Shell Lanes

The guy at the table is really rude and complacent. Being here is like being constantly ridiculed by the employees and their dry humor is unwanted. When I come to a place to have fun I usually expect fun, but establishment like this one makes me want to remind everyone that customer service and overall attitude is most important. That is why I’m giving this place one star. I would give them less but there is no half star or quarter star.

I’ve been hooked on bowling ever since my grandmother took me with her to her mixed triples league in Ohio at the now defunct Montgomery Bowling Center. I was, at most, 12 years old. Both my grandparents we’re good and serious rollers, but my grandmom had the patience to teach me a bit and even got me my first bowling ball.
ANYhow, enough about the past. Let’s talk about the Present. I’m a native New Yorker who lives in Hell’s Kitchen. Yeah, there are several places to bowl in my neighborhood — Bowlmor, Lucky Strike, and Frames in Port Authority — but none of them are ‘real’ bowling centers. What do I mean by that? Well, a bowling center should be just that. A Bowling Center. Not a club with a fancy dress code and a DJ blasting away at all hours.
You won’t find any true old school rollers around the lanes in Manhattan. No siree! You have to go to Brooklyn to Shell Lanes, the best bowling center in the 5-​boroughs. I don’t say the best just because I’ve been a league bowler there for the past several years and it’s my second home. I say it because it’s true. The place is always full and bustling with energy. From kids to seniors, families for a night out or teenagers on a date, bowling is enjoyed by all. And everyone goes to Shell to enjoy themselves.
They offer many great bowling specials that no other place can match, especially their $ 5 all-​you-​can-​bowl 2 hour special. Yes folks, for just $ 5 you can bowl as much as you want! This special is offered every Sunday, Monday, and Thursday night from 9:30pm-11:30pm, and Monday and Wednesday afternoon from 3:30pm-5:30pm. I’ve bowled upwards of 12 games before my thumb gave out before on a late Sunday night.
They also have a nice bar with great prices, as well as a short order cook diner upstairs where you can get a great burger and fries, or anything else as greasy as you want it! There’s also an excellent pro-​shop. For those of you who wanna increase your game I highly recommend buying your own ball and taking a lesson or two from Alan.
Shell may be a bit far for those of you living in Queens or northern Madhattan, but it’s definitely worth the trip. Oh, and if you’re driving, you can usually find a parking space close by.

It’s been a while since I went bowling. Shell Lanes wasn’t my favorite as a child. Maple Lanes was my all time favorite! But too bad they closed down.
Shell Lanes is kind of close by the neighborhood. A few bus stops away. The only downfall is the lack of of bowling lanes. There are only a few. It’s a small place.

This is my fifth time here. I usually don’t mind the disorganization and that it’s a bit run down. It’s what keeps the prices low so I deal with it. But tonight was a new low. After not being able to find a single light ball anywhere and asking for help from a useless worker (female with long blondish/​brownish hair) who told me there was nothing she could do, we finally started our game.
We couldn’t type in names into the machine since certain letters didn’t work. A bunch of people in other lanes had the same issue and complained. They ended up just keeping the names as B1 and B2, etc.
The balls kept getting stuck. The reset machine just kept spinning and it took forever for the pins to reset for next person. It was so frustrating. I won’t be back and it is just a damn shame.

Staff is not so friendly, very unorganized I was placed with my children at a lane and wasn’t even there for twenty minutes when I was called up front and told that I had to move to a different lane because there was a birthday party scheduled anyone with small children knows this is not an easy task I asked the girl in the front why she didn’t let me know from the time I had paid for my games that I would have to move she was just rude to me and said I had to leave the lane by 2pm (which was in 5 minutes) the place it self is very outdated and looks dingy

Unfriendly staff, disorganized, not fully computerized. No Bueno. Did I mention that they’re just not friendly? Not the way to get people to come back. Two negative interactions. Rab’s lanes on Staten Island is head and shoulders above.

I used to come here as a kid with my relatives. It’s a nice place (but old, haha) and offers games for a fair price. I think it was and is still the cheapest in the area. The outside looks a little bit rundown but the inside is still great, just as I remembered it to be.
The place is a bit small but its enough to enjoy yourself.
If you’re willing to wake up early for bowling, they offer 3 hours of bowling for $ 18 from 9am to 12pm on Saturdays and Sundays. That’s a pretty good deal.
They also offer 2 hours of bowling from 4pm to 6pm on Wednesdays for only $ 5.
I think I’ll go back more often when I’m itching for some fun.

I wish I could give this place 0 stars. The staff here are miserable and rude. I don’t know how this place stays open.

I used to love this place when I was younger. Only place that still had reasonable prices and was fun.
Now the extra people that work there not the people that have always been there are rude and nasty as hell. I mean go outta there way to just be mean and rude for no reason. I went in there with my 3 little cousins ages 13, 11, and 8 they weren’t loud or obnoxious they were kids and you could see the complete attitude they were being given because he didn’t know his shoe size, he’s 8 calm down.
The lanes were beat up and there was no ball selection if you don’t have the hind size of a giant or a little kid.
I was real hurt by this last experience I don’t count for a lot of your business but I’m a neighborhood guy that woulda choose this place over any, now I’ll never be back.

Sunday night seemed busy but we only had to wait about 10 minutes for a lane. The place is not fancy and I remember it being exactly the same when I was a kid. Parking is not a huge deal, circled the block twice, parked a block and a half away.

Went to Shell Lanes for the first time last night. It’s small, but there are a lot of lanes. The leagues were finishing up, so I was able to get a lane right away. I had a great time. The crowd was nice and seemed. The staff was nice, and very helpful to this newbie. The best part is there is a bowling pro-​shop on site. Alan Liu of Alan’s Pro Shop is a great resource. I will be be buying gear from him this week. I don’t have a car and was glad to know it’s easy to reach by train — Avenue X on the F train. I will definitely be back.

Went here on a Friday night at about 9:30pm right after leagues were finishing up. Only waited about 5 mins. for a lane. The staff is friendly enough and the price is definitely right. Go for the «2-​hour special» and bowl til your thumb falls off!
My only complaint would be the lack of alley/​ball return maintenance. After finishing up at the end of the night, there was a lot of gunk built up on my ball which required some elbow grease to clean off.
Other than that, Shell Lanes is okay in my book.

This place is overcrowded for starters. Me and a party of 5 had to wait for an opening for an hour, that’s fine, but we asked the guy at the front desk to call us up once he has something and of course that never happened (he simply forgot, even though he wrote it down). The change Maxine for quarters doesn’t work and they didn’t have enough quarters to change so that the kids could have played arcades, which turned into a nightmare. Once we started bowling everything was fine, except for some creepy customer coming over every 5min trying to check out the lady’s in our group, seriously?! …

I like bowling. I am not a pro or anything. I go there with friend and family but every time we get their feel like turning around and walking out! It always all cash. Their pricing is all over the wall and VERY confusing. And I always hate that I have to work and find a bank. Or atm and pay unknown pricing just to bowl. But their staff is great! We ordered a lot of things. Food guys I really nice! But my friend told me the bar lady was not nice and gave a unwanted behavior toward us. And we ordered buckets of beer! She told us some beer choices and then changed her mind after on our second bucket. But after all that we still had a great night. They are well staffed and stocked with good weight balls for a kids bowling night!

Great place for a fun night of bowling. There are plenty of lanes, and we didn’t have to wait to get one (Saturday evening). It did get more crowded as the night went on, so you’re probably better off arriving early. The bowling is pretty affordable. The only complaint I have is that I had to search for a decent ball. I’m not picky at all, but the first 10 balls I came across were made for someone with gargantuan hands– the fingers and thumbs were practically on opposite sides of the ball. So weird. The pins reset a bit slowly, but that doesn’t really matter unless you’re a hardcore bowler. For those of us who are social bowlers, it just means more time to eat, drink, and be merry between turns. The pizza (cheese only; they have no toppings) is passable as far as bowling alley food goes, but I think next time I’ll eat beforehand.

This place is exactly like the rating i am giving it, is it A-​OK, and nothing more. We went there on Saturday, just to find that the place is packed with young kids who’s running all over the place, and making it impossible to play. We could not get the result screen to work properly, and we waited 20 minutes for one of the staff to come and assist us. Such a huge potential, but nothing really there…

Simple, clean bowling place.
The reason I gave two stars however, is because of the retard that works at the front. He was beyond rude to me & my fiancée. We first asked for two games, and it took all the brain power he had to seemingly understand what we were saying. We paid, then went to put on our shoes. We went back to ask if he could put the bumpers up, he said «Seriously?» like we were asking him to do something other than his job. When we went back up the second time to ask him to start the second game, he rolled his eyes, and said he only charged us for one even though we clearly asked for two. NEVER coming back because of him.

Sometimes when there are lanes open, they won’t give it to you cause its reserved. So I ask them how do I reserve the lanes like them? And they said it’s for the people who knows the owner. –_–

If I could give 0 stars, I would. Sorry but in ANY business, customer service is important.
We called in on presidents day to see if they were still honoring the $ 5 special and they said yes. Then when we got there the lady told us the special is cancelled for the holiday. Which is fine, but then she proceeded to be nasty about it and start accusing us of hearing wrong and then getting loud in our faces.
So you know what. you just lost our business. And unfortunately for you, our large group of friends are regulars here. So you just lost a LOT of business. We don’t support nasty people.

Shell Lanes is one of the last standing bowling alleys in Brooklyn that has Cosmic Bowling on Saturday nights after 10PM, because everyone knows how cool it is to trade in your UGGs for bowling shoes? C’mon now!
It’s a no-​thrills kinda place, that «what you see, is what you get» but, they do now have a lotto machine to get your gambling side of you out while you wait for your turn to get that Turkey. Everyone is entertained here, from the music, to the video games offered on the second floor, to well, just being around other bowlers and watching them go wild!
Street parking around here is never a problem, and you can place two games with 4 people and very easily kill 3 hours with that alone; better than the going rate at the movies!
Although the computer graphics on the computer screen when you get a strike aren’t the best, you will still moon walk when you claim victory over your friends with that maneuver you just did! Get off the coach and put your Wii bowling skills to the test!