Manuel's Downtown
Austin, TX 78701
Phone: (512) 472-7555
Fax: (512) 418-8807
- Price:
- $
- Cross Street:
- Third Street
- Hours:
- Sun-Thu 11am-10pm, Fri-Sat 11am-12am
Editorial Review for Manuel's Downtown – by James Scott Bankston
In Short
The front room is brightly lit and houses the bar. Local artists display their art on the walls. The larger back room is slightly more romantic; the modern, black, circular booths and low lighting make for more cozy dining. The menu is packed with unique takes on interior Mexican favorites, including a chili relleno covered with a walnut-brandy-cream sauce, and seviche with yellowfin tuna marinated in lime juice.
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Insider Tips
The ExtrasWhile Manuel's doesn't have private meeting rooms, you can arrange special functions with the management.
When to GoStop in for brunch from 10am to 3pm Sunday. A jazz band plays from 11:30am to 2:30pm.
User Reviews for Manuel's Downtown
05/20/2008 Posted by pwebb76
I am shocked to see that this restaurant does not have even more poor reviews than what it has received. My husband and I gave it a try yesterday as he works downtown and we wanted to give it a try. What's funny is everyone at his workplace had warned us that Manuel's was not that great, but we wanted to try it and see for ourselves. I have lived in Austin now for 9 years and I dare say this is the worst Mexican food I've ever encountered. The salsa is essentially tasteless. We had to giggle, because the chips actually tasted like crayons. How we remember the taste of crayons is beyond me, but evidently we both tried eating one as a child... and they tasted just like Manuel's chips! That is not good. My salad, which was baby spinach had grilled chicken on it was edible, but way overpriced for what it was. The service was lazy, so not even that could make up for the food. I usually only log on to Citysearch to praise my favorite local places, but I was so disappointed in this experience that I wanted to leave a review here letting people know that the only thing this place has going for it is the location. If you have an opportunity to eat in this area, pick some place else. You've been warned.
Pros: Location
Cons: Everything else. The food is overpriced, lacks taste, and the margaritas are weak. The service is flat out lazy.
01/19/2008 Posted by phutch1980
I was expecting something out of the ordinary, something I couldn't get at Papasito's or Chuy's, but on the cuisine front, was somewhat dissapointed. Sure the location was great, and the decor was hip and fun, but the food was just so-so. I had the house specialty mole, which was good but not great. At 16 bucks for enciladas I was expecting something more. So go for the hip scene, get a specialty margarita at the bar, but try one of the million other tex-mex gems in Austin for the food, this place is just average at best.
Pros: location, hip scene
Cons: average food, overpriced for value
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