It's Oct 6th 2pm and a freaking oven in here! I wish there were other bowling alleys around here! A newer better option would be awesome! We came in to practice and the place was mildly busy but still it was way too hot and the AC should be cooling this place! I've been bowling here for almost 5 years and four years in league and the air-conditioning in this place is absolutely the worst! The owner here doesn't seem to care much? This has been an ongoing issue as long as I've been coming here. Word has it "they are working on it" ya whatever! For Four years!!?? I'm not the only very dissatisfied customer! EVERYONE in our league is a sweaty mad mess! Especially being that it's a full house making it more uncomfortable. read more

See all

It's been more than 10 years since I've gone bowling and walking in the scene was very familiar. Even though this is the first time I've been to Buena Lanes I guess most bowling alleys look quite similar. There is a small arcade area as well. Checking in and getting the shoes was very easy and the staff was courteous. I forgot how flat with no cushion the bowling shoes were. It actually got me a little nostalgic and brought back the memories of when I was in high school and bowling with friends. The lighter weight balls, especially the 8 lbs, had really small finger holes. It's probably made for kids but I'm quite petite and was only able to put about half my fingers in before it felt too tight. At one point the colored lights came on and it seemed more like a dance party. This was at like 3:30 in the afternoon and it lasted about half an hour so I didn't understand the reason for that. The lights actually made me bowl worst because it somehow affected my vision. It does get it a bit hot after a while, with so many people in there it would have been more comfortable if they turn up the air. All in all it was a fun afternoon. read more

See all

Booking a lane in person was easy: Lots of vacant lanes on a Saturday afternoon (4pm). We bought a lane for 1 hour & a half + 3 bowling shoes rentals. Experience in bowling wasn't bad, the balls are all sectioned off and separated by weight in the back shelves. (8, 10, 12 lbs, etc). Some shelves were unused and looked old. Bowling animations were limited, but it was still an adequate experience for bowling. Our food experience on the other hand... We walked up to the back, where the snacks grill area was. The lady told us she was closed but to come back in "maybe 20-30 minutes." We put a timer for 20 minutes and continued bowling, but decided to check in after 12 minutes because we saw her handing out orders to customers at the counter. She asked us to come back in 10 minutes because "she was still closed." Okay.... We thought it was strange that she claimed to be closed yet was still clearly working on food orders, but didn't think much of it. So we continued bowling until the timer was up and came back again, to where she gave food to others again and finally got to finally taking our orders. (2 small personal pizzas + med drink combos & 1 "meat nachos") was our order. We didnt realize how long it would take to get our food. We waited for another 30 minutes as we bowled. So in total that was 50 minutes for some small orders of food! We were given a small beeper that would ring when ready.. But all of us were starving and hungry from the long wait. One of us asked her when it would be ready at the 48 min mark, to which the lady said that one of the pizzas got destroyed in the oven so she had to remake it. Oh okay. She gave us the other orders and we were just glad to eat by then. However, I was disappointed by the "meat nachos." It was only plain chips with a can of nacho cheese poured ontop, drizzled with small cuts of beef (which was luckily grilled and flavored) ontop. After eating the meat on the nachos, I didn't really want to eat the rest. The pizzas we got were good though and smelled yummy. It was enough. However, after that experience, I'd say to plan for the food wait to be long, or if you're lucky, she'll be able to take your orders in once you do line up so that the wait is on the food and not waiting to order. read more

See all

This place used to be fun, now it's not. I'm not sure how much of the place is under new management, but it's definitely not the same as it used to be. It used to be friendly, comfortable and welcoming. Now the staff is very rude, accusatory and even sexist. They have a rule of no outside food NOW not ever before because new management is desperate for sales and they sure act like it. I have been going to buena lanes for years, my husband is on a bowling league there and I love to support him. This past weekend I was eating a HALF sandwich from urban cafe. I was in the midsts of eating this sandwich when the man that apparently works at the snack bar and is desperate for sales comes over to tell me that I'm breaking the rules and that I shouldn't have that in there in a completely condescending manner. Then he proceeds to tell the front desk where this skinny guy with long hair came over to yell at me for eating my now quarter of a sandwich and telling me to leave and go outside to eat it. Instead of saying "hello I heard you had outside food unfortunately that's not allowed, please know for next time since I see you're almost done eating. Please know for next time" No, this man was very accusatory and aggressive. He yelled at me where I have many witnesses that have seen this interaction. If I was a man, I know for a fact he wouldn't have talked to me in such a manner. I tell him no, I only had two bites left and I was going to be done in a minute. He got upset and was yelling at me to get up and leave. I kept my cool and said I'm almost done. Then this skinny long haired man was trying to embarrass me or make an example of me. Something of the sort and went around telling everyone who worked there, that I had food in my mouth from another place and I needed to be removed. A THIRD person came up to me, she was the bartender by the time she came up to me asking me to leave I had finished my sandwich. And I didn't say anything back to her but showed her my empty plate and she walked away. If you ever go to this place, just know if they catch you with outside food on your person or even in your mouth they will scrutinize you, embarrass you, and scream at you for making a mistake. It's very unfortunate since I have been going here for years and have never experienced an employee scream at me instead of politely telling me the rules that I had missed. Since prior anyone was allowed to bring outside food and drinks to the establishment but now if they even sense you have outside food or drinks you're about to be attacked. Especially if you're a woman. read more

The front service is not good. We tried to ask what is next and we didnt know we have to pay right away. They are not kind at all no wonder there is not a lot of customers. read more

Buena Lanes - This is the front desk that is slow and not kind. - Bowling Near Me - Ventura, California

Okay, so I haven't been here since I was in my 20's. It was pretty nostalgic for me! The front desk was awesome. The bowling was super fun. I took my niece and nephews. They had a blast. It was pretty packed. The place was clean and well stocked with bowling balls. The food was delicious, we got good old pizza for the kids. The ONLY negative is the service we received from the kitchen lady. Not sure is she was the only one working but she was very unhappy and quite rude. She made it clear she didn't want to be there and even got upset when I wanted to order. Anyway I will be back, but will probably eat before I go. read more

See all

This bowling alley is amazing!!! Very clean, excellent customer service, great food and drink options! I highly recommend!!!

Absolutely disgusting establishment, workers are RUDE, food sucks ASS everything is frozen and workers burn pizza, i don't understand how if it's FROZEN. floors look nasty and dirty. I've called to make multiple complaints and everyone just tells each-other and goes on about their day. NO action is taken. i would rate it negative stars if i could. read more

Please turn on or Fix the AC! We are league bowlers and we are literally sweating even during the evening hours. Bowlers shouldn't need to bring in industrial fans just to stay cool. read more

Went on a Saturday night and had a great time! Called ahead to get a wait time, customer service was excellent. The guys working the front desk were very friendly and helpful. Saturday night after 9pm, if I remember correctly, they turn off the lights and they start the party. Lots of party lights and music gets louder and that made the ambiance more enjoyable. I would definitely come back read more

Traditional older bowling alley. The fried food is pretty good. Small arcade also available. read more

See all

I love going here on the weekends with my mom, dad, grandma, granddad and little brother. The pizza and wings were really good. We have always been a huge fan of the arcade. I have had lane that the ball got stuck in the gutter once but that does not happen too often so that is good. The service people everywhere around the place were really nice. The place is really nice inside. I like the fact that the tables for food are right next to the chairs so that way if you get something super big it is not that hard to find a place to set it down. I also like the fact that they have 3 vending machines with souvenir, snacks and drinks. read more

See all

I recently visited this bowling alley and had an extremely negative experience. During our visit, we felt threatened by the staff. We were told to by Chris (the employee) "get our shit and get the fuck out " and got threaten by a lady that was supposedly the manger threaten me and friend saying she was gonna "end us" and it made us feel very unsafe. When the police came they told us this was a reoccurring thing and said this is why they them selves do not come to this establishment I strongly advise others to avoid this establishment due to the unprofessional and threatening behavior of its employees. read more

Bad costumer service we were leaving and had 37 minutes left so we wanted to give our time to other people because we were leaving and they said that not allowed because we paid like we are giving it to them so do not go there if u want bad customer service read more

This is a good bowling alley, but they just need to fix the air conditioning. I like the staff and alley but on league nights everyone brings their own fans because it's so hot. If fixed this would be a five star for me! read more

First time and I was surprised because the outside was a little off putting and the inside wasn't the greatness either but there were SO many open lanes which was great, especially when their competitors are always so packed! We bowled one round because it was a pretty large crowd but it was fun & the food was good also. My only two complaints was the lack of lower weight balls (7/8) and the bar. The bartender got a lot of people's cards mixed up and used the wrong cards to close out other people's tabs - it was a mess! read more

Good bowling. Fun times with the family. Stay away from margaritas though. Not good. read more

Buena lanes is a fun place for family activities and to get together and just have fun The down fall is just on some days it can get busy and will have no option for open lanes . But the bar pizza and food is great Had a fun time with the family read more

Buena Lanes - Bowling Near Me - Ventura, California

Do not bowl here if you don't want to sweat your makeup off. They never turn the a/c on, the ceiling looks like there's mold on it and the bar doesn't open till 5. read more

Bowled with my nieces and mom. 1 hour with shoes was $60! What a deal! Many other places charge double that price. The place isn't as fancy as some other bowling locations (like Bowlero) so no fancy lights, animated screens, or even bumpers we could use for 1 player. But we had fun and it was an excellent price! We would totally go here again. read more

Buena Lanes - Buena panea inside - Bowling Near Me - Ventura, California

A venue that hasn't changed a bit over the years. I have good memories of stopping by here while driving through Ventura as a child. This bowling alley is right up against the 101 freeway and has a neon "Open Lanes Now" sign that illuminates in an effort to entice the general public. The venue, while right off the freeway, must be entered through a side street. If you haven't been before, you may be confused by how to access it. While exiting Victoria Avenue, head north and then take a left at the first stoplight adjacent to Jack In The Box. Walking in here made me feel like I was back in the 1990s. While this bowling alley is a little dated, it still offers a variety of activities. There's an arcade room, a full bar with a pool table, party rooms, a cafe, lotto tickets for sale, and lanes upon lanes. This place isn't cutting edge for today's standards but the pricing was reasonable and the bowling was fun. I appreciated how the bowling balls were all sectioned off by weight, something I don't see often. There were a good amount of staff as well, although the bartender would leave for 5-10 minutes at a time as customers were waiting. A good time overall. I'd come back. read more

Buena Lanes - a bowling alley with bowling balls - Bowling Near Me - Ventura, California

I hate giving bad reviews but I had a horrible "VERY EXPENSIVE" experience. I had my niece and nephew over and I wanted to show them a great time. I believe in supporting local business so I came here rather than Bowlero in Oxnard. I got there right at 8:30. Paid $55 for 1.5 hr plus $4.50 each for 4 of the most disgusting old shoes that look like they should be thrown out. The laces had knots and you couldn't even tie them. The insides were falling apart YUCK. We paid $20 for 4 sodas and $4 for a paid of socks. There were no balls available so we walked around looking, we asked for assistance but they said to ask other players at their lanes as there should only be 1 per person, I tried but people weren't so friendly. We finally got started and the lane 39 computer wasn't working (giving us 9s and strikes, even if we only got 1 pin. (No one said we were any good, we just wanted to have fun) I asked the guy in charge to move us to the lane 41, he instead put us on 40 with the same computer doing the same crap. I went back and asked to please move us over to 41 as I had asked before. He finally did. It was now 9:05. I asked if we'd have enough time to play he said he would give us another 15 mins. We finally got playing. By the way, the a/c wasn't working to boot. At 10:06 they turned off our game I went back and asked if we could finish our game and he had a major attitude. I reminded him he had said he'd give us 15 mins extra, he was so annoyed and didn't want to let us finish. We were all at ball number 10? My goodness!!!! I was persistent and asked "can you please let us finish???" He finally did it. I just can't believe they treat patrons like this. We spent a lot of money and weren't treated nice at all. Also, the guy was counting the money from the cash register and had it all laid out on the counter when my bf went to ask him something and was walking away from the area with the money there easy for a thief to steal from them. Overall everything about that night was a horrible experience except we were all enjoying each other. read more

Buena Lanes - We are always happy bunch. - Bowling Near Me - Ventura, California

The decor is a little dated, but the lanes are well maintained. We never had any problems with the pin setter or ball return. Prices are good although the staff appears to want to shut this place down early. Came here on a Friday night with over 2 hours before they closed. The cashier told me the maximum time I could buy was 1 hour. I inquired about the closing time and after a little pushing, the most she would sell me was 1.5 hours. Probably 15+ minutes before closing this place was a ghost town. I feel like I was the only one left in the entire bowling alley that wasn't an employee, so I guess their strategy really works. What an odd feeling, especially considering it was a friday night! The bar is also very slow with only 1 bartender, it gets really backed up and last call is an hour before closing time. read more

They don't serve alcohol until 5... If I wanted to sweat and play with balls I would have stayed home read more

No military discounts here. Reserve lanes for parties 1 week in advance and book parties a week advance as well. Saturday nights get busy, yup busy. We had a large get together and paid $35 an hour per lane for 3 hours each. It gets hot in here, dress lightly, no air conditioning...if there is it doesn't really work well. The pitcher of beer is $17.50 and they have a full bar. There is a full service area for food with plenty of choices. There's an arcade, but bring your change, because the coin dispenser doesn't work, and no one had change for the arcade. The lights go down and the strobe lighting goes on around 9pm. There's three large projector playing sports. read more

See all

Staff were friendly and we had a blast cosmic bowling for the first time for my friend's birthday. It wasn't crowded for a Friday night and they had a bar area. So fun. We just played for an hour Def would come back read more

Trying to get owner/management attention.... Half of your arcade machines are broken. I felt bad going back to the counter three times to get my money back. The teenagers working here are doing their best. The owners need to step up. Random bar/food hours. Broken machines. Dirty/broken bathrooms. I'll continue to come back because this is the only Bowling alley in ventura(the owners must know this), but cmon this is a joke. I'd really like this place to step up to the level of Harleys (in Camarillo); if not, I might drive the extra 15 minutes more often. read more

Came here on a Saturday night (6/10/17). They're business hours are till 1am. It was 1140am, & the guy behind the counter (damn, didn't get his name) said they're closing up in 18 minutes. Im like, really?! He said that the other bowlers are almost done & that he was just gonna close up shop since it's not busy (& supposedly no one wanted to work the rest of the night). So there was one more hour, Hmmm, interesting... I guess... The guy seemed pretty chill about it. But they just lost business to 4 customers. Maybe they are used to doing this? Idk. But maybe there should be a fine print somewhere saying "hours may vary" or something. I guess this isn't a happening night spot to be at. Come on dude, we just wanted to bowl. *Note: According to the their website. On Saturdays it's $27 per lane, per hour. Up to 6 people He also said we could have bowled if we wanted to. For 18 minutes (prolly less) though. Really! And why would we be wasting our time & money, especially yours. read more

Buena Lanes - Business Hours - Bowling Near Me - Ventura, California

They have very few light balls (10 pounds and under) and a worker came and took away one of our 8 pound balls without looking at us or saying anything. terrible service. read more

Didn't eat there but beers were nice and cold. Service was good. Mood was great, bunch of people bowling having a great time. We enjoyed ourselves and would come back. read more

Truly a local spot and something to do on a Friday Night... For being the oldest standing bowling alley left in Ventura County, Buena Lanes is simply a place for you to play a few games, pig out on cafe-like appetizers and enjoy a good buzz from endless beer pitchers. We arrived around 8p, at that time the pricing was as follows: $25/hour with show rental being $4/person. On Fridays the special is $10/per hour +shoe rental from 9:30p-11:30p. Overall, the savings is about $12 from regular price versus the special pricing. When we arrived, more than half of the lanes were already in use. I wasn't too surprised, because they isn't too much to do in Oxnard/Ventura. Anyway, There is a restaurant in the alley that serves typical alley food; mostly appetizers but also has burgers, pizza and Mexican food. The full bar is towards the left and opens up to the alley but also has some seating inside. During our visit, we consumed 3 pitchers of Modelo and shared an order of Carne Asada Fries, all shared between 4 people. I'd say for food and beverages we probably spent around $50. In our first hour we played 3 full games. We then added 1.5 hrs finishing up around 11ish. By then, most if not all the lanes were in use, so if you plan on coming to Cosmic Bowling on Fridays arrive early. We didn't have problems finding bowling balls, since we were there before the rush-so that was nice. The atmosphere is pretty chill, definitely a lot of locals, with a mixture of families, teenagers, and older adults. Overall our visit at Buena Lanes went okay. Besides the normal issues with our balls getting stuck a few times, the workers were able to fix the problem right away. Will we return for another round of games?? Sure, it's something to do. read more

See all

If I could I would leave 0 stars, not only are the weekends really full and no room to bowl but if you wanna play on the weekdays ur outta luck why? Because of Bowlers League or whatever I go in seeing more than 75% of the Lanes open. Not only that but they where also ignoring phone calls, and were mostly on their phones. read more

Or lanes broke on us and we lost half an hour and we're blamed for the lanes not sending our bowling balls back. I'm not mad about that but I'm more upset that my kids were cut short of the time that I paid for. It sad that I paid for an hour and a half and only was allowed to play for 45 minutes and not compensated for the rest. read more

My first time here was last Saturday (11/30) I brought my 5 y/o for her first bowling experience. First of all, the LIGHTEST ball size is 7lbs. That is WAY too heavy for toddlers. There should be a 4lb. or 5lb. Option for the smaller ones. Secondly, the bathrooms are old, SMELLY and dirty. Needs a complete overhaul. Thirdly, the arcade is also old. Most of the machines eat your quarters and the candy from the claw machine is stale. Management needs to cough up some money for some renovations and updates. read more

Clean bowling alley. Lanes were in good shape and they were oiling them while I was there. You can only Bowl by the 1/2 hour or the hour unless you play in a league there and it's $2/game I believe. I mean I went solo and bowled 6-7 games in 30 mins. If you keep a good pace you get your monies worth. It's $9 for 1/2 hour and $18 for a full hour. I think you can have 6 bowlers on that lane for that one price. Only thing I didn't like was the joy stick controls for the scoring. Prolly takes some getting used to. read more

Buena Lanes - Just me and my two balls - Bowling Near Me - Ventura, California

I am here on a monthly basis until I met the most arrogant short tempered attitude from Natalie. From dealing with her short temper eye rolling attitude from the when I purchased a 2games I am relocating my business with my family and friends. At least voice days Natalie works otherwise a bad experience with surface read more

My only days off are league nights and it sucks that on these nights they have so many lanes available but won't rent them to the regular crowd. They would much rather loose on money then rent the empty lanes to none league members. read more

On our day off, sometimes my husband and I want to go do an activity and also eat/drink while doing so. Just know the hours here for the grill and bar are not stated on their website and the girl at the front will tell you something different each time you come while saying 'she thinks they open at this time...' you work here shouldn't you know for certain when the bar or grill opens? Not to mention the alcohol is canned in a fridge I don't understand why they can't sell it to me at 3pm in the afternoon. You also aren't allowed to bring in any outside food or drink. Today we were there and the grill randomly opened at 3:45? So I guess don't come here hungry or thirsty during the day. read more

Great local bowling ally with an even better pro shop. I bought my first bowling ball ams the service was top notch. I Highly recommend. Best pro shop in 50 mile radius. read more

Buena Lanes has improved! It's been a year and I appreciate the new seating and cleanliness the meal bar is more expensive but still reasonable. We all missed the dollar dogs and coffee on Sunday. The bar service was lovely-Thanks for keeping the Sunday discount hours. My one criticism is this: the fans spinning across the square lighting makes a strobe light effect I could not handle. It's nauseating- I had to keep my eyes looking downwards A solution might be to dim the lights slightly, use a different LED bulb or perhaps larger fan blades(?) it was a weird experience. Most of our group related the same experience. read more