The Kraken — Restaurant in Encinitas

The food is amazing. Coconut shrimp with their sauce is perfect. The fried pickles are so lightly breaded you wonder if they have bread at all. Probably the best I’ve ever had.

The poppers? Just wow.

Unfortunately the management has decided to charge 2.5% on all card charges, even debit cards. Unfortunately that’s about 2.2% too high as the interchange fees on debit cards are 0.3%.

I purposely handed over my debit card after seeing that the menu has a statement about Credit Cards having an extra 2.5% charge. And to my unbelief I was still charged the 2.5%. When confronting the waitress and the MOD I was told that it would not be possible to remove the charge.

At the end of the day it’s the waiters and waitresses that bear this mishap because their tips are ultimately reduced by the same amount.

It’s a shame because the restaurant is either taking advantage of the unassuming patrons or the wait staff.

Perhaps the management will see this and train the staff on how to run debit card transactions so the 2.5% doesn’t apply. Until then I believe they will continue to pad their pockets with...

Any bar who hires hard working touring acts and doesn't pay them deserves to be shut down. The booker and manager were giving me every excuse in the book as to why they wanted to cancel after my first set and not pay me my $300 guarantee, yet, all "reasons" were getting immediately contradicted by compliments from the regulars (the booker was dancing with her friends..), fans walking in for the next two sets(and buying drinks/merch), and diligent emails leading up to the event. All the while the owner and booker hid at their other bar at The Boardwalk down the street and called the cops on me for trespassing. The Kraken is the home of greed, lies, cynicism, and arrogance. Don't support...

Military vets go in for Cinco De Mayo(2 Mexican Americans, 1 Korean American), our first stop. Bartender tells us coldly hes only serving us shots. Figure maybe its just his tone of voice, and he's not being rude. Cool. Then he sits us on the darkside of the bar....red flag number 2. He asks what we want, and I say:

"Lets see, Cinco De Mayo, so what do you have in tequila?"

He tells me ill have to walk around to the other side of the bar and see for myself. I figured maybe its such a large selection that he cant say it all. It was 3 Tequilas. Hornitos, Cazadores, and something else. After a few cold stairs we decided to leave. Dont recommend the spot for any...