Round1 Bowling & Arcade - San Jose

Noisy, jarring and not particularly clean. Prices of machines are not great-think 4 (!?) dollars per claw machine play. Has an okay selection of rhythm games which seem decently maintained. Sold out of game cards in vending machines when I went, had to buy at front desk. Not much positive I can say about this round 1 in particular. I guess the water fountains are pretty nice? Security frisks you at both entrances, which kinda sucks. Also, for some reason, no mirrors in the bathroom? Though this is common across all round 1 locations. I have also visited the location in south SF, which was surprisingly significantly nicer.

We had a party of 12. We went bowling, played arcade games and rented a karaoke room. The bowling was fun, but trying to find the right sized ball was tough. Your choices were a very heavy ball or a lightweight ball with tiny finger holes. They just didn't have enough of the medium weight balls around 8 lbs. The arcade games are comparative in pricing to a lot of other places like Big Al's or Dave& Buster's. There are a lot of claw games and they are very difficult to win. A lot of people play them but we did not see very many with winnings. The karaoke room was a lot of fun. It's very spacious and you can bring a cake in there for celebration purposes. You can also order food and drinks to the room. The system works really well, but the constant advertisements about the system between songs really cuts your time down. You pay by the hour but you really only get 40 minutes between learning how the system works and waiting for the ads to run their course. They had a very good variety of food and drinks to choose from. The staff is decent, nothing extraordinary to note. Some areas smell a little weird. I'm not an expert but it seems like the carpets don't dry completely when they get steam cleaned.

Not the greatest bowling alley, but we made the best of it. They have very limited balls with larger holes, so unless you have small fingers, you better bring your own bowling ball. Friendly staff, though.

As far as large chain arcades go, Round1 is my preferred chain due to their wide assortment of claw and gatcha type games. This place is about 40/60 split into claw machine type games and traditional arcade games. Pricing per play though on a lot of them are a tad high.

Fun place for the whole family to enjoy! New games have been added all around the center. Bowling and arcade is a perfect combination for a fun date. Bathrooms are clean and the whole center is clean. Tends to get hot near all the prize machines. Fresh near the entrance.

Overall experience was good. We celebrated my son’s birthday here and all of us had a blast! We got a workout bowling! 🎳 I selected a party package for the group which included shoes, drinks and 2 slices of pizza 🍕 per person and 2 hours of bowling. Plus they added party hats and 2 balloons. 🙂 They had optional food like wings and more pizza, but a reminder to all you need to pay for that separately if you wish to order. Make sure to order right when you get there, too. I didn’t do that and our food got there late so we ended up taking some of it home because our 2 hours were over. They were busy. My sibling thought the wings were a little too salty. We got alcohol and bartender was on point with good drinks! 🍹 Also, the temperature while bowling was hot! I don’t know if the air conditioning was off but it was extremely hot… by 1 hour in we felt exhausted. My mom was just sitting and watching us play if she was hot and not playing something was wrong with the temperature. They need to fix the temperature. Overall, we would go back. We would dress for summer though and recommend ordering early for your food.

Honestly, this was my first time hard core doing claw machines. It was quite fun, but IMO, definitely pretty pricey. They do have some promos for credits, so definitely look into getting more, since it won't expire if you plan to come back. Staff was generally friendly. To management...it is a bit weird to sell custom cards...but if you're a member, it doesn't roll over...so less people will likely buy the cards...staff thought it was weird too. Will be back in the future! Easy parking in Eastridge mall.