Manta Restaurant — Restaurant in Hawaii

Buckle up friendos I’ve got a comprehensive review for you.

TL;DR I had high expectations for Manta and while their food (mostly) delivers, their service is not fitting this caliber of restaurant, their wine list disappoints, but they have great cocktails.

First, the setting is pretty stellar, good for 6-8 person groups or an intimate dinner for 2. There is an unobstructed view of the water from both the outdoor and indoor dining room. The tables and chairs are comfortable and in the evening the lighting is tuned perfectly.

The cocktails are pretty good, I can recommend the dirty martini (it’s very dirty). I also had a black manhattan but I felt like it had too my cynar. Their wine list is large, but I feel like it’s incomplete - they focus on California and French wines without a single Washington wine on their list. A shame in my opinion. As one could expect from this caliber of establishment the prices are high however unlike similar restaurants their wine presentation and attentiveness is terrible. We ordered a white to start and our server over poured the first 3 glasses leaving one half glass and two empty glasses for a party of 6. We then ordered another bottle and were told we would need to wait 15 minutes for the wine to chill - a terrible experience to have some guests with wine and some without.

The food - this is where Manta shines. I can recommend the scallop ravioli, beef tenderloin and the achiote ono. The scallop ravioli was light and tender with an incredible burre sauce. I also had the oysters which were fine, albeit $6 each. Both entrees are wonderfully balanced with light notes and deep flavors. An extra shout out to the pigeon pea rice served with the ono. I also tried the bouillabaisse but I wouldn’t recommend it - I found the clams to be over cooked and the lobster stringy.

Another note on the service, dishes were not cleared as the guests finished their meals and some entree dishes remained at the end of the meal. It’s a shame that gratuity is automatically charged for parties of 6 or more - this was not an 18% (or 10%) service.

Dessert had some great flavors, both the mille feuille and the chocolate soufflé were very tasty but the mille feuille presentation was not right. The wafers were 1/4 inch thick and very tough, not to mention there were only three.

Summing it all up, go to manta for the view and their cocktails. Stay for dinner if you want a great meal with below average service and avoid the wine and desserts until they hire a pastry chef and a half decent sommelier.

Tough to write such a negative review for such a...

Go elsewhere for special occasions! Great for a glass of wine and dessert while you watch manta rays but expect horrible service and very little food... Pro: views of manta, good dessert Cons: NO service,overpriced even compared to Canoe H and Browns, no preorder offerings, no special occasion desserts, close to no service

We decided to go to Manta for our 19th anniversary because recent reviews seemed hopeful even though many others said it had poor service and overpriced food. I usually take impatient tourist reviews with a large grain of salt .... unfortunately they were right. And I'm really glad we are booked at another restaurant in Mauna Lani area to recover the experience.

We had a 30min delay for our RSVP(very understandable because the rain had limited their table seating). SLOW (NO) SERVICE)However once we were seated we sat for just over 30 minutes prior to having to flag down a server to ask if someone could take our order. We saw the couple next to us have to do the same thing not long after we received it as well. Our server never introduced themselves or the specials for the evening, which are fairly standard behavior at one of the pricier restaurants on the island. I think they said 2-3 sentences to us the entire night.

The food was good but incredibly SMALL PORTIONS and there are no pre-course offerings. (You will get beautiful ube rolls and much more flavorful dishes at Brown's.)

For special dinners you get a signed card but no special menu offering etc. The hostess brought it to us, our server never mentioned our anniversary. The other restaurants did lovely birthday and anniversary desserts for us over the times we've been. We had dined at browns and canoe House on other occasions and had spectacular service with more food options, larger portions, and actually slightly less expensive! It was a really disappointing evening but seeing the manta rays again with lovely and so was...

the best food on the island, i would say, is happening right now at Manta under Chef Ryan. we've had delicious experiences here in the past, but the transformation since Covid has turned this spot into something way beyond a resort restaurant. in the bay area - if for some reason it could exist - you wouldn't be able to get into this place.

if you're going: the lobster tempura. lightly battered, served in the tail shell. maybe the best thing on the menu. except it could be the beet poke, which pared unusual elements together into something new. nothing like a salad. almost like a dessert in natural vegetable form. we had to order it twice that night because one wasn't enough. the evening happened to be my mom's birthday, so we did two souffles for the table, both of which were perfect: one chocolate, one lilikoi, i believe. but that ignores all the other great dishes: the kanpachi (better the first time than when we went back a few days later but still great), the foie gras, the filet mignon, the shrimp tagliatelle: all incredible. it's by no means a miss, but the beef carpaccio might be the only thing that you could find elsewhere. again, still lovely, but everything else is a beautiful reinvention of a classic dish.

as for service and cocktails, we got wonderful people and great drinks. jenna behind the bar makes an ideal martini, the wine list was abridged but diverse, and the service was leaps and bounds better than the strange guy we got at the Hualalai (not to mention Manta's food is way better) a few nights later.

short story: go, go, go. chef...