Reviews of Thirsty Duck Wauwatosa (Bowling Alley)

Bob Kedz

Nice place, food good.

Mark Colletti

Great food! Professionals that understand what makes dining and entertainment experience one of a kind for each customer!

Anthony Gahn , Jr.

Good food and a good time. Wait staff of friendly and fun.

Dave Smith

Mini bowling is Awesome!

Thomas Schroeder

Fun place to stop for food, drinks, and maybe some bowling.

Gregg Kriegel

Less crowded than their neighbors so easy in and out for a drink before Brewers Game, but still have same issue for tardy return shuttles

nicholas fleury

Fun place to go!

Tom Mullen

Lots of fun!!

Scott Przybyl

Shuttle to Miller Park is great, thanks Jay.

Edward Knueppel Jr.

Service was slow and we were literally the only ones there. Wings were okay. Music was chill; mostly 90s.

Caroline Powell

Good burgers and barbecue. The nachos are great too.

Bruce Lawson

Different kind of place. We ride the Jackson's Blue Ribbon Pub shuttle for Brewer games, BUT they were full as can be so we went to the Thirsty Duck instead. Yes there is a tiny bowling alley here but it's not a bowling alley. It's a pub. We had a "Buffalo chicken" pizza with garlic bread. A little lite on the toppings but good none the less. Great service, good food, good beer choices. A little pricey, but still 5 stars.

Stephen DeGroot

Staff was great good food and nice beer selection. Plus the bowling was fun.

O B

Nice friendly place. Food was really good. I asked to thank the cook and was told his name is Max. Told him to keep up the good work.

Zachery Zanotelli

Traci is so great! I always come back to visit every time because of Traci and how means a lot to me! I have known Traci for a long time and she puts a smile on your face every time you see her. She is nice to everybody and is a real sweet heart! She is an awesome bartender and my best friend! This bar is a lot of fun and if your looking to have a great time come and visit us!

Paul Rudolph

Thirsty Duck is a cool bar that features mini bowling, which frankly I prefer over real bowling. The employees were friendly and the food was good. The bowling was great. Only real negative was the beer selection was very substandard for this modern age of micro brews. There's a lot of major labels and only a couple of selections from places like Lakefront. Basically, go for the bowling, not for the beer.

Adam Derus

Duck pin bowling. What a neat idea! Food was damn good, drinks were standard and the atmosphere was fun and open. Great date spot.

Brenda Kosobucki

Very interesting and fun. I would go back.

Charlie Whiskey

Fun experience. Decent food. Tight parking when it's busy. Try to make a reservation if you can.

De Sla

Sweet spot. Great for dates

Paula Snyder

Fun hangout for me and the girls. Been coming here forever.

Cathy W

Tried to eat at Thirsty Duck and won't be going back. The server brought us menus and asked for a drink order before we sat down at our table or had our coats off, so initially we felt rushed. He brought our water and soda promptly, but we waited 15 minutes and he never returned to take our order. We paid for the soda and left. In addition to poor service, Thirsty Duck is very loud, between the bowling and overly loud music. Fortunately there are many other options nearby.

Tammy Wolff

Friendly atmosphere

Lisa Conrad

Food was great service wasnt the girls sat behind the desk chatting n texting

Edwin Krug

Nice time. Friendly people and servers.

Peter Muth

This is a very unique entertainment destination. Duckpin bowling with human pinsetters (very old school and nostalgic) the staff is very attentive and friendly. The food is great and reasonably priced and the atmosphere is nice. I highly recommend this as a famy experience or as a date night.

Ravindranath Barathy

Mini bowling alley are good. Good place for team outing.

Aaron Anderson

Fun little bar/restaurant with mini bowling. My party of 4 visited the Thirsty Duck on a Wednesday afternoon and it was basically empty - not surprising for the day and time. We booked a lane ahead of time online for $30 for an hour. When we arrived, the staff was friendly and fairly attentive. We ordered a couple of apps and some drinks and started mini bowling. We had booked the lane got an hour, which was enough time for a party of 4 to bowl 2 games and eat our apps. The mini bowling is an interesting concept. You keep your score on an iPad and one of the employees stands behind padding at the end of the lane, for the entire time you have the lane booked, to reset your pins for you. You play by standard bowling rules while rolling a 4lbs ball at the mini pins on a elevated lane. You can wear your street shoes while you play. (I'm not really sure how their pay system works, but you are supposed to tip both your pin setter and your server, which I found a little odd). The food was good but a bit stingy with portions. (There were a number of gluten free options, which was nice). Overall, my party and I will be back - maybe on a busier night next time.

Amy Chacon

Had a great time. First time there. Would go again.

David Joy

Fun place. Good atmosphere. Prices were good for food and beer. Pizza wasn't worth it, but everything else was good. You Must do the duck pin bowling.

E Giss

Food came to table after about half hour wait and when it did it was cold. Did the bowing as well. One waitress said we could have a prorated fee if we only wanted to do one game then we went to pay was a different story. Asked for manager she said rates are $15/half hour. Refused to work wth us. We bowled 1 game in ten min and then was told that's it. So $7.50 for the one game each. Terrible service top to bottom!!!!!! Go anywhere but here if you want quality service. Would give no stars if possible.

Luciano Siragusa

Food was great! Lovely selection of apps. Justin made our night! By far outstanding service from him!

Nicholas Averill

Just took my wife here for her Bday and it was well worth it. Great quality of food for a bar plenty of areas to eat in or sit down away from the lanes.

Joe Kosidowski

Lots of fun for the whole family!!

Bonnie GC

This is a fun place to go to have a few drinks, appetizers, and play some mini bowling. The food is typical bar food, but the drinks are cheap. You get the bowling lane for a full hour. It's a fun cheap date night out.

Arnie Diaz

Jay the bus driver for the Brewer game shuttle is totally awesome. Wait staff at bar was slow and inattentive.

Gene Bradley

Fun place to go. You must try the duck pin bowling.

Greg Walker

Great service bar and oh yah we bowled!

Emily Kroll

We have gone here twice for our work get togethers! It is a wonderful place to have fun while bonding with your team. Definitely thinking of coming here again for our next team bonding!

Pam Rombalski

The bowling was great. We wanted to have a few drinks and eat afterwards but we were told there was a party coming in and we had to leave our table. Very disappointing.

Grace Howard

Duck pin bowling is really fun. Tasty bar food and good beer selection, plus the biggest pretzel I've ever seen.

Bobby Quad

Best Pub in Tosa !!!

Bryan Yenor

Attended this restaurant-bar for a duckpin bowling birthday. Had a wonderful time. Polite staff and excellent service. Perfect place for all ages.

Catie O'Donnell

Fun alternative to regular bowling! Good bar food and well priced drinks makes this a great place to hang out with your friends. The only drawback is there is a time limit due to the limited number of lanes.

Rakesh Shah

I never knew mini bowling was a thing until I came here. It was SO much fun!

Salvatore Fontanazza

Brisket Sandwich was terrible. It appeared like the meat was precut, then reheated leaving it leathery. No smoke flavor whatsoever. I was told that the brisket smokes for 14 hours, but they must have forgot to ignite the wood. Service was slow, our server kept leaving the floor for long periods of time. Our table was cleared, they left for ten minutes and when they returned we actually had flag them down and ask for our check. In that time you would think they would have been thinking of turning the table for the next guest and their next potential tip. Guess not.

Valerie Krocka

Our employee holiday event was a smashing success! I must give a big shout out to the staff… especially Hope (our event coordinator) and our server, Amber (she rocked)! The owner was also there who I spoke briefly with and he, too, is very nice and accommodating (the kind of person that you want to frequent their business because you want them to do well). All the food was delicious. The bowling was a blast. The ambiance was perfect. I’ve been receiving rave reviews all day so far! *it will be hard to top this next year*

David Henkel

Awful. Only place I've ever been to that never asked how my food was. Chicken BLT over extemely cooked with no bacon. Cheese curds contained no cheese. Nachos were ok except for every topping was in one spot and a massive mound of lettuce. Bartender couldn't tell us what was on tap. Hostess said wait is 20 minutes so you might want to go someplace else. My wife wanted to leave right then. I said let's try. Should have listened to the wife.

Miranda Olsen

Great vibes!

Jeff P.

Tons of bowling fun. Excellent server.

Jon Reid

Parking is a problem

Jenica

Duck pin bowling is FAR superior to regular size bowling. We've been enjoying duck pin bowling at thirsty duck since they first opened their doors. Things were a little shaky at first, as most all new business are, but the service has always been charming and the food has always been great, and they seem to have shaken out any bumps as they've gone along. We hope they're around forever. *we like to treat ourselves to a pull tab every time someone get a strike. one time we won back our entire evening worth of entertainment!

Alan Williams

It's a bar! It's a bowling ally! It's too loud to think! Yeah, ok, if you have duckpin lanes, they're going to be loud. I get that. By why on EARTH would you have the music turned up to such a level that you have to SCREAM at a person sitting next to you to be heard? Good drink specials, good food, overblown volume.

Nicholas LaBonte

Great food, awesome service. Good place for a party.

Oleg Palygin

Fun place to celebrate events with friends and colleagues. Regular bar food. Cheap drinks.

Todd Rabideau

Waited 45 minutes for a bowl of room temperature chili, that tastes like it came out of a can.

Seth Fenney

The GRANCH! YUM! Mini Bowling is always fun too.

Katie Francis

Food very good and cute mini bowling!

Barb Pohl

Small balls and pins. Nice beer selection. Lots of fun.

Amanda Breeden

I went for a work event with 25+ people. The staff did well floating around to serve drinks, clear glasses, and deliver food to the tables. Only complaint was the young people they employ to reset the pins for bowling were smoking in the hallway, using profanity, and had the exterior door open. I didn't feel that comfortable being back there to use the restroom and definitely not a good reflection of the business.

Danny Flynn

Food was greasy service was slow

Michael Zierath

Awesome service , food and atmosphere

Sue

Food was good

Laurie Walvisch

Really fun for all ages! Lots of people enjoying their parties. Duckpin bowling is a great time. Lots of other games to choose from. Will return for sure.

Zack Arndt

For as many employees standing around the time to get drinks shouldn’t take so long. Also not sure why the hostess is also the serve, very poorly ran for a Friday night.

Anthony Nigbur

In some areas I want to give a better review and in others worse. My girlfriend and I went and generally had a good time. The negatives were: The hostess looked miserable and was overly chatty/dramatic looking that night, the teenager pinsetting was also visibly on her phone while setting the pins up and would pause mid-setup to respond to her texts, lastly the pita "chips" were deep fried to a point of being inedible. The good: Our waitress was very friendly and efficient, wish I remembered her name...the food overall was good too. The atmosphere was generally enjoyable. One thing that would have helped our experience would have been an introduction to the bowling etiquette (i.e. pins arent removed when throwing a second ball), how to use the iPad, etc. General what to expect/welcome kind of thing. We enjoyed out time and would definitely go back, but the negatives make it a hesitant desire to return.

VIMAL VENUGOPAL

First time experience in ducktail bowling..even though it didn't require much of the skillsets as a traditional ten pin bowling demands, it was quite good.

Ashley Cook

Fun, good food. Pretty expensive bowling...$30/hr

Hannah Wells

Fun activity for groups and family outings! We had 8 people on two lanes, which was perfect. However our scoring iPad got a little finnicky and slow and the staff didn't really seem to care or want to help. The bar has a small selection of good craft beers at decent prices.

justin mundt

Service was very subpar food was ok bowling was fun kind of what i expected from other reviews

Nickolas Lee

Nice bar, good food, something different to do rather than just drink and eat! Feels very cozy. Try it out!

Riley Smeaton

They had great food and their shuttle service for the Brewers game was great!

David Paton

Good food amd cute bowling.

Coach Cole

Great fun and very cool with duck bowling

Bruce DeCarlo

Great time

Melanie

Very disappointed in the overall service. First time visit. Visited on a Friday for the fish fry. One server for the entire restaurant. Food just as slow as the service and only so-so at best. Will not be going back.

Theresa Stefanoski

This is for the Sussex location. I just realized I posted to Wauwatosa but don't see an option for deleting. My friends and I had the worst experience there last night. We came for a birthday party that had been set up weeks ago. The service at the bar was horribly slow. I've bartended and can understand when it's busy but there were 4 people behind the bar and they should have been better. The soda in my husband's drink was bad and he asked for another but never got it. When we asked the bartender 15 mins later she said, oh I must have given it to the wrong person! The worst part is when my friend went to pay the food bill for the party she was overcharged by $200 because apparently the party prices are higher than what's on the menu (though she was never told this). One of the guys she was talking to about it (apparently the owner's nephew) said, "do you think he cares if you come back? We're making 4 million dollars this year!" I hope this kid learns quickly that if you are awful to your customers, you're going to make nothing.

kari kratochwill

Great place for an after work get together. We drank, ate and bowled! Great service and awesome experience. Cheese curds are soooooo good.

Rafael Torres

Super fun!! Great staff!!

Mike Ramczyk

Outstanding atmosphere for kids and adults! Bowling area is attractive and fun. Nachos were fully loaded and delicious. Highly recommend for large gatherings, especially birthday parties.

Zac Wise

Bowling was a lot of fun food was good and the nachos were MASSIVE

Jackson Engel

It's very fun try the bnb pretzel challenge

Taylor Briggs

Had an amazing time playing mini bowling! Food is good and HUGE

Candy Kelley

Duck pin bowling is a blast and the food is great...very attentive wait staff

Ben Tellier

I went here on a date and the bowling really adds to the atmosphere. I never considered how much fun this could be, but now I will definitely be doing this again in the future!

Joanna Maslanka

Had a good meal. Wasn't very busy the night we were there and still got a meal wrong in our party of four. The food was tasty so we're willing to give them another try

Cori Coo

This place is really fun! Had a blast and they legit have the BEST cheese curds! If you order the nachos you had better not be alone, they are the size of the table top!!! Great local beer selections too! Don't forget to tip the pin setter!

shelli culbertson

Great people great food. Much love

Joanne Thiede

Went here for food and drinks before a Sunday Brewer game. Service was attentive and friendly. Shuttle driver came around to our table to tell us when each shuttle was leaving. Food was good. I've been here other times for Duck Pin Bowling and it's lots of fun. Used to go to Koz's mini-bowl all the time as a kid and I love that there's a more convenient location now!

Val

Never been here before and had a lot of fun. The bowling is unique as far as I can tell, and the kids really loved it. Can't imagine those poor pin setters, though. Food was good and plentiful but quite salty.

Charles Marquis

Parking lot is psycho full so overflow is to street. Dark, snowy, other cars parked there, $30 parking ticket for 2 hours. Wauwatosa loves that never-ending revenue stream. NEVER going back.

Joshua Widener

A good time! I had never been duck pin bowling. It is unheard of where I live. I found it quite entertaining though and the staff was doing a good job keeping the beer flowing. I recommend anyone in Wisconsin stopping by and trying their hand at the game.

AL Breitbach

The staff was very accommodating. Food was good, Minibowling was enjoyed by youngest to the oldest. Would gladly do it again.

Marty Christensen

Fun place to bring your team for bowling good food and drinks

Tony Benkowski

Had a great time. The duck pin bowling is a lot of fun. Give it a try if your looking for something a little different to do.

Aaron Schmidt

Wow. Amazing food. Our whole table was impressed. This is not just bar food. Everything was excellent.

Lois Frasch

Very fun!

Mark Wolff

Great place for friends and families. Skette bowling, good food and drinks. Kids birthday parties as well as older folks. Really enjoyed this place.

Krispy Black

Oh man! Great ambience and service! I haven't had this much fun in a bar/activity place like this in a long time! A definite must stop in Milwaukee!

Lee G

Went early on Friday afternoon and they were not busy. They only had two pin setters for six Lanes so they did not want to let us bowl. Staff/mgr was totally indifferent to having our business. Great way to run a business!

David Robles

Fun place - reasonable prices for beer and food. Great weekday specials

Gino Zanin

Good times and good staff. 1st time bowler!

Andy Blanchard

The bowling is awesome, food is above average, drinks are ok. We happened to be there when a kids party was going on and it was horrible. Avoid those times if at all possible.

Tristan Marshall

This was a fun and unique place. The music was a little loud so do not expect to have any conco. The staff was very nice!

Bryan Cook

Fun place to do some mini bowling and hangout with friends. Service at the bar was a little slow, they could probably use another bartender.

John Kozicke

Great service and the duck pin bowling was fun.

Laura McMahon

Terrible management. Our screen was broken for 4t minutes and the manager was just flirty with the hostess. He told out waitress how to fix the screen. She was the only one working there! Go to Sussex location.

Adella Deacon

Good food. Multiple gluten free offerings. They even have a separate fryer.

Luis Miguel Almeida

Had a great time playing bowling. Good food as well!

Tim O

Great time bowling and lunch was good. Fun manual pinsetter set up. Plenty challenging for all.

OurCrazyBeautifulSparkly Life

Duck bowling is cool. Make a reservation to duck bowl, dont expect to walk in and be able to do so, lanes are limited and its a busy place. If you dont care to duck bowl go for the cheese curds! 5 stars for the cheese curds. Seriously, get in your vehicle, uber, lyft, cab, get a ride...go for the curds. #wisconsincheese

Sandy Moen

The atmosphere is really cool here, and the miniture bowling is a lot of fun. I have been there for a couple work parties and a few times with just friends. Staff seemed overwhelmed all times since it gets really busy. It is understandable. Food is basic bar food unless you get the food catered by the neighboring restaurant which is very good. For the party set up, it was a little awkward. I wouldn't recommend it for a party larger than 10 people. Overall, I like the concept.

Jerry Meyer

Burger was disappointing but pizza was good

Sara Smeaton

Great food and shuttle to the Brewers' game.

Kyle Salewski

MINI BOWLING! This new place is a great place to grab a drink but more importantly it is a great place for mini bowling. It is a lot of fun to go with a group of people and rent a lane. The pins are setup manually by the staff at the end of the lane, so it takes a little bit to reset the pins but it's not too bad. Since the mini bowling has become a but more popular lately, make sure you make a reservation ahead of time, and if it's for a Saturday night, sometimes they are booked a week out. They always have friendly staff and good bartenders.

Ben Sattler

Bowling is fun but it's expensive

Scott Galpen

Fun place for all occasions and ages. The curds and of course the gigantic pretzel was awesome.

Kathy M

After work Christmas party. Good food and service!

Karen Cook

Very fun place to go for a party.

Stacie Steinman

Great Gun Duck Pin Bowling. Great service, amazing beer choices and fun food. The visit was for a company event, Team building at it's best.

Lily Bear

Had an event there. Was overcharged for drinks and bowling. Our guest had a terrible time. The way management handled it was terrible. No accountability or even response for over a month. I don’t recomend planning a party with them.

Jennifer Hendricks

Great time bowling. Amazing pretzel!

Fabiana Guzman

Great spot, staff were friendly and the atmosphere was great!

J Money

Unique experience. Have used it for corporate outings and had a blast.

Samuel Wos

Great place to hang out and have a beer after work.

brian fowler

Fun bowling for all ages with food and drinks to boot

Jordan Balcerzak

Mini bowling is fun. The tablets make it easy for anyone to play and keep score. Bar has a pretty good beer selection. Don't forget to bring cash to tip your pinsetters! I'm not sure what the cost is for time on the lanes, but I remember it seeming a little high for the hour we got on the lane - we only got through 1.5 games.

Cindy Lombard

What a fun place! We had a great time.

Becky Falls

I wanted to do something different for my birthday and I heard great things about this place from people but so far I am not impressed....and I haven't even been there. I called their event coordinator's number and left a message on Tuesday. By Thursday I didn't hear anything back from her so I decided to call the bar. I talked to someone who took down my name and number and he said the event coordinator will call me back when she came in...no call. Then my husband called the bar back Friday and spoke to a lady who took our information and said the event coordinator would give us a call back. It is now Saturday and still no call. We give up!

Katie Smith

Had lots of fun doing some duck pin bowling! We made reservations online for bowling on a Friday night. The bowling set up was straight forward. They use iPads for score keeping. They had a fair beer selection and we had some appetizers while there. Wait staff was pretty good. Fun atmosphere. Don't forget to tip the kids setting up the pins!!

Steve Biggins

Great place for duck pin bowling kids loved it. nachos are massive more then enough for five Server was great but they tried to rush us out of our table

Jackie Christian

Waitress was horrible. The bartender was FANTASTIC!!

Kelley Randall

Online registration was fine. We arrived a little early. Waited for our lane, which was empty. Didn't get it until 10 minutes after our start time. Staff told us to use the table by our lane but it was fully occupied by another group in an adjacent lane. Staff pulled over another table for us. It was cramped, the group taking over the shared table were jerks, no one took our food or drink order. If you reserve all 6 lanes and fill the place with your group, it's a fun place. Otherwise, you have to fight for a table and fight for service. That's not fun.

Shane O

Had a blast watching NCAA there. Service was superb, Tracey and Amber were exceptional!

Becca Hayward

They were decently busy which wasn't surprising for a Friday night. Service was a touch slow, but the server remembered what we all were drinking which was nice. I had a grilled cheese sandwich and the cheese wasn't all melted and was cold by the time I got it. My friend had the grilled chicken sandwich and it wasn't cooked all the way through. I wouldn't go back for food again, but I do want to go mini-bowling sometime. All the slots were booked up by the time we got there, so plan ahead.

Bonnie Angiolo

Had the Wings & Philly Steak & Fish Fry - Everything was delicious!

Tony Serio

Alot of fun great food good service!!

S Gradus

Duck pin bowling was fun. I would definitely go back.

Chris Koceja

Fun bowling and good pizza. REMEMBER TO TIP YOUR PINSETTERS!

Angie Biwer

Food was good environment was fun liked the mini bowling was a quacktastic time!

Keith Schroeder

Duck pin bowling was fun, drinks were good. There was some confusion getting to our reserved lane on time and there was quite a bit of time lost, dealing with a defective touchpad. We didn't get the amount of time that was paid for. Would like to re-try when It's not so crowded.

Shauna Cornwall

Great place to have fun with the family, playing duck pin bowling. Yummy appetizers too.

Desmond Jones

Nice place. Good food. Good drinks. Good friendly atmosphere. Miniature bowling is pretty sweet.

EMERSON VIER

Amazing place

Sarah B

5 stars for the pin setter! What a not-so-fun job and he kept a great pace! Super fun way to pass an afternoon or group outing. 2 stars taken away for the absolutely horrendous service. Our "server" brought us a first round of drinks and then stood off to the side talking to other wait staff the rest of the time. She checked on her 1 other table periodically but never came back to us other than to drop the check off. Our drinks ran out quickly so we were going to order more drinks and had wanted food but apparently talking to other workers was more important than serving customers. Absolutely pathetic service.

Joel Holliday

The duckpin bowling was very fun. You have to have the giant pretzel

Jennifer Schulenburg

Fun for families. We had 16 people and the service was Great! Very attentive to our needs. Good food. Love the BIG pretzel!!

Jim Kopps

Food was good, but service was slow and inattentive. I did not bowl.

Mike H

Typical Milwaukee bar, with the added fun to play duck bowling. So if you're looking for something different than the normal bar this is the place to stop by doesn't get too crowded at least not the night that I was there it was a weeknight. Food was decent pricing about right so definitely worth the visit

Deborah Nance

company party had a great time love the bowling

Faith H

The don't have mozzarella sticks

Greg Jones

Fun place for drinks and bowling.

Lauren Thompson

Absolutely loved duck pin bowling. We had a blast just being silly and having fun. Our waitress was super attentive and made sure that we always had whatever we needed. The only problem was that the iPad used to keep track of our scores was not well calibrated and kept glitching and adding scores in the wrong spots.

Clayton Maris

Love this place. Mini duck pin bowling is pretty rare. Awesome family fun. Great drink prices.

Felix Bofil

Nice place to get together have some fun and get loud. Just remember you're not at the library...

Rachelle Conner

Bartenders were super polite, friendly, and on top of things! Only complaint was not of the bar but the patrons bowling. A family with young kids played song after song of obnoxious children music in retaliation for some guys playing metal music. It was irritating for all others not involved in the dispute. I myself have kids and wouldn't bring them to bowl at a BAR and then complain about the adult music selection being played, just saying.

Joe H

Best time ever! Kids loved it! It's a great time and great atmosphere! You will never have a bad time here! It's a must go!

Jamie Schalk

Food is ok, beer prices are ok. If you have never played duck pin bowling I would recommend going out with friends or family and have a good time.