Zoo Lake Bowls Club

Don't waste your time. Received the worst customer service and as for the manager, completely useless.

The place is terrible, the manager is the most useless manager I have ever dealt with in my life. The wings were horrible and they wanted us to pay full price. They didn't want us to escalate the matter to senior management, and the food is not nice, as for the chicken.just find another place, don't go there.

The service at this restaurant is absolutely shocking if not terrible. If there was a negative star, I would rate it the lowest that was available. The waiters could not cope with the amount of patrons resulting in an over three hour wait for food Including three milkshakes. At the time of this post, we had still not received our order. I wouldn’t recommend this place if you are hungry, because there is certainly no indication from anyone including the waiter of how long the orders would take. What was supposed to a festive season lunch with colleagues after a crazy year, this experience was just painful.

The chicken was not properly made and the restaurant refused to take it back. They denied us to speak to the manager of the place. A simple problem could not be solved and the manager was rude. They deserve below one rating star. Please don't go there anymore.

How come they don't allow fellow zoo Lakers to use their bathroom facilities? I don't want to say the R word

I'll spare you the gory details, but take it on good advice NOT to visit this place. It was a great place in its previous embodiment, but not so now.

Nice location for sundowners. Very nice staff.

Don't eat there though.

They seem to think that people won't notice they are being served bad chicken. "Just smother it in spicy sauce, they won't even know". Manager denied but one could smell the salmonella reeking through the mozambique style spice layer.

They apologized but still invoiced us for the chicken.

Not coming back.

A pale reflection of what it was 3 years ago. Prices have rocketed up and the ambience has declined from the heady student days of a few years ago. That said, vivid must have also negatively impacted patron numbers. The menu also offers far less diversity these days. I hope that we could one day get back to the previous rustic set up with more competitive prices

Becoming too expensive. Had four beers last week for over 100 bucks. Service is very slow have to wait for over twenty minutes to sometimes get waiter or waitress attention. Things are changing there but not for the better.

Been going there for 20 yrs, it always had a great vibe and really cheap food and drinks. It's become rather expensive compared to when it was managed under the previous management. Still a great place for students, but otherwise, I can get better affordability elsewhere.

Pictures by copyright blackjohannes. Pictures as is and was not edited or manipulated. The bowls club is not about bowls only. The bar and restaurant provided for decades long different experiences for different people. It went through times of cheap drinks and cheap budget meals where young and old hang out. These days you can still experience the same late back approach of 20 years ago as the green spaces and views are the same. You can get a great oven baked 40 cm pizza for less than R100. The drinks are not that "cheap" anymore and most meals are not your typical budget meals, unless you go after the specials. Service levels are laid back and food takes long. It is still worth it to give it a visit now and then. The "old mans' marble game" are not the main attraction. You can just sit back and enjoy the experience.

Reasonable priced menu, typical bar menu - service friendly but on the slow side, other wise nice place to stop off.

They were out of all beer except for SA brewery stock when we went.the burger was tasty and the chips were crispy and the oil used was fresh.
But needs some work on the menu variety to restore it to its former popularity.

Except that the place was crowded, service was quite slow and they closed early{10 o'clock on a Saturday} it is great value for money and I recommend trying their pizzas.

Attended a kiddies birthday party at the venue. Burger platters and kebabs were delicious & the service was great.
A fun afternoon out, socializing while the adults got to enjoy a game or 2 of bowls in the lovely Autumn sun

It's a decent place, prices are fair and the security is always checking if people are bringing weapons. That makes it a safer place to drink. All they need to have is a DJ and loud sounding speakers.

Great club with nice facilities even though they are a little dated. Would’ve been nice to have distance markers on the side of the lawn for instance.

Food is good, beer is cold and they have a couple of taps.

Grass is green!

That lake makes the whole area cold af. Take a jacket. Affordable alcoholo and generally a safe and fun space

It would be my favourite hangout in joburg, but I must subtract a star because the bowls greens are a bit slow. (I've only played bowls there once.)

The bowl game field is great! Had lots of fun.
The pizza and chips could be better.
Overall, the game is fun to play in a large group. The instructor was excellent at explaining the game for first timers.