King Pins Bowling At Trafford Palazzo, Manchester Review

Reviewed by Lucy Gwilliam

We were fortunate to be invited to experience the new state of the art bowling experience that had opened in Trafford Palazzo, Manchester this weekend. I am local to the Trafford Centre and Trafford Palazzo and the opening of King Pins has been highly anticipated and it is a pleasure to have this kind of venue so close and accessible.

We are a hugely competitive family who love activities where we can annihilate one another at games and have a great time. Bowling is one of our favourite activities to do as a family so we were thrilled to be one of the first lots of people in Manchester to be able to try out this new fun filled setting.

When we arrived at the front desk to check in our booking, our name was on the screen above so I knew we were expected. We were greeted by really friendly staff who quickly set up our lane for us and explained how the process works. We filled in the card with our names and indicated who needed barriers in our party and give this back to the server to set up for us. The venue looks really modern, stylish and welcoming and nothing like we’ve ever had before in the area.

Once we were at our lane, our names were up on the board ready for us to begin playing. Each lane has a variety of weighted bowling balls, 2 of each weight for the shared area. We began playing and I found that the balls were really easy to bowl on the lane. They glided down towards the ten pins with such grace that I have never experienced in a bowling alley before. We did have a slight hiccup that the barriers didn’t come up for the children, we alerted a member of staff who reset our screen and rectified this for us. Our scores stayed as they were which we were happy about. This was a minor thing and they were so efficient in sorting it for us.

I really liked that there was an iPad at the end of the seating booth. Here you could order drinks, food from the kitchen and snacks. This means that you didn’t have to leave your game and wait for drinks at the bar. It was quite busy when we were there but the serving staff were really quick in bringing the orders over. We did go over to the bar to order drinks at one point and the bar staff then offered to bring this over to us so we didn’t have to miss out on valuable bowling time.

Once we had finished our 3 games of bowling, my arms were killing and my tummy grumbling, so we opted to try some food from the kitchen. We seated in a lovely spacious booth, where you can order on an app you scan with a QR code or you can go to the bar. I decided to go to the bar where I was served by the really attentive ****** (editor’s note – name removed). There are two menus to choose from, Ply, serving pizza, chicken wings and sides and Little Boa Boy, serving bao buns and sides. We decided to order from the Ply pizza menu as this had things that were more suited to our tastes. We went for 2 lots of chicken wings, 2 pizzas, Parmesan and truffle fries, mozzarella dippers and a garlic bread with cheese. This was to share between 2 adults and 2 children. It was a mountain of food and we were pleasantly impressed with the quality, freshness and speediness of the food. We were truly stuffed too. The prices of the food are really reasonable too. It came to just under £60 for what we got which is really good value for a family of 4.

Although now stuffed, my children and husband are never too stuff for a sweet treat and we’re enticed into the dessert section which has donuts, brownies, sweets and ice creams available. My family went for an Oreo brownie each but there were plenty of other appealing options so it was difficult to choose. These were £3.95 each and they were quickly demolished and all we were left with was happy smiling faces so I knew they were a hit.

After we were fed, we headed to test out the arcades. We had £10 preloaded onto a card and you tapped the card against the front of the machines to load your credits and play. It’s quite a small arcade but there was plenty for my kids aged 9 and 13 to play with along with my husband. For £10 you get 100 credits and games cost from 6 credits at the teddy grabber machines to 15 credits for a racings game. The main attraction for my family was the punching machine where you get 2 goes for 13 credits. They also enjoyed the basket ball game too. In fact they were having so much fun testing out all the games within the arcade that I ended up loading an extra £30 onto the card. This was easily done with the machine at the entrance of the arcade where you can tap your card to see how much you have on it and then use your card to load extra points. When you load £20 or £30 onto it, you get free credits to use. What I really liked about this way of gaming is you don’t get tickets from the machine like in an old fashioned arcade, you get points loaded onto your card where you can spending them in like a vending machine or you can use these towards something on Amazon. This is very forward thinking and a really attractive way of saving towards something you may want. I’ve got the card safe in my purse ready for our next visit.

The venue has a really well stocked bar, we tasted a variety of the drinks on offer including alcoholic and non alcoholic and enjoyed them all. We particularly enjoyed the espresso martini made by our server, ****** (editor’s note – name removed). This was a really lovely cocktail.

There are many other games to play within King Pins that you can book alongside your bowling experience or on their own. The games on offer are duck pin bowling, American pool, karaoke, ice free curling, shuffleboard, ping pong and battle cage. The website is really easy to navigate to book your sessions and the prices are really affordable. Ten pin bowling starts from £8 per game for adults and £6 for children. Your second game is then reduced by £2 each if you book together.

Overall, we had such an amazing experience at King Pins. We stayed for nearly 4 hours enjoying as much of the attraction as we could. My kids laughed so hard and so did we. We would definitely recommend it to anyone wanting a brilliant day out. It’s perfect for those summer rainy days when you don’t know what to do with the kids.

Rating: We would rate it 5/5.

For more information and how to book visit https://kingpinsbowling.co.uk