Manuel's Bread Cafe - North Augusta

I know you're probably reading this review because you're planning a unique lunch or dinner outing, but can I just start with the dessert for a second? I've figured out the true purpose of blueberries: To be part of the streusel cake at Manuel's. I'm not sure I ever truly appreciated blueberries before tasting this treat. The cake itself is light and fluffy with the faintest hint of lemon, while the icing is thick and creamy. So grateful I only got one slice and split it, because it is a generous serving size! I ordered the croque monsieur for lunch. It was okay but I feel like it would've tasted better without the bechamel, which really just weighed down the flavors of the ham. The bread was the real winner with that dish. Another member of the party got the fried catfish and just loved it. Fries are generously portioned and seasoned nicely. Side salad looked fabulous. Great atmosphere, too, with indoor and outdoor seating, including tables you can reserve ahead. If you plan to dine in, though, set aside some time. This isn't the sort of place that's going to rush your order. Overall a wonderful choice for a unique dining experience with tasty desserts.

Manuel’s Bread Cafe is a favorite of my wife and I. We had some friends come in town for the weekend and at the spur of a moment I thought on Sunday to come in for brunch, as I knew they’d love it too. So I tried to reserve online but it didn’t look like it was working and I called to see if they could squeeze in a table of 8, two toddlers included. We aren’t picky, and was told over the phone that we might have to sit outside. No big deal. He did mention he couldn’t guarantee anything but I figured it was worth the risk. We arrived and told them we spoke to the man on the phone and they seated us pretty quickly but mentioned again it will have to be outside. Ok, no biggie. We agreed on that. Most of the table was shaded except for three spots almost directly in the sun. We chose this fate of course so no biggie, we will deal with it. Well, we saw one of the waitresses move an umbrella for another table and decided to ask a waitress if we could do the same, to which she said she’d ask the manager. 20 minutes went by with no answer and not one visit from our waitress. We saw another waitress move another umbrella to another table at this time. There were a couple empty tables with umbrellas and we decided to move one of them over to us to use. Apparently that’s like the number one law of Manuel’s. How dare we. The waitstaff wasn’t happy with this at all, especially the hostess. They spoke loudly about their discontent with this. But never directly towards us. The server took at LEAST 20 minutes to come back to us each time. And it took over an hour to get our food. The mimosas weren’t as good as normal and just had the mango syrup mixture at the bottom. They didn’t even stir them. The food came out decent but not the usual Manuel’s standard at all. Eggs Benedict is hard to mess up but it was still not the standard either. My buddy’s shrimp and grits was OK. The only time the waitress came out quicker than 20 minutes was to give us our checks, which she severely butchered. None of them were correct. I mean, I kinda get it, 4 separate checks between 8 people, whatever. I think the waitress might’ve been having a bad day. She was still cordial and nice enough. Just not extremely attentive nor timely. As we are about to leave and are packing up, this hostess notices my 3 year old toddler picked one of the flowers off the plants at the front. My lord, her head almost exploded. “AND NOW THEY’RE PICKING MY FLOWERS” she shouted to the other waitstaff. She then scolded us to not pick the flowers directly. Ok, no harm no foul. My 3 year old isn’t exactly going to know when that’s ok or not. Either way, I’m very disappointed with this trip to Manuel’s. It’s normally wonderful and I tell everyone about it. This time, this hostess alone ruined our experience and the rest didn’t help at all. I hope she’s spoken to sometime soon on how to have some patience because she made us feel uncomfortable the entire time.

10/10 for the food, service, ambience and overall experience! Ate there during lunch time (their brunch time ends at 11am on Saturday). Everything was delicious but their creme brulee won the day! Will definitely come back to try out their brunch menu. Edit (06/10/2023): Old rating: 5 stars for Food, Service and Atmosphere As promised, went back from brunch. I think this ranks as one of my worst service experiences. The food was just alright. We were rushed a lot to place our orders, the server got us pour-over coffee without us ordering it, was very curt in responding to our questions, and delayed getting 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.