Manny's Kitchen — Restaurant in Hawaii

Wait...you're telling me I can get AUTHENTIC Mexican food at mainland prices...on the Big Island of Hawaii?! I wouldn't believe you if you told me before my visit to Manny's Kitchen this past Sunday. We originally planned to go the coffee shack just a few miles down the road but we were turned off by the lack of parking.

Manny's kitchen saved the day! The venue is easy to find on the righthand side on the main highway heading south. The service was a 10/10 mahalo Kelia for giving my family TOP notch service!

Not only did she take our order, but she gave excellent recommendations for the tres sopes and the wings. My wife ordered the tree tacos 2 steak 1 chicken.( Steak was better she said.)My Father in law ordered the wet burrito and finished it all before we could blink! The chips and salsa was fantastic too because it's simple and pulled all of our meals together. Kelia even set the outside table umbrella for us, cleaned the table prior to us sitting AND was doing dishes when we said goodbye! GIVE HER A RAISE! We will be making the 45 minute drive to Manny's again SOON in hopes for anything that resembles our...

I would love to give this restaurant a higher rating, as it seems to be family run, and I'd love to see more good eateries available in the area. Unfortunately, I feel I'm stretching things a tad with the three star rating.

The service has always been friendly, however, the wait time to place an order once you're at the window was over 5 minutes both times I was there, then the wait for your food to be ready is around 15 minutes or so... If the service is the same speed as sit-down, having a drive-thru window doesn't make sense to me.

As for their food options, I have only visited twice, however, on both occasions I found the food to be a generally authentic mexican dishes, but without the seasonings needed to make the flavors 'pop' (missing cilantro and the like). The last dish I had were tamales, and the mais (or whatever the corn wrapping is called) was flavorless, as was the meat within. I had a similar opinion of my other meal which I don't recall; something along the line of flautas most likely.

All in all, in my experience, this restaurant is worth a pass unless you are out of...

I don't usually write reviews unless somewhere is spectacular or awful. This place unfortunately is not spectacular. Camarones Diablo entree showed it came with beans on the menu but didn't show up with beans. When questioned, the waitress said THAT one didn't come with beans. The wet burrito was okay but the sauce was strange (tasted more like Indian food than Mexican). I ordered a taco on the side ($3) which was a sad soggy tortilla with meat, onions, and a ton of cilantro (no mention of not being a "normal" beef taco). I told the waitress I don't like onions and asked for a taco without onions. When it arrived and I took a bite, I'm pretty sure the meat was bad (like make you sick kinda bad) so I didn't eat it. The bill had 2 tacos on it. We were unable to get help so just paid the bill and left. This was our 3rd time to try Manny's and I'm afraid it's going to be the last. Too bad, we really wanted a good Mexican restaurant in the...