AMF Imperial Lanes

Very, Very Sad… after 56 years — Imperial Lanes Bowling Center — is closing the doors & gutting the place. Last Day of Family Bowling anywhere in Seattle proper is this coming Sunday, May 31^st. Yes there are other facilities — but the community in the Rainier Valley is really gong to miss this place.

This bowling alley has been open consistently since 1960ish. Many people in the community learned to bowl at this location. It closes at the end of the month (May 2015) because AMF doesn’t appreciate its community value and refuses to make the investment necessary to be competitive against boutique houses. In a changing age this is one of the few remaining real alleys left. If you appreciate a relaxed easy atmosphere without a lot of lollipop fancy; come get it before it’s gone.

Paid $ 16 per person for two hours of bowling. Had 8 people but they won’t give us two lanes so we are all stuck in a single lane.

At one point in my life I HATED bowling. Then I discovered it was an activity best done drinking. Now I LOVE bowling.
AMF makes for one entertaining, people watching, cheap drinking, diner eating, bowling experience. My friends and I have had many an amusing night rolling balls and knocking down pins («Girl bowling is funny»). As popular as the Garage is I prefer these lanes. It brings me back to the good old days of bowling birthdays and high school first dates. But with cheap red wine.
If you’re looking for an indoor, weekend activity for your friends or lovers — this is a great spot!

It’s a pretty standard bowling alley. For about $ 20 on a Saturday, you can get two hours of bowling and shoe rental. We had a solid two hour session on a Saturday evening that had minimal issues. I really like how they have all of the balls arranged by weight so that you don’t have to hunt throughout the entire alley for a ball that might fit your fingers.
We did have to follow up with the front desk in order to get them to put the bumpers up for the kids in our group, and felt like they wasted a good ten or fifteen minutes of bowling time because of that.
The bowling alley was filled with interested characters, friendly people, and a strange mish-​mash of people that really enjoyed chatting with me while I was trying to take a pee.
I don’t go to bowling alleys for the cuisine. I feel like the people complaining about the food here are the same people that complain about the quality of airplane food. The food is on the periphery; it’s not the main event. That being said, we ordered what I would expect to be quality at a bowling alley: fried food. My review? It was golden brown, fried, completely unhealthy and delicious. They have fried pickles! They are amazing.
The bar was easy to get to. They had a decent selection of liquor and beer.
I’d go here again if I wanted a no-​frills bowling experience. I’d also likely order those pickles again.

Came for «Cosmic Bowling» and they are literally playing Lionel Ritchie on a Saturday night. We asked them to change the music because it was inducing a coma and they refused. Also we paid $ 17.32 per person. Biggest buzz kill ripoff. Two thumbs down.

Wish it was a lot cleaner in there, but it’s not. The employees there look kinda weird, but they seemed friendly. Prices for games weren’t that expensive. Still had a good time bowling!

I’ve been here many times before but my experience was never as bad this time. We arrived 15 minutes after opening and promptly got two hours of bowling. The same usual lady was at the front desk, and as usual, she was always been expressionless and quiet. I always wondered why she wasn’t more welcoming or friendly or at least smiled because that could put others off easily. Whatever, it’s not a big deal. She went ahead and put us on the second lane all the way to the left of the alley. This didn’t bother me as the alley was completely empty. It was just me and my two friends, casual bowling, not a party or anything.
An hour into our bowling another party arrived. For some strange reason, the lady at the front desk put them on lane one. Remember the whole alley is completely empty, so we were confused why she would put them in the lane right next to ours. It’s not that we had a problem with the people next to us, it was just extremely awkward. Surely enough, 15 minutes after that another party (of two! Just two!) arrived and what did the lady do? She put them on lane 12 or something – basically right in the middle of the alley. Why didn’t she do that with us or the party right next to us? It was just awkward and really weird and im sure the people next to us noticed as well. They were a small group, about four people. This never happened other times I’ve been here. .
What’s more, when we arrived there was no music playing whatsoever. This was understandable because we arrived shortly after opening. But shouldn’t she have put music on because people were there? We waited about 5 – 10 minutes before we had to approach her and ask her to put music on because it was dead silent. Again, she was expressionless and just turned on the music without speaking. She wad the only there, also. I feel she should’ve known how she was coming off. .
An hour and a half into our two hours of bowling, someone came and informed us as well as the party next to us that the league was about to start, and that we could either leave or they could easily save our scores and move our game over to the lanes at the very right side of the bowling alley. This wasn’t a problem for me and my friends, and the man was very kind and helpful to us, but we were confused as to why the lady didn’t just put us on those lanes to begin with, instead of having to move us the middle of a game. If we arrived right after opening, got two hours of bowling, and you knew that the league would be starting in less than two hours, wouldn’t you want to inform us before we started? Like, «yo, heads up»? Or again, put us out of the way of the league (it took lanes 1 – 29 or something, essentially almost the whole alley)? To me this just shows that the lady was very unconcerned and didn’t think things through. I don’t know why she was so keen on putting on all the way to the left, another party in the middle, and then moving us to the complete opposite side of the alley in the middle of our time there. The whole experience was really fun (it’s just bowling! So easy to have a good time without asking for much) until the lady put that party right next to us. Like I said, it was just very awkward. Again, it’s always the same lady at the front desk, so what’s the reason for the same poor service time after time?
I don’t expect much when I go to bowling alleys: music playing, clean environment, and accommodations (bathroom, drinks, happy customer service, decentish rental shoes, what else?). But things just became very awkward, and instead of playing our full two hours, we decided to leave early because we just weren’t having fun anymore. We had time for two more games, and I usually like getting my money’s worth, but it was getting a bit much. For me, this turns me off this place and I don’t think I’ll be coming back. Yes it’s conveniently in the area and there are no other bowling alleys around, but unless I’m really desperate, unfortunately I will just cut my losses and go somewhere else.
Sorry for the lengthy and wordy review guys. Just had to be said! None of it really made sense and I joked to my friends that the lady deliberately did this to us because we asked her to play music. Or because we used a coupon. Or she didn’t want to see ANY of us so she put us as far away from her as possible at the other end of the building.
…But why did those other guys get a lane in the middle. .? –Sad face–

We are bowling now great deal on the groupon for six people although they didn’t want to honor it because of the 24 hour prior deal. The good news after some bickering they did. Bad part… Went to order food severely short staffed and a
long wait advised that they didn’t have a nachos and asked if we wanted to swap for something else on the platter sure I understand. When our order came they did not have the additional item and it was missing part of the item unfortunately they were out of another item but didn’t tell us. We waited no joke 15 minutes for them to come to the counter so they could help us. All in all pretty bad on the customer service communication scale.

This bowling alley has the usual amenities — lanes, food, drink, and video games. I’ve had occasion to be there when it’s not too busy. That’s always nice because I’m a terrible bowler!
I enjoy the neatly kept balls, organized by size and color. I also think their shoes are a bit nicer than most. They have ‘lights out’ bowling that I’m not fond of other than making it harder for everyone to see me bowl.
The food is okay. The service I received was excellent. Although there were only two people working, they seemed to be doing the work of four people.

I would love to give this alley more stars because I feel we are running out if good options for bowling in Seattle. But I can’t do that.
I joined a league here that started at the beginning of summer. They promised us three free practice games a day, discounts on beer, and t-​shirts. Then the lanes were sold and under new management. Suddenly there were no more shirts, but we still got to come for league and our practice games. Then one Monday (our bowling night) we showed up only to find the door locked and a new hours sign on the door that said they were closed on Mondays. There were about 8 of us from the league that showed up. When I called them to find out what was going on I was told by a very surly person over the phone that they had tried to contact us. Knowing that I had given them my phone number and email I was doubtful that they actually tried to contact me, but that’s just my suspicion. I have no proof.
Since nobody knew when we were supposed to bowl or if the league was continuing, we tried to finish out the league by bowling on a random night of the week. Every time we went in they had no idea what was going on. The last time I tried to bowl my league games the woman behind the counter said she had no idea what was going on and that we couldn’t bowl our league games. Turns out she’s the manager. The best part of this whole story is about four weeks after they decided to close on Mondays they reopened the alley on Mondays. There’s a league coming up this fall they make too much money off of to continue to be closed. To me, this says they really don’t care about me or my money so I am going to take my business elsewhere. They sure didn’t mind taking my money every week for league dues and then pretended like I didn’t exist afterwards.
Big shout out to Jim and Brandon, who always know what’s going on and take time to make sure my friends and I are taken care of. This place is a sad reminder that corporate headquarters making all of your decisions from afar really hurt your business.

Normal, family-​friendly, casual bowling alley! Reasonably priced beer and food. The food could stand some improvement, but it’s a bowling alley, not a restaurant. I don’t expect much beyond fries and beer, myself.
The customer service is great, in general. Be aware that if you reserve a lane, be right on time or they will give it away if they’re busy, and you’ll have to wait.
I came to the pro shop to have my new bowling ball drilled, and the guy stayed open late to make sure I had the right fit and let me try bowling a few frames with it. So nice of him! That gets extra stars for me!

My family and I decided to get together on a weekly basis, so we decided to join a bowling league. Now this place is way far away from where I live, but it was kind of a median place for everyone. We joined a 10 week league which we were promised free bowling balls once it was over…
It’s been about a month and a half since our league ended an still no word from this place. My husband decided to call and check the status last weekend and this place is so disorganized!!! The girl who answered had NO idea what we were talking about and said we should call back when their manager was there.
We went through 10 weeks of this disorganized hell. Every week we would get there and sit around and wait a good 15 – 20 minutes after 7pm to even start our «warm up». The woman there seems like she’s been there a long time, but she has ZERO urgency. She takes her time getting things started… She’s never at the counter when the lanes don’t work, and we just have to sit around waiting forever for her to come back. Then we ask if we can move to another lane after it breaking over and over and she says «no it’ll work…» It’s like we wanna get this over with, we don’t wanna have to wait forever while you fix it every time! We all work Monday morning and we don’t want this to be an all night extravaganza!!!
Another thing we were promised was 3 free games a week to practice… They said they mail out coupons to our email every week. For some reason 1 out of 5 of us actually got the email. They said, «oh fill out this paperwork and enter your email address and we will get them to you…» Needless to say that was the 2^nd round of paperwork we filled out, and STILL to this day have never received any free coupons for bowling!
God the lack of organization is sooooo frustrating, it made all of us DREAD coming every week!
We are all glad it’s over with, and thankful that we don’t have to put up with that every Sunday.

It’s a bowling alley.
Thursday night league for me.
Cheap pitchers.
If the short Asian lady is in the kitchen, she can make decent Asian food.

This is not the most modern bowling alley for sure, but it is classic. Ton of lanes under fluorescent lights. Dumb/​Funny animations on the screens when you bowl a strike or a spare. This is just what you expect when you think of traditional bowling but you can bring your beer/​drinks down to the lanes and they have enough ball variety to suit almost anyone (finger hole size v. poundage). They also have half-​sizes on shoes.
Good ol’ Bowling alley.

I drove by this place for 10 years before having the nerve to go in. I’m so glad I finally did! Gone are the days of stinky smelly cigarette smoke filled bowling alleys. Despite the worn carpeting, this place is really pretty clean. The service has always been SUPER friendly. I’ve been to kid birthday parties here (a la carte is better than the package) and it’s good cheap family entertainment. I recommend bringing your own pizzas because the food is the biggest disappointment here.
But it’s a great place for a rainy weekend when you don’t want to be outside. Sundays before 2pm the games are only $ 1.99 each, so definitely the time to go. If you want to be a super-​geek buy your own bowling shoes because they’re $ 4.99 to rent and drives up the price quite a bit, but own your own and dropping by for one or two $ 1.99 games is cheap fun.
Though all the counter staff has always been really nice, I have to give a special shout out for Jim who helped us today. My friend who is in a wheelchair arrived early with the kids and went up to get their shoes and a lane. Jim asked her if she was going to bowl too. She looked at him… He said, «there’s a ramp down to the lane at the end. I can put the bumpers up and you can take your chair up on the lane.» She was really excited to get to join us and instead of us both watching kids bowl, we all played together. It made for the beginning of a terrific day and we will be back together many times. THANKS Jim!

Yeah, this place looks a little skeezy on the outside — but really. What bowling alleys don’t look that way? And ok, it’s off Rainier which might up the fear factor a bit… but really! Inside this is your typical bowling alley. It is clean, brightly lit, and full of people having a good time.
So did I have a good time? Totally! The back bar area is a bit out of the way to get to, but the bartender was super friendly and nice to boot. Once our entire party made it and we started actually bowling he’d keep coming around checking up on us, refilling drinks, congratulating us on a good round, and making jokes. He was super swell. The front desk staff was nice too — letting us pay individually when they normally require one lump payment for groups as big as ours. Way to be nice AMF staff.
$ 17 covered 2 hours of bowling PLUS shoe rentals. A super good steal in my book. I later discovered that I am not good at bowling while sober or drunk, but when lightly tipsy I can break 120 (which is good for Kate). The animations on the screen when you do well or poorly are bizarre and laughable, the computers easy to work once you figure out HOW to program them initially, and all and all I had a good time. I like activities that branch out beyond my normal karaōke and boozin’ times, and I’d happily visit AMF again if pseudo-​sports seemed to on the menu for the evening.

Bowling isn’t really my jam. I mean, don’t get me wrong, every 10 years or so when I go bowling, I do have fun, but it’s not something I really think to do. But when a certain someone decides to have a nervous breakdown, and thinks going bowling in the ghetto will somehow make it better, instead of just taking some xanax, who am I to say no?
It was $ 16 for two hours of bowling + shoes on a Saturday night. Pretty good deal to me. They have pull-​tabs, a pitcher of beer is $ 15, and they have $ 2 shooters. The bartender is awesome and keeps coming over to check on you, cuz he knows you’re all a bunch of drunk assholes. The lady ringing people up is super sweet and even puts up with us bringing all our pennies over to buy pull-​tabs.
All in all. Next time in 2018 when I decide to go bowling, hopefully I will remember the awesome time I had here, and go back.
Beyonce Pad Thai wasn’t that great, but everyone else wouldn’t let me have bumpers cuz apparently I am an adult, or something.

A neighborhood bowling alley
Joined a bowling league here for fun. It is generations of Asian Americans mostly and other ethnicities. Rarely do you see grandma, daughter, granddaughter all in one place hanging out — pretty cool stuff.
Not sure about non bowling league nights but probably an okay place to hang out. If you want to eat get the wings and order them first thing when you walk through the door b/​c it will take an hour or so to get them. The pizza is like a middle school cafeteria, yuck. Get pitchers of cheap beer. The bartender is nice and will change the TV if you want to watch a different sport. Besides that it is your usual greasy must wash your hands after bowling alley.

I’m giving this place 4 stars as a courtesy because I am here every week for «Quartermania» and feel that any place that receives my business weekly should be credited with a 4 star review. Even so, this place has a lot of flaws. Let’s start with the cons:
— On any given day, you’ll be lucky if you’re on a lane next to someone that can count to potato with an IQ above squirrel. This is lowest common denominator clientele, and if you enjoy sitting around and reflecting on your faith in humanity, you should probably keep as far away from this place as possible.
— One day I was bowling here and Nate Robinson showed up with a posse of about twenty. They were on a lane a few spaces down. I considered going up and asking him to sign something, but then I realized that I could not care less about his existence and I’d probably use that piece of paper to blow my nose, so I didn’t. Even though Robinson is about 3 foot 12, he doesn’t bowl too poorly for a guy that gets paid over a million dollars to be a glorified bench warming cushion. At one point he got a strike, and this middle aged white lady that was bowling next to him thought it would be fun to walk up and say congratulations. Robinson responded by dry humping the lady’s leg and pressing himself up against her until she fell over onto her lane, then he laughed and high fived his buddies. The lady was crying.
— If you’re in the market for some foul smelling Mary Jewana, I believe they might sell the most potent, rancid plant in history over by the back entrance. Either that or they are simply taking some time to hide in a stairwell and enjoy it themselves because at home they have to deal with their meany mothers. Every time that door opens the entire bowling alley smells like The Evergreen College.
— Lane 1 is tilted a little to the left. Lane 3 likes to have errors that cause it to freeze until the employees restart it. Lane 4 has a bump right in the front of the lane. Lane 13 just sucks and I have no idea why. Every lane is good enough, every one has its own weird problems.
This is a flawed place, and if you have a problem being surrounded by wannabe thugs that have too much confidence and no shame, going here during any peak hour may be a struggle.
Pros:
— Considering its location, it’s not that bad a bowling alley. They maintain it with at least some resemblance of regularity so that if you know how to bowl, you won’t experience too much friction and your ball probably won’t adjust oddly from bumps in the lane.
— They have claw machines for toys, and if you rock the dizzle out of the claw machine like I do, you can take home a bag full of children’s stuffed animals on any given night.
— Wednesday’s «Quartermania «is pretty impressive, because you can bowl from 9ish to midnight for about $ 8.00 total. $ 5.00 investment, quarter a game, shoes included. Not bad.
In some ways this place sucks. But in other ways, this place sucks. Still, if you ignore those ways, you’ll find that a lot about this place sucks. Even so, there are few bowling alleys in Seattle, even fewer that have these good deals, and the alley itself is better than Kenmore Lanes so unless you plan on driving to West Seattle this is the best nearby option available.