went here a couple weeks ago and bowled three games. The reviews I read said it was an older bowling alley, but it seemed fine to me. I started bowling where I used to have to keep score by hand, so any place that has screens up there and does it for you doesn't seem "older" to me. Anyways, they had plenty of balls to choose from, and everything worked fine, it didn't have a strange smell, so what more can you ask from a bowling alley? read more

I am absolutely disgusted by the way we were treated by one of the employees at this bowling alley. Our group spent a lot of money there, only to be treated with disrespect and arrogance. The employee referred to a child as "handicapped." That comment was completely inappropriate, offensive, and unacceptable. No employee has any business speaking about a child that way. When I explained that I was using a lighter bowling ball because I have an injured finger, instead of showing even the slightest bit of understanding, he repeatedly spoke to me in a condescending, demeaning tone. It was humiliating and completely unnecessary. There is never an excuse to mock or belittle a paying customer who is simply explaining a medical limitation. Someone who treats customers this way has no place working in customer service. Basic respect, empathy, and professionalism should be the minimum expectation. This experience completely ruined our visit, and I sincerely hope management addresses this employee's behavior so no other family has to go through the same treatment. read more

Great prices! Cheapest Bowling alley in the East bay. Drinks and snacks are decent prices. Snack bar closes at 9:30pm and register closes at 11:30pm Sundays are 8 dollars a person the 1 dollar a game. Best deal in the North or East bay. Lanes seem well maintained and staff are friendly. There is also a Japan style smoking booth in the middle of the upper area overlooking the lanes. If you're a smoker or vaper (I used to be) it's great for everyone. At other bowling alleys people smoke outside and it blows into the entrances and bothers non smokers. I saw a few people use the booth and I smelled nothing and smokers don't have to go outside where it's cold or hot and can watch whats going on inside while they do their thing. Only negative is it's 18 more minutes away than Paddock from Vallejo. When I go to Clayton I seem to hit 1000 red lights. Yea it looks pretty old inside but if don't want to feel like getting mugged by Bowlero when you step through their doors try this place out. read more

Clayton Valley Bowl - Monitors are all blue but you can see what you need to. - Venues & Event Spaces Near Me - Concord, California

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Old school bowling alley with snack bar and many lanes. Lots of leagues so we recommend a reservation. Pricing was reasonable. Arcade for the kids too. I used to bowl weekly in a league and grew up in Michigan where we bowled all winter. The only negative was the smoking booth. read more

It's very outdated, is like going back in time to the 70's , they have no music playing and they keep the lighter bowling balls behind the counter, (you have to ask for it ). The shoes are ripped and old. Customer service was ok. Prices are competitive with other bowling alleys. They have an arcade , and food court. read more

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I feel that it needs to be remodeled and get new bowling shoes and deep cleaned. I just go there because it is near. People that work there are usually friendly. The game room also needs some scrubbing. Owners should look Into it read more

Steve at the pro shop is an awesome dude! Great service, super down to earth and amazing products. This is the only bowling alley left in the area that still takes care of thier lanes. Will not be going any where else! read more

This place is great the people always are nice and its just a lot of fun. Ill probably go soon just because i got this reminder

I'm indifferent about this bowling alley because prices are good, and I love that they do Kids Bowl Free all summer. Staff is a cheery as you'd expect from most bowling alleys. The place is overall one big stereotype of a bowling alley, nothing stands out as awesome. I keep telling them about this one pair of rental shoes that are absolutely painful to wear, yet they don't care and keep putting them back into circulation. The arcade is mediocre at best. However, bowling overall is a fine experience. If they had those automatic bumpers that go up/down for each bowler's preference then that would earn an extra star on the review. Currently 3 stars for the "world's most okayest" bowling alley. read more

Had an event here on a Saturday night, booked a week out, what a great time! After the reviews here, I was becoming apprehensive, but there was no need for that at all. The bowling was a lot of fun. It wasn't as full as it was the prior week when I booked it. Everyone was having fun. The staff was responsive, the food was good (French fries!!), the bathrooms were fine, the arcade was a fun break for some. It is not new and shiny. It IS a great local bowling alley, and I look forward to my next excursion! read more

My boyfriend and I played 2 games here and this is a gem in the Easy Bay. Now modern bowling alleys (aka: Bowlero) are incredibly overpriced. Like people just want to bowl. Why spend over a hundred dollars just to play 2 games? Clayton Valley Bowl is probably one of the few classic bowling alleys left in Northern California. Loved this place. 10/10. Great location, lots of parking. Can't wait to come back! read more

Came here on a Monday with some buddies hoping to bowl just a few games. We got our shoes and went to the lane that was assigned to us and it was packed with another family that had the rack full of their bowling balls. Mind you, there was about 40 other lanes that weren't being used out of the 45 lanes that they have available. So me and my friend went up to the desk and asked if we could move to another lane and we explained why we wanted to move. Before we could get our first sentence out one of the older looking employees started acting very rude and was being very passive aggressive with us. Being that he was acting like that at his age made us decide there's no point in trying to reason with him so we just got a refund. But overall all I can say is they portrayed very bad customer service and they should learn how to talk to people. read more

Shout out to Bailey! Super friendly and helped me and my family throughout the night. This place does not have the best customer service, but looks like they're working on it. read more

I play on the two pool tables in a league. The tables are very tired and need some TLC (re-leveling, new felt and rails would do it). I've seen worse but that's not saying much. The bartenders there are friendly. The bowling alley is hopping on league night but we're not there to bowl. read more

We had a couple lanes going with a group of friends for an adult birthday and had a great experience! Saturday night had no trouble booking three lanes, staff was helpful and everything worked out fine. Onsite full bar was great with a few interesting beers on tap. And the snack counter had a big range of food options which was unexpected but really handy. If it's fried it's likely available! Things were quiet until around 9PM, then the kids starting flooding in. Easy lot parking and a little arcade if you need a diversion from bowling. read more

The staff up front weren't friendly, very rushy and said they had a crowd coming as we waited for nearly an hour with an empty room. They decided to call for our crowd after seeing the rest of our party step outside which felt as they were intently trying to get us to miss our turn. After paying they reminded me of the time starting when we had already started bowling as if we were unaware. We will not be coming back, beware of uncomfortable behavior. read more

Shadyville...lots of tweakers. It is in need of a serious remodel. The shoes all need to be thrown away and replaced. It is shameful that they charge to rent those tore up shoes. No insole and exposed metal rivets holding the sole together. Will NEVER go again. read more

Would NOT recommend to anyone. My family and I came in last weekend for an Ugly Christmas Sweater bowling party. We had 3 lanes. We were placed in the back of the bowling alley with broken chairs and dirty tables. My husband and I went to the bar with my Uncle to grab some drinks. The bartenders were rude, and service was very much off putting as if they didn't want to serve us. We felt very unwelcome. We order the drinks and go to our lanes. A few days later, my husband received a message stating the $12 charge was updated to $20. Well, the bartender charged $12 for the drink and tipped himself $8! When my husband called them about this, they said they'd look into it and call him back. They never did. This is disgusting! Think of the people that don't check their statements and how much money they've stolen from folks! If you're a person of color (African American) DO NOT GO HERE. The vibe is very much like "GET OUT". Even the guy at the snack bar was very standoffish and unfriendly. read more

Clayton Valley Bowl - They cannot explain why this happened. - Venues & Event Spaces Near Me - Concord, California

This place is disgusting. A little fresh paint on the outside but they completely forgot indoors. Nasty disgusting 100 year old carpet and don't get me started on the arcade. Horrid sticky stuff everywhere. Half the machines didn't work and there's only 7.... Worried my kids going to get a disease being here. They have plenty of rude standing around workers. Maybe teach them to clean??? DISGUSTING. Will never be back. read more

I took my kids to the arcade and most of the games said that they were out of order. We chose one that didn't have a sign only to have our money taken. The guy behind the counter pointed to a sign and said that another company is responsible for the games and wouldn't give my kid his buck back. Funny and sad. read more

Good prices and a fun, family environment! Lots of specials and, most importantly, a bar! You can smoke in a room inside, which is weird but adds to the retroness. read more

This place is enjoyable but 8lb was the lightest ball I could find so it was a bit difficult for my 9yr old to play.

They aren't doing parties right now but no problem. We reserved 3 lanes for 3 hours and bowled our hearts out. I put some table together and decorated a little. We ordered 5 pizzas from the food area (made by mountain mikes), 4 would have been fine for 30 people and 3 pitchers of soda. We brought cupcakes and voila, kids party success. They were packed and short staffed, but so helpful and kind. read more

Clayton Valley Bowl - DIY bowling party, simple and easy clean up! - Venues & Event Spaces Near Me - Concord, California

I agree with many of the reviews below. The rudest staff possible. Filthy bathrooms. Arcade games that are never fixed and steal your money. Shoe rentals that are falling apart. Complaints are greeted with apathy or anger by management depending on who is working . I would be miserable working here too!! read more

The entire staff in both the bowling alley and the bar are amazing with 1 major exception. Eric, the night manager, SUCKS and he is there 6 nights a week. After 10 he will "decide" how long you will take to bowl a game and if you ask for 4 games he might refuse to sell you more than 2 then when you finish with 30 minutes left he won't let you add games because he closed the register. Or he will sell you games but if you don't finish he won't allow any employees to refund the games you haven't bowled. I have been a regular for several years and it's never been an issue getting a refund for games you don't bowl except when he is working. He will also go out of his way to prevent employees from doing anything above and beyond for customers. If you have a lane and notice a friend on another lane with an empty lane next to them, it's like 2-3 clicks of the mouse to transfer you to the lane next to your friend, but if he doesn't feel like it he won't let you bowl next to your friend for no other reason than because he doesn't want to. He will tell a group that he doesn't have any lanes or the register is already closed with 5 lanes available and 15-30 minutes before he closes the register (usually with young black people). I personally have seen him get in multiple women's faces talking shit (almost always black women) and even watched him put hands on 1 young girl, for throwing a ball after the lane turned off. It doesn't matter that nothing was damaged and it's just 1 extra ball to put away plus resetting the pins, he is willing to start a physical altercation over it. If the lines are long and he isn't in the mood to help, he will continue talking to whoever or doing whatever less urgent activity he was doing. However if another employee comes up to help when they work in a different position but aren't busy he will send them away and just make everyone wait longer. He doesn't care how long you have to wait but he won't wait a second extra for anyone else. I've been on my second throw of the 10th frame on a streak of 7 strikes in a row at closing and he wouldn't let me throw my final 2 throws to finish my game. If he shuts the lane off while your personal ball is on the lane, he won't turn the ball return back on so you can get your ball until he has done everything else he was going to do before resetting all the lanes (which often includes waiting for the other customers to clear out). So you may have to wait 10-15 minutes after they close, just for him to take 10 seconds flipping the power on so you can get your ball back. He also refuses to turn music on for most of the cosmic bowling. So disco lights and music is just bowling in the dark. If your lane malfunctions and he needs to move you to another lane or fixing the issue requires him to do anything other than tell someone else to do it, he doesn't care that you're waiting. He may be working on a tournament 2 weeks away but he will finish that before taking 2 minutes so the customer can resume their game, even if you pay by the hour, and 20 minutes of it is wasted waiting on him. He will never go out of his way to improve a customer's experience, but he actively looks for ways to make things difficult so paying for a fun activity turns into a stressful and frustrating experience with no need or benefit other than he wants to control everything. This place would be a 7 out of 5 if Eric never started working there. Unfortunately he ruined Diablo Lanes and doing everything he can to drive customers and employees away from Concord's only other bowling alley. He managed to make 2 of the best employees leave in 2 days. Neither had another job lined up and one had been there 5 years but she put in her 2 weeks because she couldn't stand working with him. She left on a Thursday and Friday night he pissed off one of the employees showing the most potential so much that the kid not only quit mid shift, but didn't even bowl there anymore, including his bowling league. Bowl Sunday nights, mornings otherwise go to Paddock or delta bowl. Eric will just ruin your experience and kill the fun. read more

I mean, if you like to bowl then here lies a bowling alley. It ain't bad, but it's not great. My biggest qualm with the place is that the front desk staff always seems extremely inconvenienced every time you walk up and wanna pay them some money to play there. See this confuses me because i kinda thought this was the whole point for the place existing. And it's not really like business is booming so maybe management should take note. read more

Waited in the bar for 10 minutes while the bartenders stood there. No hi, no service. Great, no money from me. Only time to go here is when Alley works the bar. read more

What. The. Flip. This place is so outdated, and the scoring system is so screwed. My friend got one pin down and it said he got 9 pins down. He then proceeded to take his next turn. He then guttered it. The score then said he got a spare. I got a spare and it said I only got two pins knocked over. You can never tell if your ball will come back immediately or if it disappeared forever. This happened to our only size 8 ball. My friend got two zeros in a row, but the device then proceeded to say he got two spares! This place is terrible! This place needs updated or else I'm never coming back!!! read more

I only asked if my chicken tenders i had ordered were alomst ready and the young lady in the kitchen was so rude and disrespectful, i do not recommend they wear no gloves while handling food , which is against food handling safety, coming from a shift lead at a restaurant. Hope yall dont come here ! Cant even rate 0 stars read more

Clayton Valley Bowl - Venues & Event Spaces Near Me - Concord, California

Great place to bring the family. We participated in the Kids Bowl Free program this summer and it was a good bonding experience. Never had to wait for a lane and they have lighter balls for the smaller kids. Exactly how you would expect an old-school bowling alley to be. Staff were especially nice one day and brought my son ice water after seeing him drink from the fountain. read more

Disappointed. Found this as we left. Racial slander outside of the bowling alley on the security guards chair. He didn't care enough to just remove the chair. Bowling alley staff didn't remove the chair so I guess to them this was ok. read more

Clayton Valley Bowl - Venues & Event Spaces Near Me - Concord, California

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Nice bowling joint with plenty of parking and in a nice area. They have a Pro Shop here along with an over 21 area. They do have a glass area smoke room (which I prefer instead of people standing by the entrance and you smelling the smoke on your way in). The snack shop is nice with reasonable prices and restrooms are clean with plenty of soap and paper towels. But the staff here could be more friendly especially when it comes to kids and getting the right shoes. Their arcade room has some nice games, but most four quarters and some 4 out of the 10 games were out of order. Lot of their $0.25 vendor machines were either empty or broken. For the snack shop, there was only one person working there on a late Friday afternoon, and this one person was taking the order and making the food. read more

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The staff is terrible here. Our party accidentally dropped a drink and one of the employees (a blue haired white man, the janitor) complained to upper management. He literally sabotaged the counter to end our game early even though we paid. He did this TWICE. We kept moving around, and come to find out, it was him that was telling them to stop our game. We confronted him and he pussied out. Plus the snack bar ladies gave us attitude when we picked up our order. We had a party that sat RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM. And they didn't call our name. But when it took a while and we asked "where's our order?" The girls at the counter gave us attitude as if WE WE DIDN'T HEAR. The food was cold, obviously. Do not recommend. read more

DO NOT EAT AT THE SNACK PLACE! let me tell you, the old ass lady at the snack place was rude as hell. this lady made no jester to say "hi, what would you like?" or "your welcome!" she just death stared you and rolled her eyes. also served us uncooked chicken nuggets and when we asked for our money back she told us they weren't uncooked and cooked us another batch, even after we repetitively told her we didn't want another batch. when she gave us our second batch she started screaming at us, we are literally just 13 year old girls. she was screaming how we wasted all her oil and chicken even though we payed for it and said we DIDNT want a second batch. then she told us she was making a report on us for wasting her food. A REPORT ON 13 YEAR OLD GIRLS!? excuse me. never spending my money on this place again. that old lady deserves get fired. read more

We had fun bowling, but you may want to pay cash. This was the only place I used my credit card (not as Apple Pay) the same day a fraudulent charge came through. The card company caught it and I had to cancel and replace the card. read more

So glad I found this place especially since it is a few blocks away from my house. I definitely missed bowling and happy to bowl again. They have $1 hot dogs and beers every Sunday 5pm-8pm. read more

Friendly local alley. Lots of families on the weekend. Tasty food, very relaxed and accessible to folks. Our group of 15 had a blast

When I signed up my kids up for Kids Bowl Free for the summer, I had to choose between Clayton Valley Bowl and Diablo Valley Bowl, sight unseen as we just moved to the area. After scouring through the Yelp reviews, I realized both bowling alleys seemed to be lacking but Clayton was just a little nicer. We've since gone to Clayton Valley 4 times and 3 out of the 4 times were great! The 3 great times we had friendly speedy customer service, delicious good ole greasy snack food served with a smile, and had fun with the different monitor themes, the selfie one is our favorite! The only "bad" time we went there were two young men working and both seemed to hate their jobs and us. They gave us shoes that looked like they were taken out of the trash and despite multiple requests they kept "forgetting" to start our game, turn up the bumpers and bring a ramp for my 5 year old. The seating area and tiles throughout need to be updated but the lanes themselves are nice, smooth and shiny. Some of the balls have had so many repairs that even a professional bowler would have a hard time bowling with it. Thankfully we aren't pro's so we will definitely be back! read more

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New management and the place has changed for the worse. Poor customer service, dirty and old, and they close earlier than ever. Used to love this place but it's clear new management doesn't know how to manage. It's only good if you bowl leagues. Otherwise go somewhere else. read more

Rude staff at The bar looks like they all do drugs , they are only good to certain groups , I paid for music at the juke box and they turned off my music And they kick us out one of the pool tables for no reason , go spend your money somewhere else , place stinks too read more