Dr. Funk — Restaurant in San Jose

I generally like Dr. Funk and spend a decent amount of time here when in town on business. That said, they have shortcomings that are holding them back, and I hope to see improved:

No Tiki glasswear. I asked about this, and was told that the owner(s) didn't think it was important enough to spend the money on. Super bummer, because it really creates that atmosphere when you have drinks served in appropriate glasses. They're one of the few Tiki bars I've been to that skimps here. At least they have Tiki bowls for the larger shared drinks, but that's not usually where I go.

Food used to be great, but has gone downhill significantly. When they first opened, I believe they ran just their own kitchen, and the food was quite solid. Loved the chicken sandwich. Sometime in the last 9 months they've started using the kitchen to provide food for O'Flaherty's as well (as the previous restaurant at this location did). Maybe coincidental and they lost their better chef as well, but in that time I've noticed all the food is not prepared and cooked to their original standard. They just changed their fries within the last few weeks, and they're now bad enough to the point I'd not order them again.

Menu drinks are pre-mixed. If I'm paying $16-18 for a cocktail, I'd like it to be made fresh. I realize they get busy at certain times and pre-mixing saves a LOT of time, so I'd understand if 8-midnight on weekends was pre-mixes, but a lot of the time the bartenders are just waiting around for drink orders. Not doing pre-mixes would also allow the bartenders to take more customer preference to tweak the drinks, have more showmanship, etc.

The owners took the time when Dr. Funk opened to invest heavily in the design and atmosphere of the bar, but now that it's been up and running for over a year it's honestly not as good as Trader Sam's at Disneyland due to the above shortcomings, to say nothing for comparing it with Forbidden Island, Smuggler's Cove, and The Jungle Bird. I really hope they decide to re-invest in making it a world class Tiki bar, rather than being content with the middling state to which...

Arrr is San Jose cursed never to have any good tiki bars? Before it opened, I read that the menu curator was the same as the one for Five Points, which I am quite fond of. The font, the format, and the fold of the menus are the exact same as well. Sadly, the drinks at Dr. Funk are nowhere near as amazing. They have your standard Mai Tai, ube cream drink, rummy cocktails, etc. but they all taste like watery fruit punch with a pinch of coconut here and a dash of cinnamon there. The milk punch, since it wasn’t fruit punch nor filled with ice, was my favorite. And it can be seen in one of my photos, not to be confused with the water next to it.

They share a bathroom with the theater and O’Flaherty’s, another bar under the same hospitality group as Five Points. I have stumbled in the wrong bar after a trip to the loo. But it’s actually obvious which door to go through because there are nautical adornmentssss on it.

The food is pricey for what you get. My favorite is the coconut shrimp. They used to have a brunch but I think they abolished that. The happy hour deals are good enough to consider getting a bite to eat.

The location is great, a perfect 2nd stop after getting some brews at San Pedro Square as it is right next to it. Or if you want to switch up the theme in a downtown bar crawl. There is plenty of indoor and outdoor seating. The booth seats for two are very uncomfortable. They provide only two-thirds of the surface area normal benches have.

There’s street parking and that San Pedro garage structure which is free for the...

This was my second time (and probably last) time here. Service was slow the first time, and food was inedible, but I wanted to give it another shot.

Second time was also slow service but the table of four next to me that was seated about 10 mins after me received their food and drinks before my server even came by to ask for an order. They had a different server. Probably one of the few good ones there.

My server misheard my order, and brought an incorrect item so I requested my original order. What I thought was a simple mishearing of my order "can I get the curry please" versus what she heard "can I get the curry fries," turned into my server accusing me of lying about what I ordered, then berating me by explaining in a very rude tone the difference in the menu items and scolding me on how I SHOULD have ordered. After she left, I immediately got up to request to cancel the food order as at that point I just wanted to leave as soon as I could since she was irrationally hostile.

Also I had to get up and grab my own napkins since she didn't bring any with the food my guest received, nor bring any after we asked.

Some time later another server came by to ask me if there was a problem with the food and I relayed my experience. No apology. No response at all really, just the check. Still tipped 20% because the drinks were good once we finally got them.

I felt like this is one of those places where the servers are rude on purpose as...