Twenty Manning

J and I are still eating our way through Philadelphia. We can't get enough of all the wonderful food options. From inexpensive to very pricey there are so many options. This sometimes poses a problem for us because the amount of choices is overwhelming. I can literally eat anything at any time, but J is a little more picky. He likes to figure out what he's in the mood for and then go from there. He always has to look up the restaurant's menu before we go so he doesn't take forever deciding what he wants to order once we get there. Like I mentioned in a previous post, Yelp is a great resource to search for restaurants in your city or on vacation.

So after about 30 minutes of searching on Yelp and looking up restaurant menus we decided to head to Twenty Manning. It's located on S. 20th street at the intersection of 20th and Manning street. All of the reviews were great and it has been described as a "lively neighborhood bistro that serves up New American food with Asian influences that appeals to all palates." Another plus is that their food is local and organic wherever possible.

The decor was simple, bright and fresh. It's a small restaurant and it was crowded on a Friday night, but we luckily didn't have to wait to be seated.

J and I really enjoyed the restaurant because it was very flavorful. Even from the 1st taste of bread and butter. The butter had a little darker tint to it and was spiced up with the flavors of jalapenos. Although I generally don't like food that's too hot, the flavor was just right and complimented the bread well.


I'm still trying decide if my favorite part of the meal were the cocktails or my entree. They were both so delicious and full of flavor. I ordered a mango margarita that included fresh mango puree. I probably could have ordered 3 more, but I wanted to leave room for the rest of the food. I definitely want to go back for their cocktails. J also enjoyed his flavorful cocktail.


I wanted to order the vegetable spring rolls, but we couldn't pass up the calamari. It's our favorite and we are still trying to find which place serves it the best. Just like the bread and butter, the calamari was kicked up a notch with jalapenos. It was very light, crisp, and flavorful. It's definitely in the running for one of my favorite calamari spots.

J ordered the Grilled Bison Burger, which came with gorgonzola cheese, grilled vegetables and french fries. He said it was very good and he would definitely come back for it.

I ordered the Green Curry Vegetable Stir Fry. This is probably one of my favorite entrees I've ordered since we've been living here. It was a flavorful medley of silken tofu, baby bok choy, snow peas, guy lan, baby carrots, Japanese eggplant with a side of white rice. I wanted to order another one to take home for lunch the next day. It was really filling, but not too heavy. I would definitely come back for this meal.

Since all the other food was so good we couldn't pass up dessert. We ordered the chocolate flourless mini cake with mocha ice cream and fresh strawberries. Like the rest of the food it was flavorful and light.

Since J and I are trying to visit new restaurants we probably won't be back to Twenty Manning for awhile, but I definitely want to return sometime in the future. I would definitely recommend checking it out, even only if just for the cocktails.