Broken Compass Tiki — Restaurant in Burbank

Husband and I are avid tiki bar goers. We look for them in every town we go to. We were excited to try Broken Compass but left feeling like everything just slightly missed the mark. Let me explain. In my experience you have upscale tiki bars (Strong Water in Anaheim etc.) and you have more dive bar tiki (Tonga in North Hollywood). Nothing is wrong with either, but if you're going to do one or the other then you'd better do it well. Strong Water in Anaheim does upscale to perfection. The attention to detail is simply a chef's kiss. From the ambiance, to the drinks, to the food, to the service...it's hard to find something wrong with Strong Water. This is where Broken Compass has a thing or two to learn. Let's start with the positive: Ambiance: super cute and for the most part well done. Nice open space with a variety of seating options. Booths, bar, tables, cozy booths with comfy seating. Decor is cute. I especially liked the octopus legs and Spam can lights.

Room for Improvement: Attention to Detail: In my opinion, if you're a more upscale tiki bar, I'm looking for that attention to detail. Garnishes, swizzles, coasters, merch etc. Broken Compass has none of this or if they do, we did not experience it. My Banana Hammock had a lone dehydrated banana chip as a garnish which sunk to the bottom. One wrong move with your straw and it cracked in multiple places. Super cheap. No coasters. Out of 5 different cocktails (between two of us) not a swizzle stick to be had. My husband's drink, 100 Year Cigar, could have been so much more, but it was a plain glass with the cocktail. Why not play it up? Get creative? The name sold it to him, but the presentation was a complete letdown (as was the drink itself.) We bought merch and were lucky to leave with a box for the bowl we bought. No bag, no nothing to indicate where is came from. Even though we saw other people with branded bags. Again, missed opportunity for detail.

Food & Drink: In a word, salt. Their chef must have a very close, loving relationship with salt. The Poke Nachos were inedible anytime the actual poke was on a wanton chip. You had to eat 5 plain wanton chips for every 1 wanton chip with the poke on it to combat the salt. The tots were straight up burnt. Our server sold them and the sauce as the spiciest on the menu (Caribbean and Firecracker) but neither were spicy at all. In fact the Firecracker Sauce wasn't even a sauce, but more of a salsa. It was weird with a tot and did nothing to hide the burnt tot flavor. Drinks....I didn't finish one, and my husband powered through his merely out of principal. When you're paying $17+ a cocktail you chug-a-lug regardless of taste. The balance was just off. His 100 Year Cigar was more absinthe than Laphroaig. Leaving him feeling as though he were drinking a smoking piece of black licorice and this man LOVES a peated Scotch.

Service: We were an afterthought for our server. Took her twenty minutes to come back after the first round was delivered. Didn't check in to see how the drinks went. We had to flag her down to place a food order and even then, she put us off. The best thing I can say, is that at least water refills were plentiful. Again, just underwhelming.

At the end of the day, I'm not likely to go back to Broken Compass. If I'm going to spend $$ at an upscale tiki bar, I want to spend at one that leaves me feeling like I was taken care of. Where the attention to detail leaves me in awe. Where I dream of the food and drinks because they were that damn good. Unfortunately Broken Compass didn't deliver...

Found this place by accident on a Friday night and everything about it was fantastic! You wait for your table in the building next door and I spent most of the time trying to figure out where the door to the restaurant was. The wait was going to be 30-40 minutes so I asked the host if I could have a drink in this room while we wait. He said no but that we could go in and stand at a cocktail table inside and he would text me when my table is ready. Sweet! He opens a panel on the wall which leads you to a small corridor connected to the restaurant. Once you open THAT door, dude, Im telling you its like the moment you finally cross the threshold at Disneyland after driving in LA traffic for two hours and you have to pee. Its a MAGICAL FRIGGING TREASURE TROVE. BOTH my son and I just kinda stood there, mouths agape, until someone walked up and said "Do you have a boarding pass?" I informed him we were wanting to grab a drink and he pointed us to the high table by the bar. That is where we met Fransisco. Now, I don't know what his job exactly IS (cause I asked him and he didnt really tell me) but I DO know that he is very good at taking care of people. He could tell it was our first time and he was incredibly helpful and gracious. I ordered a MaiTai and my son had the N/A rum beverage (I forgot its name) which was very good. After about 10 minutes Francisco comes over and informs us that if we want we can go sit in the lounge area and eat there. I was like "Hell yeah!". We grabbed our drinks and made our way to a cute and comfy lounge area on the other side of the restaurant. He made sure we were taken off the wait list freeing up a table for someone else. He directed me to order at the bar from Monica. Monica was helpful as well, in addition to being very nice and making great drinks. My son got the smash burger and I had the cold noodles. My son and I have kindof a competition going in LA to find the best burgers and while we certainly were NOT expecting to have one here (or even know this place existed), this one did NOT disappoint. Excellent flavor, well cooked, squishy bun that stays together and holds the sauce. Bonus points for the onions ring on the burger. Bam! Fries crispy and even good cold. Francisco came back by a few times to check on us. I could have sat in that nook all night with a few beverages but I was with my 13 yr old son who can only survive so long out in the wild (ie away from his gaming computer). I hugged Francisco goodbye and made our way out. Which, BYW, the way out is even cool! WTF people, its like some Disney Imagineer got bored of his dayjob and decided to plant this gem in the middle of F%$^ing Burbank and see who follows the clues to fairlyland. Even the BATHROOM is cool. Really, no, go pee. In both bathrooms. I should add that I run restaurants in LA and while we think its about food its not, its about taking care of people. And this place (as demonstrated through both Francisco and Monica) takes care of people. Go...

I really wanted to like this place. I don't normally leave bad reviews, but it felt like this place went out of its way to ensure I had a bad time.

I went with a group of coworkers, six in total. They don't have anything larger than a four top so they put two tables together, but the way it's set up is that there is bench seating along the wall and no chairs on the other side of the table... so five people sat facing in one direction, and they pulled up what seemed like an ottoman for me to sit on. I was sitting at the corner of the table basically half way into the aisle that runs through the restaurant, like two feet away from the bar. People were constantly walking by and I had to scoot it every time so they could pass. Not comfortable for an hour+ meal.

We were all seated about 10 minutes before Happy Hour was over and our waiter told us to figure out our orders quick so we could get the deals. Welp, he didn't come back until 5 minutes AFTER happy hour was over to take our orders. He said we missed our window but that was 100% on him. After we basically begged he offered to try and get the discounts for us, but came back and said he couldn't. So my burger and beer went from about $15 to $30.

Oh about the burger, ended up going with the Pub Burger, asked for medium rare and got well done. Honestly it was actually pretty good but not worth $16 especially when it was cooked wrong and came without any sides (fries are extra...) Oh, and he also took everyone else's order EXCEPT MINE and walked away. Had to wait until he came back with the drinks to order.

At this point I was annoyed and uncomfortable so I wanted to leave early. I asked if I could get my check separate (just a beer and a burger mind you) and he gave me a snarky "Great, NOW you tell me". Like my man, I'm sitting on a foot stool and you're lack of service doubled my bill. Please just let me leave in peace.

The rest of the group paid together and he took two of their drinks off to make up for the missed happy hour deals, basically making me regret asking for the separate check because I got no such discount. It felt kinda malicious but that might just be projecting my annoyance of the whole experience onto it.

Again, REALLY wanted to enjoy this place. Love a good themed restaurant and it was pretty fun inside, but that waiter really killed me. I wish I got his name. He was a white guy with a really obnoxious jokey personality, not sure if that narrows it down. Would not recommend to anyone with more than four people in their party and ONLY if they can get the happy...