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Is this not the greasiest thing you've ever seen?
Mann’s Grille on the Southwest side is a throwback; there are no “light portions” or “low-carb options.” The place is decorated with wood paneling and trophy fish. And the prices are ridiculous.
Family-owned and operated for nearly four decades, Mann’s has a sign by the grill that simply declares “OASIS,” and this place certainly is. The restaurant feels less like a beloved neighborhood diner (which it is), than a small town’s sole eatery, where everyone seems to know one another.
Thankfully, Mann’s also has great food.
The menu is full of down-home favorites: meatloaf, pot roast, liver and onions, etc. I go with a breakfast/dinner combination, ordering a bacon cheeseburger, buffalo fries, macaroni and cheese, coffee, a pound of peanut butter fudge and the Mann’s Breakfast. The latter offers a variety of combination possibilities; I opt for hashbrowns, pancakes, bacon, white toast and two fried eggs.
It sounded like a lot when I ordered it, but I’m always skeptical when prices are as low as they were. The Mann’s Breakfast, for example, was less than $6, and the bacon cheeseburger was only $3.55.
I was wrong to be skeptical.
The order came to almost six dinner plates piled with food. The Mann’s Breakfast took up three of them — a plate of light and fluffy pancakes, a plate with the perfectly fried eggs, bacon and toast, and a third dedicated to a mound of hash browns. It’s deliciously Herculean. I imagine this is how lumberjacks eat.
The dinner portion was equally alarming. There was a bowl of mac and cheese, and a plate with seasoned buffalo fries and the bacon cheeseburger. It’s the burger that initially catches my eye. Normally, when you order one of these, you get two, maybe three strips of bacon. There’s got to be nearly a full (precooked) pound of bacon here.
Needless to say, I had leftovers. I was hungry when I went, so the remainder provided me with only two additional meals. Most amazing, though, is that all that food ran just under $16. Ordering (relatively) light, it would be easy to keep the cost of an ample dinner to under $6, including tip.
As I sat there processing the food and the experience, the waitress asked the man behind me if he needed a box for his leftovers. “No, just a treadmill,” he replied.
Mann’s Grille is at 1214 S. Tibbs Ave. Info: (317) 241-5801.
