Manuel's Bread Cafe - North Augusta

For lunch, I ordered the croque monsieur. It was decent, but I think it would have been better without the béchamel, which overwhelmed the flavor of the ham. The highlight of that dish was definitely the bread. Another person in our group tried the fried catfish and absolutely loved it. The fries were plentiful and perfectly seasoned, and the side salad looked fantastic. The atmosphere of the restaurant is lovely, with both indoor and outdoor seating options, including tables that can be reserved in advance. Just a heads-up, if you plan to dine in, make sure you have some time to spare. This isn’t the type of place that rushes your order. Overall, it's a great choice for a unique dining experience, especially with delicious desserts!

When we arrived, we mentioned our earlier conversation, and they seated us fairly quickly, but reiterated that we would be outside. That was fine by us. Most of the table was shaded, but three spots were directly in the sun. We accepted that, understanding that we had chosen this option. After a while, we saw one of the waitresses moving an umbrella for another table, so we asked another waitress if we could do the same. She said she would check with the manager. After 20 minutes without any response and no visit from our waitress, we saw another waitress move another umbrella for yet another table. There were a few empty tables with umbrellas, and we decided to move one closer to us. This apparently broke some unspoken rule at Manuel’s, as the waitstaff—especially the hostess—clearly expressed their dissatisfaction with our actions, although never directly to us. Our server took at least 20 minutes to come back to us each time, and it took over an hour for our food to arrive. The mimosas were not up to their usual standard and seemed to just be a mix of mango syrup at the bottom—left unstirred. The food itself was decent but not up to the high standards we normally expect from Manuel’s. The Eggs Benedict, though hard to mess up, was also lacking. My friend’s shrimp and grits were just okay. The only time our waitress came back in less than 20 minutes was when she brought the checks, and she managed to get them all wrong. I understand that four separate checks for eight people can be complicated, but it felt like she was having an off day. While she was cordial enough, her attentiveness and timing left a lot to be desired. As we were getting ready to leave and packing up, the hostess noticed that my three-year-old had picked a flower from one of the plants up front. You would have thought the world was ending—she practically yelled, “AND NOW THEY’RE PICKING MY FLOWERS!” to the other staff, then scolded us for letting our child pick flowers. No harm done, really. A three-year-old can't be expected to know when that's acceptable or not. Overall, I left this visit to Manuel’s feeling very disappointed. Normally, it’s a wonderful experience that I rave about, but this time, the hostess’s attitude marred our time there, and the service didn’t help either. I hope the staff receives some guidance on how to better handle such situations because her lack of patience made us feel uncomfortable throughout our meal.

Edit (06/10/2023): Previously, I rated them 5 stars for food, service, and atmosphere, but after my recent brunch visit, that changed. Unfortunately, I experienced one of the worst service encounters I've had. The food was just okay this time. The staff rushed us to place our orders, the server brought us pour-over coffee that we hadn't ordered, was quite abrupt when answering our questions, and took a long time to bring our checks.

The wait service and the atmosphere as always, were perfect. The chocolate mousse was perfect. Our waitress was very sweet and attentive. However, I’m not sure if they had an off day in the kitchen or what the food service was terrible. My husband’s Eggs Benedict was first served with soft boiled eggs instead of poached. The kitchen did correct the eggs, but by the time they brought new eggs, they were still not truly poached and were more of an over medium poach. He also realized that the English muffins were not toasted at all and that there was not enough hollandaise to fix his Benedict with the new eggs, but didn’t want to complain a second time. My shrimp and grits were less than their usual phenomenal standard but I was hungry so I ate them anyways (that and our friend had broken a mimosa flute on accident, so we weren’t trying to cause more of a fuss). My shrimp were pale and flavorless. Last time we came, the shrimp were flavorful and well seasoned. These literally looked like they were quickly boiled and tossed on top of the grits with some parsley. The grits were perfect, as were the drinks. We did also try the frog legs, which were an experience/impulse order. Not sure we’d get them again simply from a personal standpoint. In the images, you can see his English muffin is dry/uncooked and my shrimp are pale. While we had a decent experience, it was due to our company with our friends, and not the food. The service and atmosphere made up slightly for the lack of a good meal experience.

Desserts were great. Strawberry cake with icing was my favorite. Lamb rack was undercooked when ordered medium rare. Reservation was made through Resy. I was seated right away.