All Star Lanes

I completely adore the red leather seated bar area with it's little tables with inbuilt lamps.... and with the checkered floor in the restaurant area, you can't help but feel this place is a little bit David Lynchian... The venue itself is laid out well, with bowling, a restaurant where they serve amazing American themed food, and a fantastic bar that serves a range of amazing cocktails... and includes a tiki, Trader Vic themed section... a personal favourite of mine. They have everything you need for a great night out, and indeed, I had a fantastic night here with friends. My one recommendation as a lover of spicy things and of cocktails, is to try the voodoo... it's fantastic, if an acquired taste. Not bad value for money (although it's more on the expensive side), but with well maintained lanes, quality food and drinks, it's well worth a visit.

Nice  venue, good bowling, friendly and attentive staff. The food let it down though - below average and overpriced for what it was. I recommend you just bowl, have a milkshake and head elsewhere for your american diner meal.

Even though I had a fab time with the people i was with, and I enjoyed the actual bowling (catapulted me straight back to childhood those bowling lanes). I somehow found the place lacking atmosphere, it felt more like an American chain /theme park than a cool hang out place – which it so easily could be with a bit more personal effort, and less uniform commercial tat ( but then again, I’m more of a ‘home-made’ look person – so it could be right up your alley if you hate that kind of thing ;-)

Great fun place to go. Great decor a must see!

I love bowling!

I recently visited the All Star Bowling lanes and I must say I was so impressed! the decor was superb, being into the rockabilly/50’s scene the pin ups on the wall really were brilliant. The waiter was really friendly and fun, and the food omg the food!!! the burger was cooked to perfection, meaty and the best I have ever tasted in London, the fries were crispy and I washed it down with a Lone Star beer, chilled to perfection!.

The music playing when I walked in was in keeping with the lanes image, rock and roll classics and old 50’s faves… The waiter even suggested coming back on a Saturday for a rock and bowl evening… All in all I would recommend this place to anyone looking for a fun night out and great food…

All Star… five stars all the way….

Forget Eds, this is the real deal!!

Cool bowling even though I did not try the food

I attended the recent Qype party at All Star Lanes and it was a very different experience to my previous visit to the lanes. I had only bowled here before after arriving late for a work do and sampled a couple of beers. This Qype party meant I was going to get a proper taste of all that I missed previously.

After arriving and finally finding the rest of the Qype gang who i had never met before I sampled the first of my American beers for the evening and I was pleasantly surprised after having a few people tell me the beers weren't up to scratch, but they were.

We moved onto the dinner and were provided with a selected menu arranged by the chef. A good choice was available in the starters and main course options and I went for the messiest food I could find, this was accidental but made the meal fun.

For starter I opted for the spicy bqq chicken wings and was presented with three large wings smothered in sauce. The chicken was juicy and the ckin just about crisped up.

For the main I moved to the ribs, which much like the chicken were juicy and smothered in sauce, I loved the ribs so much I helped out one of the Qypers finish off their ribs as well. My only gripe was that the ribs didn't come with chips as a side, the apple and coleslaw weren't my cup-of-tea so would have been nice if there were some choices for the sides.

During the meal I drank the coors lite, an ok beer but I had preferred the Brooklyn Lager I had before I sat down.

After dinner and with the booze about to kick in we headed to the private room for the bowling and Kareoke. Luckily for the other Qypers I stayed well clear from the Kareoke. My singing can only be described as poor on the best of days so there was no way I was ging to subject a bunch of strangers to my wailings.

I stuck with the bowling and between turns consumed one of each of the canape style deserts, the brownie was moist, the waffle had a good bite to it and the pot of chocolate mousse was gorgeous. The raspberry and mint julep that washed it all down with was extremly nice.

somehow I managed to bowl a not particularly bad score and made it through with my team to the final of our mini competition. Somehow we won and were treated with a voucher to come back. which I definately will.

I'd like to point out that our host Mat and the staff were friendly and very helpful throughout the time there and that the Private room would make a great place to have a birthday party should anyone wish to organise me one this year.

Dear me, blame an insanely busy week, because I've been totally tardy on getting this review in. So in an attempt to avoid incurring any more wrath, let's get this show on the road:

Like a few of the others in attendance at last week's Qype event, I'd been to the Bayswater branch of All Star Lanes only once before, for a work do. The super-slick setting here is a mixed blessing for All Star Lanes, because there'll always be some who interpret it as corporate or devoid of personality (making it a safe bet for entertaining out-of-town clients, but not necessarily somewhere you want to go at weekends with friends).

That said, last week's shindig was the perfect opportunity for the lucky Qypers who'd wangled their way in to sample all their different wares, and to get a glimpse of the people and personalities behind the gorgeously glossy surface.

The staff were warm, friendly and helpful, especially the barman who got landed with us in the private room while we bowled and warbled the night away - his ears must have been bleeding after some of those karaoke renditions, but he was all smiles, joining in the banter and generally being a good sport.

But before I get ahead of myself, let's rewind to the food. Like the others have said, All Star Lanes isn't a place you'd go only to eat - you're there for the bowling and the booze! But having a decent menu on offer definitely takes the faffing out of your evening, meaning you can have the whole caboodle without having to trawl the uninspiring streets nearby.

Ever lady-like, I opted for the BBQ ribs, and they were totally worth the inevitable embarrassment of ending up with my face covered in meat and sauce; melt-in-the-mouth and enormous portions. Can't go wrong.

Once we'd moved to our private room, equipped with two bowling lanes, karaoke machine, cocktails a-go-go served by our own barman and an assortment of delicious desserts served canapé-style (chocolate mousse! tiny waffles! can I have all my sweet treats in this format from now on, please?).

Having that room to ourselves felt super-decadent, like lounging about at a rockstar's house, and I'd definitely recommend it for parties and special occasions - all the fun of bowling, bawling and boozing, but with top-notch attentive service and none of the shame of strangers overhearing your cat-in-a-lawnmower appropriation of Ballroom Blitz!

I bowled at All Star Lanes in Holborn a year or so ago and had a really brilliant night, so when Qype invited me to #BowledOverByQype last week at All Star Lanes in Bayswater I jumped at the chance. Bowling, burgers and karaoke? Urm, yeah, that sounds ok, I guess...

It was a brilliant night. Of course, it was a special event and the people at the All Star Lanes kind of spoiled us, but I'd really recommend All Star Lanes for a night out all the same.

My meal in the large restaurant area was delicious. I started off with chicken wings before moving on to their award-winning chilli. Despite the chilli and rice being served in two small separate bowls (no one else eats chilli like that, right?), I really enjoyed both. The chicken wings came in a gently spiced sauce and the chilli was warming and delicious. Other options included a HUGE burger and a rack of ribs that just fell off the bone. Nom.

After eating we were ushered through into their private room. What a nice place! Two bowling lanes, a karaoke machine and a bar. And you don't even have to change into bowling shoes to bowl in there. Awesome. We were treated to dessert canapes of little waffles with buttermilk cream, chocolate mousse, brownies and cheesecakes, and a cocktail maker whipped up drinks on demand. So indulgent. But it's fine, because we were bowling, which is totally a sport. OK?

All in all, a wonderful night. Good food, and great entertainment. For parties, I'd totally recommend the private room. For fun times, I suspect a night out eating and playing the lanes would be brilliant too.

So...I feel I ought to start with a mini disclaimer. I was part of the Qype crew that went to All Star Lanes and consequently we were probably treated to an above average experience. I've given a 4* rating, which is definitely deserved if non-Qypers get the same attention to detail and smiling faces. Only a future surprise visit will tell the truth...

Onto the food! To be honest, I never had great expectations for the food. After all, you go to a bowling alley to bowl, not to eat. But they are obviously making an effort on the food front, and the menu had some pretty inventive dishes for a bowling alley. I started with tuna and red cabbage. The tuna was bland and a bit dull in colour. All in all, an average dish. For my main, I had the pork butt with beans. Again, the food was perfectly edible but nothing to write home about. To sum up, the food met my expectations - American diner style food, lots of potential to taste great but slightly disappointing in execution. As far as I could gather (our menu had no prices) the main dishes were under £10, so at that price you can't really complain.

And now moving on to the good stuff! The bowling, karaoke and the cocktails! The private room at the All Star Lanes is superb! I would definitely look to hire it out in future. We had a blast, bowling and singing for a good few hours. The barman knocked up a decently strong cocktail and the service was excellent - top notch for providing a great evening.

Will I be back? To bowl, absolutely. To bowl and eat, probably. Just to eat, unlikely.

I went to All Star Lanes as part of the #BowledOverByQype event. I had passed this place so many times when I used to still live in Notting Hill (it was on the route of my 24 hour bus), but from the outside it just seems like any other bowling alley. It was such a nice surprise to discover it was so much more! Inside everything has a 50s theme; the waiters and bar staff have 50s inspired outfits, the diner has nice low comfy booths and a black and white checkered tile floor, and the whole place is decorated with paintings of pinups.

We started out with drinks in the main bar area, where there were several round red booths (each fitting about 8-10 people). Once everyone had arrived, the 20 or so of us settled down in the diner where All Star lanes had provided us with our own menu.

There were a couple of yummy sounding starters to choose from, but I couldn't resist the Spiced BBQ Wings, Celery and Blue Cheese Dip. This turned out to be so messy, but so very tasty. The wings could have been a bit spicier for my taste (but then I'm a sucker for extremely spicy food). The celery and the blue cheese dip were a nice addition to the wings. I could have easily survived the night on only this; it's a larger starter than I was expecting.

For my main I chose the "2009 UK Chilli Championship winning Chili Con Carne". It was a good chili, nice and spicy with bits of mushrooms and peppers. I wasn't much a fan of having the chili and rice served in two sperate bowls though.

After the lovely dinner, we all headed to the private function room for bowling and karaoke. It's a nice room for parties; on one end you've got two bowling lanes, on the other a nicely lit bar area with your own private cocktail bar and karaoke machine. I liked the idea of combining bowling and karaoke; instead of just waiting for your turn to bowl, you can enjoy singing along to the usual karaoke. I attempted a couple of songs; singing Build Me Up Buttercup with LJ, and trying to Lady Gaga's Poker Face with Dan.

During the bowling and karaoke, we got served some delightful treats. First everyone got a Mint Julep cocktail. The we got deserts in the form of canapes! I had already aten so much, but the canapes were just way too cute not to try. My favourites were the chocolate mousse with a layer of caramel on top, and the mini waffle with something on top of it (don't remember what though). Next to that we got a chocolate fudge brownie bite, and some type of cheesecake (I think).

It was a great evening, and All Star Lanes is definitely a place I'll visit in the future. The food on it's own wasn't amazing, but as part of an easily arranged night out, it's perfect. Dinner, cocktails, bowling, what more do you need? Also I really need to come back to try out the Bailey's milkshake...

For photos, see: http://missgeeky.com/2011/01/28/event-report-bowled-over-...

I feel bad not giving All Star Lanes the full five stars, because it's safe to say my night was definitely five star in terms of enjoyment - but I do feel the fives should be saved for absolutely perfect nights...and there is room to improve here.

Mostly, I would say it was the food that didn't quite live up to expectations. Like many other unimaginative folks on our Qype night out, I opted for the burger, with a chicken quesadilla for starter. Both were good, but not exceptional - we weren't asked how we'd like the burgers cooked, and the waitress didn't know what I meant when I asked for it "with the works" - maybe I've been watching too many American tv shows, but this is an American diner style establishment, and I thought I was getting in the mood. She clearly thought I was speaking gibberish.

This is not to say the staff were bad - they weren't. We we were looked after well, without any of the usual rushing, sighing and frustrated looks you often get at places like this when you're in a group of more than ten people. This goes for the bartender in the private room too - smiles, good service and good cocktails all round. And this from somone who had to put up with the dulcet tones of two dozen tipsy qypers. I'd be in the corner, holding my head in my hands, rocking from side to side yelling "make it stop."

I jest - never have I experienced karaoke with so many people who can actually sing.

The combo of bowling and karaoke is pretty much a dream night out for me, so no complaints there. The private room has two lanes, its own bar, a huge seating area and the karaoke machine / dancing area. This is a modern, Lucky Voice style karaoke system, not the scary japanese ones you find in some places. And the playlist is huge. We even found Charles & Eddie's 'Would I Lie To You' (sorry, everyone).

My only problem with the bowling is that the lane we were on clearly tilted to the left a bit - how else can you explain why my ball kept going into the gutter ;0)

I had a 'spare' evening (groan), so registered for and subsequently turned up at the #BowledOverByQype event - held here at the All Star Lanes, nestled close to the Whiteleys shopping centre in Queensway.

I arrive at the Bayswater branch of the ten-pin empire to find some friendly faces lined up on 2 tables, awaiting dinner. Looking at the menu, I am one of the few who are relieved to find there are alternatives to burgers! I order the Tuna with red slaw (no mayo!! Hurrah!!) followed by the blackened salmon with beetroot.

Considering this is a bowling alley, I'm pleasantly surprised by the food - instead of an 'out of the freezer via the deep fat fryer/microwave' selection, I felt like I ate something healthy here - although there was a distinct impression of 'nearly but not quite' around the table when the food arrived. Still, the food was more than adequate for my empty belly, and I didn't need to have 'dinner no. 2' later.

Suitably filled with food, we were treated to a few frames in the private room. This had 2 lanes, a karaoke machine and kind and patient Oscar, our genial chap behind the bar, who whipped up incredibly boozy juleps to accompany the pudding canapes.

Oscar, I can only apologise for the joyous audio assault on your ears as we wailed our way through some of our favourite songs as others tried in vain to bowl during this aural torture. It is impossible to describe the sheer noise that 20 or so Qypers can make once they are filled with sugar and alcohol and encouraged to throw stuff and sing. A fun night was had by all.

I would unhesitatingly recommend the private room as a brilliant place to hold a party or event. What a great night out, even if you, like me, aren't that brilliant at bowling.

As at Jan 2011:
2 courses: around £20
Bowling: £6.25-8.75 per person per game
Private bowling and Karaoke Room holds up to 80 people

Things I love: booze, bowling and baraoke, so hurrah for Qype very kindly letting me come along to an evening of oodles of free same, if without the third b and correct spelling back in situ.

We hung out in the lovely bar area before dinner. All Star really do bars well – those fabulous red circular sofas, pretty waitresses, affable looking bar staff. Great. I had a glass of Pinot Grigio to start – bit on the sharp side – and then we toddled off to two long tables in the restaurant area for dinner. The loos are like a five minute walk away through double doors next to our table, but we still got a faint waft of bleach every now and then which was weird.

Anyway, dinner! We had a special group menu drawn up by the chef to let us try a few of their options. The house Chardonnay was a lovely surprise and much better than the more expensive Pinot I’d had (£4 versus £4.70 a glass) so yay for white wine. Like a huge chunk of the table I had spiced BBQ chicken wings with blue cheese sauce. Pretty good – and lots of it – if not as BBQ sauce-tasting as this obsessive would have liked.

Spurred on by the memory of a ridiculously indulgent macaroni cheese I had at Bodeans in Clapham last month, I ordered a baked three cheese mac with added bacon. This, sadly, sucked. If the word cheese is in the description of something savoury, I kind of expect, nay demand, to taste it. This may as well have been baked in béchamel sauce without adding the cheese, unless the three were Babybel, Cheez Strings and that other generic, flavourless yellow stuff that always turned up on the top of restaurant dishes. Have we got this yet? It didn’t taste of cheese. I left half of it, partly because it was disappointing and partly because I was stuffed after the chicken.

Well, now I’m thinking about that macaroni cheese and reliving that poor sad main course all over again, I may as well get all the whingeing out of my system. The waitress wrote down our orders, but my macaroni still turned up sans bacon (probably for the best, but really? I fricking LOVE BACON) and our finger bowls only turned up at the end of our starters when some of us (and obviously me, duh) had already destroyed our napkins with barbecue hands. We were here on a jolly, so I’d have guessed they were all on super best behaviour, but forgetting a couple of really basic things was odd.

Still, we left a lot of very happy people bowling and drinking in the main area to head off to the private room for a cocktail and pudding canapes. It’s a lovely private room, much smaller than the Brick Lane branch and would probably work better for birthday parties where you don’t want to flounder around in lots of extra space.

I also loved the bar – lots of unexpected touches like dream catchers which made me giggle, and again, friendly bar staff.

The karaoke machine was right next to the lane, meaning the teams who weren’t playing could hang out without leaving the action. Great song selection and lots of amazing singing from the Qypers - Dan and Melinda OWNED Lady GaGa, Sian and Jane B did a cracking Ballroom Blitz, and Gemma and Kat did the best karaoke dancing I've ever seen. LJ clearly has a future as a classier Butlin's redcoat - great fun.

All Star is always great fun for groups and it looked like they had some deals on here – I clocked a poster offering two courses, a drink and bowling for £26), but at Bayswater at least, stick to the three tenuous b’s and leave the food alone.

I can't fault this venue at all - lovely intimate atmosphere, fantastic cocktails, a vast array of difficult to find American beers, an adventurous menu and, of course, bowling! Wonderful!

http://thelondoneer.blogspot.com/2011/01/all-star-lanes-b...

If ever there were a sport in which you could simultaneously excel and completely suck, bowling would be it. The average beginner seems to hit 2 strikes in a row then fail miserably for the rest of the night managing to get ball in gutter within about 8 inches of letting go of the thing, 95% of the time. Maybe I exaggerate. Maybe I should speak for myself...

I used to go bowling with church youth group. I kid you not. (Please don't hold my upbringing against me.) From this time I remember bowling alleys to be distinctly inert affairs; they were the kiddy-friendly alternative to going to bars and clubs. (Which I did as well, from a young age. Fabulously hypocritical Christian upbringing I hope you'll agree.) As well as inert (no alcohol) they were naff to the extreme and mildly grubby to boot.

I am glad that my first experience in 10 years was at All Star Lanes in Bayswater, a decidedly fancy bowling and food venue, and one where alcohol was decidedly on the menu; now these memories can be erased. We were greeted with drinks (the Root Beer on ice is a must), chatted in the bar (quite plush actually) then were seated at the diner.

Although a tad "themed", the diner was pleasant. For some reason I loved the immaculate tiled black and white floor, the printed menu which was tailored to our event, and I found the service to be reasonably attentive.

I wasn't bowled-over by the food or drink, but please note I am a huge fusspot when it comes to food. For a starter I had the seared tuna and red slaw taco. Tuna was perfectly cooked but bland, taco was a very strange texture, neither tasty nor crunchy. The slaw was okay. My main dish was a burger - one shouldn't be too critical of the quality of a burger, because a burger is a burger is a burger, however it was definitely of "Gourmet Burger Kitchen" quality as opposed to "Byron". (God I sound so middle class, kill me now. For the uninitiated, this means the burger was pretty average.)

We were then treated to the private room with a double bowling lane and our own bar staff. It was a great atmosphere, cocktails were served, and Karaoke was sung. I'm no Karaoke aficionado but I liked the fact we could choose our own music and bowl at whatever rate we chose. Sadly we were asked by door / security staff at the end of the evening to leave; there's a reason that security staff should never interface with customer unless there is a problem (especially when your front of house are infinitely more attractive and personable).

Anyway this was smoothed over by our brilliant, friendly, professional host Matt, whose hospitality during the evening was greatly appreciated. Thanks for a great night!

(Although I can’t claim to have experienced the kind of night out at All Star Lanes that a typical punter would experience, I certainly had ample opportunity to sample the constituent parts of the total All Star package, of which you can pick and choose from as you see fit. That validates my opinion, right?)

With Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes as my benchmark for bowling-by-way-of-temple-of-1950s-Americana, first impressions of its closest rival were favourable. Fundamentally, they’re one and the same; there’s a bar and dining area that acts a hub area for groups to eat, drink and chat animatedly against a soundtrack of classic rock ‘n’ roll, soul and hearty cheers as Monica from accounts finally hits a pin.

From my vantage point in the holding pen, bottle of Sam Adams in hand, army of fellow Qypers in attendance, however, it becomes rapidly apparent that All Stars has the edge – aesthetically speaking at least. It’s a more expansive, brighter, airier space than its endearingly ramshackle alternative, with a greater sense of cohesiveness between its disparate disciplines (booze, burgers, bowling).

The serving staff, clad in period waitress uniform complete with distractingly low-cut fronts, seem to be uniformly gorgeous and genuinely friendly, again entirely in keeping with the venue’s retro styling. (If my wife is reading this, they were ungainly, hideous gargoyle-like creatures and I maintained eye contact at all times.)

Our genial host Matt soon led us to a table that offered a perfect view of the ten-pin action we were soon to enjoy, but it didn’t take long for the menu – a selection of luxurious, if not drastically revised takes on American culinary staples – to distract us from the midweek post-work revelry. Matt’s vicarious heartfelt plea from the resident chef – “Please don’t all order burgers” – was, shockingly, actually observed by a fair few of us, although food envy inevitably set in when the generously sized patties and hearty accoutrements were served up to those who refused to heed our host’s advice.

Suffice to say, these philistines gorged on exceptionally delicious-looking chicken wings prior to their glorified beef sandwiches while I, in the role of American diner gourmand, quietly slurped on my ham and white bean soup. Amidst the laughter and finger pointing, I was still able to enjoy its creamy texture, offset by the odd chunk of tender ham and pleasingly soft bean.

It was probably the “Award-winning” part of “Award-winning chilli con carne” that first attracted me to the award-winning chilli con carne, although “chilli con carne” played no small part either. The nature of the award wasn’t revealed – much like the ‘award-winning’ curries so many local takeaways pride themselves on – but if they’re dishing out accolades for odd-but-not unpleasant smoothness (not an adjective I ever thought I’d apply to this dish), succulent steak mince and a spiciness that creeps up on you and whispers in your ear rather than screaming “Boo!”, it certainly warranted a ribbon.

Elsewhere, the burgers seemed to enjoy universal acclaim, save the odd, valid grumble about not being consulted about how well the meat should be done – surely the standard for any would-be gourmet burger – the ribs looked like a carnivore’s saucy dream, and I can personally vouch for the veggie quesadillas that one of my dining buddies couldn’t quite polish off.

By the time we entered our private room, complete with twin bowling lanes (I called them Topsy and Tim. In my head), curiously positioned karaoke unit (with microphones apparently fashioned on Joseph Merrick’s head) and dedicated bar (er, something else ending with ‘head’), I was sufficiently bloated to bypass the sweet canapés. I could barely bring myself to even look at them, but I have vague recollections of a caramel-smothered mini-waffle that I, were I in a far less swollen state, would have inhaled in a heartbeat.

The rest is a blur of hurling heavy balls down shiny lanes, singing Poker Face, supping on a rather lovely raspberry-enhanced Mint Julep and being presented with vouchers for a return visit on account of being a member of The Greatest Qype Bowling Team In The Worldtm. And all on a Tuesday!

Considering the circumstances, it was undoubtedly a five-star experience, but I have a feeling I would’ve still had at least a four-star one had I actually been made to pay for the privilege. Huge thanks to Siany for allowing this Qype virgin to come along, to Matt (aka @allstarlanes for you Tweeters) for his marvellous hospitality and to my fellow Qypers for providing such great company.

(I promise that not all of my reviews will be this long. I also didn’t see the bit about writing “as if you were talking to a good friend” until it was too late, so I’ll be sure to do that next time too. Sorry.)

I've been to the AllStar Lanes a few times in the past. Holborn twice and last night was my second time at the Bayswater branch as part of the #BowledOverByQype event.

I'm not the world's best bowler and always feel like having a Fred Flintstone moment whenever I pick up a bowling ball (I loved the Flintstones as a kid & bowling looked fun, but I never got to bowl until I was 'grown up'). I really love the old Americana retro styling of the lanes here, so it was good to see the menu matched the decor well.

I came just expecting burgers and nothing else, so it was a pleasant surprise to see chilli, seared salmon, pork butt cheeks with giant baked beans and ribs on the menu too. Fred Flintstone would have been happy with the portion of ribs which was about the length of my cat (he's not a small cat) and amazingly, with the help of a friend, I polished them off . The meat was meltingly tender and worked well with the accompanying baked apple (apple & ribs - made a combo - who knew? - I felt like I had a bit of my five a day with that).

The bowling was fun and made even more fun by the karaoke machine for those who were waiting to bowl. Like Siany, I'm seriously considering hiring the private room for a party!

Will certainly be back - yet again!

I've been to the Bayswater venue three times now (twice for corporate 'dos, and the third time for #BowledOverByQype), and they just keep getting more and more fun.

I'm a real fan of the whole retro Americana theme that runs from the decor to the menu to the drinks to the waitresses' gorgeous Agent Provocateur-style dresses. The food is classic diner stuff -- burgers, ribs, milkshakes (oh the milkshakes! They're my favourite things ever!), and pretty tasty too.

The starter I chose last night was a tasty aubergine quasedilla, which was a generous serve and really filling! Honestly, it could've been a main. Following that I chose the blackened salmon with candied beets. It was a really nice fillet of salmon surprisingly, and again, a generous serve. The candied beets could've had a bit more flavour, but the salmon was really nice.

I was absolutely stuffed after those two courses, but managed to choke down a tiny brownie dessert canape. Yum! Then, a julep cocktail followed. Yes, I rolled home, in case you're wondering.

Each time I've been I've always been really impressed with the service. One time I had to negotiate a tricky coat-swap (my friend had taken my coat instead of hers from my house accidentally, so she dropped it off with the cloakroom and exchanged it for her own), but they were nothing but helpful and lovely to me when explaining my predicament.

All in all, I'd really recommend visiting the Bayswater branch of All Star Lanes. I've not had the pleasure of bowling at the other branches, but if the west-side one is anything to go by, I definitely plan on scheduling in a visit soon.