I love that Root River is part of the Kids Bowl Free program in summer! I took my niece when they opened at 3. We were there with one other group of people. The staff were very quick, friendly, and helpful. read more

Root River Center - Venues & Event Spaces Near Me - Franklin, Wisconsin

Service is absolutely horrific. I highly suggest a different bowling alley. Not family friendly. Not maintained, needs NEW management. DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY. read more

the service for getting are shoes was bad we waited 20min for a worker to help us. but the Food was good I was also so expensive they robed us read more

Kind of an odd place. Is it a community center? Is it a bar? Or is it a restaurant? Not sure but the identity crisis doesn't seem to bother the locals because this place was packed the night we were there. We stopped for a yacht rock duet act outside in the back and we're surprised by the diverse crowd. There were yuppies chillin to the smooth yacht rock and the family crowd was having a rowdy fun time playing beach volleyball ball. Everyone was enjoying the vibe and so did we. We're the drinks spectacular? Nope. Was it a pretty venue? Definitely not. But this place gives the community a casual fun space to enjoy in the way that best suits the moment, so whatever Root River Center is, it's doing something right. read more

Root River is a great place! The food is good, service is awesome too.good for holiday party's and in summer it's great For our door Party's. read more

Odd little community entertainment spot? A bar, bowling alley, space for outdoor activities, and a nice patio to relax on? A lot of potential. Feels a tad underutilized however. Even if I was a resident I'd probably barely know the place even existed. I was here for a small comic event, but again the venue opportunity just seemed not up to its potential. Could use a face lift. On the plus side I did like the food, and the service I received. Personally to the owners: You could do so much more with this place. read more

After being closed for a while, this place recently reopened under new ownership. The new owners appear to be doing a great job so far. For their amenities, Root River has a bowling alley, volleyball leagues, and a banquet hall for parties and other special occasions. Also new: the Swagger Sports Bar. They are open every day for lunch and dinner. My husband and I were here recently for a retirement party for two of his colleagues. The banquet hall was very spacious. The hall can accommodate 200+ people and has a full bar. The staff was very nice and made sure everyone was taken care of. If you are looking for a place to hold your wedding or other special event, I would recommend checking this place out. read more

Root River Center - a sign for the root river center - Venues & Event Spaces Near Me - Franklin, Wisconsin

Phenomenal evening scene with the sports bar inside. Great appetizers! Bowling and ambiance is wonderful as well. Four stars only as the selection of bowling bowls isn't good. Not enough weight and size to choose from. read more

My family and I live about halfway in between here and Alpine in Muskego. I think we'd still err towards going to Alpine, but we weren't disappointed in our family bowling experience here in the least bit. Bar food is great, drink specials were "eh" and everything was clean overall. A bit of an awkward entrance with a seemingly long and bland hallway. The staff weren't as welcoming as could be, but also weren't rude. read more

My family of 4 went out to there bowling special on a Friday night. I called ahead and had reservations at 7. Got there and they didn't have any reservations written down and seemed confused and said they had a waiting list. We eventually got a lane after a birthday party ended. The lane broke 5-6 times. With his special we get a pizza, the pizza was cold. I attempted to order a beer at the bar and sat there for 10 minutes waiting to be helped. There was 3 people behind the bar, waitress, older guy (that I think is the owner) and another guy. The waitress was chit chatting right next to me, the guy was looking through credit cards (15) and the older guy was standing there. There was another mom waiting next to me and a guy with his daughter. I never got served. I walked away, then went back up eventually and got served. It appeared to me that the older guy was attempting to do everything around the place and no one had set jobs. There was no one at the bowling counter when we got there, he eventually saw us. That's when we were told there was a waiting list. Either they need more staff or specific jobs. Our family won't be going back. read more

How do you rate a bowling alley? I chose 4 stars because it was clean, affordable (especially with a "local flavor" voucher!), do really busy, and we had a ton of fun. I will definitely go back again with the hopes of running into "The Dude "! FINGERS CROSSED! read more

Walked in on Tuesday night June 18. Went to go bowling with 3 kids, me and my friends because we were babysitting. Bar was empty except 3 people. Workers kept walking around not even saying hi or helping us after we sat at the counter by the shoes for over 15 minutes!! Makes sense why they had zero people there on a busy night when all the other bowling alleys were packed for the night. Stupid how they let possible customers and money walk out the door!! I wish I could rate -5 stars!! Treated like we were invisible and the kids even said how rude! read more

I was looking for a family friendly activity last night and decided to take my two kids (6.5 & 9) to Root River Center. I've lived in Greendale my entire life, but it had been over a decade since I had visited. It looks like they have remodeled in the not too recent past and the facility was clean and well maintained. I had checked out their website before we left - so I knew when open bowling was and how much it cost. Decent website, by the way. So many local businesses have poorly built/maintained websites - but this one was easy to navigate and not hard on the eyes. We were greeted at the counter by a friendly gentleman who got us our shoes and directed us to a lane that was already set up for young bowlers. They did not have prices posted - at least not that I could see - so that might be a nice addition. The shoes were new and well cared for. Bowling was a lot of fun. The lanes were new and well taken care of. Everything worked perfectly. My 9-year-old son was able to set up the scoring on his own. The lane had bumpers, they had plenty of light bowling balls for kids, and they had one of those little ball ramps/chutes to help little kids roll the ball down the lane - which was huge because it allowed my daughter to really take part. I like the layout of the bowling lanes. The whole area is open and it feels spacious and inviting. It's lit just enough to not seem dank and dark. I'd call it cozy. The bar is right adjacent to the lanes and there is plenty of seating for those not bowling. They also have televisions mounted all over the place. The staff was very friendly. The guy we mostly interacted with might have been one of the owners and he was great. The couple times my kids had their bowling balls stuck on the lane he stopped what he was doing to dash out there and retrieve them. I was walking to the bar to get a few drinks and on my way my kids (who were back at the lane) started arguing - so I started to head back - but the guy asked me what I needed and went and brought us our drinks. It was a great experience and the combination of location, value, atmosphere will bring us back again very soon!! read more

I have never been to a cleaner bowling alley! The food is really good, the entire inside has been remodeled. They even have a banquet hall that seems busy all the time. We enjoyed our visit here and will keep coming back - what a local gem! read more

Got three drinks and was informed on that I was costing them money. Bartender told me he was going to "make" me get cash from the ATM. Would not recommend going for their $8 drinks in plastic cups read more

I have been here twice, both times we have had challenges. The first time I was here for a party, the older owner has brought us out a bunch of food we didn't order. Insisted someone called ahead and paid for it. As it turns out, it was for another party in the building. He was going to charge us for all of it even though we didn't touch 99% of it. Thankfully someone in our group was able to get the adjusted to what we actually ate (one basket of wings). The wings are very good. My second experience was worse than our first. My daughter asked me if I could take her and three of her friends bowling on her birthday. It was a Friday, and on the website it says to call ahead to confirm open bowling is available. Which I did...... twice. Knowing the disorganization of our first experience, I didn't want to leave any room for error. The first time I called, the older gentleman said "Absolutely we have open bowling this Friday. We don't have any leagues this week." Just to be absolutely sure, I called on Friday as well. A younger gentleman said "I think we have leagues tonight, hold on let me check." As he put me on hold, I immediately starting trying to find a secondary option for my daughter and her friends. To my relief, he said they had open bowling that evening. Fast forward to 5 pm. I show up and was told they have leagues. No open bowling until later that night(after 10 I believe). I explained that I had called twice, and both times I was told they have open bowling. I did my due diligence, it didn't matter. They didn't have any lanes available. My daughter was very disappointed on her 13th birthday. I don't know what else I could have done to avoid this. I should have made a secondary plan anyway. I waited a few weeks to write this review, because I didn't want to get emotions involved. My suggestion, skip this place until they can get organized. It's cozy and has a great atmosphere, but none of that matters if they don't even know when they have leagues or open bowling. read more

On a whim, we decided to bowl and eat. The Root River Center looked like it was not too busy and it sounded like a fun time. There were no signs posted for how much bowling cost or how to even get started. There was an unstaffed counter with rental shoe and we stood there looking around for a couple of minutes. The only personnel we saw was the bartender. We asked about bowling and she directed us back to the vacant counter and she said to just wait there. A guy who looked like the owner came out and finally assisted us. I needed to purchase a pair of socks and was directed to a vending machine. It was unplugged so the owner started fumbling around and finally got it plugged in. I went to buy the socks for $4 and the dollar bill feeder on the vending machine didn't work. I explained my situation to the owner who directed me to the corner of the game room where there was a quarter machine. Finally, after ping ponging around the Root River Center for 15 minutes, I was ready to bowl. The 2nd part of our adventure was the food. We ordered tacos and a pepperoni pizza. The order was wrong. We got the wrong number of tacos and we got them in flour tortillas instead of corn as we had requested. But the tacos were a pretty darn good deal and they came with chips, roasted red pepper salsa and sour cream. The chicken tacos were far better than the ground beef. The pizza was a crispy thin crust and it really was tasty. My advice to any future patrons is to not expect a perfect customer experience. The workers at Root River Center are down to earth and nice people, but as a customer, you pretty much get what you get. Customer satisfaction does not seem to be a focus of this establishment. But if you just focus on the fun and the good value at this place, you will leave a much happier customer. If you demand perfection, this place will annoy the heck out of you! read more

Brought my daughter and 5 friends to bowl. Was told at first it would be about an hour. Then told oh it's going to be another 1/2 hour. Really frustrating to keep 6 teens busy while being told different each time we inquire on the status of our wait time!!! Several bartenders just ignored us. One female bartender was just plain rude. First and last time here!!! read more

Had a party there and paid for set amount of food and drink tickets. Planned a month in advance, called ahead night before and area was still not setup before we arrived even though we were told it would be set up night before. My biggest peeve is that we were charged a 21% gratuity even though there were zero, none, nada servers. Wtf is a gratuity for if you have to go get all your own drinks etc ???? We were told by manager the gratuity it was for "setup" and food delivery. Well we basically set up ourselves. At end of day I enjoyed our party but will never book an event here again read more

Terrible food, awful service, not spacious for banquets. Ugly room layout. My chicken was raw, ham was half decent, gravy was literal water with flavoring. read more

Just started bowling here on a couples league and its great! The customer service is great and food is delicious all made by a real chef! Good job! I recommend this place to anyone looking for a nice night out. read more

We called in early January to make a reservation for one lane for my daughter's 11 year old birthday party for February 8 (approximately a month before the event). We were confirmed one lane with bumpers. We called the morning of the party to confirm. The staff member indicated there was a fund raiser happening the same day, but did not indicate there would be a problem with our reservation. I arrived with my daughter and one of her friends. As we were waiting for the other parents to arrive with the rest of the kids, I waited a long time before someone attended to me at the bowling desk. The female staff member was rude, rolled her eyes several times and said there were no lanes available. I asked to speak to the manager. The manager was very rude and said that there were no lanes free and my party would have to wait at least 15-30 and maybe more minutes than that until a lane became free. I indicated I had made a reservation and called a month prior and confirmed the same morning. His inconsiderate behavior, rude tone, and disregard for a child's birthday party (which was clearly less profitable than a fundraiser where adults were drinking alcohol) is unacceptable. I asked my daughter and her friends what they would like to do--wait up to 30 more minutes or longer or find a different location for the party (at the last minute). The kids chose to leave--they were upset about the party and no bowling but the uncertainty of how long it would take for a lane to be opened made up their minds. I waited (again) for several minutes at the bowling desk and NO ONE helped me. We all left. This is poor business management. This place is not recommended for any family or birthday party as it is clear that this bowling ally is not about meeting the needs of ANY or EVERY client--only those that are day drinking all day. read more

Went here for a bowling league and was super impressed. It was a fun place. They had just reopened recently so there were a few things that could be expected (they need more ball selection). The food was great. We had the "franklin" pizza, beef nachos, and buffalo chicken dip. They were all great. The pretzel balls were yummy too. The man running the leagues and our waitress were both stand out staff to me because they were very friendly and attentive. Prices were average. Fun place to go with friends. Go give them a try!!! read more

Good food, fun people and employees. They are always nice and greet us every time we walk in. The bowling alley is nice and so are the volleyball courts. It is a great spot to catch a game in Franklin. read more

INCREDIBLE PARTY TIME!! This was my VERY FIRST time organizing a surprise birthday party. From the first contact with Rich to schedule it about 2 months earlier to the very end when we were all leaving, Rootriverwi did an absolutely INCREDIBLE job for us & It all went flawlessly! I looked over my options which allows you to plan for something small to a very large gathering or event. I told him what I was wanting and was so simple to set up without worry or stress! I was able to schedule everything in less than 10 minutes! When we all arrived, they treated all of us with first class service and attention throughout the evening. We all were so impressed with the pizza's they were AMAZING and super fresh, the flavor truly rivals the best of the best! I honestly do not know where else you can go for a party venue where EVERYONE can go to enjoy themselves and have so much fun for such a fantastic price than this venue. My hubby who was the birthday boy said he never had so much fun and that was the most important, that he loved it! I HIGHLY recommend Root River Center for a party event or to go for bowling or just to just eat out! They even have outdoor volleyball courts for the summer! Great location, very clean kept appearance including the restrooms and very reasonable prices! Service is friendly and courteous which makes a pleasant experience too! This is our go to place for all of our families fun from now on!! read more