Manhattan Seattle

The family announced on their Facebook that the restaurant will be closing this Sunday (11÷22÷15) but is offering all-​day happy hour until then. Yesterday was my first visit, and I’m really sad to see this place go!
I’m not sure if the HH specials rotate or not, but I feel like we got an amazing deal! We ordered the pulled pork sammie, fried green tomatoes, steakhouse poutine, and crab & grits. Everything was delicious! The pulled pork sammie was average burger sized and super tender. The fried green tomatoes were cooked to perfection and came with a tasty chipotle aioli. The steakhouse poutine had flavorful gravy (though not enough for all of the fries!) and had a juicy little steak on top that was to die for! They ran out of shrimp for the grits so they were serving the dish with crab instead and they went alllll out. It was a huge portion that came with whole, meaty chunks of crab. OmG you guys!!! This dish was worth way more than the $ 9 we paid for it. In fact, the entire meal was only $ 40 for 4 dishes and 2 drinks and we were STUFFED.
Service was weird and slow, no one greeted us at the door so we stood around for 5+ minutes then walked up to a waiter to ask if we were supposed to wait or seat ourselves. We seated ourselves and waited quite some time in between ordering, getting waters, paying, etc. But there was only one woman working and she was quite friendly so I guess you can’t have it all! Anyway, if you have the chance, you must go to Manhattan before it closes!

Ahh!
It’s always a ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ here for me. Good drinks and very slow service, a ok food with good service! Or just a painfully slow long service. Can’t seem to find a perfect combo here.
The good: happy hour every night! Happy hour after 9 pm! Great drinks and food specials. Food can be on the pricier side but happy hour gives you some food options like lobster Mac, $ 5 tacos! Steak bites etc!
Décor: cushy, dark, somewhat upscale /​somewhat casual. You can always find a spot here though. On weekends, it can be a pain to bring big groups in to places on the 12^th but you can sort of count on this spot!
Food: they are known as a steak house though I’m not really big on their steaks! I do love their happy hour Moscow mule and peachy bubble drink! Overall, have potential to be great. But seems something is always missing. Sad to see them go!

Disappointing and uneven. Lunch during Seattle restaurant week. We arrived around 1:30 and there were only 2 other customers in the place.
The good:
— Ruby Slipper cocktail: tart and cold with just enough sweetness to keep me from puckering up. SO GOOD. hints of rhubarb and lemon were still discernable. Love that they didn’t over syrup this!
— Smoked Chicken Chowder: might be one of the best chowders we have EVER had. Great base flavor, felt light with a slight infusion of cream rather than heavily soused with it. Chicken was tender, flavorful and not over smoked. Corn, bacon, onions, chives. The flavors married, yet were still easy to pick out.
— Arugula salad: great counterpoint to the chowder with the sweet/​acid tang of reduced balsamic and slightly bitter arugula. Apple, nuts and creamy gorgonzola rounded it out.
— Fries: freshly cut from actual fresh potatoes and fried up crispy on the outside and tender, not overly greasy.
The OK:
— Catfish Po-​Boy: fresh fried catfish was crispy, but unexciting and under seasoned. It needed a little bit of Cajun seasoning and a hint of acid — lemon maybe.
— BBQ Sandwich: way too sweet, over sauced, soggy. It wasn’t possible to taste the meat under the too sweet sauce and the slaw and «crispy» onions were just completely lost.
The bad:
It took a very, very long time for our food to arrive. The table beside us also had issues getting food, and getting the correct dishes. We were the ONLY tables in the restaurant. The bartender/​server was very nice, but needed to be a little more attentive.

TERRIBLE. I ordered from Manhattan Seattle via Prime Now and it was awful. I received the «loaded chicken» with assorted vegetables and a side of steak fries. The entrée alone was $ 20, and was horrible. The amount of vegetables was mediocre, and in large part were quarters of LEMON — I’m sorry, LEMON ISN’T A VEGETABLE.
The steak fries I received were half cooked, half over-​cooked. The ones I could keep down were greasy and soggy.
Never again. $ 30+ for this garbage? No thanks.

If you’re looking for a business lunch in a casual environment, this is not the place to go. A colleague and I were walking down 12^th looking for a quick lunch and stumbled upon Manhattan.
The menu is pretty clean and simple, with pretty standard lunch fare to choose from — sandwiches, salads, etc. The restaurant was almost completely empty, which didn’t scare us away, because we got in shortly after they opened for lunch.
We both ordered their club sandwich when the server greeted us at our table for the first time, which was within five minutes of arriving. Being that we both ordered similarly and that this was a sandwich, we expected the food to come out relatively quickly. This was not the case.
FORTY FIVE MINUTES LATER, our sandwiches came out. Now granted, the actually quality and flavor of the sandwiches was fine, but nothing special at all. Our server remarked that they are pretty complex sandwiches to make, which is why they took so long.
Come on. Really?
I actually boxed up my lunch to go about five minutes after it had arrived, as I had a meeting at work to get back to. Never mind the fact that it was over $ 17 for a club sandwich and fries.
I won’t be coming back, and I regret not doing my research on where to go ahead of time.

I expected more. With a name as big as Manhattan, our group of 7 last night didn’t have a lot to say for their happy hour service and food. More on that in a bit, but first a TIP: if they separate checks for your group, be sure to see if they add on a group service gratuity. The servers won’t mention if they do, and will gladly accept your hard earned dollars unmerited.
Our service was flat– our server couldn’t produce one smile all night, she didn’t come back once to ask if everything was going alright with the food, which also ran our table devoid of water. When our plates arrived, there were no utensils on the table. Without checking back on us, one of us went for 10 minutes not receiving his order, and our server had to be literally stopped in order to inform her. When she realized she had clearly forgotten the order she brushed it off after «checking on it» and said they are still preparing it. Food-​portion is tiny compared to other happy hours in town, and presentation all around was sad– dull salad greens, flat and frayed smoked salmon, chicken wings arranged as a teepee on a stark plate. The steak frites and burger specials looked pretty good however. I personally wasn’t a fan of their overly bright lighting, it could’ve been a lot dimmer to create a more adult-​like ambience; also they had their projectors off, so instead of the black & white Manhattan slideshow that should be there, we got to look at two hilariously large frames of white screens. Overall the place seemed quite dead with a lot of empty tables and seats from 9−10pm last night.
To top it off, two of us didn’t realize until we were out the door that our individual checks had a fixed group gratuity on it, especially because it is something you normally see on a group check. Manhattan left a very sour taste after this experience and some of us are not coming back. Their are far better places on the same street.

My husband and I went on a Sunday at 3pm. The restaurant is very nice and quiet. Only ones on there.
I ordered burgers and green tomato. The food was okay, but the food was salty. Too much salt. I didn’t like that.

Came here for my sister’s Bachelorette Weekend kickoff. Made a reservation but somehow they lost it… no big deal. They got us in within 15 minutes. The waitress was nice at first but then it went south. After she took our order we didn’t see her for over an hour. All our drinks were in need of a refill but she clearly felt that she was needed elsewhere. Saw her just standing at the bar a few times where she could of just came over to check on us really quick.
When the food finally arrived… an hour and a half later… it was okay.
Overall, I won’t be coming back here for quite some time.

All day happy hour on Mondays! They have three-​dollar draft beers, fancy cocktails for under 10 bucks and five-​dollar house wines. The only bummer for me is that they only have three beers on tap at a time, and sometimes they don’t have an IPA. (Shouldn’t that be a standard in Washington? Hehe.) But nevertheless, it’s a good, cheap spot to cure those Monday blues.
They have some food offerings that I have yet to try, but one of these days I will get the Manhattan Burger which is only seven bucks on happy hour. My friend had the shrimp and grits and found it okay, but was comparing it to grandma’s cooking who is from Louisiana! He also had the fried green tomatoes, which he liked. It also came with a slight-​spicy aioli sauce. My other friend had the lobster mac and cheese, which came in a cup-​size bowl. But he said it was really creamy and good, making him wish he had more.
I like the atmosphere of the place. It’s a dark saloon-​style restaurant with leather booths and wooden chairs and tables. The TV screen has a slideshow of black and white images of Manhattan. It’s posh, but in that hipster kind of way. I dig it. Next time — I need to try that burger.

This is one of my favorite Seattle brunch spots. I’ve tried the chicken and waffles, eggs benedict, shrimp and grits, beignets and more and there isn’t a single dish that I disliked. There’s also an extensive brunch cocktail menu (never too early to enjoy a cocktail or two) featuring generous mimosa portions. There’s a mix of booth & casual table seating, great for dates and large groups. Service is always prompt and friendly, and the prices are reasonable.
Tip: Brunch is ½ off before 10am on the weekends!

This was a surprise winner on my last trip to Seattle. Not sure about dinner, but their happy hour is pretty great. The drinks are reasonably priced, and the small bites of food are fantastic.
Top choice — lobster mac and cheese… but nothing that we had bas bad in any sense.
Dinner did look pricy, so I’d recommend sticking to HH.

Like most of the restaurants on Cap Hill, Manhattan seems to be better suited to handle smaller groups than large parties. I would recommend coming here with less people if you can. :) I visited on a Friday evening for a friend’s birthday and was part of a group of 20. The friend had decided on this restaurant because it was one of the few that could accommodate such a big group without a food and beverage minimum.
First of all, shout out to our waiter for handling our large group! He was very friendly and worked hard to keep track of our drink and food orders. Keeping in mind that dining in such a big party will come with some drawbacks, I felt like the restaurant was ill-​prepared to handle our large group. Maybe they have a small kitchen or are understaffed? Either way, we arrived at 7PM and didn’t get our orders until two hours later. :(
I ended up getting the:
–Truffle Lobster Mac & Cheese — Considered one of its smaller dishes, the mac & cheese comes with a small lobster tail. I’m a huge fan of truffle-​anything, so I thought it tasted great. :) The dish was surprisingly bigger than I expected and I wasn’t hungry afterwards.
It’s kind of neat that they’ve adopted the new electronic check, where customers can essentially «self check-​out». One downside though is that there’s a lot of room for user error and with one machine per table, it took another 30 minutes for everyone to get their bill settled. I think I definitely would like to try Manhattan again under different circumstances.

Came here for lunch around 11:15, was the first group in.
I ordered off of the Dine Around Seattle menu:
Crab & Heirloom tomato salad
Steak Poutine
White chocolate rose cheesecake
Salad — small, as expected considering it’s on the special menu. Was a little bit fishy smelling. Tomatoes seemed more like normal cherry tomato than heirloom (but maybe they are heirloom cherry tomatoes). The tomato sorbet was very interesting, definitely tasted like tomatoes but surprisingly refreshing.
Poutine — again pretty small amount of fries. Came with 2−3oz of steak, already sliced. I ordered a rare-​medium rare but my friend who just ordered medium-​rare seemed to have a more rare looking piece. The foie gras snow I thought would be like the powdered fat that you see around, but it was a little piece of fried foie gras on the top (I mistook it for steak and ate it all at once). As a whole dish, the steak was good but the fries were pretty dry after a few bites. I like my Poutine to be gooey and drenched by the bottom but it wasn’t the case
Cheesecake — about 2 – 2.5 inch in diameter. Pretty standard tasting cheesecake, was expecting more rose flavor but the only rose I could taste was in the pink sprinkles, and only if you ate the sprinkles alone.
Overall the food was decent, service was the worst part. Everything took a really long time to come out and lunch took almost 2 hours. I was halfway done with the Poutine before the waiter came back to check on how we were doing and if we needed anything. I suspect it was still early when we first got there and the kitchen wasn’t fired up yet? And then as more groups showed up service slowed down due to a small staff.

They have all day happy hour on Monday nights. We were sold.
The plates on the HH menu are all relatively small. At the same time, they weren’t quite «tapas» small. For better or worse, they were arguably more like FDA standard portions. Mix and match a couple of them and you should leave perfectly full and happy.
The house Manhattan was also a solidly good cocktail. I like my whiskey drinks with a more citrusy note and I don’t really care for cherry and whiskey together (so I usually don’t like Manhattans). The one they have here is a cross between a Manhattan and an old-​fashioned so I actually quite liked it.
The burger comes unadorned (no lettuce or tomatoes) with no sides but I got it medium rare and holy mother of all things holy was it amazing! I haven’t had a burger in awhile but that perfectly handful-​sized burger dense with medium-​rare beefy goodness with exquisite salty white cheddar cheese and just the right amount of sweetness from caramelized onions blew my mind. I picked it up and didn’t take a breath until it was all gone! I swear the goodness of that burger alone is making me give this restaurant 4 stars instead of 3.
The calamari was alright but I thought the marmalade was overpowering and the batter on the calamari was on the bland side. The chicken slider was pretty damn delicious but it didn’t hold a candle to the burger.
The service was average. Décor was, well, interesting. The ram with the golden machine gun for horns was an interesting touch. I would describe the food as a creative take on Southern comfort food. Even for all day HH on Monday, it wasn’t that packed. I made a reservation but I think we could’ve gotten a table for 6 without one!
Overall, I’d come back for the burger alone. It was THAT good.

Came here during restaurant week to try it out. Handsome dark furniture-​lots of nice heaven wood tables and lush leather chairs. Lots of large tvs, good for a game.
Service was average. The food was average as well. It was fine but in hindsight everything was kind of bland. Maybe it’s because it was restaurant week? At the same time, whatever they serve red doesn’t make me want to come back and eat there, though I’d probably go back to watch a game and drink at the bar (but not spring for the food).

Manhattan has been a hard animal to review. I had a RW lunch here in 2014 that was fabulous. The restaurant is spacious, the service from the bartender was attentive and exemplary, and the option of $ 5 Manhattans were great. I think I tried two, but I can’t recall which ones. Strong and tasty! The food was fabulous as well. We had mac and cheese, brussels sprouts, and pot de crème, I believe. Every course was good.
I returned last night for dessert and a drink. After a heavy meal up the street, my friends dove in to dessert and I stuck with a cocktail. I had a rose petal and companions went with gin and tonic. I really disliked my cocktail. It was really sweet and thick, which «rose-​infused vodka, lemon, lime, orange, and basil» did not convey to me. I felt like it was pretty weak on the rose flavor and vodka both. My friend really liked it, and described it as something that would come out of an «odwalla bottle.» I agree, but I can add more vodka to some of that at home for less than $ 11.
After experiencing the service at the bar on what should have been a busy night (Saturday during dinner rush) I can see why more than half the place was empty. The pear tart was good. I ended up ordering a rare steak and mashed potatoes to go. We sat around and talked and finished cocktails… pretty soon I am starting to panic because the steak (the RARE steak) isn’t coming out. No one checks in on us despite sitting right at the bar with two bartenders and not many other patrons. Finally we ask to close out. Still no food.
After I pay the guy, he manages to tell me it is going to be a few more minutes. I have somewhere to be and would have preferred the steak medium rare if they were going to take their sweet time. I know it was weird we ordered dessert first and staggered the dinner option, which was probably weird that we took it to go, too, but I just can’t wrap my mind around how it was handled or what took so long.
Missed the first half of the band I was trying to see waiting on that steak, which was «so-​so. I mean it isn’t tough…»
Skip this one. I’d maybe think about doing another RW or Dine Around lunch, but they just don’t seem to have dinner together.
Also– «you mad bro?» burger: that is what is wrong with what is happening to Capitol Hill in a menu entrée. Just saying.

Came here for my brothers birthday. He wanted a steak so we came here!
I ordered Château ste Michele Syrah, but I was sad that they didn’t have the merlot.
I didn’t order any apps but I had the Pasta carbanara and the pasta was cooked perfectly to al dente and the bacon was in large chunks. Perfection!
Love the northwest, woody atmosphere! One star is missing, I don’t know what it was. Fun night and delicious food!

Dear Manhattan–
Please don’t hate me. I am only trying to help you because I like you. My friend asked me to go to dinner at your establishment because she had purchased an Amazon deal. I was happy she asked because Manhattan is one of my favorite spots for brunch. Sad to say tonight’s dinner was one of the worst experiences I had. Was it because we used a deal? Why must you ruin what could have been a nice dinner by serving mediocre food? For your price point we deserve complimentary bread and butter.
Here’s what we ordered and my honest opinion on each one:
$ 13 Scallops — because I love scallops. We got two somewhat big pieces. Totally not shareable if we had a bigger group. They were slightly chewy and unevenly seasoned. My last bite was super salty. Also the sauce tastes like the Chinese hot chili oil I’d get at dimsum. Unoriginal. I didn’t care for this
$ 15 Burger with added bacon for $ 2.50. I spent a minute searching for the bacon and almost thought you didn’t put any on it. But then I found it under the burger patty smeared with some dark sauce. It was like half a slice of bacon because it didn’t stick out the burger like how most other places serve bacon on their burgers. We were like, WTF? $ 2.50 for half a slice bacon? The fries were good though.
$ 23 or $ 24 fried chicken with mash potatoes and gravy. Got 2 pieces, a leg and a thigh. Even though the chicken itself was not burnt, I could taste burnt flavor from the old oil you fried it in. The gravy tasted just like the packaged powder brown gravy and it needed some salt. I was pissed by now but was not in the mood to complain so I thought I’d bitch about it here and hope you’ll listen.
Lastly, we were charged tax on the full amount which was expected and then we were charged for another tax on the balance after the discount. Why’d we get taxed twice?
Anyway, just wanted to let you know that dinner is not working well and the 3 for $ 30 restaurant week worsened your reviews. I reread my review from 2 years ago and remembered that dinner. It was amazing and so good. You must have got a new chef or something, but something’s gotta change. Service was also just meh on my last visit. Our waitress was nice and did her job. The deal sites I always see you promote on are not working. The prices for what we get are not reasonable for anyone to want to come back without a deal. The food is not even good anymore. There are many other options across the street and around the corner and more competition is coming to the hill.
If you want your business to survive, and I really want you to, you have to step up your food game. The only thing you guys got going for you are your drinks and cool bartenders, so you got an extra star for that. I also hope your brunch is still good. I’ll give you guys another chance in a few months and expect some changes. Like I said, I like you and hate to see you struggling. You can do better than this. Keep trying.

My favorite brunch in Seattle. I love the creativity in the variety of bloody marys they offer.
also LOVE thier late night menu. They have this beet drink that I obsess over.

Let’s start with the positive… The bar has their drink game together! In addition to consistently making great drinks, the bartender ended up doing more greeting and seating than the hostess. So to begin, if you do visit this place, sit at the bar and don’t expect much enthusiasm from the staff when you arrive.
Before I recap the experience I had with the staff and food, let’s talk about the venue… Under the cover of the night sky this place definitely has an appeal. Black paint with bright statement wall paper, tied together by unique wall art (I love the bronze antelope head with gun barrels attached to the horns) combined with rustic dining furniture and low lighting, create a dramatic curb introduction. However, as soon as you step over the lease line, things can get confusing. Unless a host is standing by the door (she wasn’t), you are confronted by immediate seating, the beginning of the bar and a throwaway seating section in front of the left window.
We just waited next to the host stand, which is shoved right next to the narrow entrance. Until1 of the 5 employees, huddled under the amazing gold mounted antelope to come over and greet us. The hostess spoke in an inaudible decibel so we just volunteered that we were looking to have dinner for two. The hostess awkwardly gestured toward a table and disappeared before our butts hit the chairs.
Almost 15 minutes later a nameless waitress appeared to take our drink order. We wanted to stay positive, since it was my bf’s B day, we just smiled and put in our whole order.
Again almost 15 minutes go by BUT the drinks were fantastic, we both got the Benedict Cumberbatch, a fresh and zingy Gin concoction that smelled like cucumber heaven. Our cheerful disposition was obliterated by the appetizers, I ordered the dungeness crab and heirloom tomatoes. My choice was so acidic that my tongue and lips were burning. Deciding to push the app aside and cross my fingers for the entrée of steelhead salmon was a mistake, we should have just paid and left. The fish okay, if okay means, flavorless and dry, the fingerling potatoes required salt and the onion/​pudding/​sauce stuff, not only tasted bad but irritated my already singed lips. The bread pudding was not great, think frozen Sara Lee mini deserts…
I’ve never paid faster. I still can’t get over how great the drinks were compared to the food.