Manti — Restaurant in Laval (administrative region)

My oh my, what treat we encountered on our quest to uncovering less than year old restaurant tour.

Ever since we saw the mouth watering pictures on Instagram we had to come try this place.

Armenian foods meet the culinary arts. Each traditional dish has been re-invented to become a modern dish.

We had an overall great experience, here is our verdict.

The place is cozy, bistro style, very trendy. The food was just like their Instagram, well presented, nicely decor, served on iron cast style plates. You can sit at the bistro and eat from there to.

The food was delicious, everything got a hint of the iconic Armenian fruit, the pomegranate. Almost everything had a hint of pomegranate.

Both the sweet potatoes and the baked potato did not taste as expected. It was good, but expect it to taste different than what you are used to.

Some of us got re-introduced to brussel sprouts. The charred preparation of this dish was so tasty.

The fatoush tastes just like what we would find at our Armenian parent's place. This salad too was influenced by pomegranate with the glaze on it.

The falafel had one if the most decorated dish. These are not your typical falafel, the inside is green and stayed fresh for 24h as we brought it home for later. This plate is a bit too pricey for 4 falafels, but it balances out the other appetizers, and the decor makes it all worth it.

The wawarma plate was good too. Do not expect your typical thick, garlicy hummus. This dish is meant to become a sandwich and be consumed together with the meat.

The cauliflower tahini mix was again, just like home (armenian families).

Getting to the main dish, you really have to try their signature Manti. This armenian dish tasted just like grand ma used to make it. Some complain in the reviews that this dish is expensive. In fact making each manti requires lot of time and diligence as a process.

At the end, we tried their famous Kanafe Fench Toast. They took this Mediterranean brunch item and americanized it.

Most of the food except main dish are meant to be shareable.

We were asked, is this a great place to get introduced to Armenian food? No, because it is still so much different than the armenian food made at home. Yes, because the manti tasted just like grand ma does it.

This is a place we would definitely go back to have delicious food again.

Food ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4.5 due to the potato dishes having a certain unexpected aftertaste, tasty but unexpected)

Location ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (despite being in Laval, Manti is near major highways. If you ever go to Carrefour, stop by before heading home)

Service ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (the staff respects the order of people who ordered, food comes relatively fast, and there is always someone to give recommendations, prices are very well distributed)

Interior Design ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (much upscale then what we see elsewhere in Laval.)

This place passes our rating, will definitely stop by again. Don't forget to getting your phones ready to take an abundance of...

After proclaiming our love of Damas to our server at Bloomfield last month, she highly recommended that we try Manti in Laval as the chef used to work there (and it was fresh and delicious and more casual/afforable … as Damas has gone up in price by literally 115% from when we first started going about 8 years ago!). Although our hopes were high, Manti lived up to them (or, maybe even surpassed in some areas). It was in a strip mall, but had an open, airy, modern, clean-line atmosphere with an exposed kitchen to watch the chefs that made you (almost) feel like you weren’t in the burbs. The staff were friendly and efficient. Pretty plates of food were brought to us with wonderful, balanced flavours and enjoyable textures! They brought out the hummus (light and whipped to almost fluffy), pita (funny how I preferred the pieces with grill marks and Mitch preferred the soft pieces), fattoush (as good as Damas,’ and, I understand this chef created this one for them)…crunchy squares of toasted pita, sweet bursts of pomegranate seeds, and fresh mint are the highlights of this flavorful traditional salad… the kebbe naye (bulgar beef tartare) was a big hit with us! The texture a rich, silky, fine cut that was molded and served in slices with fine strips of raw onion on top. The quality of the olive oil on top and the freshness of the beef, along with the skill to make this were appreciated by us. We had the crispy fried shrimp served over an apricot habanero sauce that was a nice sweet-spicy balance along with an audible crunch. The only negative we had was, surprising enough, their signature dish, the Manti. They offer two varieties: beef and mushroom. We opted for the former (which was familiar to me in the larger version, mantu). Although the sauce flavours were perfect along with the yogurt and spices (and we agreed would be delicious with grilled lamb or even chicken), we found the dumpling much thicker than we like and the texture to be almost crunchy verses the expected (and desired) steamed al dente I’ve experienced in Afghani restaurants. Regardless, we had a wonderful experience at Laval’s Manti, and are excited that we have a new go-to for casual, delicious,...

My first time at an Armenian restaurant and it was an excellent experience!

I ordered kebbe naye as a starter, which is seasoned raw meat. The concept of eating raw meat is still very new to me, so this was a delicious adventure for me. If you've never eaten raw meat, I'd recommend trying kebbe naye.

The lemonade was pretty delicious too. If you like lemonades, give theirs a try. I ended up ordering two.

The knafa pain perdu was so delicious and plated beautifully! Great dessert option.

Our host was a young man named Parsa, and he was very good. Gave us enough space to take our time, but was very responsive to our requests and anticipated a number of our needs before we even communicated them. After our meal, we shared that that it read our first time in an Armenian restaurant, yet a number of the menu items seemed familiar to us. Parsa gave us a brief history lesson on Middle Eastern food to help us understand why.

Excellent dinner experience. Delicious food for the body and mind. If you are considering Manti, don't hesitate to...