The Manhattan Project — Restaurant in Louisville

2.5 stars: An overpriced, thoroughly unimpressive food experience. Hopefully the drinks are better, but I couldn't say and I'm not inclined to come back.

My partner and I - who are both vegetarian - decided to try the Manhattan Project while we were in the neighbourhood a few weeks ago. It looked like a nice enough place and was decently reviewed.

Unfortunately, nothing about the place lived up to any expectations we may have had. It wasn't terrible: it just wasn't really good, either. The staff was nice but not very attentive at all; we were there during off-hours when there were plenty of servers milling around relatively few tables, but my glass went empty for minutes at a time while our server could be seen chit-chatting with other staff, and food was somewhat slow to come out.

As for the food itself, the menu is quite possibly the most uninspired I've seen locally. It's really disappointing for a foodie town. This seemed like the owners used up all their creativity on the bar menu - which actually looked unique & interesting, although we were not consuming alcohol during this visit - and then just copied & pasted the most generic pub food menu they could find. The worst part is that they don't even do it particularly well.

The food was generally inoffensive, but nothing I'd call tasty. I had high hopes for the fried banana pepper rings, but alas, they were not much of "rings" at all: more like little over-cooked crunchy nibs that tasted mostly like frying oil. There wasn't a single great bite in the whole plate. We subbed out cajun ranch for regular and it was a little better suited than plain ranch would have been for this dish, but not by a lot, and the kitchen did not even bring out the supposedly included marinara until we asked. That was the worst offender: it was almost ketchup, and super sweet. We couldn't eat it at all. We ordered veggie burgers for a lack of other decent vegetarian options as our main course, but they were just the same Beyond patty you can buy at Kroger, not zshushed up at all. Keep in mind if you are vegetarian you may want to ask them to prepare them in a pan to avoid being cooked with the meat patties.

The worst part was the bill. It's hard to stomach paying almost $17 for a grocery store veggie patty, and $12 for little crusty bits that were supposedly banana pepper rings. This wasn't even worth half that. If you want a tasty but plain veggie burger, go to the Back Door, or literally anywhere else. Get fried green tomatoes, or pickles, or okra, at any of the other dozens of Louisville area restaurants, and pay way less.

Quite frankly, whoever set the food menu prices has an incredibly skewed idea of the value of what they offer. There was nothing in the menu that really interested, and after what we tried, I wouldn't trust them to get the interesting stuff right anyway. I won't come back here to report if the drinks were any better, and I can honestly encourage anyone looking for food to try one of the dozes of other options in the same area that provide a MUCH better experience for the value. This just isn't it. Manhattan Project, I'm genuinely sorry, I wanted to like you, but you were basic at best. I'd honestly start over from scratch on the menu, and lower the prices...

A neighborhood gem! Growing up in Clifton area, the mix of old and new makes me nostalgic. The Manhattan Project is the perfect addition to this area. Very inviting from the street. No place like home!

There is street parking and parking lot for free. It's easily located off Frankfort Avenue right on the corner. Masks optional with Covid vaccine changes. Patrons were socially distanced apart. Staff was very engaging and friendly.

We were seated immediately in the bar area. Kaitlyn, on of the bartenders, came over immediately to greet us and go over the menu. She was very friendly and informative. She gave some great menu suggestions! She checked on us all night and gave right amount of space. She was wonderful!

The food....was very good. We ordered the full Manhattan Project salad minus the blue cheese. It comes with mixed greens, red pepper slivers, black olives, red onions, and thin cuts salami with this delicious honey champagne vinegarette. The salad was simple but soo delicious and the dressing took it up a notch. Loved the dressing. We got a vegetarian flat bread minus the blue cheese. Notice not a blue cheese fan. Lol. It had nice chunks of veggies and left the Parmesan cheese. There were banana pepper rings on the board with the flat bread. We added those to our salad. Then the crab cake appetizer. The crab cakes were mostly crab and well seasoned.

For the drinks, we ordered peach Mule and old fashioned. Both of the drinks were very balanced and well made. Really great drinks. Thanks Kaitlyn. Loved all the great food and drink suggestions. Definitely would come back when visiting again and encourage others. Great neighborhood welcomed feeling and...

Looking for a Wednesday night out, a friend suggested Manhattan Project as it had been recommended by one of her students. As the universe would have it, I had read an article about this place only hours before her suggestion. Who am I to deny synchronicity?

We showed up a little after six and were informed we still had time to enjoy Happy Hour. A $4 24 oz Blue Moon? Done! A $5 signature Manhattan? Done! The Piña Picante was an intriguing blend of sweet and heat as well.

We started with Popcorn Chicken with a Thai chili sauce. It also came with what appeared to be a very nice peppercorn ranch dressing. We were very happy.

Our main courses were my blackened ahi tuna tacos and my friend's roasted tomato grilled cheese. I had no complaints about my tacos aside from feeling slightly guilty about putting a tuna steak in a taco. My friend won the night, however. Her grilled cheese was scandalous. Full stop.

I had mac and cheese as my side. It's really trendy to do mac and cheese and it's easy to screw up but this was perfect. The sauce was creamy, no grittiness from cooking all day. My friend's brussel sprouts (another current hot item) were pretty one-note vegetal and could have used another note or two. Maybe salt or acid. No tea, no shade.

We entered and were afraid of a chichi experience but were immediately put at ease by ... I want to say Anna and I'm a terrible person for not remembering but this was a week ago. Sorry! She was extremely helpful and very friendly and knowledgeable about the menu. She rocked and we both loved her.

We will...