This place sucks! for the longest time me and and my friends have been trying to go bowling and to have a good time. Just today we called to see how long was the wait and the girl on phone was rude and said that the wait was 2 hours and probably won't be able to get us in before they close. The Funny thing is we called them at 7:30 and they close at 12:00 midnight What a freaking joke. I'm done with this crappy place! read more

Boo. Do not come here to drink and watch football. Way overpriced once you flag one of the rude and slow bartenders down. Waited almost twenty minutes to be served then paid $15 for a pint of coots lite and a well vodka. read more

Food and drinks are 10/10. Lanes -1/10.. like they don't even try to maintain them. For bowling for fun not for those who know how to bowl... which sucks. I really like the Capri suns... read more

I love(d) big als when they first opened. The hype for the Meridian Village was becoming real. I would using visit on Fridays after work with a bunch of buddies. The fact that they are open late is a huge plus to people who are looking for a dinning experience at midnight (the rare few of us out there). So let's talk about the pros and cons Pro: large new facility offers plenty of amenities. Clean up kept facilities. Large televisions for sports. Arcade and bowling for family or wholesome fun. Cons: food is WAY over priced for what you are getting. If the food tasted better I would understand a hefty price. I've had several burgers on more than one occasion have melted plastic in the cheese. The staff is always willing to re make food, but it's disheartening to have it happen 3+ times. Would I take friends to Big Als? Probably for the excitement during game day, but their are other options around that compete in this market. I recommend they adjust the food prices. read more

Please Big Al's make the in dining ordering easier...your app system is next to horrible for large groups. Probably ok for individuals or couples but not good for everyone else. Thanks to the wonderful bartenders who helped out and placed the orders and got us on track. They were incredible and deserve to be recognized as the only thing that kept us from leaving. I get you are short staffed and this new system looks good, probably on paper, but when every restaurant at the Village has an hour wait and you guys are barely half full, there is something wrong. I know we aren't the only ones who fought this crappy ordering app. The food was still pretty good but you guys could do so much better on the customer experience. It also wouldn't hurt to run out and wipe the tables and chairs down outside before the live band plays. It was embarrassing to see how dirty it was, especially since we talked it up to our out of town guests we had with. Don't blame it on not having enough people...I did see 4 of you standing around by the kitchen for quite a while...looked like managers too. 5 minutes and all the tables and chairs could have been nice and clean. Management, please take some pride in what you do so your place can be enjoyable again. We really enjoy coming for the live music but you make it look uninviting now. 7/2/21 dinner night with a group of 8. read more

Good place for games, bowling and watching sports. That's about it. Food was disappointing, service was disappointing. Our waitress told us they had about 40 beers on tap, but could only name the beers that every bar has on tap (Bud, Coors, Blue Moon, etc). There was only a list of the breweries they had on tap, but not the specific beers. When we'd ask what beer they had for a specific brewery our waitress had no idea, and then tried to justify her lack of knowledge by then saying they'd had a big event the previous day and were actually out of a lot of beers. And then it was her manager's fault for not getting her updated beer lists. We ordered appetizers - chicken skewers, spinach artichoke dip and onion rings. The waitress recommended the chicken skewers, but then said she'd never tried them, but hear they were good. They were okay. Teriyaki flavored, but only 2 small skewers for $5 (happy hour price). The spinach artichoke dip was actually pretty tasty but the tortilla chips they served with it were beyond stale and obviously dumped on a plate from a plastic bag. And after the food was dropped off our waitress (and all the other staff in the restaurant area) seemed to disappear. The one great thing about the restaurant was the wall of BIG screens. The night we went Monday Night Football and baseball playoffs were on. I'd go back to watch sports there and enjoy beers, but I'd probably pass on food. We did do some bowling with friends. If you like loud tween-type music that you can't talk over you'll enjoy this place. That being said we did have a pretty good time. At 9pm they started cosmic bowling. We weren't expecting it, but it was fun. We didn't play any other games, but might check it out again for that. It's in a nice central location and luckily there are a lot of other places around to eat. I think when or if we go back it will be for beers and games or sports watching, but we'll be sure to eat first. And go in expecting just okay service. I will say that the one waitress serving the bowling lanes did a good job of keeping our beer pitchers full. And the bartender at the bar by the bowling alley was great. read more

I have to say where can you go to bowl, eat food, drink and it's all relatively cheap. I got the turkey burger and it was so good my husband got the halibut burger and he said it was amazing. We bowled three games and they were very cheap we had a blast. Our server was great. In between serving the servers bowl and I'll tell you the servers can bowl like nothing I've seen (but nobody's going to invite me to their league anytime soon lol) This place is a good family. read more

I've been here a bunch of times since it opened and now I finally I can review because I finally went bowling. Service-is amazing without fail every single time, except one, and looking back I feel I should have said something to the manager, but seeing your server sit down at another table and be on his phone when your service is lacking already really annoying. But that's one time out of dozens. Crowd-It's busy, almost always, if you don't want a crowd come around 8 pm in the middle of the week. It's noisy I don't know what people expect. Sometimes yes it's annoying but oh well. Food- It's truly just alright. Only two things I've ever had have been amazing, the Pear Pecan Salad and the Chicken Noodle Soup. I've ordered burgers either under cooked or cooked. I've gotten the Cesar wrap, which is always more salad then meat, and never enough dressing. But oh well. Drinks- I would say the drinks are one of the best things about this place. Always good for a decent price. BUT I will say this, it depends on who makes the drink. There is nothing I hate more then ordering a drink and sipping it to realize it's mostly juice. Again I digress, it is what it is. Bowling-Crazy long wait, insanely over priced, and too crowded. They really should have a set number of people you can have on your lane. Maybe next time, I will get a more expensive lane in the other bowling ally, that is if it's ever opened. All in all, I highly doubt I will stop coming here, because frankly it's always a good time. But, I do think there are changes that could be made so regulars that come here a lot, don't stop coming here. read more

If I could give zero stars I would. I have never had worse service ever! We got to big Al's excited to bowl. The wait time was over two hours, no big deal. Well just go walk around the mall. We saw that Saturday's were $2 bowling for kids, put our name down around 4:30 and went and enjoyed our time around the mall. As it got closer to our time to bowl we decided we'd just eat there. After ordering our food we got the text that a lane was open for us. My husband took our older kids to go bowl and I sat with my baby to wait for the food. Guys. It's took them over 30 minutes to bring the food. Ok whatever, sometimes things are slow. I get it. They drop off the pizza. No plates. 3 minutes later a girl drops off the wings. Still no plates. I started timing at this point, I asked a girl walking by for plates because at this point I haven't seen my waitress in over 40 minutes. The girl never returned with plates . More time goes by and I ask to speak to the manager. I still have no plates by this point. Finally the manager shows up, he was nice but when I told him I had been waiting 25 minutes for just plates, he didn't say anything. Like didn't even seem to care. Didn't even offer a complimentary drink. It took over an hour from the time we were sat to when I got the final thing I ordered. AN HOUR! That's not even an exaggeration, I had a sleeping baby and nothing to eat so what else am I going to do but time how long until someone brings me a simple plate. At this point my husband lets me know that because it took two hours for us to get a lane, we missed the $2 bowling. Not a big deal, it was definitely our responsibility to read the super tiny print that was very visible. Honestly, if the food hadn't been such a disappointment, I wouldn't be bugged about how god awful the bowling prices are ($5 a game AND $5 shoe rentals) but by that point the whole experience was ruined for me. We spent over a $130 to be treated like garbage by the wait staff and have a manager that didn't seem to mind. You would think this review would be over, right? I mean what else could possibly go wrong at this point. To be fair, the family bathroom was clean, but no toilet paper. Like for hours. On top of that there was no soap in the men's bathroom and my husband told multiple employees, it took them over 2 hours to put soap in the bathroom. Honestly, I'm just flabbergasted that we spent so much money and had such a terrible time. My kids loved bowling there, so there was a bright side, but I don't know I'll ever be able to bring them back. We'll look for a smaller, better run bowling alley next time. And we won't be returning to go to the arcade like we planned. read more

Extremely bad service at the restaurant. We placed our drink order and it took twenty minutes to get water. After 30 minutes we spoke with the manager who blamed his people. Ironically it took twenty minutes to get water but within two minutes of getting our food were presented with the bill. The manager offered us a free dessert for us to split (really?) which was never communicated to the other staff. Fun arcade but for the love of all that's good don't eat here. read more

We used to come quite often to Big Als and have always enjoyed ourselves and have gotten good service. Tonight was horrible. You don't get service. You have to go up to the bar and wait in line for 15-20 minutes to place an order for dinner including drinks. They then give you a number. Once our food arrived I noticed we were missing tots. I went by the kitchen and let the lady know. She rudely 10 minutes later brings over some kind of potatoes in a skillet and tells us "on our end we showed you ordered these"! We nicely told her it was incorrect and she said well this is what you ordered. We told her we didn't want them because we didn't order it. She got pissy and removed them and we never got our tots. Anytime we needed a water filled you have to go wait in line again. We had $100.00 ticket between the 3 adults and 3 kids. We were so disappointed as this was our weekly go to spot during football season where we typically spent almost $200.00 each Sunday. We won't be back and will be finding a new spot. read more

This a a great place to come with the Family. Sunday before noon is the best as they have games for $2. Plenty of beer choices as well. read more

Big Al's - Choosing our bowling names. - American Near Me - Meridian, Idaho

We had a big group of adults wanting to hang out and a big group of kids wanting to play. It worked out perfect. Our waiter kept it all pretty straight even with the chaos and we had a safe place for our kids to enjoy each other. It wouldn't be my first choice but it's a great family environment. The quinoa salad offered a healthy alternative to the pizza and burgers. And the restaurant gave us a quieter atmosphere than the rest of the place. I loved the $5 bonus on the kids cards on Saturday night. Plus the cards kept track of the kids money and tickets. I didn't have to try to manage the silly tickets. Overall a great place for big groups and families. PS- I rocked the arcade basketball. read more

Hey Big Al's Today was a big flop from beginning to end. First the lane did not work. We tried the intercom on 3 separate times no one answered and no one came. So down to the front end I went 5 times to have the lanes reset. I was unaware you set a timer for games so as I am sure you guessed timer ran out in the middle of the second game. So we did not get to finish the second game. Ordered food another mistake. I went to the lounge and ordered drinks and food. He handed me 3 drinks no offer to bring them to me or a tray for me to carry them. Ordered the nachos the kids wanted they brought the wrong ones of course. The last straw the kids had cash to buy their game cards. Yep! You don't take cash! However, you are handing me the same pen that has been used by everyone else in the building that day. Doesn't really make sense. Please I get Covid but it should make sense. You are not cleaning the counter after each person nor the key pad for cards. I spent almost 100 bucks taking the kids there today. Extremely disappointed read more

The Paragon of Mediocrity: We were there on a Tuesday, so NOT busy at all. We waited 30 minutes before a server arrived. He was polite, so that's good. Beer arrived food shortly after ordering 50 minutes after we started bowling. We ordered Mac and cheese and spaghetti for the kids and the smothered fries for us. The fries are great, but the meatballs were COLD - like straight out of the fridge. COLD! The spaghetti is COLD, like 30 minutes on the table COLD. The Mac n cheese is lukewarm and mediocre. Sent two kids meals back. Came back warmer 20 minutes later. No water. Slow service. Bowling is bowling, food is bad. First and LAST time eating food here - AND. It's PRICEY! AND they didn't give the half-price happy hour deal. AND no comp for the cold food. AND the lane broke down. AND they directed us to non-happy hour drinks. I WILL NEVER RETURN TO BIG AL's! Westy's FTW! read more

Went to Big Al's Saturday night 10 October 2020...The place looked to me like they would be out of business in a month. Staff member told us to order from the bar, not many customers, 8-10 filthy tables heaped with dirty plates and food scraps...nobody was cleaning any of it. TV volume was so loud we could barely have a conversation. Nobody greeted us or acted as if they cared we were there...We were disgusted enough that we didn't even sit...went nearby to Yardhouse and had good food, great service, in a clean establishment...I've been to Big Als with large groups before and had good times there...looks like those days are gone...if I was running that place, I surely would dump the managers and start over. read more

Come for the TV and football games don't come for the food or service. Service was slow. We never got one of our dinners, ended up going without it. Server had to ask three time what drink I ordered. I'm not talking about asking for clarification I'm referring to her coming back to our table to ask because she had forgot. Big fail. I may try other bar for the game next time. read more

Okay, so our last experience 2 years ago was super bad enough to keep us away! Thought we could try again, and BAM! Same disappointment So where to begin, humterrible service, cold salmon tacos, extra fees and the excuse from the waiter and other server that this happens all the time! Really, how do you stay in the restaurant business? If I could give 0 stars I would. Coming from Emmett to have a fun night with our grandkids, we will definitely not be back! read more

Today i went to big als with my boyfriend. I was so exited to bowl and eat good food. We ordered lemon pepper wings and mozzarella sticks, and i have never been so disappointed. I don't make that much money and i was exited to treat myself and my boyfriend. $30 down the drain. Do better Big Al,s. read more

Took my little buddy for a few hours of bowling for some guy time. He chose Big Als over Pins. I really like the place over all. Service 3 stars, food 3 stars, atmosphere 4 stars, and cost 2 stars. 2 games with shoe's, 6 wings fries, and 2 soft drinks... Just over $40 bucks. So call ahead for specials or you will over pay like we did. read more

I was there today for a catered event. The food tables were totally picked over even though I arrived at the official start time, and I couldn't find a Big Al's employee anywhere to bring out more stuff. (Even if the organizers hadn't paid for more, an employee should have been on hand to answer questions.) There was also no vegetarian option - it baffles me how any caterer in this day and age can exclude that. It should always be assumed that 10% of the group will choose a non-meat option. We had a hard time hearing the speaker because of the noise of water and dishes coming from the kitchen. I wouldn't recommend this venue for a speaker. read more

I am more than appalled by the way myself and my group were treated at this establishment last night, the 13th of March. I would like to preface this by saying I was here with my boyfriend, his parents and brother, who is an ambassador for the special Olympics of Idaho, and a handful of my friends. We paid for two games of bowling up front and got our shoes and proceeded to try to get drinks. My friend Cody was immediately told by their bartender to "give this ID back to the person who actually owns it". Mind you, he's 35 with children. He obviously was confused and proceeded to spell out his middle name, give his address etc. She called a manager over who also just looked at the ID and said it looked suspicious. We tried to let it go and everyone else's IDs were barely glanced at. But I just got a glass and we continued to play our game. When one of the managers came back to check on us I did raise my concerns about feeling like my friend had been profiled and he wasn't even apologized to. Well she vehemently defended the bartenders actions and insisted his ID was scuffed and scratched, which I can assure you, it isn't. We were later told that we were not allowed to play the last game we paid for and I asked for a different manager. He told me we had been out of line all night, had been harassing the staff, and accused me of throwing money at the bartender, which I obviously did not do. He then told me we were going to be escorted out by security. At least seven employees came back to our lane and demanded we leave, and the manager, Adam, got in my boyfriends face and was being excessively threatening. I politely asked if they could tone it down, as my brother in law was confused and didn't know why he couldn't finish bowling. It was absolutely unacceptable and not only will we never be returning but we are considering pursuing legal action. read more

I will never come back! You park in one area on UFC fight night...try to get in and are not allowed to walk through to the other areas. Supposed to go back to your car or walk all the way around--rediculous--No courtesy or common sense! No wander the rating here is so low. Common sense could take this place to the moon... read more

Way too overpriced. I would go to the lanes in garden city if you are wanting to bowl.

Went and had lunch with a group in the bar and grill so that we could watch some football this last weekend. The visit was about as bad as it gets and the only reason this is 3 star review is that all the other visits I've had were beyond stellar and your man Sean is a rockstar. I don't know if he's a manager or just wears a lot of hats but every time I've come he has always been able to help and impress us. Our server was brand new, as in she was in training.. as in she should have had a trainer with her. We got her, alone and although extremely nice and apologetic.. the worst server I've ever been served by. I've been in the service industry at about every level and thought I'd seen everything. Not even close. We ordered drinks as soon as we sat down and then proceeded to wait 15 minutes for the first half the order and another 10 or so minutes for the beers. I mean it was so bad it got to be almost comical and we just decided to see how long it would take for the drinks OR the server to come and check on us so that we could inquire. I eventually went down to the bar to ask the bartender about the beer part of the order and instead of actually helping me out he says rather rudely "that beer comes from the other bar, your server has to go get it"! I get that he was the only bartender on at 1pm during a NFL playoff weekend but that's not my fault. Missed opportunity for service recovery there for sure! I've bartended for a decade in much worse situations and have never treated someone with such disregard. I also inquired about a cocktail that was made with soda rather than tonic and he had the audacity to argue with me about how the drink was made.. I mean clearly soda water and tonic taste quite differently and if YOUR particular brands don't.. that's just weird and I'd look into that as a manager. Again, another service recovery opportunity missed! I was able to flag down the server some time later and informed her that she needed to go to the other bar to get the beer. She was really apologetic and totally lost. The beer was cold and delicious as always. The food was fried and hot. The games were horrible. I'll probably be back but I do t think I'll ever set foot into that bar and grill again. I'd rather just watch games while bowling... read more

aaron, was an absolutely amazing helped us out for a 49ers football and hooked my kids up so my kids could.play and we could watch the game . please come here and ask for him awesome sauceeeeee front desk gals amazing peanut butter bacon burger off the rails read more

I NORMALLY don't have any issues with Big Als but that changed today. I went in with my kids. I didn't know you can't bring outside food or drink. There are no signs and I dont like paying $25 for a plate of nachos. So I brought snacks in a canvas bag like I normally do usually with no problems. I asked the waitress for some waters. Immediately after, the manager walked up and said they didn't allow outside food or drink and that it was a health hazard. I realized that the waitress snitched on us then she proceeded to continuously wait on all the tables around us but never approached our table again for the entire hour and a half we were there. I felt singled out. Very unprofessional. And the table next to us sat uncleaned for at least an hour which I would consider a health hazard. Big Als, please train your waitresses better. read more

Big Al's has a fun atmosphere. The arcade is a pretty good size. The food isn't bad. The staff are pretty friendly. But seriously, over $40 for three of us to go bowling?! Its sort of ridiculous that way. I like the place other than that. I just don't understand what makes used shoes and balls worth the price. read more

Fun on a Saturday morning when they have $2 bowling. The food is delicious as are the drinks (yes I had a before noon drink)......but the prices are way too high for the portion size. Bowling was awesome. Great staff that was friendly and didn't roll their eyes too hard when retrieving the third ball our 4 year old got stuck between the bumper. Overall super fun read more

We used to love coming to Big Als. Great service and menu. After Re-opening to a limited menu, they also decided on a self service route. We won't be back with the big family until things can return to the way they were. If it had not been for our 4 kids that wanted to go we would have left before ordering. Praying they can make the changes. Too many other restaurants have improved during the shut down, didn't happen here. read more

My husband and I came here for a stress-free awesome dating lunch - We sat upstairs and had dinner killer service from Aaron. Did not disappoint!!! Music is fantastic, great atmosphere. Will come back. read more

We were trying to get patio service. We waited and no Big Al's server came out. We went inside to ask for service. We were assured a patio server would be out. We seated ourselves on the patio. We waited 10 mins and no one came out. 10 mins is my max. We left and went over to The Counter across the street and found friendly, fast service read more

It has been great to see many business adapt to the Covid climate and continue to provide excellent service to customers. Sadly for Big Al's this has been the complete opposite. My wife son and I went today for some bowling and arcade games for a fun Friday outing. This was the second chance my wife and I had decided to give this place after a separate negative experience in the dining establishment where we as customers were required as wait and service staff due to the DRASTIC lack of appropriate staffing. We went today a couple months later and to my dismay this establishment has only gotten worse. You have staff running around trying to keep their heads above water as they are tasked with a ridiculous amount of responsibility. Of course this naturally leads to an abysmal experience for all customers. It took about 20 minutes to get our bowling lane functional and working after multiple return trips to the counter and eventually having to be bumped to a adjacent lane. I do not fault the employees working as it is blatantly apparent they are being forced to run the establishment by management with a disgustingly inadequate amount of staff. We then couldn't finish our bowling games as the lane shut down with two frames left in our second game and at this point we were over it and wanted to take the kiddo up to enjoy some arcade games. This was only to find out once we got upstairs that their one machine that reload gameplay cards is inoperable. This place has gone to absolute shit and it is sad because it used to be a place for family fun and enjoyment. However it is now apparent that the current owners and operators of this establishment have chosen to drastically under staff this place so that they can provide a worse experience for their clientele in order to maintain their profits by shorting the staff members they employ. Fantastic example of a business doing it completely wrong and they have most definitely assured that I will not be a return customer. read more

Great place to watch a sports game. Great place for families. Great place for adults. We have visited Al's on several occassions, each time looking for something different. One time was to take my son for dinner and for some gaming. Had a great meal which also included some credits for gaming. They have a large selection of games (even for little ones). Seemed clean and friendly. One time, we went in just for bowling. Ordered food and drinks and had a great time. The bowling alley is large and accomodates alot of people. Good equipment options. Fun for groups. Another time, during the summer, we grabbed dinner on the patio. They had dueling pianos at the time. It was fun. My little one enjoyed it as well as many adults. Friendly laid back enviroment. Service can be a little slow because of the large crowd, but if you are not in a rush, it's worth it. Go early to get a good table. Lastly, went in another time, specifically to watch a nfl game. Good seating. Lots of tvs. Movie theatre size screen gives great viewing. The enviroment is fun because other fans are always there and also cheering on thier teams. Great place to bring a group of friends. read more

I have enjoyed nachos on a few occasions while watching a game. The steak nachos are very good. Recently I had the opportunity to partake in some pizza. I haven't been this disappointed in pizza since discovering Tony's and Totino's while in college. It was unimaginative and bland. Avoid disappointment. Avoid the pizza. read more

Last night we watched the fights and had a great time! Aaron was amazing and it was clear and OBVIOUS that he was doing the MOST work! He was running around busting his butt while the others just sat behind the bar. Yes the other bar tenders were making drinks, but not once stepped out from behind the bar to help, even when people weren't getting drinks all but maybe 2 times? I've worked in the restaurant industry for a long time and know how things work. The others looked LAZY, Aaron did great A+++ for him! read more

Decent quality lanes with nice staff but the music videos they were showing were border line pornographic. They were playing music vids with women in bras and thongs twerking. DEFINITELY not a family bowling alley. It'd be a lot better and a more family environment if they change the music videos. read more

Great time bowling for about 2 hours with friends, the food was a little pricey but they had something for all of us which was great! We went to the arcade after and they had all our favorite games. Everyone was friendly and smiled at us. Had a great time definitely recommend! read more

I thought this place was awesome at first! I loved that I could play my favorite game, Pump It Up, and go downstairs and then get ice cream! (and even pay with your game card). But since they downgraded Pump It Up versions I really have no reason to go back. Why keep the game but get a worse version? The one they have now is no fun at all. The music is 10x worse than any music on DDR, and 10x less fun! Loved it but not anymore, guess I'll be going to Dave & Busters. read more

This place was a lot of fun! We bowled on the side with the big screens and music which made it 10x more fun b/c bowling is not our forte. It was like stepping back in time to MTV at times and then there would be a country song, I think it was $32 an hour read more

Big Al's - Big screens - American Near Me - Meridian, Idaho

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