Uptown Alley

We popped in for lunch on a hazy weekday. It makes sense that they wouldn’t plan to have a large staff at that time, but on this day many people had the same idea to come here. Our server Shenasia managed every table by herself and was great! The food was still hot and delicious.

Drove from southern Chesterfield County to go bowl with family from out of town only to find out that somebody had bought out the business for the afternoon. Staff at the front desk weren’t all that helpful. Nobody posted anything about it being shut down for the day, and if we had driven here only for bowling, it would have been a complete waste of time. Another lame Richmond entertainment attempt. Don’t get me wrong, it is a nice place, but this was disappointing.

We come to Uptown every Wednesday for the line dancing. Ashley our waitress greets us with a smile and knows exactly what to bring us. Excellent service.

Cody was absolutely the best server I’ve ever had. Really, every need I had was tended to in literally seconds. I don’t think I’ve ever had such good service anywhere. The timeliness as well was superb, as soon as a drink was needed, it was there. As a recommendation, ask to be seated in Cody’s section. You’re doing yourself a service. I’m certain I will. The hosts are absolutely fantastic. Specifically Ashley, she was great and so quick. Everything was done in a breeze.

Uptown Alley is a great place to go if you want to spend a night drinking, listening to live music and bowling with friends. The company I work for brings us here for department outings and the food reminds me of something that you would find down the frozen food aisle of a grocery aisle. I’ve never eaten at the restaurant near the arcade. The prices are high though for the bowling. I like to go there to have a drink and dance to some live music but it is a great place if you wanna do something different!

TAwesome love the Stuff had a ball so much fun Happy Birthday to Jay’on the food and drinks are amazing will be back again

I came back here after a LOOONNG hiatus. I wasn’t very pleased with the crowd change and how it was THIS close to feeling like a night-​club. If I wanted to be in a club, I would change into a skimpy outfit and go to the bottom.
Anyway, all the bartenders I was used to and the bouncers I was used to were gone. :(Sniffle. I like going to a familiar place. And I worry that the new staff will have changed the overall atmosphere. However, I was pretty impressed. It was a busy night with a pretty good live band. The bartenders were as attentive as they could be and the bouncers were pleasant and watchful but not in everyone’s face. The relative atmosphere was everybody-​have-​some-​fun and it didn’t get crazy. Their food menu HAS drastically changed and their food quality, in my opinion, has gone down quite a bit. But their bartender quality is better than decent and their band really did make the night.
When Uptown was shifting towards the clubby scene, they had live bands cut-​off at around 11 or 11:30PM, at which point they would have a DJ man the music station and play some pumpy clubby music– which brought out the gyrators. I have nothing against gyrators but there’s a reason why I came to Uptown across from town versus staying in the city. I like my boots and I wanted to walk in that kind of scene. Anyway, this particular night, the brand played ALL night up until about 1am, just like old times. They played oldies and they played some sort of modern songs. People were dancing and people were laughing. No ruckus. Chesterfield done me good.
Their draft prices are still pretty good and their staff is on point for a new crowd. I would definitely keep this place in mind if I want another not so crazy but fun night out.

Got the «House Specialty» Pan fried pork chop. Comes with apple chutney and house made biscuits. Wife got the French Dip. Hers was great. Pork chop was ok. Apple chutney was was ok. House made biscuits was a sub roll with melted cheese. Beer was cold. Waiter was too helpful, kept asking if everything was alright every 5 mins. Place is just ok nothing great. If you go from 3 – 8 and eat the happy hour stuff it is worth it, otherwise … Meh, I’ve had much better.

I went to uptown last night. My id has a small bend on the top. I’m 33 and couldn’t get in because the idiot at the door said it wouldn’t scan through some machine. This place needs to hire people who know how to read birthdays instead of relying on a computer. I’ve used the same id at dozens of other places, from bars to government offices. I’ve been to uptown many times in the past, but I’ve spent my last dollar there. I’ve also seen them routinely serve people so drunk they could barely walk, so maybe the ALE should pay them a visit.

As packed as this place gets (and for how huge it was, I’m still shocked), we actually had a great time. Our waitress was super cute and super friendly, and we had no problems transferring drinks we ordered at the bar to our table tab. We did have to wait about an hour for a lane, because the upstairs cabana lanes were being occupied by two separate bachelor/​bachelorette parties. The food was excellent and the drink prices were fair, the only steep pricing was the bowling itself ($ 35/​hour). A fair warning though, lot of white trash, camo wearing, boot tooting, gun shooting, Trump supporting, tramp stamped rednecks here, and that was on a Friday. Can’t wait to see what Saturday has to offer. Overall, A–

If I could leave zero stars I would. The waitstaff, although friendly, is abysmal. The managers are even worse. The lane didn’t let us finish our game, but nobody seemed to care when we said something. The cheddar tots were good, but the pickle spears are coated in gooey inedible flour slop. There is an upstairs bowling alley. If you are bowling with adults, ask to go upstairs. It’s an adult bowling alley! When we asked to be moved they said the lanes were closed, and yet there were multiple people bowling upstairs. Management did not care. Go to a cheap bowling alley. Your experience will be much better. Awful.

So this place is like an adult bowling alley bar with an arcade and would be SO much better if kids weren’t allowed in past a certain hour. I mean having to deal with little children running around and screaming behind me while I’m bowling and beeing careful to not hit them with the ball or my arm or something at 10/​11PM at night is just ridiculous. The service was really crappy, but I think it’s mostly because I saw three people working all night and they were taking care of all 32 lanes by themselves… it was just really under staffed. The food was all pretty good, fries were AMAZING.
The arcade is really tiny and sorta crappy IMO. It’s mostly just ticket games, and just like one or two shooting type games.
The bar upstairs is AMAZING. They apparently do live music and dancing there too and have a really awesome layout of TVs for sports games. I’m hoping to go back on a live music night just cause of the awesome setup. I’ll likely go back for bowling too.

Great venue. It does get crowded on weekend nights so expect a long wait for bowling. Restaurant can usually get you in reasonable time.
It is a great venue for adults and kids alike. Upstairs level is adults only. Lower level has large game room. Think of this as like Dave and busters with bowling (on both levels).
I have done customer events here as well and very popular.

Went there looking for some fun to celebrate my daughter’s birthday. Was impressed with the looks of the place but that was the end of it. Had a seat in the Red embers grill for lunch. Waited forever for our food. Waitress literally disappeared after taking our order. I had to take our glasses to the bar to have our tea refilled. While standing there with two empty glass in front of me the manager walked by, stopped and look at me and the glasses then kept on walking. Waitress reappeared after we were done to bring the check.
We then went to bowl and play a few games. ½ way through our first game of bowling my wife went to the counter to purchase us each another game. She was told point blank «Ma’am you can’t add games»
Maybe if you want to sit at the bar and listen to the band and drink its a good spot but for me, I won’t be going back. The one positive I can say is the food was good.

I would say my visit was mediocre. Went on Saturday night around 7:30. There was a 3 ½ hour wait to bowl upstairs and 2 hour wait downstairs. Once we go Åland the area was still dirty from the previous party. The service was slow. We also had a issue with our lane and took 2 complaints before we were able to move lanes.
I recommend going on Sunday. They have better deals for bowling.

Imagine 14 members of your family coming out for a little post Christmas fun. We had a great time– BUT THE SERVICE STINKS TO SAY THE LEAST!
Server:
First, the server acted as if she didn’t want to be there. Heck, if I were her I wouldn’t want to be there either — who really enjoys their job. Although she signed up for this job– I didn’t!
It took over 30 mins to get the server to our table. Another 20 mins to get water. When the food arrived 1.5 hours after our arrival– we were «napkinless» & «plateless.» At this point I was pissed-​off to the highest level of «pissivety» to say the least.
Since I didn’t want to «catch a case» I grabbed the manager (not literally– figuratively). Ryan, the manager, turned out to be a solid dude. As a matter of fact, he saved the evening for us. He quickly assessed the situation & took over from there. Huge «ups (kudos)» to Ryan.
Due to Ryan’s efforts, we would visit again.
Suggestions for management :
1. Accept reservations for parties of 8 or more. Have patrons pay a reservation fee & apply a cancellation fee if applicable.
2. During the reservation process allow patrons the ability to pre-​order food & etc. This would apply to parties of 8 or more.
3. Assign 2 or more servers to parties of 8 or more.
This is JB X !

Slow service, well yes I agree with the others that thought so, but my friends and I come during weekdays for 2 couple games of bowling and lunch and it’s not so bad then. That said, we are regulars for bowling, we can do 2 games with shoes for about $ 10 with senior discount. It truly is cleaner and nicer than any other bowling alley I’ve seen!
We have been to Red Embers several times. Just recently they updated the lunch menu and have a «8 for $ 8» set of choices that are half sandwiches, soups, choice of side and a soft drink, great deal. Last time the soup was a chicken pesto that was fabulous. I had the $ 10 cobb salad, it was done well but you can’t go too far wrong with cobb salad. The waiter was attentive and gave great advice — he went and tasted the soup so he could recommend it — but was a bit slow and hard to find, I think he was the only one serving that day. He was happy to split the check for us too, seriously appreciate it when they are willing to do that.
A big group of us have also gone upstairs in the Rotunda for the Thursday Happy Hour, $ 3 draft beers and specials on apps, there were 20 of us but they were better prepared for groups and the service was faster.
Tip: When you go to bowl, settle in at the alley and do everything you need to before punching the button to start the games. It’s on a timer and if you fiddle around before playing you can run out of time.

I am always so conflicted when I leave Uptown Alley. I have been several times but after my most recent visit I had to finally leave a review.
First let me say I think the building and set up of this venue is great but it is poorly managed. The service here is just bad. There is not enough staff to accommodate the crowd this massive establishment draws. You have to wait sometimes for an hour to be serviced. It is terrible and it not the staffs fault because they work so extremely hard but there is just not enough of them. They have bartenders not just making drinks but waiting and servicing tables. It is utterly ridiculous.
The food here is actually really good but for the time you have to wait to get your eats it’s not even worth it. The music is awesome here. That is the one thing that brings me back here. From the bands to the DJ’s, this is the only constant positive thing about Uptown Alley. They need to take the $ 5 cover charge you have to pay on the weekends and put that towards hiring more staff.

Came here for a business social and had a great time. We were upstairs in the back section with our own private social area & private bowling lanes. Everyone working there was really nice. We were able to eat, drink, and play unlimited bowling. TV’s are the complete back wall while lookin down the lanes. TVs were also above our heads so you could sit on the couches around your lane and still watch TV. The place was rocking music while the perfect lighting was able to accentuate the lanes. The buffet style food that we ate like chicken fingers, nachos, wings, & meatballs wasn’t all that good so I’m not sure how to rate my food experience here. I’m basically rating this as a 4 Star place for FUN.

First time visiting and what a disappointment. Stayed over 1 hr waiting for lanes to open and food ordering was warned to us that would take a minimum of 2 hrs to arrive.
Really? Seriously? And by the way … We didn’t get to bowl. We left tired of waiting.
No comments.