One of the newest places in town is Kingpin Queenstown, located on Brecon Street between El Camino and The Bavarian. This area is becoming known as Upper Village, distinguishing it from the middle of town.
With a name like Kingpin Queenstown, I expected tenpin bowling to be the primary attraction.
But there are a lot more activities inside the sneaky large facility. I’ll cover what you can find at Kingpin Queenstown and my experience.
WHAT CAN YOU DO AT KINGPIN QUEENSTOWN
- Arcade with 100+ games
- Virtual Reality
- Escape Room
- Tenpin Bowling
- Karaoke
- Bar & restaurant
MY KINGPIN EXPERIENCE
I visited Kingpin in late April, a month or two after they opened. The entrance is really low-key, but once you’re inside you get the feeling you could be here for a while.
You’ll land at the front counter, and from there the staff will help you figure out what you want, and give you the best deals etc. We had a package deal and had booked the escape room and tenpin bowling in advance so upon arrival, the staff knew what we were doing.
There’s no menu that covers all the activities online that I could find, but you can figure out what’s what on the website.
TO THE COCKTAILS
Our first mission was to get to the bar for a cocktail, and the bar is impressive!
The drinks menu is well done, it’s made with good materials used and great design. I’m not sure if this justifies the cost of the cocktails though ($25 for the Blue Army Navy)? The waiters were great, but my little yellow duck didn’t sit in the drink like it did on the picture!
That said it was a nice drink and my friends enjoyed the design of their cocktails.
TIME TO TRY AND ESCAPE A ROOM
Up next was the Escape Room. We were in the waiting room which has great detail…they’ve gone for the library feel which is kind of odd being right next to the bright lights of the arcade but it was fun to see people playing the games.
I think there might have been some miscommunication between the staff as we didn’t get started until ~15 minutes after we were scheduled. The Escape Room itself is great! It’s well done, and as per usual it’s one of those ‘ah that makes sense’ when you finally figure out what the next clue is…the fact you can ask for clues when you’re really stuck helps. It’s crazy how involved you all get as you try to figure out the next task.
We didn’t escape in time, but it was super fun. Would recommend!
TIME FOR A FEED AND BOWLING
Next up it was tenpin bowling. I haven’t done this in years, but was looking forward to it. We ordered some drinks and a meal before getting into it, and it was fun! Maybe because I came away with the win 😉
The Kingpin menu is extensive, but I was surprised by the lack of vegan options. There were no 100% vegan options, only a couple of them could be made vegan (fortunately the waitress was vegan). I had the following salad, but made it vegan:
Roasted Pumpkin & Quinoa Salad
RELATED READS:
BEING A VEGAN IN QUEENSTOWN
QUEENSTOWNS BEST RESTAURANTS
It was massive! And everyone else was stoked with their meals. It’s a shame our beers were forgotten and we needed to chase them up a couple of times (I’ll put this down to the chronic short staff problem in Queenstown).
I haven’t been bowling in a long time, but I enjoyed this. There are not a whole lot of lanes, maybe 8? So it didn’t feel like you’re in a place where they churn people through…I thought this might be the case given the place is called Kingpin!
The technology is up to date with the ability to customise the scoreboard, including the ability to have your face on the screen. And yes, you can put the gutters up if need be.
The booths are nice, and it’s easy enough to get your food and drinks delivered to the booths for each table. Shoewise, they have some available (I believe that it’s no additional cost) but our group all had suitable shoes for the floor.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Having arrived a little before 7 pm, it was now 10 pm and I’ve got to say, the 3 hours flew by! We were all pretty tired by this point and hadn’t even been to the arcade yet. We decided to call it a night and we’ll head back to give the arcade a go some other time.
Kingpin Queenstown is a place where you can dump a whole bunch of money in quick time if you aren’t getting a few cocktails and hanging out at the arcade constantly. But the packages can be great value, and I can see Kingpin Queenstown being a popular thing to do in Queenstown when it’s raining.
Kingpin Queenstown is located at 35 Brecon Street, Queenstown 9300.
OTHER PLACES TO EAT NEARBY
Lord of the Fries Queenstown
A 100% plant based food truck.
Smiths Queenstown
This is probably my favourite craft beer bar in Queenstown.
Hey, it’s Jub here. I’m the guy behind Chur New Zealand, helping you have the best time hiking, trekking, walking…whatever you want to call it…in NZ. I’m based in Queenstown and am always out and about exploring trails, old & new. If you have any questions, reach out.