03/02/09

Bad Time

by CSMobileUser

I've been to Twenty Manning three times now and prior to last night it's been wonderful. After a bad experience at Mantra I came here. We came on a Monday night and it was pretty empty. We ordered the calamari as our appetizer. Upon recieving the dish and trying it I was shocked. The hotness of the dish completely overpowered the calamari. I couldn't taste any part of the calamari. It was pretty bad. I alerted the waitor and he took it away.

For dinner I ordered the flank steak with mashed potatoes, a dish I've ordered in the past and had success with. My girlfriend ordered the lamb shank.

We recieved our dinners in a timely fashion. Upon cutting my steak I observed it was severly overcooked. I had ordered it medium rare and it came out well done. No big deal, I sent it back. My girlfriend's dinner was also severly overcooked. I tried it and it was tough and burnt, certainly not the way it should be. After a few minutes my steak came back and was once again bad. This time it was clear they flash cooked it. The outside was burnt while the inside was rare. All in all this was a poor experience however I'll give them this one and hopefully it'll be better next time.

01/31/09

LAMMMEEE

by upenn2011

I wanted to order the steak but the restaurant had ran out of steaks. so that was a bummer. the appetizers were kind of lame. nothing too special. for the second course my date ordered the sirloin noodles and i ordered the salmon instead of the steak. The noodles is essentially the equivalent of what you could find in a Vietnamese restaurant. Its called bun in Vietnamese and its vermicelli noodles with char-broiled pork. The head chef is a Viet person. We are also viet and we are unimpressed with the quality, authenticity, uniqueness, or anything with the food. I could get the exact same bowl of noodles at a asian restaurant for 6 bucks. (thats not even an exaggeration) its called charbroiled pork with vermicelli noodles. or in viet its called Bun thit nuong.

overall i think the restaurant is the worst place i have ever been on a date. In philadelphia the worst restaurants ive been to is Penne in university city and twenty manning. (though i do like the name. its funny) In any case, it is essentially a Vietnamese chef that knows hows to open a business and cater towards people who have never tried Viet food. A lot of people are impressed with this place, but they have never been to a chinatown restaurant and ordered the exact same thing. Twenty manning just adds a cool name to it.

loud, lame fake viet food imitations, no steak, LOUD, creepy waiter, not mad expensive but compared to the dish i could get at a viet restaurant thats exactly the same thing. its WAYY overpriced for what you get. hell i could make that. its not that hard. the noodles all you have to do is boil it in water and still the restaurant still managed to mess that up. it was wayy to hard. if anyone wants the recipe on how to make it then google "bun thit nuong" that essentially what it is.

• Pros: i was seated quickly
• Cons: everything

07/14/08

Loved it!

by tdn115

I came here Friday after work with two co-workers and was pleasantly surprised with the evening We were seated promplty without having reservations (granted it was rather early) in a great seat by the window.The cocktails were delicious, as was the food. The waitress was quite attentive, she came back several times- we were consumed in conversation, so we didn't get around to ordering right away- she was quite patient and just came back each time ready to take our order. We skipped appetizers and went straight to entrees, I had the short ribs- and they were fantastic. The location was great, the street was quiet with people watching was great, it was a friendly mix of people and pets. I highly recommend Twenty Manning, the quality of food for the price was an added surprise. we were having such a great time that one co-worker ended up missing her train, but we just ended up staying later for more drinks. A definate must.

• Pros: Great food. location, ambience
• Cons: no parking