We went to Big Al’s in Beaverton last Saturday. I’ve heard of Big Al’s before, but I didn’t know they had a location in Beaverton. I also didn’t know they had an arcade games area upstairs. I thought Big Al’s was a sports bar with a bowling alley. They seem to have something of interest for almost everyone. My favorite area was the glow-in-the-dark bowling lanes. We didn’t actually bowl in the neon room. At $37 an hour, it was too expensive for us. We had little kids with us and a game would have taken over an hour.
We went Saturday evening so it was crowded (especially because of March Madness and the Portland Timbers game). The dining area with all the big gigantic screens was full so we got a table in the main lobby and ordered from the stand nearby. The kids ordered personal pizzas ($6) and I had a chilli dog ($5). The chilli dog was decent, but wasn’t exactly filling. Luckily my wife ordered a salad/sandwich combo after we moved to a table by the bowling lanes. Her platter was huge and there was no way she would been able to eat it all by herself. I didn’t try the salad, but the half of turkey sandwich I ate was yummy. My sister-in-law ordered hot wings. They were way too spicy for me — my head exploded after a single bite.
In the bowling area there were a bunch of helpful employees. Not only did our helper get our food for us and refilled our sodas, he also turned on the bumpers for our kids and helped them find bowling balls (note: their lightest ball is six pounds, which is still too heavy for our kids). Unfortunately for me, our helper couldn’t help me bowl any better. I had several gutter balls. Maybe I should’ve used the bumpers too. We bowled during prime time, so they charged us each $5 per game and $3 for shoes.
After we bowled a game, we went upstairs to the video games area. Here’s a tip for you: order a refillable soda with lots of ice and take it upstairs with you. It was really hot and stuffy in the redemption games area when we went. There were also a lot of people upstairs so it’s really easy for your kids to wander off if you don’t keep an eye on them. And unlike Chuck E Cheese’s, Big Al’s does not monitor the exits or check to make sure someone isn’t leaving with your kids.
To play the games, you need to purchase a fun card and swipe the card when you want to play a game or try a ride. The fun card can be purchased for various amounts and you can recharge it when use up all the tokens. It’s a shame the prize tickets are not automatically added to the card. Instead, you have to go to a machine to transfer the tickets to your fun card. The ticket machines are kinda of flaky and sometimes generate an error. Then you have to get a staff member to take care of the problem. My advice is to redeem your tickets whenever you pass by a machine that is not in use. We waited until the end to redeem all of our tickets at once and that took over 20 minutes because of the lines and out of service ticket counters.
We were at Big Al’s for about four hours. It went by fast. We would have stayed longer, but our toddler was cranky because it was past his bed time. Our other three kids love the place and now want to have their birthday parties at Big Al’s. I also like Big Al’s, but it’s not the place to go if you want quiet. Because of the bowling alley and arcade games, the place was very noisy.
Big Al’s Beaverton
14950 SW Barrows Rd
Beaverton OR 97007
(503) 748-6118
