Manna’s

We used Manna’s for office lunch today, 50 people. Amazing portions, fantastic prices, wonderful staff (Ian set things up with us over the phone) — and the FOOD! We ordered fried chicken, chicken stuffing, pineapple glazed ham, collard greens, rice and beans, and mac and cheese. I truly felt like I was sitting down to dinner at a country table. The quality is SUPERB. They don’t provide plates or serving utensils so we used our own stock, but that is absolutely no big deal what with these prices, portions, great packaging (we are in lower Manhattan, food arrived early but was still piping hot by time for the lunch), and PHENOMENAL food. Aptly named establishment — truly a heavenly experience!

The two stars are for the service and banana pudding. Came here yesterday for lunch because a friend insisted on it. The food was tasteless nothing was seasoned it tasted like they just threw the meat in the pot cooked it and served it. The collard greens tasted canned the jerk chicken was soft and lacked spice. The honey chicken tasted a day old and the poor macaroni and cheese was just sad yikes. The banana pudding was really just okay nothing special really. If I ever come back here I would just stick to the fruits and fried plantains.

I’ve been a Manna’s customer for over 15 years and the Mac n Cheese has been delicious… until now! It’s awful! I’m appalled! Bring back the chef that made it prior or I will not be coming back. Also, the ribs
use to be succulent but, I think the chef who made the Mac n Cheese, made the ribs. Oh boy! That chef should stick to the salad bar and leave the hot food bar for the guy who puts his feet in the food!

Its been a long time but I see the change. Food being handled with a guy looking like he worked deep down in basement, bringing food without gloves, & food being tended to by guy behind counter with his coat on. This is a poor neighborhood with lots of seniors & people who are poor. Don’t take advantage we need to eat & not get sick. Thank you.

Buffet style goodness like steamed collard greens, chicken prepared a few ways, pork ribs, steamed veggies, salad bar. Expensive, but very, very good. I would return!

Be still my stomach. Mannas is love distilled into food.
You come in, grab a tray or container and walk down two massive aisles of soul food cooked with love and care. Gigantic portions of fried chicken, wonderful piles of pillowy rice, and that hellfire meal of jerk chicken.
It’s hard to go wrong here with your choices, but make sure to treat yourself to something new every time you come back (because you will be back again — this food is amazing, and I come here fat too much for the sake of my heart), because it’s simply an overwhelming selection of food and options. Just be careful to not overlook the avocado salad or the banana pudding. Make sure you leave room for that.
Their cookies are also good. They’re not produced in house, but very good.

Was wandering around Harlem, and I love soul food, so naturally I would go on Unilocal and search up what the best soul food around was. As soon as I read that it was AYCE I had to come here, it’s AYCE to an extent, $ 7 per pound. Don’t let that fool you! I got around 2.2 pounds of food (it seemed a lot less) for $ 17, and I couldn’t finish it. Their collard greens are the best I’ve had, and their friends chicken is amazing.

Ever just wanted a little collard greens? Ever just wanted some Banana Pudding? How about an entire home cooked soul food meal? Well, you can get all that and more here! For a reasonable price. Forget the wait at Sylvia’s, come here!

It was like heaven to walk into this place and see all the dishes on offer. They have a hot bar filled with lots of different dishes and a cold bar with salads and fresh fruit. There is also a mouth watering array of desserts. All of the food looks great and thankfully tasted the same. I tried a little of a number of hot dishes my favorites were the roast turkey and stuffing, the fried chicken and the okra dish. The banana custard dish is to die for and I felt so guilty that I bought a container of fruit. The fruit was very fresh and good quality. I went back a fee weeks later and there were some different dishes as well as most of the above and peach cobbler. I got the fruit again, it makes me feel less guilty for eating all of this calorie-​laden stuff. I’m here for another two weeks and plan to do a lot more walking, well it is New York. Great staff too! Go for it, it’s fantastic.

Won my heart! This location is a bit smaller than the one near 135^th, but that didn’t stop me from grabbing a plate and munching on this great food.
I love that they have tons of options, you can be a total fatty one day and then a health nut the next or in one sitting you can be porky pig and slim jim… as badly as I wanted to be a porky, I decided to go with salad and fruit. Satisfied my tummy enough. :)
Polite staff, clean environment, just grand and cheap– depending on how you pack your plate ;)
Oh! Ps. The bean pie is amaze balls! Yes amaze balls.

Je venais du schomburg center et je me suis arrêtée dans ce restaurant sur le chemin du métro.
L’intérieur né paye pas de mine mais la nourriture est plus que décente, et pour un prix quasi imbattable. J’ai beaucoup aimé le mac n cheese et les légumes, ainsi que les plantains.

Pros: the food is good. staff is very up beat and friendly the dining area upstairs is huge.
Cons: none

Traveled from Staten Island just for the Mac n cheese! Best greens ever. Only thing that I don’t care for is the consistency of the peach cobbler, the taste is still good tho, but everything else is fantastic

When I am in Harlem and hungry for soul food this is the place I go to. Macaroni and Cheese is on point. The only issue is bring the weight amount down to like $ 3 or $ 4 a pound. Especially for those coming from work or church it would be better. I usually go to the store closer to the Harlem 125 St Metro North stop.
Over all the food and service is amazing and clean

I prefer the location further east on 125^th. There’s more space. Still delicious though. I like the Mac n Cheese, Banana Pudding, Pasta Salad, and Ribs.

This is not actually a restaurant. It has seating, but not a waiter serviced seating. This is more like a café type self seating, self serving type of restaurant. The food was pretty good, the collard greens and chicken was really good compared to other places where you get $ 5.99 per lb food.
There is definitely a lot of soul in their foods, it was delicious.

Buffet style-​$ 5.99/lb. Manna’s offers a decent selection of soul and Carribean food. I picked out the rice and peas, jerk chicken, jerk pork, ribs, collard greens, mac and cheese, and corn bread. Everything on my plate was delicious!
The reason why I didn’t give this place 5 stars is because I felt that the man who was cashing me out try to cheat me. My food came out to $ 4.02. He told me to add a little bit more food as the minimum for paying with debit/​credit card is $ 5. So I went back and added more meat. Now, the food came out to $ 5.67. He told me again to add more food as the minimum is $ 6. WTH!!!
I didn’t feel like arguing with him but please don’t try to cheat me into buying more food. The lesson here is to BRING CASH!

This is as straight forward as it gets. I came here while I was waiting for the Schomburg was open to grab some food and I was welcomed by the aroma of yummy soul food which I am not quite used to eating. Like I said about another soul food restaurant I wasn’t too familiar with many of the things on the menu because I grew up on West Indian cuisine at home. However this place did not disappoint! They charge by the pound so be careful not to fill up your plate too much, but even so I only payed $ 6 for a whopping carton of fried fish, baked macaroni, rice & peas (well beans in Af American terms), and string beans. It was sooooo good. I urge you to stop by and help yourself to this awesome buffet. Nom nom.

Fully aware of the stereotype I will be perpetuating but this food makes me want to jig and jive!
I love the selection here and the food is just so good. Is it the best soul food I have ever had considering my southern family? No, but it is pretty great for NYC standards. With all of the BBQ spots opening up it is nice to find a nice down home, soul food spot. I love buffets also.
I had a little bit of everything. Jerk chicken, mac n cheese, fried whiting, rice and peas, yams, turkey wings, ham, greens, cornbread and like 4 other things. Someone paid for me but the total between both takeout cartons, a snapple and some fancy drink was $ 27.
The upstairs seating is fine and actually more than I expected for any soul food spot. A lot of seating, some booths and a large window facing the street for people watching. I loved the 80’s/90’s r&b music in the background. I bought a sweet potato pie cookie on the way out for like $ 1-​$ 1.50. Delicious and super soft! I will be coming back when I am in the area and pigging out.

The sweet potato cookies sold at the register are good and they have a pretty extensive selection of Snapples. They also sell Ginger Juice & Sorrel which I love and keep going back for. Other than that I dont have anything nice to say.
Mannas food is nasty. With Jacobs it took me 3 tries to finally realize what was off about it but with Mannas there wont be another attempt.
People who like this restaurant either didnt grow up eating soul food or grew up in the households of bad cooks and should sue their parents for child abuse, pain and suffering. Even my 9 year old said, «mommy this food tastes funny». Normally I make him eat his food but in this case we packed it up and threw it away.
They also «make» bubble tea. You should totally try it if you hate yourself.

Manna’s brings up good childhood memories of meals at school, dining out, or at other people’s houses. What? You thought I was going to say home cooked meals? Let’s be honest here, I ate a bowl of rice everyday at home. But for those meals outside of home, it was usually southern/​soul food.
Manna’s is a buffet style, by the weight type of place. You get a container and just grab whatever gets you hyped up.
On this particular day, I got collard greens, mash potatoes gravy, corn, fried chicken, and meatloaf.
The meatloaf was some of the best meatloaf i’ve ever had. Smother that with the mash potatoes and you’ve got a winner right there. Super moist and great flavoring from the gravy.
The collard greens were also pretty solid. Doused that sucker in some vinegar, and that slight hint of pork/​bacon flavor. That’s the way I ate vegetables as a kid.
The only bad part was I picked a bad piece of chicken. Too many bones and too much work. Not enough chicken. Guess that’s my fault.
Make sure you come with pants that have an elastic waist band.