Manuel's Bread Cafe - North Augusta, SC — Restaurant in Aiken County

Manuel’s Bread Cafe is a favorite of my wife and I. We had some friends come in town for the weekend and at the spur of a moment I thought on Sunday to come in for brunch, as I knew they’d love it too. So I tried to reserve online but it didn’t look like it was working and I called to see if they could squeeze in a table of 8, two toddlers included. We aren’t picky, and was told over the phone that we might have to sit outside. No big deal. He did mention he couldn’t guarantee anything but I figured it was worth the risk.

We arrived and told them we spoke to the man on the phone and they seated us pretty quickly but mentioned again it will have to be outside. Ok, no biggie. We agreed on that. Most of the table was shaded except for three spots almost directly in the sun. We chose this fate of course so no biggie, we will deal with it. Well, we saw one of the waitresses move an umbrella for another table and decided to ask a waitress if we could do the same, to which she said she’d ask the manager. 20 minutes went by with no answer and not one visit from our waitress. We saw another waitress move another umbrella to another table at this time. There were a couple empty tables with umbrellas and we decided to move one of them over to us to use. Apparently that’s like the number one law of Manuel’s. How dare we. The waitstaff wasn’t happy with this at all, especially the hostess. They spoke loudly about their discontent with this. But never directly towards us.

The server took at LEAST 20 minutes to come back to us each time. And it took over an hour to get our food. The mimosas weren’t as good as normal and just had the mango syrup mixture at the bottom. They didn’t even stir them. The food came out decent but not the usual Manuel’s standard at all. Eggs Benedict is hard to mess up but it was still not the standard either. My buddy’s shrimp and grits was OK.

The only time the waitress came out quicker than 20 minutes was to give us our checks, which she severely butchered. None of them were correct. I mean, I kinda get it, 4 separate checks between 8 people, whatever. I think the waitress might’ve been having a bad day. She was still cordial and nice enough. Just not extremely attentive nor timely.

As we are about to leave and are packing up, this hostess notices my 3 year old toddler picked one of the flowers off the plants at the front. My lord, her head almost exploded. “AND NOW THEY’RE PICKING MY FLOWERS” she shouted to the other waitstaff. She then scolded us to not pick the flowers directly. Ok, no harm no foul. My 3 year old isn’t exactly going to know when that’s ok or not.

Either way, I’m very disappointed with this trip to Manuel’s. It’s normally wonderful and I tell everyone about it. This time, this hostess alone ruined our experience and the rest didn’t help at all. I hope she’s spoken to sometime soon on how to have some patience because she made us feel uncomfortable the...

Less than impressed! My husband and I decided to try Manuel's because I had heard many great things, but after our one and only experience, we won't be going back. He and I decided to skip drinks and apps in order to save some calories for dessert as the dessert display looked amazing. Alas, we were so underwhelmed with the meals, we decided not to pass on the dessert. Thank goodness, because our 2 unimpressive entrees cost us $66. Seriously...2 waters and 2 entrees cost $66. We left a full 20% tip for our less than stellar server, but that means this not-so-great meal cost us $88

Firstly, I love the concept that this restaurant sources it's ingredients from it's own local farm. I am a huge fan of cooking from scratch with fresh, local ingredients. That is the kind of place I want to support. The restaurant is located in an adorable planned community, and it's great for taking a leisurely walk after dinner. atmosphere is cute and quaint, but don't mistake it for fine dining based on the menu pricing. This is super casual. The prices reflect finer food, but that theory did not hold up for either of our meals. We arrived hungry, ordered water and two specials. His meal: Crawfish Pasta, lobster sherry cream, black pepper fettuccine-$28 My meal: Scallops, saffron cream. basmati rice, Manuel's Blue Clay Farm vegetables-$32 Firstly, we were brought exactly 2.5 pieces of bread. Seriously...2.5 pieces for two people. Do the math. I will say that the bread was soft, dense and delicious, but sharing that last little min-piece was irritating to say the least. Next came our entrees. The plates the meals were served on were indisputably ugly, like from an old cafeteria. Neither meal was hot, so they must have sat for a few minutes before being delivered. We were starving so we were not about to send the food back. My husband's crawfish pasta was without any garnish whatsoever, so it was aesthetically unappealing on top of the ugly plate. One could forgive the lack of aesthetics if the food tasted amazing. But, the taste was entirely bland. A $28 plate should not taste bland. As for my scallop plate, my plate had personality and presence, it was indeed lovely to look at. My 4 scallops were served aside a bed of rice topped with some veggies and garnish. The scallops themselves were exquisite. The rice and the accompanying vegetables, however, were also incredibly bland. There was not a stitch of seasoning that I could detect on the rice, the boiled bok choy or the carrots. I had to scour the plate for the limited bits of saffron sauce that had been drizzled atop to get any taste of flavor. Again, a $32 plate should not be bland. As we were so disappointed with the meals, we decided to cut our losses and not risk anymore on desserts as well. Definitely not going back to this restaurant and most definitely not...

The menu looked compelling with classic French bistro fare that had us eager to revisit this cozy spot in North Augusta. Short version: Clumsy dishes that aren’t commensurate with the overpriced wine list. Middling food with little passion. First, everything we had from bread, appetizer to entree was very over seasoned with some elements hilariously clumsy and served with no finesse. Bread: Salty and with cold pucks of butter wrapped in foil. Why bother? This is comical while browsing a “curated”, $20 per glass wine list. I just settled with a domestic beer. Bottom line, if you’re a bread café you really need to bring it up front and not send out cheap butter blocks fished from the bottom of your cooler. Good grief. Appetizer: Escargot, tender and cooked pretty well but lacked depth. Scattered on the plate with micro greens that added a nice peppery stage to sit on. But a clunky wedge of lemon littered with numerous seeds is provided to add…I guess a fresh acid to the dish? The flavors were ok but there was no finesse. Why not add your acid to the cook rather than a solitary giant lemon wedge on the edge of the plate that resembles something I would see perched on a plastic cafeteria cup. Plate was too big with a lot of dead space for a traditional French food. The Caesar salad was edible with tender, tart anchovies. But the croutons were stale and flat. Why? Again this is a bread café and this is the fare you offer?! Why would I be compelled to order a 120 bottle of wine from here? Entree: Steak Frites: The cut was nice, tender and cooked to order but the amount of salt ruined whatever space the beef and herb butter would exist. The fries did not look like what we saw online. They were not fresh and I suspect were frozen or refried/overcooked with old oil. Green beans were shriveled and sad. Asparagus was decent. Poulet Rouge: Completely over salted. The mushrooms and pearl onions were OK. There was a large vein of gristle in the chicken that should have been removed with a more thoughtful prep. The meat on the connected wing drum was impossible to remove and so tough I didn't bother. More shriveled green beans. The miniature sweet potatoes were lazily halved and soggy. The kitchen ruined the caramelization by placing them on the plate flat side down. So, whatever gooey goodness the potatoes had at one point was nullified. What presented on the plate was an eyesore, skin-side-up potato with the best part upside down. They looked like a parasite on a plate. Why not cube them and roast? Dessert: Didn’t bother. Other thoughts: I ordered a sparkling brut with the escargot that never arrived. The restaurant was dirty with dust-clogged air vents in the ceiling. Wine bottles cooking on a hot bar—is that how you store 20/glass wine? Manuels was good 15 years ago...