Cafe Manna

Update: Since my last review it seems that the staff has perked up a bit and tend to say at least one or two words to their customers now. Maybe they read my review :) Thanks for saying hello and thanks once in a while now.

This place is absolutely horrible. The employees openly hate life, are rude, and treat their customers with no respect. I would never step foot in this place if I didn’t work right above it and I encourage everyone from wasting their money and going to a place where the employees have respect.
Also the food… that is pretty horrible for the price too.

I love that their sandwich meat is freshly cooked and they actually cut it off for you (e.g. from a cooked turkey/​chicken). Portions are huge! They also have a very interesting collection of drinks.

I hate that the cleanliness and customer service of the staff keeps me from visiting this location now because it is convenient. If this place ever goes under new management, I will consider returning. Until then, my entire work center has agreed to not spend another dime there.
This place has a very good selection of food. You can either select prepackaged food or have something freshly made. I ate here everyday for breakfast until recently.
The problem with this place is two-​fold: 1. Cleanliness and 2. Customer Service
The staff is mostly women and they are exceptionally rude. For the most part, I would order the same thing for breakfast but every blue moon I would switch up my order and that annoyed them to no end. It annoyed them because as soon as I would walk through the door they would start making my food without asking what I wanted. I never allowed the rudeness to bother me until…
— I noticed that they are not very clean. A coworker grabbed yogurt to go and after noticing that it didn’t taste right, she took it back. She started reading the label and noticed that it had been expired for a while. When she let them know that the yogurt was expired, they didn’t seem concerned at all and kept the yogurt on the stand to sell and told her she could just grab another one if she wanted.
— My boss complained that on several occasions that woman at the register would sneeze into her hand and hand him his change.
— The woman making the omelets likes to throw the shells across the kitchen into the trashcan. One day part of the raw egg ended up in the food container that she was about to place my food into. Thank GOODNESS I saw it before she did.
— I was ordering a salad one day and the staff was annoyed that a woman who should have been working the station wasn’t present. She made my salad and the manager came from the back area and started making his own salad. He picked up all of the food out of the bins with his bare hands. I asked him if he normally does that and he laughed, said «yes,» and walked away.
— On several occasions the younger lady has sneezed and/​or coughed into her hand when handling my debit card

Really terrible. Just really, really terrible.
The staff is incredibly rude. In fact, I have witnessed a stand-​off between them to see who would assist me, leaving me standing there waiting while both staff members just looked at me.
I have heard the sandwiches are decent, but buyer beware: the owner (who is also one of the rude staff) touches the food with his bare hands.
Make sure you check all the expiration dates on things you buy, like yogurt. My coworker and I went to get some yogurt and hers was two weeks expired. When we took it back, the cashier just said «well, some of the other ones aren’t expired, you can go get one of those».
If this place were not convenient, I know they would not be in business.

I wouldnt let my dog eat here. These ladies are so rude.

Came here for the first time and was pleasantly surprised. Had a great roast beef sandwich, and prices were comparable if not cheaper to a lot of other nearby places.

These ladies work their tails off providing hoards of Crystal City professionals with freshly cooked food.
I almost always get the Turkey Ruben. Freshly chopped turkey makes all the difference. First you taste the buttery goodness that is the toasted Rye Bread. Then you see the melted Swiss cheese as you pull the sandwich apart. Lastly, you may need a fork/​spoon to pick up the dropped turkey pieces after you take a bite.
Delicious!
This isn’t a quick in/​out place since mostly everything is prepared in front of you. People don’t seem to mind the wait. I just wait until after the lunch rush.
Food is a little pricey but it’s worth it. I’ve only been to their breakfast once. You’d do better off at Subway. The breakfast food isn’t bad, just not competitively priced for what you get.
Enjoy!

(Stale bread. + Bad service behind the sandwich bar) * a six dollar chicken salad sandwich = boooooooooo Café Mana.
I asked for a «just a little bit» of oil on my sprouts. The sandwich bar attendant poured about 3 TBL of oil on my sandwich. If someone wasn’t waiting for me, I would have asked her to remake it. Overall, she was rude and didn’t seem open to giving my my options for what I could get on my sandwich. For six dollars, I expect the floodgates of options.
However, the chicken salad was good and there was a good amount of chicken on my sandwich and the veggies were fresh (tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, and sprouts).
Not returning… unless I’m super vigilant about my sandwich making.

Great sandwiches and salads. Good hot food area, with selections changing daily. Try the turkey pot pie, usually on monday. Every kind of soda or other non-​alcoholic drink, and some good desserts and snacks. Great for breakfast. Only open for breakfast and lunch, no dinner.

I eat here sometimes for lunch, usually just a sandwich. They carve ham, chicken, turkey or roast beef and put it on bread. Pretty basic, but quick and consistent.

No turkey was served on my turkey sandwich. The end, folks.

After grabbing lunch from chains in the block like Subway, Chipotle, Chick-​Fil-​A, Jimmy John’s, BW3, etc., thought it was time I tried out something new and off the beaten path like Café Manna for a change. Walked past there a few times and decided to grab a salad from there.
From the look of its décor and ambiance, it’s like any other cafeteria but a nice-​looking one.
I could hear some staff members there speaking Korean with some others speaking Spanish.
There salads are MTO and the so-​called small size is more like entrée-​size. Even the grilled chicken I added for +$ 2.50 to my salad was generous portion. Chose the fat-​free sundried tomato dressing.
So far, one of the freshest quality salad I ever had in Crystal City plus the chicken was pretty tender.

I love this place for lunch after working out at Sport and Health next door. They specialize in carved meat sandwiches (turkey breast, chicken breast, ham, beef, pork). My favorite is turkey on multi-​grain bread. Yum! Just like Thanksgiving leftover sandwich. They pile on the meat. Price is a little high (you pay extra for cheese), but what the hell. It’s the best sandwich in Crystal City by far. They also have «make to order» salads and a grill. I believe they also do breakfast and expresso bar (but I don’t go there for breakfast). Crowded at lunch but they are fast and there’s plenty of seating. My only gripe is the noise level.

3.5 stars!
I was pleasantly surprised by this little sandwich shop. I think it is run by a Korean family so put the place into a Korean sandwich shop context. What do mean by that?! Well… The little things. Like the croutons are not actually made from old bread, but just super fresh bread they toast up… I mean, I’m not complaining, but it’s not what I am used to! The salads also taste very similar to those you would find at shila’s…
I really liked this place because of the prices, cleanliness, and overall freshness of the food. I got a small salad ($ 3.99) and it actually was not small at all. You pick your own toppings and meat (just like subway). Surprisingly, a lot of toppings are free and they charge about 50 cents/​1 $ each for bacon or cheese.
The service was fast, and friendly. I had a late lunch (~1:15) but there was ample seating which is nice for CC.