Manna Korean Restaurant

Manna is a restaurant that serves Korean and Japanese dishes, with good portion sizes and reasonable prices for a downtown Davis meal.

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The older dude that runs this place is really friendly. The ribs are good, the spicy food is truly spicy, but I'd avoid the chicken dishes. - VictorZapanta

• Why would you avoid the chicken dishes? - JackHaskel
  

• I've had nothing but good luck with the chicken. Especially good (for the price) is the teriyaki chicken lunch special — it's only $4 or so and is quite tasty! - KenNeville
  

• I just tried their chicken teriyaki dish, pretty good for the price, but the salad that came with it was quite boring, consisting of iceberg lettuce, shredded carrots, and um... this funky creamy dressing. I also had their eel sushi roll, which was pretty good. This place is decent, and I might come back to it. -KarlMogel
  

• At any Korean place I try to avoid the chicken because it just doesn't seem... Korean to me. Korean places, especially the BBQ, should be all about the beef and pork. Korean places should also be all about the spicy fish stews. Except for chicken teriyaki, which is from the Japanese side of the shop. —IrenePark
  

2005-07-06 17:55:54   Try the bibimbap or the seafood tofu stew... Quick and delicious —EricWecker

2005-08-04 02:11:39   The place is pretty good, although they dont have the chicken teriyaki to go anymore, you have to order one of the regular things on the menu —HarrisonNguyen

2005-09-06 11:47:21   My girlfriend and I tried this place once. I don’t remember exactly what either of us got, but I had some dish with pork and she had some dish with chicken. Neither of us could come close to finishing. It was easily the worst food ever created. To put my comments in perspective, you should know that I often eat food out of dumpsters. —NikolaiBraun

• Well, that explains it. You're used to food out of dumpsters, this isn't going to have the extra flavouring you're used to. |D —JeffreyNonken
  

2005-09-10 13:41:05   BlancheNonken and I ate here yesterday. She got the California rolls and some kimchi, I got the Teryaki chicken lunch with pot stickers. I have to say we both enjoyed the food. The teryaki chicken was about average, I liked the pot stickers. The salad was as KarlMogel described, but I liked it. Maybe I wasn't expecting my salad to be exciting? It would be more nutritious with something other than iceberg. The dressing was sweet, not bad. They start you out with Miso soup before you order; the soup was pretty good. I plan to go back and try some other dishes. —JeffreyNonken

2005-09-13 14:13:14   Ate there twice recently. The Bimbimbap was good, but the beef in the Bulgogi was really weird-tasting, and we didn't finish it. I may or may not go back. —HarrySpanglet

2005-09-22 11:08:49   I went there for the first time last night and had the Hot Night Roll (crab, spicy tuna, spicy sauce, etc.) and it was really tasty. It had bits of tempura on top, which brought it up to like a 9 out of 10. —SharonZimmerman

2005-10-13 17:06:42   I thought their Eel Rice bowls are really good...like Little Tokyo material but I wish they gave you more rice... —CarlosOverstreet

2006-01-08 20:15:00   It's not too bad... I guess I've been spoiled by eating in Koreatown in LA, but otherwise the food's decent. If spicy isn't an issue, the Kimchi Chigae is good. It's a pretty general restaurant, so if you go in there without that many expectations it'll definitely satisfy you. —AlexKim

2006-02-20 02:50:40   The kal-bi (barbecued ribs) are really good. No complaints about the bulgogi, though I've gotten it kinda dry a few times. Probably the only choice for Korean food in a thirty mile radius around Davis. —CurtisLim

2006-05-11 02:08:03   For the prices, I don't think they give enough...I always come out of there feeling a bit hungry. I'm not satisfied but it usually does it... —ChrisLee

2006-07-14 07:01:32   The korean food here isn't spicy enough —KillerBobo

2006-07-29 17:57:09   The food is good, the short ribs, bibimbap and some of the specialty rolls especially. The people here are friendly (if occasionally overwhelmed). I've had a number of large get togethers here, and everything has always gone well.—MisterProfessor

2006-07-29 20:18:18   Mmm... bim bim bap. Pretty good food but I wouldn't go here for the sushi. The owner's so nice too. —LiRic

2006-08-01 18:39:52   it's impossible to get bibimbap and kimchee tofu stew wrong. a davis staple for me. —EmilyTung

2006-08-02 02:21:09   Do they make jap chae? —JudithTruman

"2006-08-03 20:36:40"   I really like the food here. It's good considering it's Korean "fast food." The owner is really nice and I've generally had good service here. —ArielaHaro

2006-09-09 22:20:25   I love the Udon (makes my heart happy and body warm, if needed) and the rolls. Granted, I won't go for the sushi, but it's still pretty good. The waitress is always really nice and happy, which makes it more enjoyable. —ChristyMarsden

2006-12-13 21:23:57   The portions here are great with Miso and Salad included. The food isn't spectacular, but at the price and the quantity it is worth it. I do however recommend avoiding the salad dressing. That stuff looked and tasted very strange (not food poisoning strange, just gross strange) —JohnHumperdinkle

2007-01-08 18:04:03   I just love the food here. The chicken is great but when my sister and I come here once a week we always get the sushi. We are big sushi fans and are very very picky about our fish. Most of the rolls and sushi here are to our liking. Our favorites are the Alaska roll, which is california with raw salmon, the Rainbow roll which has Toro(Tuna),Hamachi (Yellowtail), Saki (Salmon) and other assorted fish on top with cucumber and avacado inside, and the philly roll( salmon and chremcheese) I am a big fan of the tempura shrimp rolls as well!! The prices are awesome for good sushi too! And take-out does not take-long at all! —ClaireGorman

2007-04-22 19:13:23   Came here today because i've been craving korean bbq. Ordered spicy pork and bbq beef. Pork was decently spicy but the bbq beef tasted different than what i am used to. It would say this place is average in taste but quantity is a bit small. It would be better if they tried to create a full korean bbq restaurant instead of korean/japanese. If they had more variety of korean food then i would come here more often. (There are too many japanese restaurants in davis...) —BrandonToo

2007-04-24 19:02:44   This place is bomb, and the service is awesome! Also, the best chicken yaki in town, if you add extra yaki and sesame seeds. —klmz

2007-05-02 13:18:44   for being called korean, this place isn't very korean. i had to ask for kimchi and my bibimbap was very...well...westernized. i'm not trying to knock any kind of quality here but the authenticity is nil. —MiranPark

2007-05-02 20:36:58   The bimimbap in a clay pot was excellent, although next time I wouldn't bother with the beef (there wasn't much of it, and it wasn't great quality), and instead would go for the tofu. The vegetable teryaki makes an excellent light and healthy dish: both tofu and veggies are steamed, not fried. Yum! —CovertProfessor

2007-05-22 17:13:46   I wanted to check this place out and ordered the soba noodles with some weird carrot things. that was pretty yucky. my friend had the teriyaki chicken and that was pretty good. went back because the people were really nice and tried something different. I had some kind of hot seafood noodle and that was pretty good. i cant say anything about being authentic korean, but i liked it. —AeSaeteurn

2007-08-06 09:58:11   I'm not sure what some of the people commenting here are complaining about. I came here last night with a special guest on a hunch, and it would be an understatement to say the place greatly exceeded my expectations. Whether the food is "genuine" Korean or "westernized" I really don't know and don't care since it was *very* fresh (just before closing Sunday evening—the least likely time I would think restaurant food to taste noticably fresh), tasty, reasonably priced, was promptly served, and came in good-sized portions. Everyone working there was very nice and attentive, too. I wouldn't need to think twice about coming back to this place, and I'm sure it'll be soon at that. Excellent; I'd highly recommend! —MichaelKeteltas

• when you grow up around a certain kind of food and culture it's nice to be able to get a taste of "home-style" cooking that is authentic and consistent to true tastes as would be traditionally cooked. have you ever had food cravings for a certain type of food? i was just trying to say that to me, someone who is used to traditional korean food the way they make it in korea (and generally in korean restaurants in california esp. in the bay area) it's a sore disappointment to not be able to get the "taste of home" that i crave in korean food, especially since i've found it extremely hard to cook and manipulate food to the same flavors when it comes to korean food. additionally the food i received was not fresh, the bulgogi looked and tasted like it had been reheated after being cooked way earlier whereas traditional bulgogi is bbq'ed or pan-fried right before serving. this is the type of thing i was trying to remark on when i said "westernized". bibimbap without gosari or doragi or some other kind of mountain vegetable is just not bibimbap to me. —MiranPark
  

2007-09-06 19:36:22   The soon doo boo (spicy tofu stew) was really good, its what i always get. The bugolgi is ok, and the kalbee is good, but they don't have any sides at all. They give you a little kimchee and beansprouts sometimes, but you have to ask for it. Most Korean places, including the Manna in SF and LA give you assloads of sides, at least 10.

Other than that, no real complaints, good enough to satisfy my Korean urges. Korean food urges. —Kafani

2007-10-12 13:34:59   I come here all the time and although the service is slow (due to only 2 servers max), the food is very good. I love the stone pot bibimbap and the teriaki chicken. If you mix the teriaki with the white salad sauce, its heavenly. Owner is pretty nice too. —Rbbie2x

2007-10-28 07:06:06   Does anyone know if they serve jjajang myun here? —NicoleBush

• not that i know of, the first and last time i was there it definitely was not on the menu. a poor substitute for real, fresh jajang myun can be had in ramen-style package form at kim's mart for desperate cravings.—MiranPark
  

2007-11-22 00:59:57   The seafood tofu stew is great. —NickSchmalenberger

2007-12-11 22:43:49   I tried a sashimi salad type dish, i forget the name now, it was excellent. sashimi served over rice with lettuce, cucumber, and apples. the flavors mixed very well and the food tasted very fresh. the service was friendly and prompt despite there being several customers. i would recommend Manna to friends. —Chantal

2008-04-27 19:08:25   I love the boiled dumplings!

I had the nicest experience there this evening - Walked in to place an order, and they were out of soba. The guy at the register selected a great alternate dish based on my preferences, and my order was ready in five minutes. —Casey