape, but did the job.
Food was decent — on the better side of what you might expect from a bowling alley.
Lanes functioned well, computerized scoring worked. And our last game was a speed bowling game, which gave us a lot of laughs.
Would I return: yes
Would I recommend: yes

This is a great bowling alley for the family… super black lighting so my girls always make sure that we wear lots of white when we go. It’s nice and clean with a modern scoring system — although I do miss the gobble gobble turkey with 3 strikes.
there’s arcade games, they do birthday party facilties, grab the kids and head over for some fun.

I have not been bowling in years and was really excited to check this place out again for a small high school reunion get together. We arrived early on a Saturday night around 7:30pm, and there were only a few people there.
The hubby and I checked out the arcade and had fun playing some racing games. It made me feel like a kid all over again. I had a blast. But with $ 1.00 per game, it can get pricey because the games are pretty short.
Once everyone from our group arrived we made it into the restaurant. The associate handling our table was nice. Menu left a lot to be desired, especially being vegetarians, almost everything contained meat, but that is like most restaurants these days. We ordered fries thinking not much about it, and when they arrived it was a pile of oven baked McCain fries on a very ugly plate. (Will attach photo). –1 star for the food.
Onto the bowling, it got very packed once 9:00 hit, and that’s when all the hoodlums came out to play, I felt like I was at a high school dance/​party, (I hate revisiting the high school days) –1 star for the atmosphere.
The bowling itself was fun. $ 6.00/game and $ 2.00 shoe rental fee I felt was not a bad way to spend $ 20.00 for two people. Our game lasted about 20 minutes.
I knew that if you wore all white, your clothing would glow, so I wore all black just to be a rebel! ;)
Great place for large groups. I am in no rush to go back any time soon, but would not omit to it if I am invited to an event there again.

Great place and always busy. 2 levels of bowling lanes so low possibility of having to wait. Place is clean and geared towards family. Place is cosmic bowling so expect the black lighting. Music blasting at a reasonable volume adds to the atmosphere. Party rooms for birthdays, small canteen, and a small variety of arcade games are available. .
Staff have always been helpful and pleasant to deal with.
$ 6 a game per person and shoe rentals are $ 2.50 per pair.
Parents don’t even have to bowl. They have gutter guards preventing gutter balls.
I should mention my experiences have been both during a weekend day.
Great place to have fun as a kid or as a whole family!
My only complaint? Bathrooms could be more kid friendly.

I’ve been to Merivale Bowling Lanes dozens of times since I’ve lived in Ottawa.
Last night a bunch of us went for a friend’s birthday. It was an adult party, not a pizza, pop, and balloons type thing. Low key, not so flashy — except for the blacklight… haha.
It was a good time all around, service was good, everything was prompt and large groups (we were 13) were accommodated easily.
We ordered a platter of bar style food, for the most part it was good, though the fries were underdone and the zucchini sticks were overdone.
We had a good time, nothing spectacular though.

New school contemporary cosmic bowling alley.
We don’t frequent this place very often, and the off-​the-​beaten-​path location probably doesn’t help. Sure this place has been around for awhile, and it is on Merivale — but if you don’t where it is, it can be a little tricky to find.
Merivale Bowling is situated in the Merivale Business Park area of Nepean, south of Hunt Club. There is a sign on Merivale Road, but the building is hidden behind
a smattering of smaller buildings.
I second Andrea B’s assertion that it is one of the few bowling lanes in the city that is well maintained. Merivale Bowling has to be atleast 20 years old, as I bowled here during my teen years. They have put money and effort in keeping it up-​to-​date.
We recently visited for one of my childrens’ birthday. Two levels of bowling lanes are offered, with straightforward computerized scoring, a modern collection of video & tabletop games in the arcade area, and a licenced restaurant with cafeteria like eating area.
The kids are fans of the glow-​in-​the-​dark bowling with clublike tunes. The décor is tacky-​chic.
We enjoyed 5-​pin bowling but I can’t comment on the food or bar. My appetite for grease had already been satiated, and there was no need for social lubrication.
¹²⁄₃₀ — Unilocal Ottawa’s 30 Day!

I went here with six other people — we played two games each. One of our group got charged double, and, upon confronting the guy who processed her order, he simply said «Get one of your friends to pay you» instead of issuing a refund. I have worked in retail/​customer service extensively — that kind of attitude/​remark/​help would have gotten me SEVERELY dressed down by my manager. (He may even have been a manager, he was the oldest person at the desk.)
They proceeded to be out of stock for my shoe size, so I got to play an entire game in a pair of sweaty, one size too small shoes before they had any others. And to top it off, the tables at the computers were sticky and looked like they hadn’t been cleaned all day.
Go here with low expectations. You might be pleasantly surprised, then. Otherwise, you will have parted very begrudgingly with your money.

I’ve been to Merivale Bowling Lanes so many times it’s hard to count. From the days of pre-​teen birthday parties and the Max Keeping Bowlathon, to drunken games full flashing lights and fantastic music.
This place really is fantastic, and it’s one of the few bowling lanes in the city that is well maintained and almost always busy. You’re greeted by a large bar and dining area to your left and a decent selection of arcade games on the right. The dining room is great for birthday parties or family functions.
There’s a snack counter on your left right before you head downstairs (which can be trick when you’ve had a pitcher or two of beer!) where they serve up greasy pizza, chips, chocolate bars and the like. I’d avoid food here at all costs is possible. It’s super greasy and not satisfying at all.
The front desk usually has a few teenagers working and a manager, and you also pick up your shoes here. You can purchase socks for about $ 3 if you’re as silly as me and wore flip flops to the bowling alley *forehead slap.*
As may people have mentioned in their reviews, the prices seem a bit insane to me. We almost always drop $ 75 when there’s four of us. That being said, we always have an amazing time. The black lights, glow in the dark lanes and nineties music never fail to disappoint. I do wish there was some cooler bowling software (oxymoron?) available though… those screens are so out of date it’s crazy. though I guess it does take me back to the nineties…

A nice place to bowl 5-​pin, particularly with kids or in the evening if you enjoy loud music and glow-​in-​the-​dark lanes. I loved the early-​90s retro music! But, it was very expensive on a Friday night — $ 6 per person per game! So if you bowl a game with 4 people, it’ll cost you $ 24! They need to get these prices under control.

This is a really nice bowling alley tainted by a bad experience. When you enter, there are flashing lights, arcade games, black lights, two floors of bowling, music, food and a bar. Games are $ 5 each, which is pretty good for Ottawa. My two friends and I reserved a lane for a few games, gave ourselves names typical of 50 year old chain smoking mom-​high-​fiving bowling addicted women (e.g., Barb) and grabbed a pitcher of beer to enjoy as we played. A good time was had by all until…
Rewind back to when we paid for our games. One of my friends only wanted to play two games, while my other friend and I wanted to play three, so we paid accordingly. When the second game finished, my two-​game friend’s name was still up on the board. We looked back to the counter flooded with customers on a Saturday night, shrugged and said it’s not worth the hassle to get it fixed and my other friend continued to play. I guess the employee who waited on us eventually spotted this and without warning, he shut down our alley from the safety of his counter. My other friend and I were pissed because we paid for three full games, but apparently we had to learn from THEIR mistakes. Seeing as how our game was cut off early, we had to sit and finish our almost empty pitcher of beer. With ¹⁄₃ of the alleys empty around us, the employees sent the next group of people directly to our alley to make us leave. We were super pissed and typing this now I regret not saying something.
However, this may be an isolated incident with a loser employee with a cowardly mean streak. Otherwise, our experience was great.

It was a rainy Sunday and the kids were driving me NUTS! It was all «Daddy, he said…» «Daddy, she did…» as the kids fought over the TV, the last pop in the fridge, the last cookie… Ugh. I needed to get them out and active before someone called animal control. Because of the weather, I was looking for an indoor option. Bowling! We got into the car and, following the advice of my brother-​in-​law, headed to Merivale Avenue for Merivale Bowling. Now, it doesn’t look like much on the outside. But, on the inside it was all neon lights, rocking music and the crash of pins. It wasn’t too pricey — only $ 5 per game. And they have these awesome scoring machines that take all the math out of keeping score and allow you to input your own custom silly player names (I was ‘Darth Daddy’!). Now, it is only 5-​pin bowling. In fact, I have yet to find a ten-​pin alley in the city. Maybe it is not a Canadian thing? But, the smaller five-​pin balls are easy for kids to handle. We had a blast — and inbetween games we enjoyed french fries and drinks. There is a huge seating area next to the restaurant, so they host parties and events. And, at night they have those glow-​in-​the-​dark rock n bowl things. We had a lot of fun and will definitely be back! Oh, and I won!!!