Subpar Miniature Golf

Indoor mini golfing? Cool!
Glow in the dark games? Cooler!
Glow in the dark indoor mini golfing? Coolest!
I came here with a friend for glow in the dark golf, which is on Friday and Saturday nights after 7:30PM for $ 10. A shame you can’t really see their cool, Bay Area-​inspired holes, but I had a lot of fun! Their holes are creative and had a good variety of paths. They generally aren’t too difficult either, so it’s perfect for both kids and adults.
I see this being a great place to hang out on a night in downtown Alameda. Lots of fun!

This place is pretty cool and creative. I love how every hole is at a different local «landmark». It’s fun and it ends up taking a bit of time to go through the entire thing so you get your money’s worth. The night we went was somewhat crowded so instead of waiting for the huge group ahead of us to go we just jumped around to different spots. Only thing I suggest is that they add a bit more creativity to the blank walls they have. They can really make it stand out more than what it does.

This is the only indoor mini golf course I have ever been to. All the holes are Bay Area themed, which is pretty fun and it makes it a good place to bring visitors from out of town. They make pretty good use of their space. They offer a yearly membership if you’re a frequent flyer. There’s also an arcade upstairs.

Decent indoor miniature golf, however, military discount is offered only to active duty which is offensive to vets, retired, and surviving spouses of those who paid the ultimate price. Hope you can extend this discount to cover all military members.

Six lanes of fast slot car fun for everyone!

Got to enjoy this Bay Area themed mini golf while I was visiting friends. Each hole was different and they varied in difficulty. There was a kids birthday party happening at the same time in the side room which was a little loud, but kids will be kids. Just wish their parents would have been keeping an eye on some of them a little better. One set of boys kept being rude with their comments and commentary on our game, which got to be a bit much, so much so that when their moms finally payed attention, they left in a hurry. Other than that, a great place to play mini golf and get a geographic lesson on the bay area.

We just had my son’s 7^th birthday party here yesterday and it was a big success without one single problem! There was a total of 8 boys which is a good size for this age and I barely had to lift a finger. The pizza was delivered from across the street and Tucker’s ice cream cake delivered from down the street! The party is very affordable and I highly recommend adding on 30 minutes of slot car racing which they break up between 2 groups of kids. While one group is using the included tokens in the arcade, the other group is having fun racing each other. We will be back for a family night :)

It’s very cool that this place is indoors but the fans weren’t on/​working the day I went so it was pretty stuffy. $ 9 per adult on a Saturday.
The Bay Area landmark-​inspired holes were unique but some were in declining condition. They also really love building these structures with crazy inclines and banks.
If you’re not into put put, they have arcades and a RC race track ($ 5 for a 15 minute race). I’d come again on one of the discounted nights and definitely with out-​of-​towners.

We had Girls Night Out in Alameda last Friday and had a FANTASTIC time playing Glow in the Dark golf at Subpar! Some holes are challenging but with glow golf they’re even harder.
The course is made up of mini Bay Area landmarks, our favorites were the Taco Trucks, and the Park Street Bridge.
It’s cool that the course is indoors and right in the middle of Downtown Alameda.

Indoor mini golf with some creative holes. Loved the double loop San Francisco bridge. I wish they had better creative lighting instead of just overheads. But we would definitely come again.
Don’t compare it to outdoor mini golf, this is a whole different thing.

My sister (who is 8) and I came in here yesterday to play some golf. According to some of the Unilocal reviews this place gets really hot but it really wasn’t bad as they made it seem the place had to be at least 10 degrees cooler and they were also offering ice cold free water because of the heat which is really nice. The golf course is really cool and really creative wet both had an awesome time, they’re staff is really helpful and super nice. Overall it was a great experience.

Great little spot in the heart of Alameda, first time here with my girlfriend and we had a blast. The employees weren’t very friendly but the fun little course made up for it. But one downside was there wasn’t any conditioning, they had some fans running but it’s a 90+ degree day and it doesn’t help much. But overall great place!

This place is cheap but you really get what you pay for. The holes are short and uninteresting. The Golfland holes are way more intricate and challenging. These holes looked like they were made in someone’s garage one afternoon.
The place isn’t ventilated at all and it’s not very clean. I was disappointed especially after reading the great reviews. Go to Golfland instead.

This is a great place to bring the whole family, prices are reasonable, and they have a lot of awesome bay area themed putting holes. Even if you don’t particularly like mini golf, this is still a great place for cheap entertainment, they have quite a few arcade games, slot cars, billiards, and fooseball. Also, this place has great hours, which makes it the ideal place to visit after some heavy pub crawling or an early dinner out.

Time: 3:37pm/69°F sunny
Purpose: Walk up to banh mi shop around the corner only to find they went belly up. Place looks like in was in trouble from the beginning already. Walking back to car as I remember, it use to be a golf shop or sporting goods spot.
Venue: Indoor family entertainment center.
Set-​up: Downstairs mostly for miniature golf with 18 holes that takes you from bay area landmarks/​iconic buildings (of course its mini size too). Small corner area with video games, air hockey table and change machine. Cashier rental is right out front along with electric slot car racing. While upstairs is more video games, just caught a glimpse and went back down. Don’t stick around to explore the upstairs.
Plays: Miniature golf one round (on the house). For me it really feels weird as I’m known to take swing hard swings out on the course. This miniature thing got me soften up my leverage. I even started using one arm to play. To fully completed all 18, you’ll need patient, energy and the will to play. It gets boring after a few holes. Ball can get stuck in the ducts, rail, tracks. Guest before me place a Frito-Lay’s Funyuns bag in a duct and trap my ball. After retreating ball I had to wash and wipe before continuing. After 5 minutes or so I gave up brought equipment back up return it. Went to change machine got tokens and play half hour pinball. I’m the type that sometimes have no patience to play. When your mind set is closing a deal with clients, it just drains you desired. May be if I was with another person outlook would look better. Definitely didn’t feel for it today.
Products/​Services: Indoor miniature golf, pinball, video game, air hockey, slot car, pool table, table tennis. Private party rental (prices varies during peak/​non peak hours), food and beverages (provided from Linguini’s), membership, daily pass, yearly pass, room rental package.
Punch Lines: Family oriented, upstair/​downstair, outsourced food/​drinks, BYOC or buy a house car, no tickets for prize redemption, safe, dated place, represents bay area landmarks/​iconic places, good for groups, snarky staff, functional arcade game, street parking, nearby restaurant/​cafes, drugstore, ATM/​banks, antique shops.
Tradeoffs: During peak hours you feel rush by impatient golfers. Thus, making you kicking ball in hole and off to another repeating. What’s the rush?
Final Thoughts: It’s a cool little spot for some late night action provided that theres nothing else going on. Place just feels cramp in like confined to play in a cage. For fresh air you’ll need to step out take a breather. Oscillating fans didn’t provide much. For me miniature golf started in Malibu right off 880/​Hegenberger. You OG’s should know what place I’m talking about. Back then thats were I got my miniature golf skills launch, it was so fun of outdoor. Every hole I went has some kind of motor actuator continuously moving making it more challenging. Again, I would come back, but not playing solo another visit may perhaps change the way how I feel about indoor miniature golf.

Sweat Box.
What pulled me in was the local feel of the «course». Holes one through maybe 7 or 8 were complete and interesting. Once you get to the back, the putting areas are complete but the wall art work completely falls off as most of it isn’t finished. Its looks like one large art project that was started in the 90’s and never finished, just sketches of what could be.
Aside from the façade of artwork, which is the thing that really only makes this place interesting and warrants the second star, this place could easily change its name to «Devil’s A-​hole Minature Golf». The fans in the back are spinning, but when I put my hand up to a few of them I couldn’t even feel a breeze coming off of them. I know this is a review in July, but I was there at 11am on a gloomy and misty Tuesday morning; I couldn’t wait to get out for a breather.
Now before you jump to assumptions and say, «how much of a workout can miniature golf be? or ‘its not their fault you’re out of shape.» I’ll first let you know that I am in shape, that shape just happens to be circular and secondly, the ball hardly stays within the putting area when being hit. I was dodging golfers balls (ha-​ha) from other holes (ha-​ha) the entire time and they were dodging my son’s (ha-​ha).
What it boils down to is they shouldn’t change their name and I made a mistake. I give myself one star for not heeding the warning and handing over a fresh Lincoln bill to let my son play some golf here. It’s all in the name and I missed it; SUBPAR… Shame on me.

Upon arrival we were greeted by the 2 guys and they were both attentive. $ 7 for adults and $ 5 for kids to golf (18 holes). They also have a machine to change bills to quarters for parking outside, FYI.
The courses all had a little miniature theme of landmarks in the bay. From hole 1 being the windmills to skate park to Golden Gate Bridge to Lombard street to city hall. It was very cute and clever. At the 18^th hole was the end and as we returned our equipment the gentlemen asked us how it was and asked my son if he had fun. Took us about 30 minutes to finish the whole course.
–1 star because they didn’t have AC and it was pretty warm in there. However they did have fans in certain places, an AC would have made the experience more comfortable.

This is a really fun way to spend a few hours with friends or family. Every hole is based on a Bay Area landmark, which adds some extra whimsy to your game. The course is a bit challenging for a rookie like me but sucking so bad is all part of the fun, right?
It can be a bit chilly in here in the winter so dress in layers or bring a coat you can move around in. *Extra points for air hockey and arcade games to cool down with!

Bay area!
Awesome indoor golf with very realistic renditions of landmarks of the yay area, on top of that the holes are more challenging/​intricate than your typical mini golf. This is fun for all ages, from my 7 year old cousin, to my 14 year old TEEN cousin to my mom (the traditional no nonsense Asian mother!). You could seriously bring anyone here
Air hockey was lame, a lot of the blowers were out so the puck got stuck often. There was a cool old school Frisbee arcade machine which was cool too
Fun family friendly time is a win in my book

BF and I came here last Saturday after seeing a Groupon. $ 9 dollars for 2 people to play 1 round of golf.
Holes: This is an interesting concept, definitely a great idea, but I felt it was not well executed. There were different courses representing different parts of the Bay Area, which was pretty awesome. However, the holes were too easy, and the courses for it was way too small. Sometimes, it just didn’t make sense, and made it impossible for a hole for one. Now, I am not saying I’m a Pro mini-​golfer, but even I didn’t think it was challenging. Maybe for small kids?
Space: It felt very cramped and small. I know I know, it’s indoor golfing, so I shouldn’t expect for it to be like the one in Castro Valley. I wish there was just a little more space between courses. We went when it wasn’t busy at all, imagine if we went on a Saturday night! Eeep!
Price: The Groupon price felt fair because the game was quick and not at all challenging. I don’t think I would pay full price for this place.
Extras: There are older arcade games, pool tables, foosball table and air hockey. Once you’re done with golfing, head over and play a game of good old DDR =P
Overall, it was an OK place to stop by. It kept us entertained for an hour (course + arcade games). I don’t think I would come back here though :(I just didn’t feel very entertained… but I recommend swinging by and just checking this place out once.
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