Manu's Kitchen Bar & Sushi Lounge — Restaurant in Newark

Terrible Experience - Avoid at All Costs!

My first indication to exit the restaurant was that there was no one in the restaurant, including the restaurant staff that did not eat the food. I have visited this restaurant before in the past and figured I might give it a try again for Friday night. What a mistake!

The food was simply disgusting. The smell emanating from my plate was something I had never encountered before. It was nauseating and off-putting, I immediately lost my appetite. To make matters worse, there was a slimy substance oozing from the side of the sushi. It was absolutely repulsive.

When the host asked me if everything was okay, I couldn't hold back my disappointment. I told her that the food looked and smelled disgusting. Instead of addressing the issue, she had the audacity to ask me if I had ever eaten sushi before. I took a deep breath, trying to maintain my composure, and replied that the smell alone was enough to make me lose my appetite. Her response was dismissive and unprofessional, implying that I should have tried the food before judging it.

Needless to say, we paid for the food and left immediately. This place is a complete disaster and needs to be shut down. I strongly advise against wasting your time and money here. There are far better sushi restaurants in town that actually value their customers and serve quality food. Unfit for human...

Service has gone down and the establishment is not well maintained. My last visit was during lunch time. After a few minutes of being seated in the front patio, my friends thought we should leave because service seemed slow, however i persuaded them to relax and enjoy the outside patio on a beautiful day. My persuasion did not last long...or did it?

After maybe 10 minutes of waiting, I had to walk into the restaurant to let the server know we were ready. Once sh er finally came out she was only ready to take our drink orders, but she was not certain they had the drinks we were asking for, after speaking with the bartender we settled on sangria for the table. Some more time passed when I noticed the bartender walk out so, I waited a few more minutes before asking for our sangria..only yo find out they did not have all the ingredients and the bartender had to run out to purchase some items to finish the sangria. Keep in mind our meal had still not been ordered so once we realized the delays we ended up walking out. At that point we had been there for over 25 minutes.

As for the outside area. The furniture and cushions need to be update. The seats are sunken and cushion are not only stained but do not match the furniture if that means anything to you.

The food is typically good when I have been there in the past so that is the only reason manus has a 3 stars...

Manu's is a very interesting take on sushi lounge meets tapas bar. I think because of it's location among the Portuguese restaurants, the tapas option is a good call for those that aren't fans of sushi. I only tried the sushi here but the tapas menu looked quite interesting as well.

After seeing the famous sushi tower on Yelp, I decided that I needed to try it for myself (or mostly photograph it for myself). The fish was really fresh and while it was kind of expensive for an appetizer I think it could easily be eaten as a meal itself or split between several people. I decided to eat it as a meal and I was definitely pretty full. There was salmon, tuna, and yellowtail along with cucumbers, avocado and rice.

The ambiance is pretty nice considering its location in Newark and while I didn't get to check out the upstairs it looked like a good spot for private parties. There is a bar as well and I believe that they have happy hours here so it's definitely a good place to stop...