Funny Bone Comedy Club & Restaurant — Restaurant in Manchester

While they bring in great comedians, the experience is uncomfortable and not memorable. Seating is extremely cramped and on hard wood chairs. If you're claustrophobic or have issues with sitting in one awkward position for any length of time, look elsewhere. A lot of the folks around us were audibly complaining about the cramped seating, many of whom couldn't help but spill into the already narrow walkways in between tables. A table for four people is roughly 2 feet wide by 3 feet long. Good luck if everyone orders drinks and entrees or appetizers.

I highly recommend grabbing dinner elsewhere before the show for a few reasons. First off, the meals are significantly overpriced for the quality and portions you end up with. Second, while the drinks come out fast, do not expect your food order to come together or in a timely fashion.

For dinner, I ordered a burger, my friend ordered a buffalo chicken sandwich and we got a basket of fries to split. The wait staff brought someone else's burger 10 minutes after I ordered. I eventually got just my burger about 5 minutes later, missing any ketchup or sauce. The server ran off before we could ask where the rest of the order was. We managed to flag down our our waitress to ask where my friend's sandwich and fries were and were told that the orders are staggered. Seriously?!? My friend didn't get her sandwich for another 15 minutes after that. We asked three different servers about where the fries were with the same response, "It's coming." The fries showed up about 10 minutes after my friend's sandwich as the show started. We tried to ask for utensils, napkins and ketchup but got ignored. Frustrated, we asked the GM for that. Eventually we got everything to begin eating. By that time my burger was cold. The buns on both our meals were hard as if they had been left on the counter for at least a week and they don't give pickles with the burgers. The only consolation is that their single burger comes with two patties and the double burger comes with four patties. At the end of the night, they double charged us for the fries. We did bring it to their attention and it was corrected. So if you do order anything there, make sure to check the slip before handing over your money!

Looking back, this was a very similar experience I had when I saw a show there prior to COVID. So they haven't done anything to run their dinner service like any other place that serves food despite constructive input. They come across as extremely disorganized and chaotic when it comes to food service. The drinks came out in a timely fashion. So they at least have their bar in order.

Given this continued disappointment, we've made note to eat elsewhere before a show, like Maggie McFly's next door. At least they have much better food and service for less money.

Thankfully the headliner, Jeff Allen, completely made up for the disappointing pre-show experience. He was super funny and exactly the type of entertainment we needed. He's also approachable after the show and super nice. I pre-ordered his book and am looking forward to his...

Wish I could rate -10,000 stars.

The only reason this place is still running is because of their lack of competition.

I could only blame Management for the HORRIBLE experience me and friends witnessed while there to see Mark Viera.

I personally know to pregame and eat before getting there. I am merely there for the act and nothing more. This is due to past experiences, where food was (if it ever came after ordering) mediocre at best! Drinks are presented as top shelf but watered down, very expensive not worth it. So I usually stop at a local restaurant in the area before any show. However, after yesterday’s experience, I will not support this establishment any longer. I’d take the drive to the casino or take my business anywhere else but at Funny Bone.

It was a party of 4, we were seated in the front at what looked like a table that was shifted it was very crowded (this is not unusual, literally always cram patrons like sardines) we sat down, I’d say within 5 minutes of being seated we were accosted by one waitress (very crass in her approach) saying “we needed to push in closer because where we were is against fire safety, etc….” I responded, That’s fine where would want us to go?” She paused as if she had forgotten her lines and walked away saying “This isn’t part of my job” Soon after a second waitress said the same.very aggressive in tone and loud. Again, I repeated my statement, WHERE DO YOU WANT US TO GO! and I expressed frustration, another patron came to our defense and explained “They were seated there!”

Then a third waitress (this is all in a matter of 3 minutes of each instance) Also expresses herself in the same manner to finally say “I’ll move you!” Made sure to stop by a coworker to voice her frustration about us in front of us. So you can imagine how we were made to feel embarrassed and frustrated. Then seated ourselves behind a column where we could not see so we eventually moved ourselves. A waitress did not come to our area until much much later. We took it upon ourselves to go get our drink at the bar. I can only assume the staff ASSumed we moved the table when that was not the case, they were ineffective in handling it more subtly. They are unprofessional and lack critical thinking! The first waitress, described as maybe Hispanic, olive color skin, brunette I can call out the second waitress who came at us (as I later learned her name) She was a Caucasian woman with rainbow-colored locks her name was Ashley The third one small Caucasian, petite in stature, and violet, blue shoulder-length hair. Name unknown

I did make it a point to ask a gentleman by the name of Liam for management (Jen/Fred) who never came to us. This just shows the lack of professionalism and management this establishment has to offer. You did not do right by us as repeated patrons this was the most disgusting experience and for you as managers not to show up just proves you are the reason your staff conducts themselves in...

Hmmm, where do I begin on my review for Hartford Funny Bone, other than it’s located in Manchester. Sounds like false advertising to me, but don’t worry we’ll get to that.

We got tickets to Joe Gato for 9:30 PM, again, hold your applause till after the “opening act” of my comical visit highlights. Don’t worry, the false advertising and 9:30 PM will have plenty of time to be addressed.

When we got there, my friend paid $16.61 for a drink. This was during the “pre game” phase I guess; where you can get drinks at the bar area while they clear the stage area from the earlier show time. Don’t worry, we’ll get to that as well, but the $16.61 price was pretty ironic assuming the same drink and its size cost $11 inside the venue itself in the stage seating area. That was the first funny joke I laughed at, at funny bones.

Once they finally started seating people, and we were seated, the waitress came over and rushed us immediately, as we were trying to politely figure out how we were going to split the check. She hit us with a “oh my god, you guys are making this so complicated”, pretty ironic because five minutes later she returned with our drinks while stocking her drink tray, but with three other table’s worth and she couldn’t balance it. So me, being the good samaritan that I am, took my drink off her tray myself, so I guess she maybe shouldn’t have made her drink carrying strategy “so complicated”. Second funniest joke I heard all night.

Now on to the grand finale, at around 10 PM, mind you the show was advertised for 9:30 PM start, we started to get antsy because the show hadn’t started and one of my colleagues and me had plans for Mohegan Sun, nearly a hour away. Now I’m no rocket scientist, no offense to Elon Musk, but when a show says 9:30 I expect it to start within 15 minutes of the advertised time, but oh boy was I wrong. We left before the show even started at 10:15 PM because we had plans obviously and couldn’t be too late, knowing the show wasn’t close to starting, and when we left we saw over 200+ people had yet to even enter the club outside in the Buckland Mall general area, because people were being seated one group at a time. Very poor choice of advertising, which other than the $13 “spinach and artichoke dip with chips” which came with less tortilla chips than I’d get at a Texas salad bar, and a “$16 chicken club” with less meat and bun than a $5 McDonald’s whopper, that was the best joke of the evening.

Usually not a critic of places at all, but hartford funny bone itself is the biggest joke you’ll find at this establishment. I don’t even have a dog in this fight, no offense to Michael Vick, but I’d give 0 stars if I could because I don’t recommend anyone come to this club over another comedy club in the greater hartford area.

P.S I’ve included pictures so you can see just how BIG the portions are that you get for the price...