I waited a few days now to write this post as I struggled on how best to describe our experience at Manos Nouveau but this image I snapped in the men’s room seemed to echo my feelings.

We had been several times before so knew that it’s food was good. We made plans for the Christmas Eve special since we were planning to attend the Castro Theater later that night to see the SFGMC perform. We arrived on time and were seated within 10 mins. and thats when things started to go off kilter. Wth only one waitress and one hostess we expected a lot of movement.

 Our drink order was taken (they don’t serve much in non alcoholic beverages other than sparkling waters (bottled) and some “soda” specials so I started off that they didn’t have Iced tea for my meal as I don’t drink much in the way of sparkling beverages nor nor did they offer to let me make my own.)

Since it was a limited adaption of the regular menu – we placed our orders pretty quickly – then waited.. and waited… the appetizers arrived finally about 20 min later and as expected they tasted great… but 45 -50 min later we were still waiting for our meal to arrive (reminder timeline: Seated by 6:45, apps by 7:10, entree by 8:00)

There also seemed a lot of confusion – first we asked our hostess for some bread (they don’t serve any but do have crostini (bread toasted) since my app  needed some crunch to be better enjoyed.

Then our waitress came to the table around 7:45 after a gentle side comment from me on the way to the restroom about our appreciating a status update. She explained that they were being plated now and would be up shortly. About 4 minutes later the Chef/Owner (?) came table-side to apologize and explain our ticket had been lost and that he would gladly comp us what we had eaten so far (apps) given we had a time line or he would go back and make our dishes himself.

I looked up and mentioned (in a rather casual was as I wasn’t yet annoyed either), that the waitress had just explained our meals were being plated less than 5 minutes ago and his response while not intending to be (perhaps) came out rather defensively dismissive, saying that he was the chef and knew best on what was up in the kitchen. We did a time check and agreed to let him prepare our plates, yet 5 min later – our meals arrived.

So obviously – it was a mixed-bag night. The food was good – I can’t by any measure take that away. But the service seemed off. The Chef did reduce the cost of our bill (10%) for some for the trouble which was appreciated.