Funky Geisha — Restaurant in El Medano Ejidal

Experience from a solo female traveler.

I arrived without a reservation on a Friday night after 8:30 pm. I was received with a warm welcome by the host and was offered a seat on a table or a seat on the upper level with the lower Japanese style tables and cushions. Of course, I went for the different experience of sitting on the Japanese table. Have to mention that the fact that I was alone did not face them as it usually happens at other restaurants -and I am offered the table on the back next to the restrooms (highly annoyed by it!-We are already dining solo, the least we need is to be shoved into a corner- but I digress). At Funky Geisha, I was given one of the best tables in the house!

The restaurant sits oceanfront, right on the sand, and it is very lively. Dance music is loud, ongoing, and celebrations abound. There were many birthdays and groups suddenly popping up with sparklers or dancing on the tables. Let me add, this is NOT a barefoot style bar but a pretty decent decorated restaurant built for this kind of ambiance. People are generally very nicely dressed, I loved the high energy kept throughout my entire meal. My server ROBERTO was amazing, keeping me company and coming by to check on me or simply chat every so often and even the manager came by to chat for a few minutes and introduced me to the Rosa Negra restaurant group concept. At this complex are: Funky Geisha (Asian), Taboo (Mediterranean), Mamazitta's (Mexican), and Confessions Sky Bar. They are all outstanding. If you are a real foodie and looking to try exotic dishes like "Ginormous shrimp from Nigeria" (j/k) and other exotic offerings, this is your place to go.

Suddenly the lights went off and a really nice fireworks show ensued right from the sand on front of the restaurant to the tune of "New York, New York". I was told that was the grand finale of the evening, and if I had arrived around 7;30pm I would have catched the two shows of Taiko (Japanese drummers) that perform nightly. I missed it by 30 minutes. Bummer.

I ordered a smoked drink that was presented by Fernando with a lot of theatrics (follow this trend yet?). The house started me with some complimentary, delicious fried appetizer, and I ordered the spicy edamame and the lettuce wraps. Both were delicious and presented beautifully.

All in all, I recommend Funky Geisha to anyone, be it solo, couples, families, or groups of friends celebrating or not. It will be a gay old time.

PD. I also went to Rosa Negra Steak House and it was also awesome. These restaurants are not cheap but are worth...

If you like TO BE SEEN, this is your spot, otherwise a hard pass.

I had some hesitations when a friend recommended we try this place. Since we were staying at the resort, it was hard to say no. I am not really big on hotel establishments, and this one definitely confirms why.

Service – Really great service, but I don’t expect anything less. If you are willing to pay the high prices, you’re almost always guaranteed great service. The food and drinks came out in a very timely manner and the staff was very attentive. There was always at least two, sometimes three people serving our table of six.

Food – Decent at best. I didn’t have high expectations to begin with, so I guess that’s why I am not extremely crushed at how they presented their version of Asian cuisine. Yes, I know it’s Asian fusion, but I’ve had pretty good Asian fusion food before; it can be done right. This was decent by my standards, but maybe even closer to mediocre. The quality of the food was decent, most of the items ordered were salty, my out-of-the-box cake mix at home tasted better than the complimentary anniversary cake served. Drinks were OK given the cost. For $22, I would except a little less watered down and more alcohol.

Ambiance – Definitely a cool vibe if you’re single or just into partying. It was a little too loud for my taste. We were there for two hours and there were some dancers that came out to do fire dancing. It was entertaining, but I could’ve done without. They are big on lighting up sparklers, and it doesn’t even have to be your bday. If you order an expensive drink, know a sparkler will be lit up and you’re going to get their full attention.

Overall – Hard pass. Not really my vibe and for what we spent, I expected MUCH more. We paid $100 PP and not everyone had a drink (two cocktails and one beer). Afterwards we went upstairs and...

5* ambiance, 3* service, 2* food, 2* drinks. TL;DR: If you don't care about the food and just about the instagramability of your food, this may be for you.

We were here for a relatively early dinner on a Friday night. We got a table without needing a reservation and the staff was friendly and in the beginning also attentive. We ordered two specialty cocktails, two main dishes - one of which was the king crab which is listed as a specialty - and sides. The cocktails were brought out and while they looked appealing, one of them was ok and somewhat matched the described flavor profile, the other was basically just a fruit juice, despite stating that it should contain saffron, turmeric, and numerous other flavorful ingredients. The food arrived lukewarm-leaning-cold. The crab was rather dry and overall underwhelming for being a specialty. Similar to the cocktails, the flavor profile was not meeting the description at all, being rather flat and uninspired. The portion sizes were matching the wannabe fine dining ambiance (read: they were small) the flavor did not. We felt it was just overpriced overall. With food and drinks not good enough to pull of the implied fine(r) dining experience. I want to specifically call out the crab which is M$1,900 per serving and just doesn't stand up to that price tag in any way shape or form. As for the initially friendly and attentive service - while it remained friendly, it was tough to get hold of a waiter once it filled up a little bit, and not for a lack of hands on deck (there were so many waiters working there). To highlight one positive: The shift manager (? - unfortunately I didn't get his name), when we were paying, did offer us a drink in the rooftop bar to make up for the...