Manatus Restaurant

gone but never forgotten RIP another place takes a hit, late night or weekend morning the very best.

R.I.P. Manatus
Thanks for the late-​night memories. This was the spot to be at 2am in New York City in 1994 :)
Sorry you ran out of steam.

closed-​Supposedly becoming a Calvin Klein store

If I was writing this 5 years ago, I’d be giving this a 4 – 5 star rating. The place was always jumping, the waiters and watresses were full of personality/​sass. The area seemed more exciting. As the neighborhood got seedier, the place became watered down. The crowd used to be diverse, gay, straight and everyone under the sun — as it should be in NYC.
Gone is the crowd. The atmosphere now seems oppressive, the waitstaff goes through the motions.
A group of 4 of used to go here often, now– pass. It’s a sad shell of itself. Last meal there saw my friend receive cold under cooked Salmon, another friend cold soup, a third friend her order was messed up, as was mine. It was a sad, final experience.
1 extra star for history.

The food, décor and service can all be summed up by the word «uninspired».
From the exterior and looking at the menu, this place looks reasonably nice. However, both the menu and the furnishings need an overhaul.
My salad was something I would expect a 6 yr old to throw together and the salmon topping it was completely dried out.
The highlight of our lunch was the grilled cheese sandwich my girlfriend ordered after not being able to eat her original meal.
I guess this place survives on regulars who have been going everyday for 30 years. Looking around while we ate, we were the only tourists and the other 10 people were all 65+ and just there for coffee and eggs.
There are so many other good options near by. Skip this one.

From over hearing conversations from regulars it is a great neighborhood spot, and the service was ok but the food wasn’t up to standard.
I the Chicken Orzo soup to start but was lacking flavor unfortunately and it tasted bland. I ordered the Salmon with olive oil and lemon mixed vegetables which ended up being a over seasoned piece of salmon with only carrots that had been steamed too long.
Overall, maybe we went on an «off» night for Manatus but it definitely wasn’t worth it.

This place use to always be crowded and enjoyable. Now understand for its emptiness, service is horrible and slow. The waitresses have no personalities and forget about the people skills. Needs new management.

This review is for the chocolate fudge cake and the berry cheesecake.
Chocolate fudge cake — 4 stars. Pretty delicious. I was very skeptical because it just seemed like the chocolate cake was a very ordinary, if not almost grocery-​store-​ish type of cake and I was not going to get it. But the waitress gave me a tiny sample and I was instantly sold. Honestly its really good. I don’t like icing and I don’t like super sweet cakes and this isn’t. It’s dense and rich and definitely worth a try.
Berry cheesecake — 2 stars. Really not the best. Something a bit off. And the berries on top are not good quality. One of the waitresses said she loved the cheesecake there, so we got it, but I would absolutely recommend against getting the cheesecake here when there are tons of better cheesecakes in NYC.

We stayed right around the corner and came here for breakfast. Great cornbeef hash. Great orange juice. Decent price and atmosphere. Fast and friendly service. What can I say we came back a second time because its was easy to get to and was good. I miss the neighborhood already. Oh and my waffle with berries was very good!

Good breakfast spot, reasonably priced

I came here for brunch with a friend I hadn’t seen in quite some time last weekend. Very easy to get a seat on a Sunday afternoon — it’s a nice little place that’s hidden in West Village off the main spots. There isn’t too much to say about it otherwise — it’s pretty much a diner from what I could garner. The brunch menu is pretty standard; I ended up getting French toast with bacon, and the toast was pretty much what I would expect — 4 slices of standard French toast that I wouldn’t distinguish from other places I’ve been to. Same goes for the bacon, although they do cook it such that it’s just right — not too crunchy and not too chewy. That said, it’s something like $ 16 – 17 for their brunch special here, which is overpriced compared to what I’ve had elsewhere. Perhaps other parts of the menu are better priced, but that was a bit steep compared to what was provided.
The service here is pretty standard… they do a good job of keeping the glasses filled and getting the food out, but they were a bit slow bringing out the check at the end. All in all, it’s a nice place that I could come back to again, but probably just for the a la carte selection for a breakfast/​lunch meal, not the brunch menu.

Going to this restaurant was the worst day of my life!
STRAWS: The water glasses were filthy. I asked for straws. He gave me two straws that looked like had been taken out of the garbage and then used to soothe an old ladies gums.
MOPS: There was a dissatisfied, portly gentelman mopping the entire time I was in there. He didn’t even sweep first! You can’t just put water on dirt and potato pieces and say it’s a clean floor! I felt like I was inside a monster’s bones!
TRICKS: The outside of the restaurant looks like a nice autehtntic Greek restaurant. The inside looks like a truck-​stop diner where Greek people go to give up.
SERVICE: The waiter dropped food on everyone! He kept overextending himself by balancing four plates at a time. Then he would come out and proceed to drop dry eggs on people’s bodies.
FOOD TASTE: I don’t know. I ordered the French Toast and left without saying anything.
FINAL SCORE: Seal’s Face

Before I arrived in NYC, my brother and his bf already had Manatus Restaurant picked out as the West Village Sunday brunch choice to take me to. Manatus is their go to 24-​hour joint for many a post-​bar/​post-​party night meal. Originally when we walked in I thought this was Greek joint — lotsa white interior with I think I remember columns, mid-​age to older non-​hipsterish clientele at tables and booths enjoying their Sunday brunch.
I forgot what everyone else ordered bc my eyes zeroed in on their brunch special — order from a specific brunch menu and you get a mimosa or a choice of a specialty drink with your meal. I had to order the challah french toast since I’d never had challah bread before and it was deliciously dense as it appeared on tv. Very simple presentation of large challah french toast slices with the slightly spongy yellow middle and that rich dark brown rind — a good carb sweet start to my day. Our server was a little difficult to understand as he spoke rather quickly but he was attentive to us and overall not a bad brunch experience.

This is not the praying Mantis of martial art form, but a diner not a true restaurant as the name claims. Two well known past loyal patrons were Broadway’s Bebe Neuwirthe who often dined at Manatus in 2004 through 2005 and comedian Rumplemeyer.
With a friend on a Friday late afternoon of a crisp October we dined to two entrees of crab cakes and macaroni cheese. Quality of food was very mediocre. The crab cakes were served plain without tartar sauce or condiments and macaroni cheese were very dry as it were yesterday’s leftovers. Service is somewhat attentive. Menu is in a true diner format amid outside has the believable lie look of a restaurant. Blah is all I can say I was unable to sustain any macaroni further for the poor quality.

An ok dinner in the middle of the West Village. I ended up here because three other places were closed. We were seated outside promptly. I ordered the tuna salad on pita with a pickle and coleslaw. It was pretty good for diner food. I bet this place is a great place to have a late night drunken meal or hungocer breakfast. I recommend trying it then.

Located in the heart of the West Village on Bleecker near Christopher, this is the type of nondescript café that somehow got stuck in the 70’s, but no one seems to be complaining since the clientele looks like mostly regulars from the ‘hood. In fact, I was thinking I would hear «Baby Come Back» or «All By Myself» on the Muzak. It’s the kind of casual place you take for granted, not a dining destination for tourists but a diner where you get together comfortably with old friends — which is exactly the reason I was there.
Jamie W. and I met up with my now-​NYC-​based friend Carlos and his partner, also named Jamie, for breakfast here, and I have to be honest… I can barely remember what I had because I was just enjoying catching up. Oh yeah, now I remember. I had the $ 9.90 Manatus Eggs Benedict, which was basically standard-​issue eggs benedict complete with a gloopy hollandaise sauce (see photo). Jamie, one of them, had the even less memorable $ 8.45 Ham Omelette with a side of kinda mushy home fries (see photo). That’s it… that’s all I got.
FOOD — 3 stars… I don’t remember getting sick… that’s a good sign, right?
AMBIANCE — 2.5 stars… I think my mom had the same type of furniture in our house way back when
SERVICE — 3 stars… serviceable
TOTAL — 3 stars… unmemorable except for the company I keep

I love egg benedicts, and one of my friends who used to live in New York suggested I try this place out. I Unilocaled, googled, and mapquested it! Haha. Our hotel was in Queens, and from there we took the bus, train, taxi and walked all the way there!
WHERE: Located somewhere on Bleecker Street! It seriously took us 5 touristing hours to get there! Lol
WHAT: Prior to get there, I was expecting something magnificent, something worth my time and money. Don’t get me wrong, the food was good, but just stayed GOOD. I’ve tried several benedicts, and their country style benedict tasted just like any other bennie!
To make up for what lacked in the food, the service was number one! The owners and workers were Greek, and such happy people. I would definitely come back because of the service alone!

I go out alot and generally end up eating at many many 24hr diners in NYC. This has to be the worst 24hr diner in Manhattan. That they are in the West Village is the only plus I can give it.
Tonight (this Morning) was the straw that broke the donkey’s back on this place. I’m meeting friends here after a latin party we were attending. I arrive first, it’s 2am. The place is dead, only one other table (a couple) being served. My friends show up 10 min later; there are four of us. We are seated and the waters come out (good). We order.
2:45am: We’re chatting, shooting the breeze with one another. The couple who was there before I’d arrived start to get mad, in a loud way. The girl gets up and goes over to the kitchen and starts to yell something about if they are waiting for the chickens’ eggs to hatch eggs so they can make them etc. They end up leaving without being served. The manager apologizes in broken English.
3:15am: We have not been served yet. I start to get very annoyed. My friend who goes there a lot and is friends with the manager goes to see what’s up. The manager tells him that they had a very large to-​go order that they are still trying to finish up. This makes me laugh out loud.
3:30am. We finally get our food. This is a diner, mind you, that was dead at the time; no other tables. Had my friends not insisted we stay I would have been home sooner to write this post about how horrible this diner is.
Note to the Owners: I don’t care who called in the to-​go order. But I do care about service (I work in the night club industry so take my word for it when I tell you that service is everything if you want to survive in this business). Be sure to train your management next time to take care of the people who are actually in the building first, not having them wait over an hour an and half because «some one» called in a large delivery.
The manager ended up taking 10% off the tab. I tell him he should take off more (like all of it).
No tip was left (Shame too, because the waiter was cool and had nothing to do with the lack of better judgement from the non existent management. You’re better off replacing management with a chair.
Food was mediocre/​bland as always (I had the hungry man breakfast).

Great service!
Waters before completely sitting down, never asking for a refill…
_​Roast beef with potato pancake & red cabbage (Yummmy!!! Especially for the potato pancakes!)
_​Egg Benedict (love the sauce)
_​Crab omelet (good portion)
All great dishes…
One time experience and that’s it for me ;)

I went here for brunch with the hubby one Sunday. It was good. Nothing amazing, but for the price, it was just what we wanted. Very quick service, nice people. A typical ²⁴⁄₇ diner.
I’ll probably go again, but I’m going to save it for 3am when I can’t find anything else open.