Review Manara - Coburg

The service was super friendly and the food was superb. We had the banquet meal for $35 and it was a huge amount of food and very fresh & tasty. This was the dips but I forgot to photograph the banquet.

Went to manara for the first time yesterday. The food is top notch, good quality and very reasonably priced. The batata harra is one of my favourite dishes we ordered. Left the place with my cheeks hurting from laughing and smiling a lot. Great customer service! Particularly Sameera, hilarious and provides the best service. Would recommend. Thanks a million guys, we’re definitely coming back again!

I'm giving 3 stars for the friendly service received from the lady who wore the hijab (only for her) the other 2 servers, not so friendly The only part of the meal I enjoyed was the cheese sambusik and potato harra. The rice was served cold. Would I eat there again? Probably not.

As the saying goes - 'Great cry, little wool'. Dined here, got the banquet for two people, which was quite underwhelming to be honest. The lady who served us used the word 'unlimited food' quite extravagantly. However, everytime we asked for more food, we got 'the eyes'. The meat was dry and lacked flavour. The table was very small. Prior to being served, we requested to be moved to a bigger table and were rejected. The reason cited was pre-booking, though the restaurant was almost completely empty and remained that way until we left. We eneded up juggling plates the whole time. On the bright side, I found a place I'll probably never go to again. So yay!

The food and service was absolutely divine!!! Very authenric lebanese food. Easy to find and easy to park as well. Highly recommend.

Yummy food. Friendly staff. Good service.

Went there for brekky. I had the fatteh which was delicious and the perfect size serving. My friend had a generous platter of food which included egg, sujuk, labneh and shangleesh. Food well presented. The coffee could have been better. Friendly staff and lots of seating. Will definitely return.

Went for a engagement and was very disappointed with the food and there wasn’t a great deal of it then they run out of coke and also ice. Then the staff were rude and the major flaw was going ti the male toilets and finding mushrooms growing out of the floor in the corner behind the door absolutely disgusting

I had my birthday last night there in the function room which was great! We have been there many times for dinner but this time i had people from all cultures invited which agreed its the best lebanese restaurant. There were people who had not tried lebanese food yet...they will be coming back. Thank you Khaled for your hospitality and your wonderful staff. You not only are a great owner but a gentleman �

Delicious, fresh, tasty, high quality food. We thoroughly enjoyed our banquet meal. There was way too much food but we did our best to get through it. The staff were so lovely

Went to Manara last night great food and entertainment. They even played Greek music for us to join in the dancing. Very friendly staff. Would definitely recommend and go back again.

Had my 50th last night at Manara and it was the best night. The food was excellent , the service was excellent i will recommend Manara to all my friends and family. Thank you guys;)))

The food, music and staff are simply amazing. I highly recommend manara 😊

Hands down the BEST food I've ever eaten! Highly recommend

Had new years eve at the restaurant. Very bad food, dry and looks absolutely not fresh. Employees didn’t serve well and we’re rude. At 1:00 no ice, no cold drinks! Were not generous at all with anything, food was ridiculously disgusting. Will not ever go there again. Just lost 40 customers.

Ok besides most of the tables had a very large chip on the plates.

Love the fresh food, chef really cares about the quality of the food that is served. Generous servings, great dining experience, definitely go again.

Wish I had a photo of the food here<br/><br/>Been here for many functions and each time the food is amazing <br/>The chicken and lamb shush have so much flavour and each of the salads and dips are incredible <br/><br/>Would recommend

Nice place <br/>Well served<br/>Friendly staff <br/>Reasonable prices<br/>Food portions are reasonable <br/>Still the service and the menu can be better, but its fair <br/>Good for small group<br/><br/> <br/>

Banquet has a range of different food, not all are authentic Lebanese and some are things like chips and chicken wings (so random). <br/>Friendly and welcoming staff, live music is great and the singer is entertaining, spacious place and clean

The night I went music was blasting as loud as the club, you have to yell to talk to someone but it was a diff experience. Food was ok, prawns and adana was good but everything else is super average.

I organised my sister's thirtieth here tonight. The service was fantastic, the food delicious and everyone had a great time. The potato harra was sublime as was the shish lahme just to name a couple of our favourites. We had the large banquet and we all left very satisfied. Yum!

We tried the lamb shish and chicken shish meal and some of the mezza too. All the food was great. The meat was very tender and batata harra was something new to me and was delicious. The service was prompt and food delivered quickly

Came here on a Saturday night. There was live music and dance floor. Definitely great atmosphere. <br/><br/>We had the banquet. Soo much food. It was $70 per couple. <br/>Food was tasty... Felt the waiters here were a bit rude, not attentive.

Excited to see the reviews but worst ever labanese food I have had in Australia . The BBQ was re heated from frozen had too much oil on it the rice were very oily , and humas was hopeless as well . Prices were very high as compared to the standard of food served which was basically zero . Don't go there ever better to stay hungry

My husband & I frequently come here...we always get one of the banquets. Meat tasty and not dry...dips are tasty & freash as is the salad.<br/>Its a family restaurant...and we have always had great service.

After reading the reviews, i was excited to check out this lebanese restaurant with a few girlfriends. Upon ordering mansaf and shish kebab, which appeared to be the best dishes to order. <br/><br/>Well I'll cut straight to the point, my mansaf was extremely disappointing and these are reasons why:<br/><br/>1) rice was soggy and had a really off smell <br/>2) chicken was dry<br/>3) salad was drenched with sauce<br/><br/>We requested to take back the dish and they took it back with no hassle. I didnt really enjoy this experience and wouldnt recommend this place to family or friends. <br/><br/>Positive note: They didn't charge for my returned meal

we visited  the restaurant few days ago , we ordered mixed platter, fattoush and homos and coke, <br/><br/>first the waiters were unfriendly and when we asked for Fattoush he didn't ask which size and bring us Large even though we didnt specifically  asked for large , but any way it was good, <br/><br/>mixed platter was good size but not cooked at was raw from inside , off course we didn't ask the waiter to replace it as it seems clearly he don't want to serve us at the first place. the homos was standard  not not even worth the price and the rice was plain and over cooked <br/><br/>over all , i wont visited again, never felt comfort and the atmosphere wasn't welcoming any way, <br/>and i don't recommended to any one, i have visited so many middle eastern restaurant and i didn't like this one at all.

Stock standard. Beautiful inside setting and lovely tables and chairs, make for a comfortable dinner. Good for big groups and averagely priced at 25 a head. However the food was very very poor in quality. Quite dry and standard. Disappointing for what seemed to be such a great place. Staff were great but the quality of food was a shame - that falls onto the owner. The service was exceptional.

We dined on a Saturday and there was no a la carte menu but choices of banquet meals.   <br/>We liked:  Lovely dips and cooked meats.  Generous serves.  The table service and staff were attentive and the restaurant is clean, spacious and had lovely decor. It's a good place for big groups.<br/>We didn't like so much:  The salty taste to some of the dishes (it made us thirsty) and the black vinegar swimming at the bottom of the vegetable salad plate (it was very strong in taste).

amongst all my experiences in dining, this ought to be the worst experiences, from food to staff and management. food came out cold and a little stale, when I asked management and staff to rectify the situation they had been quite aggressive towards the situation, I do not recommend this venue for middle eastern food as it gives a very bad reputation towards middle eastern food. I have been to many middle eastern food restaurants and this venue (manara) is very bad, I have never been mistreated by any other middle eastern venue except for this, just for simply asking them to make my meals warm... good luck to those of whom decide to go their.... enjoy :( AND by the way it is not priced at $40 for two people... it is $30 per person... another shocker..and lies

Diner From Melbourne. Went for dinner with family.Loved the food.Awesome and generous food.Great service,quick.Clean and cool environment.Loved the music as well.Will surely go again.

Unbelievably horrible.. There was only one table filled, 4 waiters, walked past us made eye contact 5 times, then 10 min later after ringing the bell 3 times they halted their deep convo to serve us.<br/><br/>Apart from the empty fridge 6 staff, canned hummus and babaganoush( I'm Lebanese myself so I'm familiar with the brands) raw meat on both skewers which when brought back suddenly became one ( when it was just reheated) ..the frozen chips and chicken wings which were unknown to us part of the menu (as it was no on it) were okay. Not sure how they can themselves Lebanese cusisine after that.<br/><br/>In all the place has to be a front, the total disrespect and disregard for the customers, coupled with the sheer number of wait staff and size of the establishment , yet it's continual survival dictates that there must be an income or revenue coming from somewhere else.

Wow :). Excellent food and service tobouli kebbeh yum and very generous servings with a smile <br/>recommend to all who enjoy a good feed with a smile .

Excellent experience at Manara.. Had dinner here with the family and the food was great.<br/>After dinner, my 3 year old wanted ice cream but they didn't have any. Unbeknown to us, the owner quietly stepped out and purchased 3 ice creams for my child to chose from. What a lovely gesture!<br/>We will definitely be returning.<br/><br/><br/>-----11 Feb, 2015-----<br/><br/>Exceptional service. Had dinner here with the family and the food was great.<br/>After dinner, my 3 year old wanted ice cream but they didn't have any. Unbeknown to us, the owner quietly stepped out and purchased 3 ice creams for my child to chose from. What a lovely gesture!<br/>We will definitely be returning.

Yuk. Worst food ever. Bad customer service

Authentic Lebanese Cooking. Really enjoyed my first time at Manara. It's authentic, flavoursome Lebanese food. The fried chicken, tabouli and kebabs were excellent. And I craved the fattoush for the rest of the week.

For my first experience at Manara, simply: Nice food beautifully presented as lebanese dishes should be garnished.. Warm atmosphere and hospitality . Good work guys , keep it up and remember there is always a room for improvement.

A great experience! The staff were friendly and attentive(not too attentive), the good was beautiful and produce was great. Even the salad had very crunchy juicy tomatoes. <br/><br/>The Shish tawook(chicken skewers) were as good as Ablas when I have been. The price was great. We couldn't finish all the food, so we all wondered if we could take it for tomorrow. Not something I would normally do, but considering the amount of food that was left over we asked. The guy made us feel really comfortable and said no problems. I am of Lebanese heritage, and the good had a very warm, homely taste, similar to my grandmothers. If you want Lebanese food, try here. The fit out and decor wasn't the best, but I quickly forgot about that when I tasted the food.

Was mortified !!!. We went into this resteraunt and the waiter couldnt understand what we were saying. we are australian and we asked for a table and he said there was none available and that we needed a booking, we went to leave and he stopped us and pointed to a table. so we went and sat down and asked if we could see the menu he said yes and went to get it, he came back with water and said dinner will be about 20 minutes. we said what????????? he said its cooking now.<br/>we said we thought we were getting menus. he looked confused and went and go the owner to tell us its a set menu. as we walked out all the people who were sitting on the owners table. (the owner was eating dinner at the time) starred at us with smirks on there faces. we were humiliated! we will never go back there again ! very unwelcoming! there should be a sign on the door that says NO Australians allowed!!

After checking on the website to make sure it was opened(which was difficult to find on a mon night) we took our 3 kids out to hopefully have a lovely dinner.<br/>when we got there, there was a closed sign on the door but lots of people in there.<br/>so i walked in hoping to speak to someone. i stood there for a few min no one payed any attention, people dressed in what looked like a chefs outfit where sitting down eating completely ignoring me then more people came out of the kitchen and they to ignored me, so after a good few min i walked out feeling really disappointed.<br/>i can understand if they were having a private function but in the hope of a new future customer or just simply being courteous they could have acknowledged me.<br/>so it will come as no surprise we will never go back.<br/>we actually did find an excellent turkish restaurant up the road so maybe i should that them.

Would have to say the best middle eastern meal in Sydney rd .good food ,good service and more than we could , well done

Kebbi Nayi. Simply delicious<br/><br/><br/>-----14 May, 2014-----<br/><br/>Food was delicious!!! They have a private function room and a<br/> beautiful outdoor area for shisha and fruit cocktails

Just had lunch at this place, beautiful & fresh lebanese food! I have eaten at Manara 3 times in the past 8 weeks & each time is better than the time before, its a shame they are not busier as the food is awesome

Disappointing. Overpriced. Stale food. Stuck up staff. PASS

Tasteless cold food. Unprofessional service. Too many better options around to ever go back to this place.

Very bad service, arrogant waiters, the food was crap, not going here again