Kenmore Lanes

If you want a no-​frills, old fashioned bowling alley, then this place is for you. The lanes are wooden and the atmosphere is a blast from the past. You almost forget that you’re in the 21^st century.
The staff is also very nice and friendly. I go here regularly and it’s my favorite bowling alley in Buffalo.

Nice bowling alley but lanes are iffy, and place needs a little renovations! Bowl in a good league on Fridays that I like to bowl in…

Come here often with my boyfriend who bowls all the time! He’s in a league. The alley is always busy. They have two seperate rooms. They offer dining inside. And of course midnight bowling is here. Definetely a nice bowling alley to come to. Come check it out.

I called ahead to make sure they had open bowling and the guy (Joe, I think) said they did and the entire half was open. When we got there the same guy told us that there was a 45 minute wait and he was as rude as he could be. He acted like we were the biggest inconvenience ever. We went over to Manor Lanes instead and they were super nice and accommodating. I won’t go back to Kenmore Lanes. I’ll go to Manor Lanes instead.

Well it’s a divey bowling alley. Little arcade, sweet sticker machine, big enough bar, TONS of lanes, fast (snarky) service.
In terms of bowling — our group of 9 had ZERO problems. No stuck pins, no computer glitches etc. That has to be a first for me.
In terms of fun — the bar was much bigger than I expected, very divey. Like almost a little dirty but in a charming way.
I’ll definitely be back. For a really average to good time.

This place is your typically dingy, musty, old bowling alley, but it does have some character.
It does the trick for some entertainment but nothing out of the ordinary by any means. They have a full kitchen and bar which is nice. There was also a pretty decent sized birthday party next to us, so another good accommodation/​
A secret for the weak small hander’s out there: all the small balls are behind the counter. Hope this helps so you don’t spend hours looking for a reasonable sized ball or dislocate your shoulder playing with a ball far too heavy for you (speaking from experience here).
Good prices, decent service, worth a stop.

I’m really bad at bowling. But I was asked to be a substitute in a friend’s league. I obliged if only to have something to do immediately after work.
Happy hour + sports (kind of) = Always fun
I learned some techniques to help with my throwing motion. And not since I ‘graduated’ from bumpers had I broke ‘100’. I got 2 games of over 100 consecutively!
Now, if everyone would stop stealing my lucky ball …

If you just want to bowl and don’t need the pizzazz then this is a good option for you.
We called ahead to reserve two lanes. We paid $ 7.50 per person for two games and shoes.
We had a few hours of good, honest fun.
Bonus, they have some good french fries! Ya know, cut from real potatoes. I saw the guy carrying the 50lb sack of potatoes to the kitchen with my own eyes. Yum.

I am a bowling «purist» if you will, and if you want a good «classic» bowling experience without the synthetic lanes and flashy animations that tell you the circumference of your ball, this is the place to go. Kenmore Lanes is affordable and the staff is always friendly and approachable. The center is by no means modern, but they do a good job keeping the lanes in decent shape and the center functional. They also boast a small arcade and pro shop, along with a bar and moderate snack bar. So if you are looking for a fair priced, good old-​fashioned bowling experience go to Kenmore Lanes.

When all you want is an open lane and normal bowling experience check out Kenmore Lanes. The neighborhood it’s in may not be the best (lock you car!) but get past that and the experience is nicely middle of the road.
As far as the actual bowling goes… well I think it’s hard to mess that up, the lanes work what more do you need? It doesn’t have the crazier animations on the score screen for spares and strikes but I’ve never been one to care about such.
I don’t usually check out the bar or the food but when I have I know the bar is well priced for beer and the staff is friendly.
The best thing to do is go on a Thursday. They have $ 1 games from 8pm to 11pm though given the crowd yesterday not a lot of people know this. Be aware that, at least for the dollar games, you have to pay ahead and go ask for more games if you want to keep playing. A minor inconvenience but I can’t fault them for making sure people don’t walk out without paying.
I’m not sure what a normal game price would be, but shoe rentals are $ 5.
They do have midnight bowling on Fridays though I have not checked it out myself. For kids they have a small assortment of video games in the «arcade» and some skill games that give tickets for the handful of cheap plastic prizes available behind the counter.
Basically I like Kenmore Lanes, it’s where I’ve always gone since it’s closest to me, and they seem to run a good deal of specials and coupons (by the way they have a website at
). I’ve been to other alleys around Buffalo, probably Transit is one of the better ones, and I find that Kenmore is a solid choice for casual bowling.

My thinking was that NATIONAL BOWLING DAY would create so much buzz that I would have to make a reservation. When I called ahead a few hours earlier, I was told not to worry and just walk in. 8:30pm on a Saturday night on a day invented for the sole purpose to break a record of most # bowlers in a day? If you say so. When I had reached the parking lot, I was already worried. There was only one other car there and as we walked in, all the lanes were blacked out and the place looked closed. It was a weird first few minutes there but they accepted our free game coupon and lit up a lane for us. This place is pretty standard and subpar in comparison to the last bowling alley that I’ve been to. Those had entertaining animation scoreboards, speedometers, flashing lights, and most important to a casual bowling alley, MUSIC. KL had none of the above but then again, there wasn’t anything really terrible about it. The service was good but beyond that, doubt I’d come here again unless I had a huge group fiending to play b/​c there surely would be no problem renting out 10 lanes whenever we wanted.