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March 2024 by Jeff Kaczmarczyk
This place is an absolute trip! Reminds me of a couple candlepin bowling alleys that I grew up with in Western Mass. Decided to come here on a whim and it delivered. My wife and I had an absolute blast. Can’t beat the price and beverage selection either. Great fun!
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March 2024 by Kelly Holly
Always loved this bowling alley, I've had at least 3 Birthday parties for my kids over the years, and have been going myself since a child. The perfect, local, fun for all place!!! Now I'll bring my Grandson when he's a Lil older & have great family, memories to share with him. ?❤️
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March 2024 by samantha coyle
I just hosted a charity event here and the entire staff was extremely kind and accommodating. I can’t recommend Southie bowl more for any future parties or events. Communication was easy and all our needs were met. I will definitely be back.
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March 2024 by Ben Schellenberger
I'm a long time avid bowler and first time ever going candlepin bowling, and was surprised how busy it was in here! This place is great and gives off old school bowling alley vibes which seems to be hard to come by these days. More affordable than most 10 pin places in the area, and the games go by much quicker too!Was able to get a lane walking in on a Saturday, but highly recommend you call ahead and reserve a lane.Drinks are served, but not food. They seem to allow people to bring food in.
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March 2024 by Sean Thorp
This is exactly what you want your Candlepin Bowling to be! No frills. No loud music. Sometimes that’s what you’re looking for, sure. But this place has TVs everywhere to watch whatever games are on. A 90s-2010 playlist. The lanes are old. But more importantly, the shoes aren’t. It’s an old place. But it’s clean. The bar has an outstanding beer list, too. And you can bring your own food. On the weekend, at least, it’s busy. So reserve a lane.
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February 2024 by Alan Dagesse
Fun place with beer and TVs and bowling, that’s the good. Now the bad: it’s old AF and the lanes are warped and rarely oiled. 15$/per person/hour which is nuts. It should either be a lane fee per hour regardless of bowlers or a fee per game per bowler. If you have 4-6 bowlers just get 4 lanes everyone has their own lane and you’ll play a bunch of games for the same price. My 2 year old bowled 4 balls and costed me the same as my hour. To recap its fun but a dump and poorly run. Also you keep score by hand like it’s 1975.
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February 2024 by Frazer Richardson
Visiting from Toronto with two friends, our first time doing Candlepin bowling. We had a great time!Loved the atmosphere and loved the game itself. We arrived about 15 minutes after the start time we had reserved, but since it was a quiet night they let us keep going for an extra 15 minutes at the end, which was appreciated. Would definitely come back next time I'm in Boston!
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February 2024 by Rat Bath
My friends and I were visiting from Toronto and had a blast experiencing authentic candlepin bowling! The alley has an old-school feel, great beer selection and helpful staff for us first-timers. We arrived late for our reservation due to a delayed bus, but they kindly let us play for the full 1.5 hours we booked. A one-of-a-kind South Boston landmark.
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February 2024 by Miranda
had a great time playing here with a friend. very old school… you keep score with pencil and paper and you control a button to reset the pins after each round. a nice selection of beer and cider to enjoy while you play.
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January 2024 by Jose Cordero
Amazing old school candlepin bowling alley feel. Have to score and reset the pins yourself. Staff was amazing. Also no food but I'm sure you can order something in the area. It had couple options of beer on tap and in fridge. Plenty of space to move around. I would suggest to reserve a lane online as it gets busy. Definitely will be coming back soon.
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December 2023 by Violeta Rayon
It's very nice but a bit rundown
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December 2023 by C H
We visited this weekend for my nephews 14th birthday from Rochester, NY. My nephew is on the bowling team at school and was dying to try candlepin.... What a cool experience, and even cooler because of how great the staff and overall establishment was. Sue helped us learn the ropes of the game, and really went out of her way to make Kyle feel special on his day; he even got a shout-out on their social media page. The bowling alley was clean and well kept, the service was above and beyond, the music was great, and we had soo much fun. He hasn't stopped talking about it since we left. Thank you Sue and Southie!! You guys rock
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December 2023 by Kourtney B.
"What the hell are you doing in SOUTHIE?!" asked the incredulous locals next to us. I didn't tell them we're tourists, but my traveling companion is much more chatty and much less street smart. But these folks seem nice and not like they're about to mug us, so I let it slide. What are we doing in Southie? Trying out Candlepin bowling of course! Their confusion was not lessened in the slightest, baffled how two tourists ended up in their neighborhood in this locals only kind of spot. While I currently live in San Diego, I grew up in a small Midwest town with a bowling alley. You know the ones with funky lighting that's dim but too bright at the same time, well worn shoes, balls you're pretty sure are older than your parents, and the ugliest carpet you've ever seen? That was one of my favorite places to go. It wasn't fancy but it was fun. My family looks a bit different these days- dead, older, bum backs, and living in different states across the country. But one is never too old to try to crush their mother in whatever slightly sporty competition we can find, hence our evening trying our hand at Candlepin.Even flanked by other businesses, it's not hard to spot the Southie Bowl mural on the side. It's slightly worn, like the interior, so you know this spot has been open for decades. Once inside I was surprised to see it wasn't packed, but maybe the rain kept the crowd away. I'd made a reservation online ahead of time since it was a Saturday night, but because there was room we got to start our hour of bowling early. Worked out perfectly actually because at 9 the normal lights went out and they turned on the fun lights. Getting to do a little halfsies of that was a fun little perk. But before you get to the bowling you have to pick your shoes and your balls. Unlike traditional bowling with the different ball weights and finger holes of varying sizes that your fat little fingers get stuck in so every time you jam your fingers - candlepin balls here appeared to be the same, except the patterns on the outside that I loved.Also unlike traditional electronic scoring, at least at most alleys, here the score is kept with pencil and paper. And the scoring system? Look it up before you start playing because the game is a bit different than the bowling you're probably most familiar with. For starters you bowl three times, the pins aren't swept away between rolls, and your score is kept a bit differently. Did we bother to learn how to keep score accurately? We sure didn't. We were really going by who knocked down the most pins. Because given the sheer amount of gutter balls we rolled we were pretty sure we weren't going to be rolling a bunch of strikes. It was hard enough to get a single spare! We bowled, we laughed, and we wondered why Candlepin is merely an obscure New England tradition while we languish out west with regular bowling.Our hour flew by. If we hadn't had such a long day of sightseeing we could have bowled another hour. I won! And by that I mean I knocked over the most pins. Even better was in the morning we didn't wake up all sore, with aching muscles we often forget we have. No jammed fingers! All we had were fun memories and a "new" thing to tell everyone about. Are there other candlepin bowling alleys in Boston? Sure, but I loved this one. The seating was comfortable, the shoes weren't gross, and the vibe was old school but not ratty. If I was local I'd be a regular. Instead I'll just have to settle for coming by to bowl whenever I'm visiting. (See you in 2024 if I'm lucky!) Any top 10 list of things to do in Boston really should include candlepin, maybe even top 5. I'd also say to make the trip to Southie for your game. If your childhood was anything like mine, oh the nostalgia you'll feel walking into this place. A time warp of the best kind!
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October 2023 by Billy Rowell
Came to Boston on vacation from San Antonio, Texas and wanted to experience candlepin bowling. Had some trouble parking in Boston but called the alley and Sue answered the phone. She was amazing and went outside to find us parking and even directed us to the space. Once there, we had a blast bowling. Really great staff and nice people.
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October 2023 by Shannon Williams
So much fun!
