Manny’s Universal Cafe

Came here at the suggestion of a friend. You must try their green smoothie! I love my smoothies and this is among the best I have had because it has all the healthy things in it but it tastes like a treat :)
I ordered the pupusas for lunch and they were delicious! For those who are unfamiliar, pupusas are traditional food from Central America and are like a thicker more fulfilling tortilla. It was served with the meat on top and cabbage on the side. I would order this again in a heartbeat!
My friend ordered the breakfast bagel sandwich which looked amazing (she said it was as well). So if you have a hankering for breakfast at lunch time, come here instead of McDonalds!

Ventured into Manny’s after finding out Dame’s was closed on Monday. A quaint little café filled with simple character. Ms. Margarita is welcoming and eager to assist with our order.
Our drinks arrived quickly, however we waited a long time for our meal.
MY MEAL WAS WORTH THE WAIT!
You can’t beat authentic Salvadoran cuisine made from scratch, right after you place your order! The flavors are UNREAL!
Great attitude and great laughs goes a long way while visiting any establishment.
If you’re in the area, definitely stop in and have a seat!

Stopped by Manny’s today for a to-​go plate of some wonderful chicken salad. I was working, so I called ahead and Ms Margarita had it ready for me when I arrived. It’s so nice to see a smiling face on the other side of the counter. You can tell she enjoys providing tasty, fresh, made to order dishes for the area. But back to my lunch.
The chk salad was on a flaky croissant along with lettuce and sliced grapes and a pickle on the side. It also comes with chips. I’d never had chk salad with grapes, but it was a welcome surprise. The flavors mix very well together.
One look around the patio garden and you can see the fresh herbs, spices and veggies that go into the dishes that are made on site. I also added some homemade chocolate chip cookies as my dessert. They were soft, not hard and brittle, and are quite tasty. I think oatmeal cookies were available too.
The café also has beer and wine for sale. I didn’t have any, because I was working, but they had a lot of choices for both. A very filling, yet light (unlike a half pound burger or footlong steak/​cheese) meal that won’t have me passed out on my desk asleep in an hour. 2 thumbs up to the Manny’s staff.

Margarita a sweet and dear lady. The food is excellent and fresh made. Their pupusas are wonderful! Everything we’ve ever had has been great, their: granola, parfaits, black beans, brownies, coffee, and… their banana pudding is Sublime Perfection!!! My husband was kind enough to share a bite. They happened to be open Friday evening when they have First Fridays in downtown Greensboro and he got the last one. Will definitely stock up the next time!

Tried this place for lunch — we were stuck in the office, and TakeOut Triad delivers — so, what the heck. This is apparently a rather seat of the pants kinda place — menu items may or may not be available on a particular day — makes it a little hard when you’re ordering on line.
The Hot Tamales and the Empanadas I ordered were not available, nor was the French Toast, I was told, which seemed a little odd, since I didn’t order French Toast, but now I knew not to order it.
They did have Pupusas (2 black bean pupusa with Curtido for $ 4.99) which were simply void of flavor. A pupusa is a thick corn tortilla filled with either beans, cheese, or ground pork. Since the tortilla is thick and nutty tasting the filling needs to have some kick to it (same as with a tamale) — these didn’t. No reorder.
The Chicken Spinach Salad was available ($ 749) and while there was a decent amount of chicken, it was also bland tasting. Pretty disappointing all the way around. I’ll not be back.

What a great little place for breakfast. I enjoyed chatting with the owner’s mom (Manny left the business to her when he began teaching full time). She made a delicious breakfast. The outdoor seating in the herb garden is such a nice change from the everyday indor breakfast. The coffee was superb.

Great spot for breakfast. Good coffee, fresh food. I had a croissant with egg, bacon and cheese. The bacon was good quality, thick cut bacon. The croissant was fresh and super flaky. Margarita, the woman serving us, was very sweet and friendly.
Go there. Get good food. Support your local businesses.

The coffee is good. Free WiFi. Check it out if you are in the area.

Really disappointed — that’s the best I can say about my visit this morning. Maybe I had an unrealistic expectations but I don’t think so. A few weeks back we were walking by the store front on the way to a wine bar a few doors down. We noticed that the door had breakfast hours on Saturdays and as we were talking about making it a point to swing by sometime soon, the owner stuck his head out and politely invited us back saying he’d be happy to whip us some eggs or whatever for breakfast. That, along with the «Café» portion of the name, led me to believe this was a full service restaurant. Not the case.
In reality this is a coffee shop with danishes, muffins and small pre-​made dishes. That would be fine if that was what I thought we were going there for. We got there about 8:30. The posted hours say it opens at 8:00 am. As we were making sure we hadn’t lost our mind a young boy turned on the open sign but forgot to unlock the door. After a few more minutes he finally did that. It was then that we realized that there was no real breakfast menu. The young lad went off to get the owner/​chef who said he’d make us a couple of ham, onion and cheese omelets. We weren’t offered anything to drink; weren’t provided utensils and were left entirely alone until right before 9:00 am. Apparently, the kitchen is actually across the outside patio and not in the coffee shop part itself.
After waiting nearly 25 minutes alone (we had time to read to issues of the newspaper…) our «omelets» arrived. Thin, burnt and tasteless the omelets sat lonely and unappetizing on the plate. No sides were offered or provided. To make things almost humorous, when I asked for hot sauce it came out COLD. Like out of the refrigerator cold… really…who serves cold hot sauce?
The one good outcome of this visit is that we discovered the cutest little tea and smoothie shop two doors down called Kim Bee’s…make sure you look up that review.

I usually hit another coffee shop that is walking distance from work. But when just exploring the neighborhood one day, I found Manny’s.
It is a tiny little place on MLK but the coffee is great! They also have muffins and all sorts of snacks plus teas.
And they acknowledge this is indeed the 21^st Century so they offer free WiFi.
They also provide lunch deli items and do catering.
Prices are fine and the service is attentive. Oh yeah, I made the mistake and ordered something «venti» and no one across the counter tried to humiliate me.
Gotta love that.