We were so excited to try this bowling alley but as soon as we got there the kid at the front desk was awful. I work in customer service so I know how we're supposed to speak to customers and this guy was not it. He was rude and not helpful at all when we asked a question. The bartender was very nice even though it looked busy and it was just him. a bald gentleman that was at the front desk once we were leaving there was very nice too, I wish he'd been the one to help us out with our questions at the beginning because that other kid ruined our experience. read more

We always have a great time here with friends, however this time one of the lanes we reserved kept getting stuck and we ended up staying an extra 15 mins to make up for that time lost and appreciated that so much. The only negative is that the food and bar lines are so long that I wish we had arrived more than 25 mins early so we didn't waste time on waiting in line to order and then when the food is done you wait in an other line to pick it up read more

Came here on Saturday of this past weekend... Its been years since I have bowled here. The guy working seemed a little less than thrilled to be there... we had some questions and we felt like we were really bothering him by asking them. We did an hour of bowling, and while I understand it cuts off after an hour, the last bowler in our group had one more ball to throw, and got cut off - which was really a bummer. We had two five year olds with us - and it wasnt brought up that they had the silver metal thing that helped the kids bowl - we happened to see someone else using one, so we asked about it after we started bowling, which cut into our hour as well, the time it took to get it brought over. In general, I just didnt think the customer service was very good at all, and the bowling alley was not very crowded, so I really dont think we were inconveniencing anyone with the few questions we had. Will probably go to another bowling alley next time. read more

Forest Lanes - Bowling Near Me - Lake Forest, California

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Guys don't go to lake forest lanes some idiot at the front desk kept ruining our games and messing up our score by removing bumpers for cause we are "teenagers " smh .....unbelievable don't waste your time with these guys read more

Saturday, Jan 14, no soap in the women's restroom the entire evening . I told one of the employees...never refilled by the time we left

Came on a Saturday night at 9:00pm for an hour with three kids. First time here and we had a great time. The entire place is Very clean, all the balls are organized. And the price was pretty decent. The food was actually really good, the kids loved it and prices for food is really reasonable. 4.59 for a huge hot dog, 7.99 for a big burger. I hate when places that have you trapped charge a ton for food. We will come again! read more

It's typical to put players together stacking the lanes. versus further apart as you had mentioned the delays in waiting for others and other lanes to bowl it tends to increase the chance that you'll pay for another hour to complete your games all the bowling alleys do this, unless you request a specific lane. Thayer don't care about COVID not once did the spray before or after we finished playing. read more

This entire business was an great trip for me and my entire group of friends. When you step in you can hear the clicking of arcade game controllers and pins clunking onto the floor. The pizza was so cheesy and they served both sprite and coke for my friends birthday. It could have been better, but an overall prominent visit. read more

This place is really cool. It's fun and if you come during the night, they darken the bowling alley and the pins are all funky colors. They have a lot of spare bowling balls so there's no worries. They also have different sport (football, basketball, baseball) games going on in the background so you're never bored. You pay by the hour (pro rated every 15 mins). So if you go with a small party (4ish) then you can get your money's worth. They also have beer and food! Give this place a chance if you have some spare time! read more

Compared to most other bowling alleys around here, Forest Lanes is significantly less expensive and more convenient! I highly suggest booking online, maybe thats why I had such a pleasant experience. Reservation was fast, got the time I wanted, and no hidden fees after we arrived. The bowling alley is clean and the drinks were decent. read more

We had a reservation at 11:30, we arrived 15 minutes early per the instructions in the confirmation email. Literally everything was paid for already, but we had to wait for apparently the ONE person who can look up the reservation and start the game. Despite me showing my confirmation email. We ended up having to wait over 45 minutes before the employee even showed up to work! Zero apologies. Then our lane didn't work. Now the kids are hungry and grumpy and over it. read more

Clean, Courteous, and Fun!!! 10/10 This place is so welcoming and well-priced that we have made it a regular weekend outing. The lanes are well-oiled, and the balls and shoes are tidy. read more

I've been here several times but today was the most recent for my fiancés birthday. We arrived around 10am and paid for 3 hours plus 3 shoe rentals and total came to $54. 3 hours was more than enough bowling. The guy at the front was friendly. We ordered a pitcher of lagunitas IPA which was $14 and I had a couple glasses of champagne for $6 each. The service at the bar was weird because it was one guy doing food and bar service... it was fine though. No issues bowling but one of the balls I used cut my thumb up pretty bad. We had a good time and was glad we came for the cheaper price per hour before noon. Like I said, three hours was more than enough so if we come back I think 2 hours is plenty. read more

Overall a good bowling alley, if you are not looking for much, beyond bowling. If you are wanting a "jazzy" bowling alley with other nuances that would set it apart, this isn't it. It's a bowling alley, and does a good job as functioning as such. I went with my daughter and her friend (both jr high age) and they liked it. Staff: everyone was very friendly! Ambiance: older bowling alley, and it shows (although it's not in a state of disrepair). Nothing special. Pricing: it was a little higher than normal, due to covid restrictions, but Not outrageous. Organization is great! The bowling balls are all racked together by weight, so it makes it really easy to find a ball. I like that the screens give a lot of information. read more

My son Jonathan and I were there tonight and we had a great time with our friends that were with us. The only thing I have issues with is that you can't slide when you approach your lane to throw your ball at the pins. But the atmosphere was very good everyone looked like they were having a great time. read more

No Social Distancing and very few masks. The place looked like a regular Tuesday. All the lanes open. Who said anything about COVID? What pandemic? A friend watched the desk clerk lick her fingers while making change from the cash drawer. No thanks! read more

I recently started bowling again and Forest lanes is close to my house. Have been going there for a few weeks now and everyone is nice and helpful. This center is clean and the lanes are nice. When I was there last they had new vendors at the snack bar, so that shows me they are consistently keeping up with food trends and making sure its tasty food coming out. Bar is nice as well. Nothing like throwing a few after a good beer. read more

Forest Lanes - Bowling Near Me - Lake Forest, California

Just love hanging out here at this old-school- vibe place. Great deals during the day and in weekends after 7 p.m. staffs are friendly and are available for assistance during the game. My LO is a magnet for any place that has pizza and chicken tenders. This place had really amazing food. We got half and half pizza with cheese only and meat portion. So tasty. Fries that came with the chicken was fresh and yummy. Kids can get 6 lb bowling ball from the front desk. They do have the ball slider for the kids. The place is bit run down and needs some TLC. Other than that it's a great place to hangout indoors. read more

Best bang for your buck in the OC! They have great deals/specials after 9pm like "dollarmania" on Mondays and Wednesdays and "quartermania" on Tuesdays. If you come on a regular night before 9pm it's about $5.50 per game OR $28.00 and hour. It starts getting crowded after 8:30pm even on a random weekday. They maintain this place pretty well. Even the bathrooms are decently clean - gotta love those automatic flushing toilets and auto soap dispensers. Not to mention the doorless doorway... so your pretty hands can leave germ free! Bowling shoes will cost about $4 so I suggest you buy some cheap $25 shoes at your nearest Sports Mart. You'll break even in no time at all! Oh yea, if you're hungry and ain't feeling the food here, walk on over to this Mexican Restaurant called Albatros - excellent Carne Asada burritos - read my review for it hehe. read more

One of the best bowling lanes I have been to. The staff is friendly and efficient I highly recommend this place

Never had to pay that much money for bowling. Group of us like to bowl so I've been to numerous bowling places where we bowl for two games and with shoe rental was never more than $10 It was six of us decided to come here after our dinner asked for a lane and next think I noticed was each of us paying $17 to bowl two games. Which I thought it was expensive. The lanes were not slippery like the other bowling alley, our lanes kept on messing up, so we had to reset our lane literally every frame. We usually do pitcher or two while we bowl so sent three of us to the bar and they grabbed a pitcher for us to share. Usual places will ask at least three ID so thats why three of us went but they only gave cups to the three of them. I do understand that they like to check ID to make sure if you are old enough to drink but never had to take my ID for extra cup. That was very inconvenient for me. They were lacking balls as well. I bowl well with 11 pound ball but I couldn't find a single ball at that pound. read more

I took the kid on a date night for some cosmic bowling. It's been a few years since I've been to Forest lanes and it looks like they may have gone through a renovation. The place looked great! One hour of cosmic bowling for Friday night was $34 plus $4.50 shoe rental per person. We paid $43 total for the hour. The staff was super friendly. I couldn't find exactly the right ball size with the right finger size holes so I ended up tweaking my finger a bit but we had a really good time. The kid got a midnight snack of chicken tenders. They come with fries. The piping hot fries were so good and the kid loved the chicken tenders. A bargain at $6.50. They have some really good weekday specials so we'll definitely be back. The place was clean, the cosmic lights and music were fun and we had a blast! I'm happy that we were able to support such a great local business. read more

Forest Lanes - Chicken tenders so good piping hot - Bowling Near Me - Lake Forest, California

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This place is awesome. It's super clean and the workers are really friendly. I didn't actually bowl - I came for the Sunday night stand-up comedy but I'd definitely come back and bowl. The bar is called "Splits" and it's really clean and nice. There's a smoking room which works really well when the smokers keep the door closed. read more

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I went to call and asked what kind of family specials they had.. as I was talking to the guy he became very rude at the end of our call n hung up on me really fast!!! So I think he wanted to get off the phone!!! I will never go here just because of what he did!!! The guy couldn't be bothered to be kind.. I felt he just wanted to rush me off the phone!!! I am about customer service not there why go!! read more

This bowling lane is decent. It's definitely better then Saddleback Lanes in Mission Viejo which is run downed. Some of the pin machines are finicky dropping pins here and there and the scoring machine is off sometimes as well, but it's better laid out and modern. Pricing is normal, usually $5 a game during peak time. Let me add if you plan to eat the food here, expect to pay a hefty price and lack of food given! What a downer! read more

I'm not sure what the sub-4-star reviewers are expecting to get from this place? As far as pure-bowl alleys go, there's not much innovation out there. Even the more tech savvy lanes like Costa Mesa 55 have major technical issues with racking and score accuracy... but nobody seems to notice I guess, and they cost WAY more. I've been a league bowler for years, so maybe it's just more apparent to me with all the frames I'm rippin' My favorite lanes in California are Fountain Bowl, Mira Mesa Bowl, this place, and Homestead Lanes next to my high school in Cupertino (HOMESTEAD!!!). Why? They all have the same basic ingredients that make up a good ol' American bowling alley: 1. Bar with karaoke and pool table... emphasis on the karaoke. 2. Decent beer selection (a must). 3. Good food (inside or via truck). 4. Cosmic bowling and music. 5. Awesome prices with daily deals. Also bowled here on New Years and logged 2 turkeys in 3 games... so it's my lucky spot :) read more

Forest Lanes - turkey #1 - Bowling Near Me - Lake Forest, California

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John us horrible! I fell Nov 19 NOT DRINKING THREE PEOPLE FELL THAT SAME NIGHT !! I HAVE BEEN CALLING SINCE NOV 19th he refuses to give me i to to claims! If anyone been injured or bad dealings good luck! This John guy costing owner money since now I need to get attorney since he refuses to help! This is illegal and horrible. What could of been resolved escalated due to bad service! True unprofessional! read more

Love the place... I started coming here with my son on Saturday Jr Bowling. While waiting for him to finished his bowling, I started bowling and made the mistake of going into the Pro Shop and got hoked. The Pro Shop was a big help in getting me started with equipment that included fitting and drilling. The staff for the Pro Shop are always friendly and helpful with all the questions I would ask in the beginning. Splits Bar is right there to provide drinks. Love the bartender, Jena ! She has never disappointed me with all the new and different drinks I keep asking for... And while bowling, the staff is right there to provide any assistance if something goes wrong ! Great Staff ! read more

Forest Lanes - Bowling Near Me - Lake Forest, California

As far as bowling lanes go, this one is good. Fun atmosphere - good music and videos playing. I'm only yelping because the snack bar worker grossed me out; he was handling money and then raw food (handfuls of frozen fries, churros) without washing his hands or using gloves. He was working alone and was doing the best he could - I get it. But this place needs to have more than one person working the snack bar. I was there waiting for my order for way too long because he took the orders of four ppl after me before putting my food cook. And again - the crossover with the money and food...anyway, the churro ended up being over-deep fried. I waited 20 mins for it. Poor guy was overwhelmed and grumpy. PSA- Wash your damn hands after using the restroom ppl! I watched two women walk out of the restroom and not wash their hands. One was older (60s) and should know better. I hope they clean the bowling balls. Yuck! read more

Bald guy with the glasses was so much help thanks dood!!! Love coming everyone Thursday for the quarter special! read more

Forest Lanes is a no frills, clean, tidy bowling facility with the usual bar area and snack foods area. Fixtures are kind of dated but functional. The prices to play are reasonable and the rental shoes appear clean and newish. Their scoring system is updated and we didn't run into any problems while playing. We went on a Sunday afternoon when the place was only mostly full. The bar was nice and big but almost empty (two people playing pool). The snack bar was affordable with the typical heart-attack inducing type bar food. (We got chili-cheese fries - chili is canned, tasted like it's seen better days but the fries were nice and hot.) The guys working the counter were pretty friendly and obliged us when we asked to switch lanes. It sounds like they may have the rock and bowl shenanigans some evenings. Maybe we'll catch it one day. read more

Awesome staff! Let us stay a bit later than closing one night they closed early! Thank you to the staff for being super chill and helpful! read more

Only negative is the restroom cleanliness not very good. Otherwise it's a fun bowling alley and they have a nice bar area and lots of arcade games. read more

The firecracker burger was the beast yo. It was the perfect spice I need to wake my self up. Today the service was good . I also had powerade from vending machine. And gummi bears from the vending machine . And the food were good. read more

Forest Lanes - Good stuff - Bowling Near Me - Lake Forest, California

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I was pleasantly surprised by the prices of everything here. I came here to bowl last Saturday night with a group of friends, and while waiting for the rest of the group to arrive, we played pool, which cost less than $10/ hour (in LA, I've had to pay up to $20/ hour). And of course, we had beer. I'm not sure about other beers, but my Dos Equis and 805 were only $6 each--on tap! And pitchers were only $18 each! Astonishing. When everyone else arrived, we went to get two lanes for two hours, and we each paid $21, including shoe rental. Now that's a deal (per person, anyway), especially for a Saturday night! I noticed they also have $2.99 games on Monday and Wednesday nights, and a bunch of other specials--check their website. Service was pretty good, too. The bartender was friendly and quick. The cashiers for bowling took a while to figure things out, but we weren't in a rush. Every time our pins got stuck, the guy came by almost immediately. Would definitely come here again! read more

We had a nice time here. Started off at the bar while while we were waiting for a lane to open. The bar/lounge was cool. There was plenty of seating, tv's, and pool tables. The staff was pleasant and attentive. The price for bowling was decent. There was a server that brought drinks to the lanes which was nice. This is a great place for the family or for a date night. read more

Forest Lanes - Turkey - Bowling Near Me - Lake Forest, California

Cut my game 4 frames short because a guy in our group wanted to throw the bowling ball down the lane couple times (he had never gone bowling and didnt want to bowl). He threw the ball about 2 times not even 2 frames. Cocky guy behind counter was an a**hole when I asked why my game was cut short. Wanted to demand a refund but didn't want to cause a scene since I was with good friends and family friends. Thank you for making a night out with friend's sh*ty. P.s. Bowling balls are old and the sockets cut fingers. Saw people drinking outside and throwing bottles in the street. Forest lanes and its security did nothing concerning these people. Will not be returning to this horrible place irvine lanes is better and to think i used to come here all the time with family when i was younger. read more

Awesome staff. Place was nice they adhere to mask guidelines. The place was kinda busy last nite but the staff was able to still locate a 11lb bowling ball for me. Server came out with our drinks pretty fast. She kept her calm and cool during the time she was serving around 5 patrons around our lanes. I noticed they do a thorough disinfection at this place. They clean the shoes and bowling balls constantly in between customers. Place is better than the one in mission Viejo. read more

Ruby was rude and unprofessional Never going again. We were there to have a good time but our experience wasn't good Would not recommend!!

Ignore any old reviews because Forest Lanes deserves a full 5 stars post-pandemic reopening! It was sooo easy to book online. Staff was wonderful and helpful when we arrived. Everything was so clean and it looked like fresh new shoes?! We also ordered some food and I usually have low expectations for bowling alley food, but I must say those tater tots were on point . They also delivered the food to our lane which was awesome! Great staff all around! read more