Manana Cafe

Yum! Food is delish! FINALLY coming from L.A. and missing Mexican food I’ve found Mañana! Service is great! Bar is lovely with margaritas and Mexican beers… HAPPY

Found this Mexican gem while at a dance competition. The food was delicious! The three others with me had the Taco Salad and loved it! I had a Chicken Chimichanga and it was delicious. Desserts — awesome! The margarita was OK, I’ve had better. Doesn’t look like much from the ourside, but definitely would go back!

Stopped in for lunch and the food was great! Chips and salsa was delicious as well as taco salad. Good portion size, good price and friendly staff

Been twice. Both times the food was awesome. Try the fresh chips and guac, you won’t be disappointed. They also have really good tortas. Mañana is a good cage of pace from the typical stuff around here.

We love the margaritas! The margaritas are the best we have ever had! The chips and guacamole are amazing and the quesadilla as an appetizer is delicious. We enjoy the atmosphere and always stop in for the drinks!

Drinks– they have a very huge selection of tequila. The staff was very knowledgable of the drinks and the prices were great
Food– the food there is very good and tasted extremely fresh. I had the the guacamole and pork enchiladas with black bean sauce and it was amazing and beyond expectations.
Service– everyone was very courteous, professional, friendly, and polite. The owner was extremely friendly and personable. Everything was very timely as well.
I would recommend this restaurant to anyone who wants a great Mexican restaurant experience.

Went in for the first time today because I love Mexican food and was blown away. The service was incredible and the food was even better. I would say that it’s the best Mexican food in all of Connecticut. The environment as well is authentic Mexican which makes you feel like you’re in a real Mexican Café. Definitely going back.

Every time I come here I leave full and happy. The crispy crab roll special is to die for. The chicken fajitas are the best I have ever had. They’re house made hot sauce is absolutely exquisite. The décor is creative and flavorful, just like the food. The owner is very kind and isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty with the hard work, and he always has a welcoming demeanor. The margaritas are also delicious, every last one of them. Worth every penny for sure.

Fajitas and house margaritas at Mañana are my go to. The grilled fish tacos are bomb and if you’re into spicy try the chipotle margarita.

First time trying their food, and honestly it’s not bad. Very generous servings, and cheap! I used the delivery service which is awesome! The wait time was about 15 minutes. The ordering over the was quick and the lady was nice. :)

As a California export, I like to think I know good Mexican food… and they’ve got it. Some authentic, some concocted, all delicious. Homemade chips (like everything else) are made to order. The baja fish tacos are simply the best around, and the fresh margarita is my personal favorite. A Mexican coffee is the perfect finish. Relaxed atmosphere, family friendly, always clean and portions of plenty. Excellent!

Don’t know what any of these negative reviews are about… Mañana is most certainly a hidden gem in southeastern CT. Having lived in Mexico and spent plenty of time in Latin America, I am very familiar with Mexican cuisine. Mañana’s menu offers a delicious mix of authentic Mexican and Tex-​Mex: the fresh margarita, tortilla soup and rotisserie chicken tacos are my personal favorites. With bread pudding and Mexican coffee for dessert, I’m never disappointed. Family owned and operated, the staff are quirky and friendly, and while Groton is perhaps an odd spot… Mañana is perfect for anything from family dinner to romantic date night. ¡Buen provecho!

We are on the hunt for amazing Mexican food in Connecticut. We have yet to find it. This place is good, ok. Not great. The inside is nice and clean. Not a ton of space. Some of the tables are pretty close together which makes you feel like you are part of the same party, when you’re not.
The food was good. Nothing too memorable. We get something new each time we got in (which is a small handful of times) in hopes of finding something we love.
The staff is nice and helpful

The service is awesome! This has quickly become one of my favorites. The Carne Asada is my favorite. I usually get nachos for an appetizer & they are amazing; Guacamole, cheese, beans, sour cream, delicious. I’ve also tried the taco salad, Mexican pizza, & Mexican bruschetta all very good. Mixed berry & passion fruit margaritas are yummy!

This place is amazing. Ask for Justin, the owner. He remembers you each time. First responders and military are well respected in this military town. Justin and his restaurant have a sincere appreciation for us. The food is amazing. Have the fish tacos every time I come here. They are amazing. The homemade margaritas and house chips and guacamole are enough of a dish for happy hour. Try this place and ignore the negative reviews. Everyone on this app bitches about something. This place is a hometown restaurant with good staff and a legitimate connection to customers. Screw the nay Sayers.

Really liked the food. Very different Mexican menu. Quite a few Central American dishes and and food was well cooked, spiced. Presentation was excellent.

Wanted to like it…
We were seated promptly, and asked what we would like to drink. A few minutes later someone else asked us what we would like to drink, which was fine. Then a few minutes later, a third person came and asked us what we would like to drink, which ended up being the theme for out entire stay. Everyone was reasonably friendly, but they bothered us so much we couldn’t really get a conversation going.
We asked if chips and salsa were complimentary. You know, like every joint I’ve ever been to in the Southwestern United States, ever? We were informed that chips and salsa were $ 3.50, and the server said they charged that because «we make the chips here.» While this may be standard practice in New England, telling anyone familiar with Mexican food that you have to charge extra for complimentary items like chips and salsa because you make it onsite, vice serving pre-​packaged crap, is an insult. While the serving size of chips was only adequate, the salsa serving was downright insulting. It would be measured in tablespoons, and as a «scooper,» vice a «dipper,» I got about five chips worth of scoopage before the salsa rations were depleted.
To the main event, we ordered Enchiladas Verdes, which is enchiladas in a «Tomatillo, Cilatro and Jalapeño» sauce, and an especial item listed as Braised Beef Burrito in Chile Sauce. To keep it short, the Enchiladas’ tortillas were dry and crumbly, the chicken bland, unseasoned and tasted like chicken straight from a can. The salsa verde was also bland, sweet and without real flavor, and certainly not strong enough to cover the sheer blandness of the rest of the dish. The Burrito was the best item we had. The beef was cooked in a red chili sauce long enough to impart some flavor, but also tasted strongly like… soy sauce. Whether it really was soy sauce or not, it sure tasted like it. I get that this place is trying for the trendy ‘Fusion” designation, but if fusion is defined as chile paste plus soy sauce, well, let’s just focus on Mexican-​food basics first.
Both dished came with unflavored, unseasoned black beans which were also dry and uninspiring, and the enchiladas also came with Mexican rice, which, like nearly everything else, was dry, unflavored and not really worth the time or money.
My recommendations to the proprietor is as follows:
1) Have the service staff better define their roles to make their job easier and reduce interference time for guests.
2) Budget for at least one complimentary serving of chips and salsa per table, and an additional serving for every entrée or appetizer ordered. Yes, I know this cost must be made up in prices elsewhere, but it keeps the customer from feeling nickel-​and-​dimed from the time he first walks in the door.
3) Make those serving sizes reasonable. Five chips-​worth of salsa falls far short of this recommendation.
4) All of the food we tried, from Salsa, Rice and Beans, to the Enchiladas and the Braised Beef Burrito, needed a serious injection of flavor and freshness. If I want Gringo Mexican, Taco Bell is right up the street. Paying the prices charged here, I simply expect better.
For people reading this review, I have two recommendations in the greater New London area: Mi Casa, which has a place in Norwich and another in New London, and Elim Bakery in New London. While Elim’s is technically a bakery, the Guatemalan owners also sell street-​style tacos, burritos, pupusas and other tasty odds & ends.

Bland, flavorless food. Canned beans. Boiled chicken. All for $ 15– a plate. Originally from California, I like to think of myself as someone who knows her Mexican food. This, was not Mexican food, which is surprising because the server informed me the chef was from Mexico City.
I mentioned the bland salsa verde to the server. She said they try not to make it too spicy to offend people’s pallets. Shouldn’t it be up to the individual ordering to discern their comfort level in spice?
I noticed all of the tables had margaritas. The margaritas are big but sadly taste like they are from a mix. For $ 10– a pop you think they would try to throw something fresh inside.
The server was attentive despite being busy and addressed our concerns with the food. Despite the good service though, I won’t be back. Mexican food is all about fresh ingredients and bright and spicy flavors. None of that was here.

I had heard good things about this restaurant from friends. Unfortunately my friends either ate here on a better night or they have no taste buds! The interior is well decorated and up scale. I started my meal with a peach margarita. The drink was quite good and flavorful.
I ordered the guacamole and chips for an appetizer. I guess this was the foreshadowing for worse things to come. The guacamole had the consistency of baby food. It was runny and tasteless. I have had better guacamole at Wendy’s and McDonalds. The chips were the size of small triangular Fritos and were thick and tasteless. Guacamole should be chunky not anything like what I was served.
For my main course, I ordered a meatball burrito. How bad can that be? After a long wait, my plate arrived. I have seen dog food with more color! On one side was a bleached white burrito and on the other side was dark, over cooked mound of re fried beans that looked like something a dog deposited under a bush! Haven’t these owners ever heard of plate presentation? A spoonful of salsa, some salad or even a sprig of parsley would have been an improvement. As for the burrito, salty, salty salty!
Based on the poor meal, very slow service, I was not even tempted to try their desert. I will stick to good old standby restaurants like Cuckoo’s Nest in Old Saybrook CT where the salsa is chunky and the food is consistently good. I will not return to Groton for Mexican food.

I have a handful of friends who have studied at UConn Avery Point, and according to them, Mañana is a hidden gem.
I can, at the very least, affirm the «hidden» part. Unless you’re on the lookout for this joint, it’s not terribly easy to find — even though it’s off a major road. The storefront is small, and the sign, while sunny and bright, is strangely inconspicuous.
I came here for a noon lunch on a Wednesday, and it was surprisingly uncrowded (perhaps a consequence of the whole «hidden» thing). As a result, the service was very fast.
The portion sizes were decent, just enough to keep you full until dinnertime if you came in with a healthy appetite. However, compared to more authentic Mexican restaurants, which serve huge portions, it was a bit disappointing. I guess I can’t complain too much, though: My meal was $ 11 after tax and tip which, in this day and age, isn’t easy to beat.
As for the food itself, I think my fellow Unilocaler Guy H. put it best: «If you want ‘foodie’ Mexican food, head on over».