Manzana Grill

Business closed down (never was that good in the first place)…making way for Palomino.
~G

Don’t goooooooooooooooooo. Alright, fine, go, it’s not like I’d visit you anyway since you’re on the Eastside, or as I like to call it the BEASTside. Soon you’ll be replaced with a Palomino and probably not serve breakfast. Other than the fact I had a random panic attack while eating breakfast (don’t ask) it was the best breakfast I’ve had in a long time. The bacon was PERFECT and the caramel and something French toast was DELICIOUS (I blame my panic attack for loss of memory). I consider myself to be somewhat a French toast connoisseur and though it’s not as good as the one at El Greco was or the Vanilla Custard French Toast at High Life is, it WAS one of the top 3 best French toasts in Seattle (well, I guess it’s in Bellevue, but you know what I mean). They fucking cover it with CORN FLAKES!!! I don’t really need to say more.
It’s a shame to see you go. I barely knew ye, Manzana. God speed.

Liked the food, the service, the take out menu.
It’s now CLOSED. Palomino’s will be going in instead.

This HAPPY HOUR menu is amazing.
The happy hour menu is great, I recommend trying the artichoke at least once. Most happy hour menu items are at or under $ 3 which means that the bar will be full and the service will be a little slower, this shouldn’t stop you from trying it. You get food that tastes good (never bland) and it’s a screaming deal. I have gone for dinner but consider the service isn’t much faster in the restaurant and I’m not getting happy hour pricing, it’s not worth it to me.

Manzana Grill isn’t Les Halles Brasserie but I don’t go into every restaurant expecting that. But for what it is – a chain restaurant at a mid price point – it’s good.
Food: 3 stars. There’s always something yummy and while I don’t think anything is my «favorite» I wouldn’t say its bad, either.
Service: we’ve been here over a dozen times and never had a bad service experience. Often the manager comes by to say hi and see how things are going.
Atmosphere: We almost always sit in the bar because there is never a wait, they have the full menu, booths, and we can watch the game. The TV’s are hung at harsh angles so it’s not totally comfortable to watch depending on where you’re sitting, but it’s better than no TV and no game. It’s not too loud, either.
Bottom line: for a chain restaurant at this price point it’s a winner.

For a late night happy hour (reverse happy hour as it called in certain circles), I would suggest McCormick and Schmick’s which is just a block or so away.
It was surprisingly dark inside. Believe me I’m all about intimate lighting and creating mysterious ambiance with dimmed lights and expensive looking lamps, but this was just a bit much. When we received our drinks I had to look closely at the one placed in front of me. Was it gin and tonic? Was it Red Bull and vodka? Was it Jack and Coke? After the guys and I passed the drinks around in attempts to find it’s proper patron I realized, this was just a little absurd.
When the food came is was pretty standard. The beef skews tasted like average beef skewers. The burger and fries were both equally docile. It wasn’t a terrible experience, but I couldn’t help but enviously stare at the people walking along the street outside. Many were laughing jovially, looking satisfied and content. One of the gentlemen was rubbing his belly and I swear I saw him mouth the words «Man, that was sooo good! I’m sure glad we decided to go to McCormick and Schimck’s for happy hour instead of going to Manzana Grill like that idiot Jason».
Maybe he didn’t say all that, but that was the message I got from him.

Appetizers came way before the drinks came.
(How long does it take to pour wine?)
The tenderloin is very soft, buttery, and tasty.
The waitress dropped our stack of dirty dishes on my already injured right arm. She apologized profusely and bought us dessert.
The crème brûlée was delicious.
Ouch my arm… :(

I came here with a some friends since one of my friends got a gift card for food here. I had to laugh, this was supposed to be a mexican resturant and I saw only white people aside from one asian lady. The decoration of the place was vey American too. That’s bellevue for ya.
The food was ok, I had a fish sandwich (I saw no mexican food on the menu) the bread was gross so I too the fish out of the bun. It was a good thing too, since they were dumb enough to leave the skin on.
It’s too bad I’m underage, the bar looked nice and I’d have to be drunk to enjoy the food.

OMGOSHLY WOO WOO!!!
The second I stepped in the Manzana, I was petrified! Because, the bar was loaded with good looking young butchers and fishermen!!! Then we sat in a cube on the west side of the bar and comes the attitude from our great server! The bartender was great, the place was okay, the lighting was too dark I say that because I couldn’t stop staring at myself I looked so gorgeous the light was so dark! I would give them at least 4 stars, we were so disappointed with the server’s atittude. Well, my guess was she was on the rag! WHATEVER! In spite of the way she was, I still gave her 22% tip. Oh, sorry, I have to talk about the food. The value is okay, not great. You get what you pay for. And please don’t get me going on the bread!

I like going to Manzana. Food, especially seafood tastes fresh and cooked perfectly. Service is great where the waiters/​waitresses actually have a short conversation w/​ya.
O, and they have etch-​a-​sketches for kids! tho I like to play with them too…

Faced with trying to find dinner at 9:15 on a Saturday in Bellevue with a fellow Unilocaler, when all of the local places are closing or closed and many of the mall restaurants still open are starting to fill with the Joey’s crowd, we were left with few palatable options. After walking out on a 30 min wait at The Cheesecake Factory, which we’d deemed to be the least of the remaining evils, we decided to give Manzana a try.
We were pleasantly surprised to learn that there was a food happy hour from 9 to close, even on weekends, which quickly settled the bar or restaurant section discussion. I was less pleasantly surprised to see that a $ 2.50+ drink purchase was required to partake in the HH.
The place was somewhat sparsely populated. Although, as my dining companion pointed out, there were a lot of groups of 2 – 4 women there and they far outnumbered the men in the room, so if you’re cruising for women in Bellevue this might not be a bad place to check out.
The food was mediocre at best — we split:
— a chicken tostada, messy without much chicken
— a barbeque pork quesadilla, adequate but I’m looking more forward to the Agua Verde leftovers still in my refrigerator
— a burger with fries, nothing to write home about and Yama’s HH burger was better
That all said, it was still a chill place to grab a drink and have dinner and not be overwhelmed by the Eastside vibe and still be able to people watch the passersby outside. It remains in the «in case of emergency» set of options, but it has a firm place there.

04÷30÷08: UPDATE! Manzana become Palomino! I just saw the sign and this will be a great thing because I love Palomino in Downtown Seattle.
I have mixed feelings on this place because the food is a great deal, but the quality is consistently going down. I like the options, but the last few times there the food was far from satisfying. Now granted this is HH fare, but I have been there during lunch and noticed as much in this regard. On my recent visits, I have had the following:
Southwest soup of some sort: Runny over creamy and not very good. Basically it sucked.
Sliders: I used to like these but last time I was there they were dry. not a negative rating but something is lacking.
Wings: They used to trim the ends and serve a large round plate with them nicely arranged. This time there were 5 – 6 and they were soggy and too much bbq. These are not a repeat.
Caesar: Soggy and way too much cheap dressing. How do you mess that up?
Overall I think that while cheap, i am not going to give it very high markings on the food. But it is convenient and the atmosphere is good.

Tried to get here for HH but was too late. I was the last one to arrive and we were seated promptly. Staff came out immediately for orders and was very friendly.
The place was packed with people and it was very noisy. The path to the restrooms went by the kitchen and it was quite challenge to weave through the staff to get there. Fortunately, it was not really a deterrent to continue to drinking.
We had the hummus and ahi for appetizers. Kind of pricey but both were pretty good. Drinks were okay.
Dinner was swordfish, a steak and a cobb salad. All were destroyed and pretty reasonable for the price. All in all, not bad.

The parental unit and her husband were in town and staying in Bellevue, so that’s how we ended up here at this semi-​chain near the mall.
The calamari app ($ 8.95) was a huge plate of salty fried rings but not enough tentacles and just one lemon. Our waitress obligingly brought us a cup full of more lemon slices. I probably scarfed down at least half the plate (I have no shame). 3 stars for the app.
Hubby had the ahi tuna entrée ($ 24.95) — I’d advise against it. I was probably more disappointed in it with than he was. The rub conflicted with the fish, imho, though the side sauces of hot mustard and wasabi cream kind of helped. If you really have to have this, I’d go for the less expensive app portion instead ($ 11.95). 2 stars for that dish alone.
Given their tag line which refers to the rotisserie and my mother’s recommendation, I had the ½ rotisserie chicken sandwich with soup (or salad) ($ 8.95). Instead of fries, I asked for mashed. The soup of the day was seafood chowder. It was lukewarm and thick as my woolen mittens. 1 star. I’ll save my chowder calories for whenever I go back to Boston. The sandwich was decent, with all-​white meat and nicely sized. 3 stars.
My bro got the crab cakes in a panko crust ($ 18.95). 4 stars. The cakes are quite crabby, which is better than most places that stuff crab cakes with other fillers.
The hot apple crisp was a huge goblet of ice cream and apple slices topped with a crust ($ 5.95). We didn’t have the crème brûlée ($ 4.95) but my mom had on a previous visit.
Their chocolate banana cream pie ($ 5.95). It is the bang of the bomb with a chocolate custard (the menu says chocolate ganache custard), whipped cream, fresh ‘nanas and a housemade caramel sauce. 5 stars!
Eso es todo.
*THERE FROMMER’S! I included all the damn prices. Are you happy now? Probably not, you threatened needledick who is probably losing sales & profits due to rivals like Unilocal,tripadvisor, virtualtourist, etc!*

Never been for actual dining, but have come here quite a few times for happy hour and have enjoyed every experience.
There’s a $ 3 beverage minimum for HH, so if I’m feeling like alcohol, I’ll get one of their beers, or an iced tea if I want to keep things cheap. I’ve sampled most of their happy hour menu items, but my favorites include the Santa Fe Flatbread (pizza-​style flatbread with Southwestern toppings) and the Burger Sliders. I love the $ 1 Sliders — I normally order two of them if I’m looking for a light, satisfying meal.
They have regular a happy hour (3−6pm) and a late one (9pm-​Close). Best of all, both of these happy hours are daily!
The staff is attentive and sincere. When it comes to happy hour, I don’t really write about service unless if it’s completely horrendous, but the waitresses I encounter here are always so sweet.

Good. Could be better.
Lovely service from beautiful waitresses. Quite frankly I kinda got mad when they went to serve some other jerks.
Crabcakes were the bomb. Drink had me buzzed and how. But that chinese chicken salad? Too much mint and not enough orange slices. The chicken tasted like it was fresh out of a bag-​o-​chicken chunks, and then barely warmed over. That’s just lazy. Everything was mulch-​sized and completely well mixed which gave me the distinct impression that they build this salad in a 5 gallon batch and then spoon a bunch into your plate. Considering how long it took to get to me, they must have just cranked up a new vat.
Maybe next time.

The rating is really for the mojitos (because I LOVE mojitos!)
GREAT mojitos! I had the Wild Berry Mojito and my friend had the Manzana Mojita (it’s a regular mojito). These are definitely the best mojitos I have had since my going away happy hour at Baccar’s in SF. Great flavor and you can’t taste the alcohol (the best drinks, I think).
Had lunch here and I got the fish tacos — they were ok; I have had better. They don’t have that «kick» that other good fish tacos I’ve tried had.
Overall, food was decent, but I would definitely come back just for the the mojitos. :)

Their food is pretty decent, but their service… well i found better service in a bathroom. Our server forgot our order, forgot about our drink, when the food came out it was cold and decided to give marital advice to my friend. The mangement was gracious enough to pick up the check (so kudos for that).
So I decided to give Manzana another go. I went to check out their HH and our server was… unattentive. She never checked up on us and I had to flag other servers for more drinks and the check. I saw our server only twice. When she seated us and when she gave us our check. WTF? Also the happy hour REQUIRES you to order a drink.
BUT their saving grace is their BANANA CREAM PIE!!!
IT IS THE BEST PIE YOU WILL EVER EAT!!!
So if you don’t mind the shotty service, go and get the pie. yum.

First off, the service was friendly and efficient here; I like that. Clearly, these folks are professional without being precious, and they strike the right balance.
This is sort of a cross between Z’Tejas and the Keg, but with more chicken than steak, and a more extensive and innovative seafood menu.
The southwestern slant led to good flavors but not extreme heat, which is great for a capascin wimp like me. I’m sure a few of the menu items will satisfy the heat-​seekers and that your server can help you find them.
We had bread and a cup of the corn chowder soup to start with; John also got a house salad (note to salad-​eaters: no bleu cheese or ranch dressing here, but they do make the five dressings they offer themselves). All of these choices were excellent; the bread was crusty and yummy-​looking; the soup had rows of fresh corn kernels and was creamy and rich without being overpowering; and the salad was green, generous, and beautifully presented.
I had a cheeseburger, and John had a chicken chimichanga for our entrees. The burger was excellent; large and flavorful, with a good balance between freshly-​ground meat and a flavorful roll; presented with nice green lettuce, red onions, and (if I’d let them), tomatoes and chipotle mayo. The fries were crispy and had a good fresh flavor, but that may have just been because they were served piping hot.
John’s entrée was also piping hot; the rice was glistening and looked yummy, with bits of fresh cilantro distributed through the grains. The chimi was huge, with home-​made guacamole on top and a side of a homemade roasted-​pepper sauce.
The portions were big, especially considering this was lunch, and everything was fresh and tasty.
Minus a star because the whole thing wasn’t to die for, but hey, you could do a LOT worse with your go-​to-​lunch-​with-​the-​office-​crowd choice. There’s something here for most of us and the presentation and service will not make you sorry you suggested it. :-)

I try not to eat here for dinner because it’s not my style of restaurant, but I LOVE the happy hour food. I’m the type of girl who hates food on my fingers, but I make a single exception for the wings here. Hummus (and I normally don’t like hummus that much) and seafood cakes are favorites as well. Beer selection could definitely be better.
EDIT: Wings have gone downhill, but the corn chowder is my new favorite.