Reviews for Funky Elephant in Berkeley, CA

I grew up in Southeast Asia and the food here is very authentic at its core. For example, the KMG chicken rice tastes like my... favorite favorite versions in Malaysia. Wish they would offer Thai or Malaysian desserts too! ???? Read more

This place was quirky and all, but wasn?t all that great. The food was decent, the drinks were medium (specifically, the matcha... latte did not slap) and I left feeling like it was just a touch too expensive. But service is great and it?s clearly loved bythe community. Read more

We had angus beef, KMG #2 and wings. Beef came with the best yellow curry I?ve ever tasted. Bit spicy, very authentic. Wings... were sweet chili flavored, might be too spicy for some ppl but the sweetness was good. Thai tea was enjoyable. Server we had wasvery chill and funky. Liked the decorations too. Restroom was cool lmao Read more

I used to love this place so much. They have flavorful Thai street food that you can rarely find in any other places. The owner... and staff were all exceedingly friendly and brought us a delightful experience. However, the staff today simply ruined all mygood memories with this place. She is rude, unprofessional and RACIST. She didn't bring us water when we were seated, and atfirst I thought it was okay. But then the attitude she gave to us really makes me wonder "what's going on?". She kept closingthe plates while we were still eating (asked us 3 times "are you done with it"). She brought us the check in the middle of ourdinner without us asking for it, asked "are you done with the check" after several minutes by interrupting us, and took thesigned check right away when we are still seated. What makes me really feel offended - she was super nice to the table next tous, she spent tons of time introducing food to that table and she seemed to be fine leaving the tipped check on that table whilethey were still chatting. That really surprised me - "wow she actually knows how to serve". The service ruined the food, thegood outdoor vibe and everything. My sincere suggestion to the owner: FIRE this employee to save this hidden gem. (btw sheliterally said "I'm just an employee" when we complained about the service). I feel so sad seeing our dinner go-to place nolonger has a friendly vibe. My two stars go to the chef, the food, and all the previous nice staff Read more

[disclaimer!] Five star for the food and most of the staff here, zero star for the one waitress who is a rude racist. I used to... love this place. The owner of this place is very nice and beyond accommodating. And I love the food here. However there is onewaitress who is super rude and racist. She treated the white customers right next to us with a lots of attention but slighted usfrom the start. She didn?t check on us, didn?t bring us water when we seated, and kept taking plates from us when we were stilleating. She had a super bad attitude from the get go and kind of ruined the night for us. You can see from other comments that Iam not the only person who experienced racism from this waitress. My recommendation to the owner is to fire this waitress andsave your restaurant from more negative customer experience. Read more

This place is one of a kind. I have never had Thai food quite the way funky does it. I recommend the crispy rice salad, papaya... salad and pad Thai as must try dishes. Also if you are a chicken wing person I don?t think they get much better than at FE. Read more

The staff here is friendly and the restaurant has a good mix of indoor/outdoor seating. Now onto the food. I would not consider... this traditional Thai food, granted the flavors were good, but the cost, i don?t think the experience is justifiable. Especiallythe steak dish. We?re talking maybe 5oz of flank steak in a curry sauce with arugula thrown on top for >$20. While therestaurant is trendy and the food presents extremely well, i doubt this place will have any trouble appealing to the Berkeleycrowd. Read more

I tried the beef curry and ordered a jasmine rice to go with it, with a strawberry matcha almond milk latte to drink (they... didn?t have strawberry on the menu, but mango was in the menu and was out of season). It was pretty pricy for what it was, buttasty. There wasn?t a huge amount of steak but it was cooked nice and medium (on the end towards rare), in a cardboard box andeaten outside it was pretty cool pretty fast which wasn?t ideal. The curry sauce was delicious and had a kick. The dressing onthe arugula was good. The strawberry matcha wasn?t great. I?d try it again without the strawberry because it didn?t add anyactual strawberry flavor and just made the drink too thick, but I?m not sure that would make it any better, so I might passafter that next try. The food took about 20 minutes, so it was probably made very fresh. They have a bit of seating, onlyoutdoor still and mostly pretty sunny. A restaurant next door seems to have closed, so there are extra tables with more shade.The staff was great and super friendly. Read more