This is not a restaurant review. It's not an advertisement either. Nor is it a news item. This is just me, Chad, telling you, WacoFork friends, that Manny's on the River just might be a game-changer here in our humble burg.
I began to see this coming when I did a little Manny's Uptown Tex-Mex research last week and spoke with the Manny's folks at the MLK location. Having dined there this week with photog Chelsea Santos, I'm pretty much sold on it.
I'm saying, and again Manny's is not paying me to say this, Manny's on the River is likely McLennan County's newest destination restaurant. What I mean is that I can see folks in Woodway and China Spring and Robinson and elsewhere having the following conversation:
Person A: "Where you wanna eat?"
Person B: "I've heard Manny's is awesome."
Person A: "But that's a long way away. You really want to go that far?"
Person B: "That's the thing, I've heard it's definitely worth it."
I think people have been having similar conversations about Cafe Homestead for a while now. I also think people tend to get comfortable with their neighborhood taqueria, but this is a different deal. This is night-out event-worthy Tex-Mex, the kind we used to get excited about.
When we ate there on Tuesday, I jumped at the chance to order sunset-style steak fajitas (sunset queso has jalapeños, etc., do yourself a favor and get next to some).
Chelsea upped the ante by going off menu on her first visit on the second day they were open. She kind of didn't want me to bring that up, but it was just so bold and brave that it had to be mentioned. She was like "That shrimp looked good! I want it on nachos!" The staff was like "Heck yeah! We got you!"
Like I said, this is not a review. I don't really do reviews. But it's a safe bet that Manny's will be the most-talked-about restaurant in town for a while. It's going to be particularly popular for parties in the spring and summer. The inside portion of the restuarant is open and semi-fancy yet comfortable. But the outside massive patio is where Manny's is really going to kill it.
You don't have to listen to me, though, just hide and watch.
One more bite: photos by Chelsea Santos.
