Mannino’s Italian Bistro

Stopped by with my Uncle Walter after work today. I heard the Crab Soup was good — understatement of the century! The soup was full of lump crab. My uncle had the chefs special and I had a Vitello & Portobello Stack. Both meals were delicious and the service was great! The price was slightly on the high side, but it was well worth it! Meal totaled $ 72.00 for everything mentioned above.

Wow, where to start? Head chef Andrew is a master of the kitchen at such a young age. He always has a pot of gluten free pasta ready for my wife who has celiac disease (she is not gluten free by choice, the wheat makes her very sick!). World class food, service and wines. The location of Olde Towne Portsmouth adds to the unique experience. EAT HERE TONIGHT!!!

Fantastic food. Fantastic service. The Pollo Parmigiano (chicken parm) that I had was probably the best I’ve ever had. And my wife said the same thing about her Four Cheese Ravioli. You’ve probably read other reviews that say the She-​Crab soup is the greatest thing ever. They’re not lying, it is amazing. Our server was attentive without being annoying, and the atmosphere is cozy, not cramped, and classy. Wonderful date night, while not being over the top expensive. Dinner entrees, desserts, a cup of soup, and 2 beers cost us about $ 70. Well worth it.

I have frequented numerous times sitting at the bar. The service is excellent and the food is very good. Had something different all 3 times. Last night the crap soup was the best soup I have ever tried. The bread is fresh and the gnocchi was awesome. Keep it up oh yea awesome cannoli.

I Love this Bistro.
The She Crab Soup… is chuck full ofCrab Meat.
The Apple Gondola Salad. is absolutly the Best.

3^rd time i have been here and the service and food are just as amazing this time as they were the first. The she-​crab soup is phenomenal bread is soft and sweet. Very rarely have i had such a wonderful time on multiple occasions to the same place. Great for date night or just a bite to eat. ¹⁰⁄₁₀

My husband and I dined here last night and I have to say the food was phenomenal. I ordered a creamy tortellini which I rarely do but this was delish! The hubby ordered a chicken dish and he loved it. Their marinara is so yummy!
I would have given them 5 starts but our waitress was not exactly what you call… attentive. She filled my husband’s Diet Pepsi with water and never blinked an eye. We just ordered another after we saw her again. She asked if we wanted spaghetti or penne as a side pasta and we ordered spaghetti but got the penne. Those are just a few small issues we had but the food make up for it! I read another review that the wine is over priced and I would have to agree. If they reduced the wine list and only kept their best sellers, they could reduce the prices. Either way, we will be going back!

We frequent manninos not just because of the She Crab soup, which is amazing, but the rest of the food as well. I always order the stuffed manicotti, which is hands down the best I’ve ever had. My boyfriend who has visited Italy twice, swears this is the closest you can get to true italian food here in the states. They finally had a wine night at this location and we were excited as we’ve never been able to make them at the Oceanfront. The staff was amazing and attentive and we truly loved all the food and wine pairings. I cannot say enough about how much I love this place!

Great Italian place! They have AMAZING she crab soup, a must try, it is filled with crab!! yummy salads and entrees! Dishes I have had here with veal did not disappoint.

Well I now feel comfortable giving this place 5 stars (up from 4 in my previous review) I’ve tried quite a few things from the menu including the «Award winning «She crab soup.
I’m no She crab soup connoisseur so I’m not sure of what I should be critiquing it on when tasting BUT if the goal is to be… creamy.flavorful.with huge pieces of lump crab meat. Manninos has accomplished that! It is by far the creamiest and lumpiest of all the «Award winning» she crab soups that I’ve tried :-P
Next time I’ll order the cup as opposed to the bowl that cream is HEAVY like heart attack heavy, drink it down with water or wine lol

I’m only giving this place four stars because it was EXTREMELY noisy. If you want to go I would try and pick a day that’s not that busy. My husband and I went thee for our anniversary, loved the atmosphere, waitress was polite and attentive, and the had a great selection of pastas (which is my favorite food). I personally did not like the Manicotti that I ordered because all you got was a mouthful of ricotta cheese. And it doesn’t come with any kind of meat sauce so if you would like it you have to ask for it. However, my husband ordered the Fettuccine con Pollo and said it was amazing and tasted fresh like they made it from scratch in the restaurant. Next time I will be trying that instead.

The food was amazing! The atmosphere was romantic! Slightly over priced wine that you can get at sams club but what it comes down to when we paid and went to leave the general manager comes out and tells us we didn’t leave a good enough tip. Not only did he say this but chased us to our car with our tip to give it back. he wouldn’t take no for an answer. Then he says we obviously needed the money. The rudest thing to ever happen in my life. Sorry we didn’t leave a $ 30 tip but no way to disrespect customers.

The award winning crab soup is as advertised, I can’t criticize it for being too creamy because that’s how it’s supposed to be. It was heavy on crab meat & flavor. The apple, gorgonzola & candied pecan salad w/​house made apricot dressing was quite good as well. I was underwhelmed by the type of calamari, although it was a massive serving, it only came with 2 small cups of marinara & 2 lemon wedges.
It was just my dad & I out for a bite before he flew out early the next morning, but he ordered a bottle of wine which the server brought out with just 1 glass… after our soup & calamari had already been brought to the table. My dad ordered the cheese cake with raspberry drizzle, I had a couple bites & it was quite good.
Now, I’m no snob, but for the atmosphere & prices I don’t expect to pour my own wine even after the initial glass. This, along with the calamari quality, are the only things holding me back from a 5 star review.

Food was great and atmosphere was very cozy and romantic. We had a newborn and a 4yr old with us. We thought we might be out of place eating at this restaurant with such young kids, but I have been amazed at the service and care. No one even bat an eye as we strolled in with our huge stroller and kid in tow. I ordered the linguini with clams which was delicious. The manager came by halfway through our meal and saw that I had not touched my food, as I was tending to my newborn. He asked if everything was ok and if he could reheat my food for me since I didn’t have a chance to eat yet. What a nice gesture! Great customer service!

Great place !!
Would you believe me if i tell you i found the best… the best she crab marsala soup.
You should cause i eat she crab soup everywhere i go and this place does it better than any other authentic seafood place on the beach.
Other favorites :
Tortilini manino
Green fried tomatoes
Calamari
Chicken parmesan

We went to Mannino’s on the hunt for local seafood and a good date spot in downtown Portsmouth. It was within walking distance of our hotel, which was also a plus! The ambiance was great! Quiet and romantic, but not awkward. We ate outside and had the patio to ourselves. It was a really nice evening and Samantha took great care of us, even though her other tables were inside.
We shared a bottle of red wine and got calamari to start. The calamari was huge! We could have shared it with another couple, but we just took it home instead. The marinara tasted homemade and was a little chunky, which is how we like it. The calamari was mostly rings. I don’t think we had any tentacles.
We each ate the pasta special, which was tortellini with jumbo lump and spinach alla vodka. It was insanely delicious. The tortellini and sauce both tasted and looked homemade. The spinach was barely wilted, which was perfect and so fresh tasting. The sauce was thinner with chunks of tomatoes and just enough cream to it. There was so much crab meat! The portion was huge and we both took our leftovers home. Samantha served freshly grated Parmesan and fracked pepper when our food came.
We had a great date at Mannino’s and will definitely be back on our next trip to the Portsmouth area. We highly recommend this neighborhood gem!

Wonderful food, good service. We asked for spicy marinara sauce and they asked on a scale of 1 to 10 how spicy we wanted it, we said 7 and sure enough it was spiced according to our expectations, we like our food with a kick and really appreciated that kind of attention to detail and flavor of food that we consider our favorite. Also great portions and everything we ordered was really yummy! A must if you like good Italian food and happen to be in the area.

I was throughly impressed. I got the fried oysters and chicken parmesean. Every thing was flavorful and fresh, but the one thing that will keep me coming back is the service. Everyone was so polite and I was even offered a free drink when the waiter took a little longer to get to my table… and I didn’t even have to ask for it. I will definitely be coming back!

Im going to start off by saying that im not a huge italian fan. Im usually satisfied with *gasp* — Olive Garden. But Mannino’s was different and im so glad i went!
My friend was leaving the country for 6 months, so i decided to take her here as a good-​bye treat. Im glad that we decided on this place!
Dimly lit, romantic, tables with candles, the whole shebang. Its small though. The specials are listed on a huge blackboard in the center of the room. Brian, our server was extremely accommodating. He took our order and then went in and 5 min later brought us some fresh (wheat) bread with evoo + vinegar.
I got their special– 5 tiger shrimp with vodka sauce (it was called something fancier in italian) and my friend got spicy cheese ravioli. Both of us really enjoyed our food! Initially, i thought my vodka sauce was watery, but as i began mixing in the pasta and the tomatoes + spices that had settled in the bottom, the food was really good! The shrimp came with tail attached and was cooked perfectly– it didn’t taste spongy– like it had been overcooked. Portions were big enough for me to doggy bag home … actually they doggie bagged it for me and wrapped the entire thing in plastic wrap so it wouldn’t leak :)
Price: Most food was priced between 15 – 25 $.
We did not order any drinks, but most of them were priced at 9 – 10 $. Medium sized wine menu.
The ambiance is perfect. The only thing that kills it is the walk to the bathroom. The hallway that the bathroom is located in looks like the back of a restaurant– cardboard boxes, you could see into the kitchen– it was off-​putting. They need to put in a curtain or some sort of divider.
Random fact: In order to be more accommodating– The hostess’s table has a wooden crate with glasses and flash lights since the menu can be hard to read with those romantic lights. I thought that was thoughtful.
Definitely worth a visit!

You can read the rest of the reviews to figure out why you should check this place out. IMO it’s an awesome place to visit. They just recently started serving lunch so I decided to trek on over from Virginia Beach to give them some business today.
I took a seat the bar since I knew they had a TV on the wall. Daris, one of the owners, greeted me and we chatted for several minutes. Shortly after the server came out and took my order. I tried their Oyster Po’ Boy sandwich… about six or seven huge oysters on a large bun served with various sauces. What I liked about it was that it was served with a pretty large side of pasta along with a block of shredded cheese I requested. For $ 10 I got one hell of a deal and was full for the rest of the day.
Lunch at this place is a definite treat. But the real deal with this place is coming in for dinner on a date night. You’ll get exceptional service, the highest quality of foods and quite an experience. Highly recommended!!!