Hollywood Bowl Leeds review

On a very rainy Sunday, we headed off to Leeds to try out the newly refurbished Hollywood Bowl. A whopping £500,000 has been spent transforming the place into a top venue. It took us absolutely ages to get there, bridges were shut, roads were flooded, then the main road into Leeds was closed due to a 10k race taking place! It wasn't the best journey ever.

Hollywood Bowl Leeds

We had visited the Hollywood Bowl back in January and were pleasantly surprised to see just how much it had changed. The diner looks incredible, and by the time we arrived we were pretty hungry, which made it look even more inviting!

Hollywood Bowl diner

I was detoxing at the time, and wasn't optimistic that there would be anything on the menu which I could eat (under 600 calories). How wrong I was! There were a few different salad options, including a fantastic superfood salad, which consisted of black rice and quinoa salad with Cos lettuce, avocado, tomato and Caesar dressing. It came with either sliced chicken breast or Halloumi. I'm allergic to avocado, so asked for it without. The meal was delicious. My husband ordered a Californian Burger, which was prime British beef topped with Monterey Jack cheese and smashed avocado. He was seiously impressed with the thickness of the meal.

Hollywood bowl food

My daughter ordered spaghetti bolognaise, which is her absolute favourite. My son opted for the slider burgers (two mini burgers served in mini buns with fries and crunchy vegetable sticks). He also had Monterey cheese on one of the burgers. Both children really enjoyed their meal. There were no drink options like squash or juice, but there were fizzy drinks and slush puppies and also tap water available. We loved being able to sit in a car booth, it was really good fun!

Dining in style Hollywood Bowl

Then it was time for bowling. By this point, the place was very busy and most lanes were being used. We were lucky enough to be treated to the VIP bowling lanes, which can be sectioned off and have different coloured balls and more comfortable seats. I was impressed that you can wear your own shoes. Not having to put on shoes which thousands of others have worn definitely makes bowling more enjoyable. We waited quite a while for a member of staff to come to bring a ramp to help my daughter bowl better.


My friend joined us later near the end of our game and had to wait over half an hour for food, which was quite a long time. When her food arrived she wasn't brought any napkins and had to go to queue up and ask for some, which was disappointing. Our bowling experience was good fun (made better by the fact that I won)! We had a great time together as a family and played in the arcades after our bowling game.


I would recommend the Hollywood Bowl in Leeds for a family day out. It did get very busy whilst we were there, so do expect that you might have to wait for some things. If you want to find out more information, check out their website.

Disclosure: We were provided with complimentary food and drink and a game of bowling for the purpose of this review (my friend paid for her own food). This had no impact on my post, which is honest and fair.