Manayunk Café

I’m pleased to report they are out of business according to the clerk from the state store for more than a month

On a recent visit to Manayunk Café, née Diner, my girlfriend, her family from out of town, and I were treated to an outstanding display of mediocrity. No, mediocrity is an exaggeration. Let’s just say the experience defined the low point of the visit and gave a bad name to Philadelphian cuisine. We were in a hurry and thought that a diner would be quick fixins. The only thing this establishment did quickly was disappoint.
The food took forever to come out. I don’t blame the waitress, she seemed genuinely embarrassed to be working there. I would be too. The supposed French toast was not French or toasted. A sliced loaf of bread with powdered sugar sprinkled on top does not count as French toast. Did they not have eggs and milk to make even the most rudimentary French toast? One of us ordered eggs and they appeared to be swimming in some kind of clear liquid solution whose taste had notes of kerosene gas. I tasted them and could not get even one bite down.
The prices are outrageous for dinner breakfast food and the service was slow and inattentive even with very few customers. We started to suspect that the waitress was doubling as the chef because she would disappear behind kitchen door for long periods of time.
Save your money, your time, and your taste buds. Go somewhere else.

If any food establishment ever deserved a one star review, this is it! Wow, the place is just plain scary and should be shut down before someone gets seriously ill.
From the outside the place looks ok but once you walk in you get that immediate feeling if, ut oh what did I just walk into. At this point we should have left but we figured we would give it a chance.
My wife and I ordered two burger meals, two cokes and my wife had a salad as well. The salad was ok, and the cokes wasn’t flat. These were the high points.
I went to put ketchup on my burger and what squeezed out of the Heinz bottled was a liquidly half ketch half vinegar mess. The ketchup was rancid. This was gross, we called the waitress over, she apologized and took the ketchup and the burger platter away to have a fresh burger cooked. My wife offered me her burger since she still had her salad, and I expressed concerns about eating there. She the cut the burger open to look at the meat and it was literally raw inside, gross raw not rare and definitely not the medium rare that was ordered.
We called it quits at this point, went to the register to pay for our cokes and salad, in the end after the manager deliberated with her staff they decided not to charge us for anything.
The staff was very polite and friendly when we were there but to me it’s a health hazard to eat there.
STAY AWAY

So their breakfast sandwiches are actually delicious. I’ve had their beef bacon, egg and cheese on a bagel recently (took it to-​go) and it was really yummy. (They don’t have pork bacon). But like everyone is saying their service is horrid. Like really really awful.
I called the number on Unilocal to order a breakfast sandwich to-​go again and it’s not in service… Their correct number is (267) 368‑6862. I told the woman at the front desk and she said she had no idea what Unilocal was. I walked in today because I couldn’t order over the phone and she told me that it would be a longer wait than normal because they had 4 tables of people sitting to eat! I was shocked that many people were in there and I wanted to tell them all they would most likely leave unhappy… But oh well. I walked out and she lost business because she told me the kitchen and the servers couldn’t handle the crowd as it was… Really pathetic.
Anyway, in case anyone else wanted to order a breakfast sandwich to go, call this correct number and expect to wait a good 20 minutes for a decent breakfast sandwich that’s slightly overpriced.

I would give them 0 stars for the fact that they have not adhered to the previous reviews.
The staff was extremely friendly which was helpful and caused me not to leave when I saw the exorbitant prices.
I paid $ 24 for a cheesesteak and burger. The fries were hard and cold. The room is dark and desolate.
It was reminiscent of the diner in Nightmare on elm street 4. Nothing like the previous establishment.
I would go back if the menu items were a dollar each… and I was starving… and blind… and homeless.

DO NOT GO HERE! This was the absolute worst place I have ever eaten at. The food was disgusting. My friend ordered a turkey burger and It literally looked like they put together pieces of a leftover burger to serve. The grilled cheese didn’t even have melted cheese… how do you mess that up? The prices were outrageous.
I don’t typically complain at restaurants but we sent back all the food and I told incoming guests to just leave because it was so terrible.
Save your money and your time

It’s unanimous — this place is a sad excuse for a diner. Service, food, and prices are all suspect.

Awful. Do not come here. There are about 6 breakfast options and they are very expensive.

I don’t know where to start… this place is HORRIBLE since it reopened. Everything is extremely over priced, the food is mediocre and undercooked, and the service is well below average. As I am sitting here the waitress forgot our toast and then did the same thing for the next 3 customers within hearing distance of us. There is a total of 20 items on the menu but you can only have 5 of them for breakfast… the poor waitresses here are never going to get a nice tip because there horrid management has poorly trained them. My total was $ 9.69. I planned to pay with a $ 10 bill. The hostess rudely responds «we don’t don’t have change». How do you not have 30 cents??? DO NOT COME HERE

Worst. Meal. Ever. Cold eggs, and by 2 eggs they really mean TWO eggs, portions are so tiny. Our waitress left in the middle of us talking to help another table. Their menu is horrible, fried chicken and blueberry waffles, okay because that’s a good variety! They literally have 20 items on their menu including breakfast lunch and dinner. Whoever runs this place is doing a horrible job! I’ve worked in the restiarant industry and I’ve never seen a place run this bad. Are there any requirements to work here??? My 4 year old sister could do a better job serving me. This suck. Bring me back a diner!!! DONT EVER COME HERE! Worst mistake was forgetting to check reviews before coming!!!

Stopped in before a movie, they’re now sporting the name Main Street Restaurant by the way.
We had actually tried the place in July, just a week or so after they initially re-​opened. At that time they had just a single page menu and service was spotty but the food and prices were okay for a diner. We just wrote them off as coming into their own during a soft start, and thought we’d try again later.
Last night was later; they still have a single page menu of about two dozen items. Half of those were breakfast items that aren’t served after noon and all of the items were over priced for a diner. The «mains» portion of their menu is three items long, there are no deserts or drinks listed anywhere on the menu. Also the menu is a laminated 8×11 sheet of printer paper so modifying it shouldn’t be a huge issue.
The place was completely dead on a Saturday night next to a movie theater and I can only imagine their limited (and over priced) menu is to blame. My group of four ordered two cheese burgers (medium) and a BLT. Our fourth members wanted breakfast but they, again, don’t serve that all after 12pm. The first rule of a diner is breakfast is always served. It’s some of the simplest and cheapest food to cook, why would you never not serve it? I don’t need Eggs Benedict but an omelette and a pile of hash browns is no tall order.
We waited about 30 minutes to get our two burgers and BLT. (I should also add that we were the only ones in the place until after we put our orders in, and watched another group of four come in, sit down and immediately leave. Theose lucky bastards.) The burgers came out cooked to within an inch of being burned. Which was funny because apparently getting the burgers to «medium» was what took so long to get our food. The burgers looked to be hand made by pressing a handful of ground beef into a patty with no seasoning. The french fires were greasy and foul, as if they hadn’t be drained at all, and their color was horrible. They were a burned, dirty, orange color and these were not sweet potato fries. It was very clear upon eating one that these things were cooked in very old oil.
As far as this place is concerned, just don’t. There’s no other words then that, just don’t.

I miss the original Manayunk diner which I know isn’t saying much. They had the best breakfast & pancakes in Manayunk. This new place doesn’t cut it. I appreciate them trying but the menu needs work, fried chicken was meh. My wifes chicken tenders, at least I think they were chicken tenders didn’t taste fresh.

Thjs place has great coffee, best I’ve had at a diner (and I’m a coffee snob). Our food came out fast and was good, pancakes and French toast. The only bad thing was the server never checked on us again after we got our food. The food is a little overpriced. The natural light and cleanliness of the place was great! I’d go back!

The skill and precision required to deliver the train wreck of a meal I had here is rarely seen. More often than not, the Darwinistic nature of the restaurant business fades these establishments into oblivion before I have a chance to experience them. Luck was on my side today, friend. I got to experience the utter failure of a service, nearly soup to nuts.
I’ll start with something positive. The waitress/​manager/​milkshake maker was a sweet person. She obviously was left unequipped by ownership.
The rest?
I felt like Allen Funt was going to pop out any minute and surprise us with, «You’re on candid camera!» I want to fully elaborate but the full story and details are predominantly too surreal to relate. Plus, this is a Unilocal review and not the Iliad. Those super long nebulous reviews can drive me insane.
So, after a protracted wait for food some people got food and some didn’t. Some received their orders, some received different orders, some orders were received that were never ordered. People that ordered the same exact thing received plates of food that looked markedly different from the other orders. I think they used a microwave to half cook my french fries. I’m pretty sure the person next to me recieved a chicken wing from a chicken who had a serious eating disorder. The breakfast sandwich looked like nothing I’ve ever witnessed in the real world. It was a thing of nightmares in its appearance. From across the table, the pancakes did look decent I must say. The french toast didn’t look horrifying either. I think the cook must run to the store to buy ingredients each time an order is placed. That is the only excuse I’d buy for taking over an hour and twenty minutes to deliver food when there are only about 8 other people in the twilight zone.
Truly a visceral experience of the most abhorrent nature — a mutilated bunch.
Would I recommend this place to anyone? Yes. But only to masochistic gastronomists and mortal enemies. Manayunk city ordinances should stipulate an «Eat at Your Own Risk» placard be placed prominently in the parking lot at all times.

We went to the «Manayunk Café» this weekend for breakfast. We used to love the Manayunk diner, which was in the same location and that’s where the similarities end. The Manayunk Diner was a quality diner that did diner food well. The Manayunk Café on the other hand has a very short menu (Which would be OK if the food was good), and doesn’t have all of what you would expect at a diner.
List of gripes, menu:
1. All breakfast meat is non pork. OK, I’d be fine with this if it were advertised somewhere on the menu that maybe you’re a halal restaurant.
2. The waitress was really confused by the fact that I wanted a breakfast sandwich on rye bread… Breakfast sandwiches apparently come on rolls or on bagels.
3. Also there is no bread list on the menu, so you’re left guessing which kind of toast you can get.
4. They basically just have a few sandwiches, lunch-​wise, unless you want a burger or a chicken sandwich, you are SOL.
5. Where are the deserts? Diners are supposed to have a ridiculous amount of deserts all on display up front.
The service was pretty terrible too. It was very difficult to get a coffee refill, I had to flag down the waitress, she agreed to get my coffee, then walked away, didn’t get it, so I had to flag down another waitress to finally get it several minutes later. We never got the waters that we ordered. Both of our orders came out missing sides, and the waitress was really confused by it as if we never ordered our sides, my girlfriend’s was missing her pickles which she specifically asked for, and mine was missing home fries, which I asked for.
On to the food itself:
I got my breakfast sandwich. I managed to get it on rye bread. You’d probably ask me, «Zach how do you mess up a breakfast sandwich?», and I’d say to you, «Wow that’s a good question, Unilocaler… I don’t know.» And then Manayunk Café would show you. The bread was barely toasted, the cheese was not at all melted, the eggs scrambled eggs were way too flakey and not coherent enough to be on a sandwich, and the turkey sausage was just a few links arranged at random in the eggs, and was burnt to boot.
I wanted to like this place. I just wanted to like it. I used to love the Manayunk diner, it was a great spot to get food before or after the movies. This place is a poor substitute. Between the crappy service and the crappy food, I’m never coming back.

This place is just bad. The people running it have no clue. I had a idea that something was off with this place maybe the weird xeroxed menus or that half the place didnt seem like it was open/​ready or that it was pretty much the old manayunk diner with nothing new or changed. I went with a Turkey club. Its a simple sandwich. They botched it somehow. I waited over a half hour with 3 other tables in the place they were probably miserable aswell with their food. This place wont last long folks come see a real train wreck.

Came here after deciding to avoid the crowd at the movie theater. Many people think this is Manayunk Diner… but it isn’t. The sign hasn’t been changed yet.
Pros: My server was funny. Cracked a few jokes, which always help make me feel comfortable in a new establishment that I’m trying out. He also explained some of the changes that were going to be happening to the café soon. I like that they will be serving alcohol soon at the bar.
Cons: I was freezing! It felt like a draft was coming through where I was sitting. I will chalk this up 17° weather outside. The blueberry crumb pie that I ordered was a total miss. The crumb wasn’t «crumbly» (if that makes sense). It was like mush. The flavors were off too.
The food was a bit MEH! I order the vegan pizza burger. Which isn’t really vegan unless the mozzarella cheese is vegan also. I’m not really a fan of lettuce and tomato on a pizza burger, but otherwise it was ok.
I think this place need some more time to fine tune the menu. And hopefully, things will turn out better.

If I could give zero stars I would. This place was awful. Possibly the worst dining experience ever. I ordered a grilled cheese thinking it was a safe bet because I never ate here before but I couldn’t have been more wrong. Even the pickles were inedible. Do yourself a favor n go somewhere else.