Kings Raleigh - North Hills

Reviews 3

LI

Lindsey Slough

Being one of the first attendees at Kings North Hills, I quickly became a huge fan of the place. The food was great and service was attentive. I tend to bring large groups of friends and family to Kings because of this. As Kings popularity increases, all the things I loved about them quickly dwindled. I have experienced issues during my last three visits, but nothing compared to my most recent. After pre-planning an event with 15+ women on a Tuesday afternoon, I showed up to find that the event coordinator had not even followed through with our reservation. Our large group was not on the books. After 30 minutes of searching for her to get things set up, we were finally set for dinner (as part of the dine and bowl deal). When no waiter showed for 30+ minutes, the bartender finally offered to take care of us for the evening. Once taking our order it took at least 30-45 minutes for the food to come out. We were supposed to begin bowling by 7:00 PM, we did not sign our checks until 8:00 PM. As we wrapped up dinner I checked to ensure our lanes were ready since it had been two hours and we were told with the dine and bowl package that bowling is set up as soon as you are wrapping up. Our waitress was given no notification of this and thus had to frantically rush to set up our lanes. Given the delay in our schedule half of our guests left leaving a small group splitting two lanes. Once we finally began one of our lanes continuously gave strikes, leaving players with only one bowl per turn rather than two. When reaching out to a staff member for help, he never returned. About 15 minutes later the service attendant walks about and says "are you all going to bowl or just sit here". We informed him of our issue in which he ignored and only replaced the light bulb on our lane and we still experienced the issue of one bowl per turn. When reaching out to the AWESOME receptionist about the issue, this same service attendant comes up and makes very snide remarks about the issue. The receptionist was as baffled as I was, especially given our demeanor given the situation. After deciding it had been too much trouble to bowl we requested our money back in which we were told we could not be refunded for the shoes. Again, after pressing this issue we received a free refund and most of our guests were given a free bowl to return. Simultaneously the second lane broke as well. After reaching out to our event coordinator the following day, its been two weeks and I still have heard no response. I have reached out to a manager and will see if the situation is addressed. Until then... I have a hard time believing any of my guests will return, I most definitely will not rely on Kings for future events unless my situation is addressed and the service is improved at my once beloved Kings.

JO

Joan Cohen

I truly wish I could give this business less than one star and thats a huge statement for me as I work in a restaurant myself I try to understand when things are a little off sometimes but this was more than a little off. I cant understand the complete lack of customer service that my fiancé and I received today. After waiting in line we get to the front desk and say we want to bowl and the employee helping us says " I need to see an ID" ok a little odd since weve never been here before and didnt know this was required but ok no problem but that was all that was said...no Hi...no pleasant greeting what so ever. I honestly felt like we were bothering him by even walking up to the desk and I am far from a sensitive person. But ok lets assume hes had a bad day, everyone has those right? So then he says Im going to need to keep this (the ID) and hands us a buzzer. Im not exaggerating when I say that its absolutely all that was said to us, no direction in the way of where to go if we want to get shoes right way or that we could grab something to eat in the lounge while we are waiting for our buzzer. I dont understand why you wouldnt explain that to your customer as the order and flow of this place can be a little confusing if youre a first timer. Ok a little confused we walk into the dining area, no sign saying seat yourself or wait to be seated, after a bit an employee passing by said Hi and that its been moving quickly today today but there are games in the back and walks off. Im assuming she was referring to the fact that things moving quickly meant that lanes were opening up quickly today but didnt stay around long enough to offer to seat us or even say we could seat ourselves. It takes less than a minute to say something that clarifies things in that situation, why wouldnt you try to offer a little direction? And yes at that point we felt like we were forcing ourselves on a business that clearly didnt want or need our business so we promptly went to the front desk got the ID back and got out of there. We spent the next 5 minutes or so walking around to find a place for lunch and going over how bad the service was, seriously you shouldnt make it so hard for customers to feel welcomed at your business. I guarantee that we will never recommend this place to anyone or set foot back in there. And we ended up having lunch at Cowfish where we received excellent service even on a busy Valentines Day, worlds better to say the least. I would suggest everyone save themselves time and go elsewhere.

JE

Jennie Smith

So....last night we thought it would be fun to take our 4 year old daughter bowling for the first time. I had looked for a bowling alley near by and found one at North Hills called Kings Bowl North Hills. It looked nice and it was close by, so off we go. We get there and immediately are followed in by a group of teenagers that dont appear to have a parent with them, but I realize that the annoyance of that is probably just me getting old (LOL) so I let that go. I also dont see any bowling lanes when we go in, and the place is kind of dark and has more of a club set up than a bowling alley but Im still thinking maybe this is just going to be a unique experience. Well...it definitely was. We go to the desk at the front and tell the two girls working there that we have come to bowl. (After all, it is a bowling alley right???) One of them proceeds to take out a pager like you would get at a restaurant while the other one walks away. We are told there is a 30 minute wait. (Ok, no problem!) However, before we can pay, the other girl comes back and says she has spoken to her manager and that they are 21 and over only so OUR CHILD CANNOT COME IN!!!!! (Apparently this 21 and over policy does not apply to employees, only to patrons...although that group of teenagers I previously mentioned didnt seem to have a problem?!?) She also says that their bouncer didnt show up to work the door and normally would have told us before we came in!!!! WHAT?!?!?!? So...I start to laugh and I say so you are not a family bowling establishment is that correct? (Bowling is still a fun thing to do with family right??) And she says, "yes we are!" As we were leaving I told her that clearly they were not and I would be sure to let all of our friends with children know! (Its hard to explain to a 4 year old right....I certainly dont want anyone elses child getting upset by these people.) This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard, and if you are going to be a club pretending to be a bowling alley you should make that clear on your website. It clearly states on their website "if you are looking for a family outing" CLEARLY NOT!!! Also, there are way better clubs in Raleigh if thats what you are looking for than a bowling alley/club with rude employees! We did find an awesome bowling alley AMF Pleasant Valley Lanes in Raleigh...great rates and they cater to patrons of all ages! Bottom line if you have kids OR if you want to bowl at a reasonable price DONT GO TO KINGS BOWL NORTH HILLS!!!

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