The Charleston City Paper’s most recent dining guide claims that “Everybody loves Manny’s,” but I can attest that at there are at least four of us who don’t.
Friday night, three of my friends and I were looking for a place that specialized in cheap, casual, man food. I had heard several positive opinions on Manny’s and had been hoping to try it for a while. I want to try to withhold judgment on an establishment that so many people are so high on, but my first experience at Manny’s was pretty bad.
The dining area is set up like any normal sports bar/grill. There are plenty of TV’s around and each booth has its own personal TV which diners can put on whichever channel they want. They also have NTN trivia which is always a fun distraction (particularly for us because we dominated that night).
The menu is huge and features a variety of Greek, Italian, and American options. In fact, we had to ask our server twice to give us more time to decide what to order because there were so many sections and items to choose from. In theory, this should mean that there is something on the menu for everyone, which would make Manny’s a great place to bring a group of friends who can’t agree, but this only applies if the food is good. I found it to be hit or miss.
I ordered the lamb souvlaki platter with Greek potatoes ($10.49). The Souvlaki was pretty good, if not a little dry. It was seasoned well and I thought the tzatziki sauce complimented it nicely. A couple side notes on the tzatziki, I believe Manny’s was made with sour cream, whereas it is traditionally made with yogurt, which I prefer; I also thought Manny’s tzatziki could’ve used more dill. The Greek potatoes were well received by all of us who had them. I thought they had just the right amount of spice. The platter was also served with a few slices of pita bread. Although it was a little awkward, I managed to make a few small sandwiches out of the souvlaki, potatoes, pita, and tzatziki, which in my opinion would make a pretty awesome wrap for some Greek restaurant to sell.
Other things ordered by our group included the gyro platter, which its purchaser enjoyed, but I thought was even drier than the souvlaki. My other two friends got the buffalo chicken sandwich and the gyro and were satisfied, but didn’t seem to be distinctly impressed.
The real problem we had with Manny’s was the service. The platters came with a side salad which was delivered quickly to one of us, but mine was forgotten for several minutes until I reminded our server. Later, when one of us asked for a side of barbecue sauce, it was forgotten as well. By the time he eventually got it we were mostly done with our meal. They also still charged him for it. In addition, I know that it’s not that rare for restaurants to charge for additional sauce, but the 80 cents for a side of tzatziki one of my friends requested seems a little ridiculous. Everything was generally slow and lackadaisical.
Normally, as somebody who has worked in/with restaurants for a long time, I tip very well, but even I couldn’t bring myself to leave more than 10% that night. I do plan on giving Manny’s another chance at some point and will definitely make a note of posting again if my opinion changes, but for now I can’t recommend it to anyone.
Related posts:
I agree with this opinion of it. My Gyro was good, I’ll give them that. Was it worth 7 dollars? I dunno. To tell you the truth I have had just as good of a Gyro from county fairs for 4 or 5 bux. Now the potatoes were worth the 1$ upgrade. They saved my opinion of the restaurant. .80 cents for a tiny ass side of the sauce was just absolutely ridiculous in my opinion. It’s not my fault they failed to put enough sauce on the Gyro. All in all the food was good, maybe a tad overpriced, and the service was shitty.
Pretty bad food. Good service.