Star Lanes

My fiancé and I really enjoy the bowling, comfortable seats, and ability to watch games while bowling on the big screen. HOWEVER, their customer service is awful! It has always been eh, but this time the worst. Most recently, we planned our day to watch the game on Sunday there. We called ahead, just to be sure it wasn’t booked. We called from 11AM-12:45pm and no one ever answered the phone. We arrive to a big sign on the door that says «Closed 2−8pm for a private party, sorry for the inconvenience.» That is truly unprofessional. If you cannot answer your phones, then at least be courteous enough to your patrons to have a recorded message stating this information! When we asked the kid at the desk, his reply was «Sorry, we were busy do you want to bowl for an hour?» Thanks for your concern sir! Then, our hour ended earlier than the lane next to us even though they paid nearly 10 minutes before. Very interesting…

Overpriced, lack of ball sizes/​weights and take note that they START your «hour» that you pay for ($ 12 per person per hour) as soon as you pay… not after you get your shoes, balls & get to your lane ready to play. we were cut off in our 8^th frame & even though they had empty lanes, in order for our group (of 6) to finish our game, they insisted we pay for another full hour! I don’t think so.
Also a poor level of service here as one of our guests ordered a round of shots and was refused service because whatever idiot she ordered them from assumed she was ordering 6 shots for herself. At least when I spoke with the manager he was apologetic for the assumption and served us, but c’mon!
We will never return.

There are many things that Star Lanes does well, and some areas where it is lacking. This is a unique type of bowling alley that is not for everyone. My goal in this review is to identify the type of experience they provide. If it isn’t your cup of tea, you may prefer a traditional alley.
Star Lanes is part of Emagine Theatre and seeks to provide more of a «party» atmosphere. They play a fairly eclectic collection of dance music, have fun lighting, and a full bar/​restaurant with servers that will come to the lanes. Some sort of sports will usually be playing while you are there. There are nice leather seats with coffee tables at the lanes.
It is a very small alley, so there can be a wait. Prices are very fair during happy hour ($ 2 per person per game, including shoe rental, as of the date of this review). Rather than a large hodge podge collection of balls, they will help you select one that fits your hand. Everything is pretty new and well-​maintained.
Someone who actually cares about their score, however, probably would not like this spot. The large movie screens at the end of the lanes reflect onto the lanes themselves, which is a) very distracting, and b) obscures the arrows on the lane and impedes your ability to aim as you normally would at a traditional alley. I admit, I found this to be completely absurd when I first arrived, but I relaxed and re-​conceptualized the night as a for-​fun-​only «glow bowling» type experience.
So, if you hate glow bowling, or if you are a more serious bowler, this wouldn’t be your ideal place to bowl. I would not, however, cut stars for that reason — they are serving a specific market.
Overall, Star Lanes is unique among bowling alleys, clearly seeking to present a more luxury experience for its customers.
I have to knock off a star because on the weeknight that I visited, service was sort of odd. It was not overly busy, but there was a short wait (I was advised 5 – 10 minutes max) for a lane. I was given a buzzer. I told the woman we would sit at the bar, where I sat within eyeshot of the counter. After 20 minutes, I checked in with the cashier and she told me that I had been called and taken off the list, and apparently my buzzer must not be working. I found it odd that, with no wait, she didn’t look directly at the bar some 30 feet away, since it was relatively empty and I didn’t see anyone get in line after me. It also looks like my bowling ball had obtained a couple of chips after bowling three games there, which is a first for me, but nothing I’m going to make a big deal about.
Overall, I think there are some issues with service, but nothing that will ruin your experience. Star Lanes is a fun place to go with friends, and I would recommend it (especially during happy hour!). Prices are listed on their website.

Atmosphere great. Location great. Service is just awful. Or at least it was today. We didn’t receive any service on our bowling lane, so my sister stood at the bar and after 10 minutes standing at the bar asks the bartender if she can order drinks… bartender responds rudely, «yeah, but I’m real busy right now.» Mind you, at the time there were only 6 people (3 couples) at the bar. Also at the time, the servers were all standing in a circle watching her standing at the bar and not acknowledging her at all. I am in the service industry and have been for over 20 years and I would never watch a patron stand at the bar that long without service. Get it together Emagin. It’s not difficult to realize someone wants something, acknowledge it, and then receive a tip for doing your service. Where are the people in charge? This is the worst service I have received in years.

We only visited the restaurant before our movie. The service was pretty much non-​existent. It was not busy and we had to wait over 15 minutes to get service, and that was from the manager we finally flagged down. 20 minutes after we gave our drink order we finally received our drinks. Our appetizer came out 5 minutes before our dinner. We had to rush to eat everything before our movie even though we were there over an hour before our movie started. No one checked on us once we got our food. We had to flag down a bus boy to get silverware. I would not ever go back there even if I was given free food.

By far my favorite place to bowl. Very cheap during happy hour too. I only end up spending around $ 3.00. ($ 1 for game, $ 2 for shoe rental) not to mention the free socks and complementary popcorn. There has been one time where my friends and I had to wait awhile for an open lane but we didn’t mind.

It was a clusterhump from start to finish and the manager Gabriel couldn’t have cared less. His response could have changed things but really just made it worse.
Was there on ⁹⁄₁₀ to see a 7:30pm movie. 3 friends and I met at the bar for Happy Hour, which, as the bartender and the flyers said lasted until 10pm.
We got a table to grab something quick before the movie and our waitress, Kaitlyn, was there immediately and very friendly. We told her we had a movie to catch at 7:30 and placed our orders: Michigan whatever salad, hot wings w/​blue cheese, chicken quesadilla no onions, and house salad no olives w/​oil & vinegar dressing. Also some type of cocktail that my friend had previously ordered at the bar w/​their Happy Hour pricing.
The food came out: Only 1 order of 4 was correct. Waitress left and we realized the mistakes AND that we had no silverware. At this point Gabriel came around for the first time to ask if everything was ok and we told him the problems. He got a busboy to help out and we got silverware and the orders were corrected. The food was fine w/​the exception of hot wings, which were flabby and disgusting.
The waitress asked if we wanted to split the bill four ways and we said that was fine. Instead she attempted to give us each our own bill, which was nice and what we would have preferred anyway, but unfortunately she put the drink on my order instead of my friends. We had all already given her our cards, because we were trying to keep things moving so we could make our movie.
She took all the bills back to go fix them, WITH our cards in the folders. Yikes, not good. Waited and waited and waited. Finally 2 of us told the others to go ahead to the movie and we’d take care of the bills.
When our friends left the bar to head to the theater, 2 employees rushed after them and stopped them, telling them they couldn’t leave because they had to pay. As if they were ditching the bill! Gabriel the manager was standing right there, watching this unfold, and did nothing. My friends explained that THE WAITRESS HAD THEIR CARDS and WE were back at the table waiting to take care of the bills, but that they were headed to the movie. So rude, it was appalling.
Waited and waited and waited and finally Kaitlyn came back. Oops — 2 bills were fine, but she hadn’t charged MY card at all and had charged my friend’s card for 2 orders! While we were unravelling that, she told my friend that the cocktail she’d ordered was NOT Happy Hour pricing and whoever had said that was wrong. Instead of arguing, my girlfriend sucked it up. We had a movie to get to and didn’t want to keep futzing around with the bills.
When we were headed to the movie I saw Gabriel and he sort of had his eyes on us — I assumed it was because he’d witnessed what a mess everything had been. I decided to go talk to him, thinking that, as a manager, he’d want to know about our experience. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
As I was telling him how messed up the meal had been from start to finish, he kept looking away like a little boy who was getting in trouble. He was getting defensive, you could see it in his demeanor. He was not reacting with any sort of surprise, or outrage, or apology. It was bizarre. I finally told him that this was maybe my worst restaurant experience EVER. He was obviously aware of what had happened, as he’d been there for part if it and witnessed the rest. He told me it was ‘being handled’, that he’d talked to the kitchen staff and was going to talk to the waitress. I told him it wasn’t being handled from OUR point of view — whatever they did behind the scenes wasn’t affecting OUR experience. I also told him that the only good parts were the friendliness of the bartender and the waitress. I told him I felt bad for her because SHE was on the frontline and of COURSE getting flustered, but she was trying hard.
At this point, or way before, in a normal exchange with a normal manager, one is usually offered a profuse apology and an effort to make it right. A refund, a gift card, SOMETHING, even just an honest apology and acknowledgement. This guy did not get it at all. Because he was not reacting in a way that indicated he knew what to do, I explained to him what I just said above. His response was ‘I’ve only been here a week and don’t have authority to do anything’. When I said maybe he could talk to someone who did, he said ‘What do you want me to do? I already told you it’s being handled’. At no point in our conversation did he appear to care AT ALL about our experience. He could have taken my name and said he’d have HIS manager call me. He could have said ‘I’m SO sorry about your experience, please understand I’ve only been in this job for a week, let me have someone get back with you’. Instead — nothing. It was like talking with a child. He in no way seemed capable of dealing w/​customers and should maybe be kept behind the scenes.
Negative stars. Going to try to reach the general mgr. We’ll see.

$ 11 per person per hour for bowling. Bowling was fun and with 4 people, we just barely got two games in within the hour. It took over 20 minutes to pay afterwards after questioning multiple staff members. Gratuity is added to bill for anyone who orders food/​drinks.

Disclaimer: Came here for an organized work event, so I did not pay for anything except for the two beers I had.
I suck at bowling. I don’t generally choose to do it if I don’t have to. However, a mandatory work event brought me here.
I have nothing to offer as far as the quality of bowling because I am not schooled in the art of bowling, except that everything in here was pretty clean and modern. Walked in and got clean (looking) shoes and they offered free socks for those who needed them. An employee handling our event came to the lane our group was using immediately after arriving and asked if she could help us set up the score board deal.
The company’s package offered soft drinks, pretzel bites, warm cheese, kettle chips, salsa, cookies. Just light snacks, since this was an afternoon shindig right after lunch. The only thing I didn’t care for was the way that the soft drinks were set up… we had around 100 – 115 people I think, and there was a table with two pitchers of each kind of drink offered (cola/​diet/​sprite/​lemonade/​water), and some plastic cups and ice. After standing in a line to fill your drink with that many people, the drink offerings were depleted pretty quickly. Not sure how else this could have been handled, just griping.
I think that the snacks were gone fairly quickly too, because I did hear complaints of a few mentioning «I didn’t get any». Luckily I sniffed out the pretzel bites and got on it before they were gone.
Employees could also play pool, have a drink at the bar, or just observe and vegetate. We didn’t have any organized teams or events, but the atmosphere was good and the employees of Star Lanes that I encountered were friendly.
All in all, I thought it was a nice place to have a larger group event but I am also slightly biased since this event was free for me and I have no idea what costs were involved.
I would even go back to bowl, and I do believe I mentioned that I suck at it.

This is a review for the «High Roller Room» as that’s my only experience here.
I hate bowling. A lot. But coming here with my work colleagues, I figured I’d have to suck it up and bowl. Well, after seeing the high roller room, I realized that was not the case. The private room is very cool, with 4 private lanes and big screen TV’s above them, an above view of the alley, a private bar, tables, couches, a pool table, and a shuffleboard table. Not being limited to only bowling made this a great place for a large group with all different types of people.
They «catered» for us and brought out hot food, but don’t expect restaurant quality. It’s still a bowling alley. Sliders, mac & cheese, pizza, cheese and crackers. About what you’d expect. For the healthy eater, you’ll enjoy making a salad out of burger toppings on your dinner plate. It was quite the challenge.

The restaurant at Star Lanes is terrible. It started when we walked up and the sign said please wait to be seated and we stood there for five minutes while the staff was chatting at the bar. I asked one of the waitstaff if we could get a table and he looked surprised and said yeah, sit wherever. We told the waitress we had a reserved lane an hour later and she reassured us we would be ok. We were not, I had to cancel the lane. She forgot to bring menus to us, it took 25 minutes to get our order to her and she was MIA a lot. The food was standard bar food and was on the poor end. Will not be returning for food or drinks. I’ll stick to the movie theatre.

This is for the bar area only. I did not bowl, and would not know how to review a bowling alley anyway (clean balls? white pins? aggregate weight of the other ‘athletic participants’?).
Anyway, we came here because we had 45 minutes to kill before our movie. We should have braved the cold and walked somewhere else.
I had a martini. It was ridiculously expensive and tasted like water. If I want to drink a crappy overpriced martini I will just go to J Alexanders and not a classy establishment inside of a bowling alley. Girlfriend had red wine that was the standard mass produced plonk with a critter on the label, except it cost $ 9. Our bill was over $ 20 for two bad drinks. Don’t even waste your time here.

I haven’t Bowled here yet, just dined in prior to a movie and the food is so so. I have had their Cuban Bender twice and both times it has been different. It’s as if they lack consistency or something. The first time I ordered it it was great. The second, not so much. It was dry and lacked flavor. Lucky for me I had a side of their Galaxy Sauce with my fries that I used to help salvage it.
Service is «meh» too. Last time we dined there we ordered some Beer Cheese soup to start and we sat there waiting and waiting and low and behold she forgot to put the order in. As we were being served our main entrees I asked if she were the Soup Nazi — «NO SOUP FOR YOU!» She apologized and ended up giving us the soup on the house and I am glad she did because it was disgusting. It was very gritty and tasted like skunked beer mixed with melted processed cheese. Two bites and I was about to gag.
Drinks can get pricey too and I made the mistake of ordering their Green Dinosaur which is pretty much a long island, but instead of a splash of Coke it is Sprint and Midori to give it a melon flavor. It was like $ 12 and mind you this was not top shelf either. If it were I could see spending that much, but with well liquor it shouldn’t have been more than like $ 8 max.
With that being said, there are many other better options around the theater to dine at before catching a flick and personally I will only eat here again if in a pinch.
UPDATE — 3÷21÷2014
I had been trying to call them for over a week and have left them multiple voicemails to reserve some lanes for my wife’s 30^th Birthday. They finally called me back and were unable to accommodate for the date and time I was looking for.
While I have no control over that, what irritates me is the guy had the nerve to say to me «If you had called us earlier in the week we could have accommodated your request, but right now we are booked pretty solid for that day.»
Really dude? You confirmed with me that you received all of my messages and that you knew that I did call earlier in the week. This was just an attempt to cover up the fact that you guys just dropped the ball when it came to calling me back. Needless to say this left me quite upset.

I have not been to Star Lanes bowling or the movies in Royal Oak yet this summer.
The food and service are still pretty good.
But this last weekend was a big turn off.
I was here late Saturday evening with a date for a bite to eat and movie.
There were large groups of late teen youths in and outside of the theater.
I did not appreciate the rude sexual comments made to me multiple times by multiple boys who thought they were men. I had to restrain my date a couple of times from confronting the big mouths.
When i complained to the woman at the Courtesy desk, she said that there was nothing they could about it.
Nice place, not sure when i Will be back :(

Restaurant: ³⁄₅
Bowling: ⁴⁄₅
Frequenter of the Emagine theater and I’ve been to star lanes for parties but never to eat or bowl. The food was good but way overpriced — $ 10.75 for a bbq chicken pizza, from Crust (area restaurant). The sandwiches were about $ 10 but then fries were another $ 2 – 3. It was happy hour so I ordered a margarita, not knowing it was HUGE and also pricey — $ 9.75, or $ 8.25 during HH. Waitress was friendly but took forever and screwed up our bills, didn’t take off the HH specials at first.
Bowling, however, was great! I guess normally it’s pricey but in Mondays for $ 10 a person you can do unlimited bowling, which includes socks (to keep), shoe rental, and as much bowling as you want. The electronic boards were fun to watch too (remember when you had to do math and actually keep score??) as they had animations after each bowl. I would definitely come back here on a Monday to bowl, but would eat dinner somewhere else.

Emagine theater is everything a theater should be. Unfortunately Star Lanes is everything a bowling alley shouldn’t be. Crappy lanes, no slide to the floor/​shoes, overpriced, and all around the worst bowling I have ever experienced. Food is okay, but overpriced.
They also host some events. They had screening of WrestleMania. You would think that this would be held in a theater, but NOOOOO. They had it in the upstairs lounge on a pull down projection screen. They had food but NO waiter service, They setup a food room to sell food. You had to have exact change and they would not take a credit card in that room. They take credit cards everywhere else, but not where the food for the event is being sold. if you wish to use your credit card, you had to go downstairs and carry your food back upstairs, and you could hot get several of the special items they had for the event. The seating was completely shitty. They have 5 sofas, and a small smattering of cocktail tables. Everybody else gets shitty stackable chairs for a FOUR HOUR EVENT. No tables or nothing! And remember, they are also selling food to people. So you have to juggle your food, drink while sitting in backache inducing chairs.
These people have NO IDEA how to setup an event like this. It’s a shame that this place will serve as nothing more than an anchor around the neck of such a great movie theater.
Bottom line: This is no bowling alley! It’s a place for hipsters to sit around, get wasted, and treat bowling as some comically ironic pastime for rubes, as they drunkenly hurl bowling balls half-​assed at some pins. If just here for a movie at the Emagine, you will have a great time. Don’t ruin your night by later wandering in this disaster.

The front desk service is spot on. Fast efficient shoe and ball sizing station. Very high-​end service for a bowling alley. That being said, once we got on the lane, the waiter/​waitress service took forever to show up and was infrequently seen. A fun night overall!

Star Lanes is an excellent place to meet up with friends for lunch. I have been there several times with coworkers and love their black bean burger, thin crust pizzas and long list of specialty drinks. Overall, I am impressed by the high class décor of the restaurant, the menu choices and appreciate the atmosphere of a boutique bowling alley in the heart of downtown Royal Oak. I will be back to bring my boyfriend for a date night very soon!

This review is for the restaurant only.
We tried to go to a 7:30 movie, but it was sold out, so we decided to have some food & drinks. The line for alcoholic beverages for the movies was very long, but the restaurant & bowling alleys were not busy.
The service here was painfully slow from waiting to be seated to getting our bill. Everyone was very nice though. The menus were back-​lit, which was really cool. I guess it’s a whole new menu, so our waitress wasn’t sure about making recommendations. I kept it simple because I was afraid of how long it would take to get food that had to be cooked. I ordered chicken tenders and fries. My friend ordered a chicken caesar salad, which she thought was amazing. The server also dropped off a plate of… ummm…not really sure what it was supposed to be. It was a bunch of small, practically raw pieces of pita bread covered with melted mozzarella cheese. It tasted horrible!
It was a convenient stop while we waited for the next show, but I would not come here again by choice. The service was terribly slow and they were not busy at all.

Review is for a CHILDREN’S BIRTHDAY PARTY at Star Lanes at the Emagine Building.
We just threw a birthday party for my son at Star Lanes, and since it’s a new venue, I wanted to share an honest review and some tips if you are interested in hosting a party here:
#1 — Best suited for older children. The waitresses wear really short skirts, and there are 3 large movie screens above the lanes. One of those screens is playing music videos. While that doesn’t bother me, I know that it might offend other parents, so it helps to know your crowd.
#2 — Bathrooms are located in the bar/​restaurant area. It’s very close, but I wouldn’t let a child go in there alone.
#3 — The package that I purchased included 2 hours of bowling, shoe rental, pizza and pop. (Pizza is really good, and they kept it coming)
#4 — They say you get a designated «Party Host». However, I don’t think we got one. It’s not like {a popular kids party venue} where the Party Host actually leads the party for you and even writes down gifts for you. With that being said, we were constantly being checked on by our waitress, one of the bowling staff members and even our Event Supervisor a couple times — so we didn’t have any complaints, nor did we ever feel neglected.
#5 — No helium balloons because of their high ceilings. So, you’ll have to find alternate decorations. (I did use NON-​helium balloons)
#6– Give your Event Supervisor a list of the children attending a day or two before the actual party, and they will program the names into the bowling scoreboard before you arrive on your event date. Also give them a couple digital pictures of your child to put on the TV above your lanes.
#7 — We staked out the place several times to make sure a Thursday evening party between 6−8pm would be appropriate for a children’s birthday, and we felt comfortable about the crowd that is there during that time. Anytime after 8pm… that’s when Motor City Trivia starts in the bar, and you start to see a more adult crowd. So, I would recommend early evening or a weekend (daytime) for a child’s party.
#8 — They DO have private lanes upstairs, but that’s for a large party. (We only had ten kids)
Overall, we were pleased and my son had a great time with his friends.