I booked the lower-level party room for a school sports program event with approximately 100 guests, and I couldn't have been more pleased with the experience. The space was fantastic--comfortable, spacious, and perfect for our group--but what truly stood out was the exceptional service provided by Jessica and her team. From start to finish, they were attentive, organized, and incredibly efficient. They worked quickly behind the scenes to ensure everything ran smoothly, allowing us to focus on enjoying the event. Their professionalism and dedication made a big difference in the success of our gathering. I highly recommend The Thirsty Duck for any party or special event. Great venue, outstanding service, and a wonderful overall experience! read more

made my nephew cry. just... so bad... i will never return. read more

We've been coming to the Thirst Duck every year with family and we always have a great time. The food is delicious and playing Duck Pin bowling with family is awesome. The atmosphere is exciting and there are several other activities to engage in along with simply enjoying a beer while watching the game. Our waitress was very friendly and accommodating for our party of 20. Great food and a great time! read more

Thirsty Duck - Menu - Bowling Near Me - Sussex, Wisconsin

Stopped in this last Friday to meet friends for March Madness. We had a table of 5. Not a single server approached us so we had to order our own drinks. As usual, bartenders were overextended and tended to regulars. Someone from our party stood at the bar for 20 minutes to order food and never got approached. He gave up. Had a menu in hand with plenty of open space around him so it's not like he couldn't be seen. This place continues to have the worst customer service I've been around. Wish they would sell or bring in a manager that will clean house and implement true customer service. It's not that hard; hire the right people and staff your days appropriately. I'm done with this place. read more

The food was good, unfortunately I could not leave less than one star for service. I live a block from the restaurant, so my plan was to place my order on line and then walk over with my dog to pick up my food. After placing my order I received confirmation that my order would be ready at 7:48pm. The confirmation contained no additional information regarding pick up (see attached). I arrived at the restaurant at approximately 7:36pm. They had live music, so several tables were occupied. I sat down thinking I would tell my server that I was picking up a to-go order. I sat at my table for 15 minutes and not one server approached my table. The table next to mine had a couple that was finishing their meal. Their server came to their table three times while I was waiting. Once to pick up their payment, once to bring their change and once to bus the table. While she was bussing the table she looked directly at me, but never came over to ask if I was being served. After 15 minutes, I picked up my dog and went inside. I didn't leave him outside because he's afraid of loud noises and there was a train approaching. When I went inside I told a server that I was there to pick up my order and that I had been waiting on the patio for 15 minutes. She asked if I had checked in with the hostess to let her know I was there to pick up an order because that's how they handle to-go orders. I told her that I did not know that and there were no instruction to do so in the order confirmation nor were there any signs on the patio instruction patrons with to-go orders to check in with the hostess. A good server would approach a customer (whether they are in their section or not) if they see that they have been sitting at a table for 15 minutes with no menu and no drink. The food was good, but because of the poor service I will not be returning. If someone ask for my opinion of Thirsty Duck I will tell them the food is good, but be prepared for sub-par service. read more

The manger is a jerk food sucks and crappy service. I do not recommend this place at all.

Food was much improved this time around than our visit a few years back. Wings and pizza were great! Service was timely and prompt as well. Folks in the back bust their tail reracking pins per usual. Definitely would go back, especially with our kids! read more

We are having a ball Duck bowling, and the pub fair is excellent! I got the crispy chicken sandwich, and it was excellent, My wife really enjoyed the fish tacos. I really fun way to spend a February weekend evening. read more

Thirsty Duck - Jumbo fish tacos. Awesome! - Bowling Near Me - Sussex, Wisconsin

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I had my brother-in-law's Celebration of Life party at the Thirsty Duck in Sussex for about 55 people. Jessica Neuhaus, the event sales manager, was great to work with and with her help we pulled off a great party. We were able to have a private part with plenty of room for everyone. Even the kids had a great time with the duck pin bowling and corn hole. And, the food was Amazing! I had nothing but compliments from our guest and really it was all the Thirsty Duck. I highly recommend this venue for your next party. Lisa D. read more

Great place and good service. Their Old Fashioned cocktails are pretty good! Clean establishment and great atmosphere. I'm going back! read more

Thirsty Duck - Bowling Near Me - Sussex, Wisconsin

The mini bowling is fun and it's a nice big place for a group, but the food and service were terrible. We didn't get water or drinks for quite awhile and the soda and iced tea were very off. Food took about 40 minutes and was mediocre at best. The service was just so slow and lacking. We basically had to hunt the waitress down to pay the bill. read more

We had our Post Holiday Party here for the second year in a row and we had a wonderful time! Jessica, the event manager, is fantastic. She helped with menu suggestions and was always prompt with responses. We rented the room downstairs for our event and really enjoyed bowling, playing cornhole, darts and pool. The food was great! The rest of the staff was excellent as well. Our bartenders and servers did a wonderful job keeping up with everything and the pinsetters allowed my team to keep bowling all night without delay. It was a great night, and I highly recommend using this space for any parties you may have! I really appreciate how easy everyone there made this event. read more

I only experienced the patio area but the food was better than expected. Servers seemed a little annoyed I wanted to sit outside but I had my dog so it was the only option. Curds were good, chicken wrap was good. Diet Coke tasted a bit off. read more

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Waited in the bar for over 5 minutes no one around. Bartender appeared and ask what we wanted to drink. I said can wealso see a menu. Yrs but I need your card to start a tab. Ordered Cobb salad and a beet salad. When the Cobb salad arrive it was the smallest $15 salad I have ever seen. Almost no lettuce and grape tomatoes cut in half. Last I knew a bag of lettuce was $3.50. When we questioned the Bartender he said don't know I've never had a salad here. I asked to speak to the manager of course he was. He said " I'm not in charge of the portion sizes" Did nothing Will never go back will make sure to tell family and friends not worth the money. Heading somewhere else to get something to eat. read more

Food was good but we got nickel and dimed for every little thing. $0.50 for extra dressing? $1 for sauce to go for the $16 pretzel? $2.75 "credit card fee " and $1 for carry out? We ATE HERE!! We will not be doing this again. #buyerbeware read more

I'm so glad this bar is still able to serve during covid. A fun out of house event with some decent food. Pretzel was amazing! read more

Thirsty Duck - Giant pretzel with cheese and mustard - Bowling Near Me - Sussex, Wisconsin

what an AWSOME time we had with the grand kids. our boys are 3 and 2. this was such fun for them. we've never been duck pin bowling before and the staff was so helpful and kind. the food was really good ba food- burgers, salads, soup. we just ordered apps and they were very good. chicken tenders and fried mozzarella sticks. the breading in both was light and crispy and it was not greasy. the duck pin bowling was fun because my 3 and 2 year old were able to participate with very little hep. this is definitely an activity that this Nana will keep on her list. read more

Booked a surprise party for my mom here. Jessica N (Event Manager) was a pleasure to work with from the first email sent. She was quick with responding and answered every question I had. The night of the party, Jessica was also our server along with the bartender Liz. The food was excellent and the girls were on point! Hands down, one of the best experiences start to finish! Kudos to the pin setters as well! Jessica N. read more

Met a friend for lunch. Sat at the bar. What I assume was a manager got our drinks promptly and then it went downhill from there. Several people working behind the bar, at least 3 plus numerous others milling about the place. A good amount of time went by so we spoke up and asked for menus. We literally had to ask for every single thing. To , order, napkins, and when we asked for ketchup, we were handed and empty bottle. Besides everything we did receive was literally tossed onto the bar without eye contact. We even had to ask for the food, very greasy and underwhelming, to be removed when we finished. Never was offered a refill even though our drinks sat empty halfway through our lunch and I noticed a man come up to bar in order to get a refill for his table. At the beginning I was asked for a card in order to have a tab but said we'd pay cash at the end but they rang it on my card anyway. I know this place is run by seasoned restaurateurs but train your staff to be at least a little bit attentive and cordial. I never leave less than 20% tip but my my tip reflected the service this time. Won't be back! read more

I've been to Thirsty Duck a few times and it's a fun restaurant/bar. Most recently I was there on a Tuesday and they had $2 off apps and $5 22oz draft beers. They also have mini bowling that is a blast. It's 1/4 off the size of regular bowling. Grab a group or a date and reserve a lane. They have a good selection of beer, wine, and full bar. The food is good and there's a nice menu to choose from. read more

Thirsty Duck - Bowling Near Me - Sussex, Wisconsin

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Family friendly. The bowling is my favorite. All ages can have fun with this here. Food is restaurant quality and nice variety on the menu. Portion sizes are huge! I recommend calling ahead to reserve your lanes and table for eating, thats how good this place is! read more

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Foods good, wings are solid, fun place for kids, service is fine, but they really struggle with what's on TV's for a sports bar.

We never been duck pin bowling so was looking forward to trying this place. We arrived shortly after they opened on Monday at 3pm. The front desk lady was rude and seemed out out that we wanted to bowl. She told us it was $30 a lane for an hour for upto 6 people. We had 10 people so we asked for two lanes. We found out from the server that if we got $30 in food per lane per hour the lanes would be free. So we order several appetizers totaling $120 expecting to be able to play for two hours. The pins are reset manual by people behind the end of the lane and often times it took several minutes to reset the lane after each bowler. We were nearly finished with our first game when the pen setters stopped setting the pins. No explanation given as to why. We found our server and found out they thought our time was up. It took 10 minutes or so to get them back to setting pins so we could finish our game and start our second game. Thirty minutes later they stopped again claiming we were out of time again. Another hunt to find the server to get them to start again. A few Minutes after restart another lady claiming to be a manager told us we couldn't use two lanes anymore as they had given one of our lanes to a new customer. After much arguing she gave us back a second lane but took one of the pin setters and moved him to the new group leaving us with 1 pin setter for two lanes. We start bowling again and. You guessed it ten minutes later the pin setter stops saying we are out of time again. We gave up and left. We stopped to complain to the manager and she didn't care about our poor experience at all. Not recommended! read more

Good Service, the bartender ended up as our server. He did a great job the best cheese curds ive had in Wisconsin so far. Reasonably priced.

I joined my family at the Thirsty Duck in Sussex. I have been overly cautious with the whole Covid thing and seldom travel to a restaurant/event center such as this. Upon entry, I took notice of the very well placed socially distanced tables and the employees seemed to be taking Covid precautions. I felt extremely safe. I ordered a mallard mojito and it was amazingly awesome. I wanted to drink two, but had to drive. Also ordered a few apps that hit the spot. I hit up the game room with my nephews and won a sweet pair of headphones. Was not expecting this! Now to the food...I ordered a cheese pizza. There was sooooo much cheese on the pizza. It was incredibly good. Big shout out to the chef...good job! How could I forget-Duck Pin Bowling. If you have never done it, do it! This game is crazy awesome! I wish I could be a professional Duck Pin Bowler. Sooooooo fun! I hope you find this review helpful and be sure to book a family or work event there. Lots to do, great prices, and excellent service. read more

Thirsty Duck - Game room - Bowling Near Me - Sussex, Wisconsin

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Nice outdoor seating area but today there was a solo guy playing guitar & singing which was SOOOO LOUD our party of five was about to leave since couldn't talk to each other and headaches setting in! I ordered a medium done burger which tasted like a piece of charcoal cooked on a grill that hadn't been cleaned in about six months...Disgusting. Still have the taste in my mouth and feel nauseous just thinking about it! I ordered a soda since it was hot and sunny and each time I asked for a refill, the waitress grabbed the cup I was drinking out which was a quarter full of melted ice and filled it back up without dumping out the water - Hard to enjoy a glass of watered down soda with hardly any ice in it on a hot/sunny day!!! I've been to this place once before and had a similarly poor experience but decided to give it one more try since was in the area and wanted to sit outside...My mistake! read more

I've never dealt with such bad service in my life. We had a party of 2 and were sat at a table with no issues. We then proceeded to sit at the table for roughly 15-20 minutes without a single waitress saying a word to us. Really disappointing as I've heard good things about the food and have been wanting to try this place. Decided to walk out as we were no longer in the mood to eat here. read more

This is a nice place, its big and clean, lots of room to hang out. We went here on a Wednesday night, wing night. We then found out that they were out of wings, on wing night, this was about 530pm. At 6pm they magically had wings again. Fast forward about 45 min and we finally got our food. The place wasnt busy, the bartender was just unorganized, going so far as to refill a Sprite with water. Once we finally got the food, it was either really good or we were just very hungry. Despite the good food, the horrible service and wait time will keep us from being repeat customers. It was absolutely freezing in there. read more

The appetizers saved this place from getting a one star. They were all pretty good. However, the pizza was awful, worst crust I've ever put in my mouth. The bowling was a miserable experience. The girls working the pins were constantly texting when they should have been setting pins. Not worth the money for how much time you actually spend bowling. I'll skip this place from now on and recommend you do the same. read more

Probably the worst service ever Literally 19 other people in the place Took over an hour to get our food Appetizers came out AFTER the meal One persons good came out and it took another 15 minutes before anyone elses food came out This place has gone WAY down hill So sad read more

bowling was super fun! but the food was pretty rough. dont come in expecting anything better then low quality bar food.

Service was slow and the menu does not have the correct descriptions in it. I ordered the wings and in the menu it says fried and when I got them they were grilled. I unfortunately can not eat grilled food. The bartender never said they were grilled when I got them I told her my issue and she read the menu and sure enough it says fried. Had to wait for a while just to get a new batch. When making a menu make sure you know what exactly you are making and how it is prepared. I am sure there are other people that have allergies and issues and the menus need to be right. I should not have to ask how things are prepared. Very disheartening. I tried to contact them through messenger and they never got back to me. read more

Horrible service. Pizza wasn't very hot or cut all the way. Bartender was so slow to re fill a drink

Horrible service. Went in to ask bartender where our waitress is. He was telling a story to patrons sitting at bar looked at me as I came in and finish tell his story which lasted about 7 min. Waitress and food was good. read more

Made a reservation on an empty Wednesday at 4:30 to grab food and bowl with friends. We saw a poster on the wall that said bowling was free with food if you walk in. We asked for a refund or discount on food or anything but they refused. Just kept saying it's out of my control, talk to the manager. It's out of my control, the owner won't let me refund you. We spent like $60 on food but they wouldn't give us anything. Basically scammed us out of $30+. Terrible service. Will not be going back. read more

Have been wanting to try this place for a while but held off because of all the negative feedback I have received from my friends. Recently, I booked a lane and then had to cancel because of a family emergency. I canceled well within the 48 hour window. I called Thirsty Duck directly and gave my information over the phone. Weeks later I still have not received a refund so I contacted the owner. The owner explained to me that a gift card is waiting for me at the location and they do not offer cash refunds. I doubled checked on the website and sure enough, that is their policy. I find this policy ridiculous and was frustrated it was not explained to me when I called. The owner was nice and wished me a good weekend but was not willing to work with me. I feel this adds on to my friends previous comments about poor customer service. I have not tried the food or bowling and do not plan on giving them another try. Their policy needs to change to give people flexibility. read more

Talley liked the Sussex location. So much bigger than the one on Bluemound. As always, lots of fun and pretty darn good food for a bar. read more

While waiting for my food I asked the bartender on an update. After which he swore me out saying he was way too busy for me. Once the take out order came they forgot 2 meals and a side. read more

We had our daughter's birthday here. It was wonderful! The service and ambiance was great! The pizza and cheese curds are delicious! Would highly recommend! read more

I haven't had any food here, but the drinks are ok. Better than the other location. At the other, my friends had to wait almost fifteen minutes for orange sodas. Waitress was attentive. iPads to Keep bowling scores were ok, they were a bit glitchy and not user friendly. Good giant pretzels though. Update-- Now I have been here several more times since my first review. When we arrived just before 5, the place was almost empty as our party was showing up. We go duck bowling for the reason that we have small kids. Duck bowling is the answer to our problems. We came with a party of 18, and most of us had food and drinks. The waitress was excellent until the end. Near the end, there were two other big parties and a family-all handled by the one waitress. They were short staffed; we felt bad for her. Overall the food was good. Giant pretzels and meatless nachos are the highlight of our visits. Hope next time they have more employees. read more