Funck's Restaurant; Potential unrealized?

"Dad, you have to try this place we found!"

'This place' turned out to be Funck's Restaurant on 23 in Leola.  They've got a few locations sprinkled around the East side of the state, but this article is about the Leola offering.
We met there with #1 Son and #1 DIL for lunch around 12-ish on a Sunday.  The restaurant side of the business was fairly busy, as there is a Mega-Churchapalooza right down the road. 

I say 'Restaurant side' as Funck's boasts QUITE a bar operation.With long bars back to back inside and (sort of) outside, enough beers on tap to stun Homer Simpson (DOH!), and a really interesting patio set-up for Summer operation. 

The place is clearly running with a dual personality. On the one hand, a full service up-scale-ish restaurant suitable for everything from a quick lunch break to full blown major family celebrations. On the other hand, an interesting and up-scale-ish bar operation with enough cool features to make it a destination.

Decor is comfortable and unchallenging.  It seems designed to make customers aware they are in a nice place, and can expect an excellent dining experience.  On this front, the decor promises a bit more than reality provides, but it's still.... nice.

The bar?  We were there for lunch, not for a night of carousing, more's the pity.  The bar area on the inside is, well, 'comfortable' is a good word here too.  Exceptionally well stocked, shiny (so shiny!), and well appointed, it has the looks of a perfect meet-up place. The outside bar, just as nice, is set up with walls made of glass garage doors.  These can roll up (Five of them I counted!) to open the whole outside bar to the.... outside.

Once opened up, the outside bar opens onto the patio, which has numerous fire features and a suitable stone wall and iron work fence separating it from the world.

The beer.  Yeah.  About that.  The beer list is a single spaced page, BOTH sides. I suppose to fully enjoy it, one needs to be a beer expert and speak multiple languages.  There are One Hundred Fifty (150! It was crazy!) taps on the wall, in multiple layers.  I'm told most are attached to quarter kegs stored in a large cooler room centered between the inside/outside bars.

Me? I chose a Horny Goat Milk Stout, as something I at least was acquainted with.  The beer menu is daunting, even frightening (too intimidating for me! Seriously, I get that it makes it a "destination" to ooh and ahh over the beer, but I am not enough of a beer lover to let this override the basic flaws.).  Yeah, I'll be going back to just to play 'beer explorer', as long I have someone else to drive.  There is another viewpoint to such a wide ranging tap list though, presented by someone I know.  "What's the most popular beer?  I'll have that", reasoning with that many choices on tap, many are probably sitting so long they go stale.  I can't say if it works like that, but I'll happily experiment and report back.

The service.   For our visit, decent.  Our waitress was chipper, friendly, and on the spot. We didn't wait long for anything, food came quickly, and drinks didn't go wanting.  She did a good job and is one of the brighter points of our experience there. (Definitely very good service.)

The food... okay, here we go.  Overall, it was... underwhelming. (😞)  It was, at best, okay. Frankly, the salad was the high point in terms of freshness and flavor.

I had the fried chicken, which Funcks is famous for.  You know this because they tell you right on the menu it's a favorite.  It came with fries. Yay.  As fried chicken goes, it was okay. Nicely cooked, with the meat still moist and the coating crunchy.  What it lacked was flavor. It was light on just plain seasoning (Salt and Pepper), and there was NO hint of any attempt to make it special.    Popeye's chicken has no competition here.  Neither does the Colonel... or even Musser's grocery store.

The fries, the same all around.  Nothing special. No seasoning to speak of. Average Meh fries. We make better at home whenever we get a taste for french fries.

Herself can describe her meal, but I tasted it... and it's not something I'd consider ordering myself.  In fact, if someone offered it to me for free, I'd pass it up in hopes of getting something better later.

My meal... *sigh* okay I had the ricotta gnocchi with a tomato basil sauce, with mozzarella and shaved Parmesan. Sounds amazing doesn't it? Yeah, well no. What came out was soggy, mushy cold food. In a previous post I had mentioned I hate it when a restaurant makes a ton of something and then plops it onto a plate and then reheats it? That was what this was 100%. The gnocchi had been sitting in the sauce so long that it had a sauce ring half way into the gnocchi. Unfortunately they even forgot the heating up part! The mozzarella balls in the dish were not even partially melted. It was very disappointing. On the upside, the sauce tasted like Ragu's Garden Style which is my favorite jarred sauce. 

#1 son had a Reuben sandwich, which came with steamed veggies from the nursing home, and onion rings.  I tasted an onion ring, and it was pretty good.  I passed up on tasting the sandwich, and passed even harder when Son found someone's hair layered into the sandwich.

Discussing the meal afterwards with herself, and mulling the overall lack of flair and flavor, we came to a conclusion.  Funck's seems to be cooking to the area.  By that we mean they are seeking average, and cooking to a perceived Pennsy Dutch plain cooking palate. No challenges, no unusual flavors, and in fact little enough flavor period.  Just plain cooking to match the expectations of plain everyday people.  This isn't a bad thing, if average is the goal.

Looking on the website I will share this quote;
 

"Our staff at Funck's  prepares every dish with care to ensure our customers enjoy the best dining experience possible. Casual, everyday style food made from fresh, natural ingredients from local farms makes our menu reminiscent of Mom's home cooking."  

I did not see this in our dining experience there. They served, cold bland food without much care. If you want to ask high mid-range prices, you need to meet that quality expectation. Did we complain and make a fuss to our server? No. It wasn't worth it. What they would have done is pop mine into a microwave (again), making it soggier with hot spots. #1 son's they may have apologized and offered him new food, or took a few dollars off the bill. Either way it would not have fixed the basic issue... a need for basic seasoning, and a little care with the food.

(Insert here long story about running a repair shop and striving to be above average, if not the best)  (Delete long boring story about blah blah blah). (I loved this story dear!)

Look.... Funck's has a good location, a great layout, and a concept that has ALL the promise for great dining. They also have a spectacular bar and could easily be the hottest spot in the county (Especially if they get some decent live music, better than I hear they've been booking).  With all that going for it, they aimed smack dab at 'mediocre' when it comes to cuisine.  Honestly?  I've eaten tastier food at roadside stands on the way to Delaware beaches.

We'll give them a second chance, come Summer when we can enjoy that great looking patio and outdoor fireplace.  The beer selection is enough of a reason to do that, and we can hope for someone there to get inspired regarding the food.    Flavor.... ya know?  It's a good thing!  Here's hoping Funck's finds some.

Overall I give Funck's:
1.25 out of 5 forks for flavor
4.50 out of 5 forks for atmosphere
4.75 out of 5 forks for location
4.0 out of 5 forks for service
3.625  forks overall **
**We discussed this grading before we posted it, and we need to be fair. Due to the food quality I wanted to score them down. BUT, the location, service and atmosphere were wins, so to be fair they got an honest calculation like everyone else.