North County Tavern and Bowl

Have been here about a half dozen times now, mostly on Groupon or Living Social deals, etc. Food, bowling and overall experience has been pleasant until last Saturday when we were waiting for family pictures to be developed in the mall. Our son got the chicken tenders while my wife and I split the chicken quesadilla. Neither of us were hungry for dinner that night and the next day we realized why... We both came down with the worst case of food poisoning either of us had ever experienced. Not sure what kind of food practices are going on to spread salmonella or E. coli but the health inspector should pay them a visit.

Large group here the other night (15+) for dinner, drinks, bowling.  I'll start off by saying we mostly enjoyed ourselves and the food was good.  There were a couple things, however, that really got on my nerves and downgrade my review.

AMBIANCE: Spacious place, is very clean & well-kept.  One of the toilets was out of order, no big deal.  The music videos playing around the place were a nice touch, EXCEPT they had the same soundtrack on a 30-minute repeat.  We heard the exact same songs over and over (3-4 times while we were there)... really?  I've heard that trivia night can get extremely loud.

FOOD: The waitress was moderately attentive, and I think all of the food orders were correct. There is a weird time period where HH ends at 7 and the nightly specials start at 8pm.  We all had a mix of the different entrees and no one complained.  Meatloaf, chicken sliders, chicken salad, french dip, chicken parm were all good.  Food was all very reasonably priced and adequately filling :)

DRINKS: Nice Selection of local craft brews and imports on tap & in bottles, including cider for all the lady friends.  The bar counter is spacious and great for those HH drink times.  Big downside: When I went to pay the bill, the pitchers of Local craft beers aren't considered "Domestic" under evening specials, so I ended up paying almost twice what I was expecting.  I brought it to the waitress's attention, and she informed me "that's just the way it is here".  Not impressed that  there was no notice of this anywhere, and it ended up being pricey.

BOWLING: Fun fact: These lanes are short.  I had heard this, but I didn't really understand the implications until I started hitting only 1 pin at every frame.  If you've developed a form/technique, it's really going to throw you off.  (I'm really no pro, but I've never done this bad).  Every one of us had a faulty pin setup at least once... some of us multiple (3+) times across multiple lanes (meaning 1 or 2 pins would fall over before we bowled).  Not sure what the problem is... but the setting system must not be that great.  There are also only 8 lanes.  They weren't busy at all when we were there (off-night), but I imagine these could get super packed and backed up.  I did like the spacious seating areas at the lanes though.  The score screens were also distorted and had ghosted/fuzzy images which were more challenging to read.

REVIEW: The food was good, but not impressed by many other factors which would make me less likely to come back.  I really want to like this place, and I wish we had more cool bars on this side of town, but I don't know if I can bring myself to come back with OTB and BJs nearby.  I really didn't feel as if the business wanted me to enjoy myself.

Had a wonderful time- Gavin was extremely helpful and friendly. Would defiantly recommend and can't wait to go again!!!