Manhattan Heights Tavern & Grill

A couple of weeks ago, my friend and I finally checked out Manhattan Heights Tavern & Grill. I'd been meaning to go since it opened about a year ago, but I hadn't seen much buzz about it online.When we arrived, the layout threw us off a bit. There's a cigar bar and an outdoor patio, but they're not really connected, which made things a little confusing. We found three different doors, and not all of them worked, but we eventually figured it out.Walking in was a nice surprise! It had a cozy, dimly lit vibe that reminded me of places like the Daily Grill. The dark wood, high walls, and tin roof gave it a warm atmosphere. It felt exclusive and intimate, making it easy to see why some prominent folks might choose to dine here. The booths offered plenty of privacy, and the staff was really discreet.Speaking of the staff, they were fantastic! Our waitress was super friendly and filled us in on the place, mentioning it's run by the same team behind the Pelican, which made us excited for the food. I was bummed to find out that the prime rib is only available on Wednesdays and Sundays, but we made the most of happy hour specials and ordered some appetizers.We got the ahi tuna tower, which looked great but was kinda bland. The same went for the ceviche--it was decent but needed more flavor. The quality of the mango and fish was top-notch, though, so we ended up drizzling some soy sauce from the tuna on the ceviche to kick it up a notch.For my main dish, I ordered the steak sandwich, and it was delicious--flavorful and tender, especially with the extra au jus for dipping. My friend had a wedge salad and some appetizers that filled her right up. She also loved the wine, and the pours were super generous.What really surprised us was the bill. For a steakhouse that feels high-end, the prices were surprisingly reasonable. Considering the great food and service, it felt like a steal.I definitely want to bring my husband back for a celebration and try the prime rib and some desserts. Manhattan Heights Tavern & Grill is a solid spot for steak lovers and offers a really nice dining experience. -TODOELPASO 2829 Montana Ave Suite 100, El Paso, TX 79903

The experience failed to meet the hype. I took the precaution of making a reservation because it was a friend's birthday and I wanted to make sure that we didn't have to wait. The host seemed vaguely confused and left the host station without actually confirming anything. My friend arrived and we continued to wait for a bit before the host managed to come back to the front. Back east, I would have just left from the host's odd attitude alone, but I had already made the plans to spend the time with my friend so we went to the seating area.The server was perfectly lovely and professional, although was perhaps a little too eager to take the order and get things moving rather than giving my friend a night time to look at the menu and think about what we wanted. If it had been crowded or busy, I would have understood the desire to keep things moving, but there were probably four or five other tables in the entire space.We both ordered specialty cocktails from the bar menu and they were fine though my Manhattan was a little disappointing even though it was made with the same ingredients I would make it at home. Bar service was fairly quick, and our drinks arrived in good time. We both opted for the Sunday prime rib special though with different sides. Up front, the Caesar salad and poblano soup both came out quite quickly were appropriate portions and we're both pretty tasty. My friend suggested the salad could have been dressed more, but it looked fine to me. When the entrees arrived, everything looked fine, but both the stakes and the au jus were fairly under temperature. Neither were cold but both were just slightly above room temperature. My steak fries were hot and crisp, so I don't suspect that the plates were waiting for very long, but it seems to have been something of an oversight from the kitchen at maintaining temperature for the prime rib and the au jus. I know I'm probably something of an outlier in El paso, but I expected the horseradish sauce to be slightly more intense than what I was given. The prepared horseradish for the prime rib was largely sour cream that might have sat next to the horseradish in the fridge. One of the joys of excellent prime rib is the beautiful contrast between the warm beef and the bracing intensity of the horseradish and sour cream. I missed that about this experience, but the prime rib itself was adequate. The serving size was appropriate and the black pepper crusting was fine if a little bit salty. For the au jus itself, it tasted like it was prepared from a concentrate. I don't know if this is fact or not, but it didn't taste like it was prepared from the cooking of this meat. When you've been in the restaurant industry for a while, you can tell when even very good prepackaged products are used in a commercial kitchen, and this seems to be no exception.Since it was my friend's birthday and I was treating, we both opt for the dessert special of the day. In this case, it was a pumpkin cheesecake served with cajeta. My first remark is that the cajeta was very good commercially prepared cajeta that was goat milk based. It tasted like Coronado brand which is definitely not a problem. It's one of the better cajetas available on the market. As for the cheesecake itself, I would have appreciated it if we had been told that it was "Basque" style cheesecake, but on second thought it's probably best that we weren't told that as the top was severely under browned for a Basque-style cheesecake. In any case, the taste and balance and texture were all quite good and the dessert was actually one of the highlights of the experience. Kudos to them for even attempting it in El Paso as I don't think I've seen it anywhere else on a menu here. The problem is that the intense cooking temperature creates really beautiful caramelized notes in the top layer. Since this was doused with a generous amount of cajeta, I don't suppose it was really missed that the preparation was a little bit off in the execution.All in all, it was an okay experience with a fairly high price point for El Paso. I didn't expect it to be any less expensive than it was, but I did expect the general experience to be better than it was. In this case company makes everything better and I got to have an enjoyable evening out with a close friend. Unfortunately, I don't see this restaurant becoming a regular place for me to come to even for special events. It was simply lacking in some of the things I expect. All that said, the Seafood menu looked quite impressive and was probably quite good since that seems to be something that they specialize in. Perhaps my experience would have been different had I ordered from that side of the menu, but if you have a prime rib special, I expect the prime rib to have been done correctly from the ground up.

While spending the holidays at El Paso, I went to Manhattan Heights to meet my boyfriend's best friend for dinner and drinks. Service was impeccable, they really went above and beyond to make our evening enjoyable. The beef melted in my mouth and I'm still daydreaming about those bacon wrapped shrimp. They have an above average wine selection if that's your thing and a wide variety of cocktails. The restaurant was packed which made sense for a Saturday, but our dining experience still felt intimate. It would be a great choice for a date night.

It was super busy because of valentine's day so we decided to try and we were sat as soon as we walked in. The ceviche is always delicious everytime I go, the porkchop was amazing and the ribeye was very good. I would say one thing that I would fix is the way the caesar salad came out. It was super wet and barely had any dressing on there, was not a fan. It was very romantic and the vibes were great. I would recommend for a date night.

Ambiance is nice. Decor is modern, music is kinda loud, plenty of seating. Bar is big for date night. Service was a little slow but good. Never had to hunt anyone down for a refill. Food- one thing I would HIGHLY recommend is that they change their plates. Those plates are horrible for their presentation. We ordered ahi tuna and calamari. I was not a fan of the calamari due to the breading being too much for me. I can't comment on the ahi tuna because I didn't try it. 3 of us ordered the pecan crusted salmon which is a good size fish, with light crust on it. It only comes with the fish and not even a side (they do provide a soup or salad). That sucked. I ordered a side of mashed potatoes which were good. My brother though ordered Brussel sprouts and they were soooo good. I would go back just for those! I will be returning but Ya'll change the plates to make your presentation better. But great on flavor.

On 11/17/2024 I placed a to-go order for 4 people. This was the first time to try this restaurant. Unfortunately, no one enjoyed their food. Ordered two steak sandwich medium rare but both were terribly overcooked and lacked any flavor. Also ordered the prime rib sandwich and if the au jus wasn't included it would have been tough and chewy. Was looking forward to the "Geske salad" but the greens were oddly wet. Total bill before tip was $120.55! Every thing was al carte so fries were $3.99, Mac and cheese was $6.99! Trying to read the online menu also was a problem. It seems there are a couple of versions online so only use the website to look at the menu. I'm not interested in trying this place again.

Clarification in the previous review I made a mistake when mentionainh that Alexander Dncsn does not owe the Pelican.

First time here, nice decor and ambiance was great. My friend had the risotto which was great. I ordered the scallops which tasted frozen and overcooked. Wish I had taken a pic because they tasted horrible and looked even worst (shocking). To make things worst the presentation of the plate was a joke, the so called scallops (yuk) were over rice which were all placed on 20% of the plate, the rest of my plate was empty. Never had I seen such a dish. I should have sent them back but didn't want to embarrass my friend. Will never return.

For those of you that LOVE eating at The Thirty5, but hate Driving all the way East and wish they were closer, your prayers have been answered. Manhattan Heights is literally the sister restaurant to the Thirty5. Same Identical menu, same daily specials, same Happy Hour. The ONLY difference is Heights is open for Lunch Wed.-Fri. and has about 10 lunch specials that range from a steak to seafood and a Geske Salad.Otherwise, we've seen this show before. Which was kind of a let down to be honest. I went o see what was NEW, what was different! You name a place Manhattan Heights, and if your not an El Paso Native, your thinking New York MANHATTAN. Heights as in ELEVATED. The bar shape, the tables and the chairs are even all the same as the ones at the Thirty5. They even have the same little set of wine cages you can buy. The place is just BIGGER. inside. Not so cramped. The not quite finished patio appears that it will be smaller then the Thirty5 just on sight. The food and service, well obviously this is a different staff and cooks. Our staff was super attentive, but this was a Sunday early evening, no cowboys on, they had just finished, and only about two other tables and a group in front of the large windows facing Montana and the 5,points bus terminal. So not too busy at all. We had Peel and eat shrimp appetizer with fried zucchini and mushrooms as well. Both were delicious, I love their shrimp like this. And fried mushrooms?? Yes please! Applicable Ranch for dipping them and the zucchini. No one was feeling a steak tonight so not sure how well they do those here, one got caldillo, it was full of meat, and a few potatoes. She really liked it. Another and I split a prime rib sandwich. No prime rib on Sundays (and why not???) So this is a way to have it, I assume it's from Saturday leftover. Honestly prime rib does make the best sandwiches the next day when I make one! They don't slice it up thin or anything, you get what appears to be at least a 10oz slice of prime rib on a hoagie style roll and serve it with lettuce and sliced tomatoes on the side of you want to add that but also have hot Au Jus so you can dip it like a French Dip. It was so SO good. My last fried got the crab stuffed tilapia. Now I have gotten that before and it's the one dish I won't order again. I just didn't like it, not the taste or the texture, it just didnt agree with me. Another time I was with a dining club and a friend got it and stopped eating about 1/3rd of the way thru the dish. I told him my feelings about it and he agreed, he's not be ordering it again. But TONIGHT, this friend LOVED IT. and it did look different from when I've seen it or ordered it at the Thirty5. It had cheese all melted on top and seemed to have some kind of cream sauce. He said it reminded him of a crab Thermador he used to get at a seafood place. He just raved about it and how much crab there was, but wondered why they used such a cheap fish like tilapia when they could have chosen a better white fish. So all food was amazing. So was the service, the dark, lowlights, lends itself to intimate conversation. So the reason for only 4 stars is I was just was hoping to see some new items on the menu. Like a lobster tail, a porterhouse and or tomahawk steak or tomahawk pork chop. And can we get some bread and butter on the table? And it's TIME and this is the place, for a new soup. Yes we had the New England clam chowder and it was AMAZING, BEST IN EL PASO, I THINK. but we need another soup option with our meal. Maybe since this is Manhattan Heights, a Manhattan clam chowder? Congratulations on the place and location, go check it out if you can get to central, you won't be disappointed.

service and deceptive menu pricing.went on valentine's day and ordered the special titled "dinner for two" steak medallions and lobster for $85.to my surprise, the tab came in at $85 for each one. why would you call it dinner for two if it was each? extremely deceptive and each place was definitely not worth $85.be aware of what you order at this place.won't be back.