Manuel's Downtown

01/03/12

Good food but the worst Customer Service

by Rinihitomi at Citysearch

I have mix feelings about Manuel's. I really want to love this place but the time that I went, I feel like it was not as amazing as what people make it sound.

The food was delicious! It was great but I felt like I could go to any regular Mexican restaurant and get the exact same meal for cheaper. It just was not out of the ordinary Mexican food. I had the Watermelon Margarita and it was awesome! They have a good happy hour but I could go to Casa Chapala or Texican Cafe and get the same margarita for twice the size and the same price. Their menu has some interesting choices and mixed and match things that I have not had the chance to taste yet. The tortilla soup was delicious. Instead of it being your average, what your use to soup it was made with a spicy mole sauce and avocado. Their queso was great as well. Not just your every day water liquid queso. Overall the food was good just not as impressed as I would like to be. And it is a bit pricey.

What really made me not like the place was the service. The manager spoke to us and she was wonderful but when it came to our waiter, it was like he could careless for waiting us. He did not give us much recommendations and just kept walking pass us as if we did not want anything. We order our drinks and after that it took him about 20 minutes to come back to us to actually order our food. He really did not check back up with us until our drinks were completely gone or if our table was extremely quite. He just had the attitude that he was to good for our table which is just a huge turn off in any service industry. The place was not to busy. It was around 4 so we came before a crowd.

I would return if someone really wanted to go their to eat. Otherwise it would just be a place I would walk pass.

04/29/10

Manuel's Superb Margaritas and Excellent Food

by desilou at Citysearch

I love Manuels and adore their Sunday brunch with the live music. Manuels is not your typical Mexican food so if you're looking for greasy enchiladas and margaritas made from a syrupy mix (if that's what you're used to there's nothing wrong with that) go to any of the hundreds of mexican restaurants and you'll be happier.

IF YOU WANT EXCELLENT MEXICAN FOOD ..... you'll find it at Manuels. Creative menu, the place is spic and span and the atmosphere is perfect. The margaritas are superb and I'm picky about my margaritas. There Sunday brunch menu is lovely. Everytime we have friend visit Austin Manuels in on our list. Can't believe someone would say they got sick there... the place is immaculate. If we aren't at Fonda San Miguel we're at Manuels... LOVE IT!

• Pros: Creative Food, Very clean, great music on Sundays
• Cons: none

03/07/09

Re: Violently ill

by KDoze at Citysearch

It really bothers me that people automatically say that a restaurant made them ill. What people fail to realize is that the food in restuarants is more likely safer than food you get from a grocery store. Illness can take anywhere from 2 hours to 48 hours to start showing symptoms. So unless the person who ate nachos from Manuel's didn't eat anywhere else two days prior to their experience, they can't tell if that was what actually made them sick. Manuel's is known and is proud of the fact that their ingredients are fresh and of a high quality, hence the reason it is a little more expensive than tex-mex. Try it out and you will understand what I mean.

• Pros: Good food, great service
• Cons: Parking. It's downtown

02/26/09

Excellent

by Gestrudis at Citysearch

Really are the best margaritas in Austin, and are unique in the half price happy hour, the service is very good, the food is very delicious, I congratulate the crab nachos

02/22/09

DON'T eat the nachos...

by maigrust at Citysearch

I was looking for a good Mexican food place to go to get some yummy margaritas and an appetizer or two, so I decided to try out Manuel's because I had always seen it and it has some good reviews. First of all the salsa was not anything special at all and kind of watery. The margaritas were not above average, and the house margarita tastes mostly like margarita mix. But worst of all I fell VIOLENTLY ill some six hours later. There were two of us eating but I was the only one who ate the nachos and the only one who got sick. I would never expect this to happen from food at a restaurant that has such good reviews by what I thought were trustworthy Austin people with good taste. So, in conclusion, if you truly know what good Mexican food is and should be ALWAYS, then do not waste your money or risk your health for this mediocre establishment that offers such carelessly and heartlessly prepared food.

• Pros: location
• Cons: poorly prepared food, salsa, margaritas