Manna Korean Restaurant — Restaurant in Austin

Poor service, mediocre food.

I’ll start by saying I’m half korean, but look more “white” to most korean folks unless they have mixed women in their acquaintanceship, which many do not. I promise, this statement is relevant to my review.

I know my korean food, and I know the traditions of hospitality observed by korean folks in service and in the household.

I was extremely disappointed to find, that after we’d been seated for 10 minutes, we received menus after everyone else (several of whom had come in after us) had received service. When it came to the food, we also received ours after others who had arrived and ordered later. We waited almost 30 minutes to receive even our appetizer. One particular table that received theirs before ours (and had been seated 10 minutes after we arrived) had overlapping items in their order.

Once delivered, the food was under seasoned, and my sister’s dish was cold.

In the time that we ordered, received our food, and began eating, our server never checked on us, and so the situation could not be addressed in a timely manner. The server seemed to realize we weren’t really eating much toward the end of our time, and finally set out to speak with us and offer salt and pepper, but by then our dining experience had been ruined.

We’d noticed we were the only white-looking people in the room. We’d noticed we were the only primarily English-speakers, as well, so we used as much korean as possible in ordering and asking for assistance, but our (admittedly heavily accented), but perfectly comprehensible Korean was largely ignored.

After watching everyone else, again, many of whom arrived and ordered way later than us, receive perfectly lovely service, we had to conclude either our server had some sort of aversion to providing us with the same level of courtesy, or did not know how to do her job consistently.

I try to give folks the benefit of the doubt. I want to think our server was just nervous to talk with us because maybe her English wasn’t as strong as her korean, and that’s why she avoided our table, but we used korean when we realized she wasn’t fluent. We aren’t either, but we try to make it easier for others, even though we know our accent’s still east-coast, and our grammar lacks finesse.

That can’t excuse the poorly seasoned food, the cold dish that’s meant to be served steaming, or the fact we were guests in her establishment, and she made a point to work with others at an entirely different level of service than with us.

So, despite the authentic presentation, fresh ingredients, and apparent happiness of our neighbors, I won’t be coming back. No one wants to feel unwelcome or ignored, and as halfies, my sister and I have had enough of that without paying...

Honestly if it wasnt for the service I would've rated this place a 5/5. The food is amazing, some of the best korean food in Austin but the service is unacceptable. My sisters and I are almost regulars there, so we've been here a few times. Except every time we went there was always a miscommunication problem, which I don't mind. However the most recent time we went there we were accused of stealing food. We ordered galbi, bulgogi beef, and a seafood pancake. We received our bulgogi and our seafood pancake but no galbi. At first we thought they were still making our galbi, but we had time to waste so we finished everything that was served and waited patiently for the rest of our food. We waited so long that we were getting our check but still haven't received our galbi. There was a man who sat behind us who the server had accidentally gave our galbi to, however this man ate it. When the server saw the empty galbi plate on his table she created a story that we ate everything and put the galbi on his table to receive more food. We told her it was okay and that we will still pay but she made a big scene with a lot of people at the restaurant and stopped the cooks from making our galbi. We had no other choice but to pay in full for food we didn't even receive and even tipped her just to be a bigger person. They could look at the cameras and see we didn't get up from our seats once. Since we are half black there was definitely a racial intent to the situation. If you plan on going and you're not East Asian or white please keep in mind the service will not be pleasant. Never...

Starting off when you walk in you are greeted and asked to sit and given a glass of water. I am not sure they serve any other beverage such as soft drinks as I have not asked and I mainly drink water wherever I go. Browsing the menu there are quite a few good choices as far as meals go. My wife and I have tried the Bugolgi and the Galbi. My honest opinion so far is that the Galbi is better than the Bugolgi, but I don't know what the best choice there would be yet as I have only gone twice. I didn't care much for the little bowl of salad they give you before the meal as it had some kind of sauce that made it bitter and sweet.

The side dishes taste fresh and the kimchi is excellent along with the fish cakes. I thought it was a nice touch to make the potatoes sweet potatoes with soy sauce, but I still like original potatoes better. The miso soup served with the meal was good, but I would prefer if it was less salty. Still good though. The main dishes were excellent,but my only advice would be to make the Bugolgi more flavorful. Don't get me wrong it is good, but I think it needs more flavor. My only gripe with this place and the reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because I am very picky about this, but I drink a lot of water when I go out and would like a refill when the drink is empty, and this did not happen the entire time I was there and left the last time I had gone. Otherwise this place is not bad for the price.

And again if you are going...