Food and Fun Around Lexington: LexLive Bowling

To continue my @‌thingstodoinlexingtonky endeavors, I felt like getting up and doing something fun instead of just eating. One of their posts features a place called LexLive that has movie theaters, bowling lanes, arcade games, a restaurant and a bar. I thought this would be the perfect place to try bowling. To be blunt, I felt it was a waste of an evening.

It all started when I showed my boyfriend the post. He agreed that it would be a good place to try out, so we started looking into the details for bowling (close times, prices, etc.). We went on a Thursday, and on Thursdays, they are open from 11 a.m. to 12 a.m. Their hours were particularly convenient for us because we like to go out late. Oddly enough though, we couldn’t find prices for bowling on their official website. I went to Henry Clay High School’s Student News Site and found that it costs $5.50 per individual to bowl on Sundays-Thursdays all day and shoe rental is $4.50 always. Since the prices seemed reasonable, we committed to the plan.

We got to LexLive around 9:30 that Thursday evening. Parking was a stressful experience, and information regarding it was not included on their website. We gave up and parked in Rupp Arena’s lot. After walking to LexLive, we were welcomed by a locked front door. We had to walk more to find a way to get in. Upon going up to the front desk, we found out that bowling was $42.00 for one hour since it was past 5:00 p.m., and our shoe rentals were $4.50. We expected the shoe rental cost but not the bowling cost because the website we looked at said it is $42.00 after 5:00 on Fridays and Saturdays. To be fair, this policy could have changed since that article was written in 2021.

But that doesn’t change the fact that we were upset about not knowing. The company website could have easily included this information.

Despite the annoying parts of our night, I will admit that the employees at LexLive were nice and friendly the whole time. The lanes stopped working multiple times, and whenever my boyfriend went up and told them, they were understanding and just opened a new lane for us to use to bowl.

Overall, I would not recommend LexLive, at least for bowling. The place is well-kept, the staff is pleasant and the environment is good so you may try another one of their activities and love it. But as for bowling, it’s overpriced, the parking situation is unclear if you've never been before and the website doesn’t include enough information to plan something there. The cons just far outweigh the pros in this case.