Manito Tap House

A great neighborhood pub. Summertime is great to sit outside on the patio. New menu items are a regular occurrence, keeping things fresh. Popular items stay the same, with my favorites being the clam appetizer, yam chips, and the lamb Philly cheese steak sandwich.

My wife is gluten intolerant, and the wait staff is very knowledgeable about allergy information. A huge beer selection, with lots of local craft beers. I have two small kids, and they are always welcomed but it is not generally frequented by lots of families.

I love hanger steak and good beer options, so the Manito Tap House quickly got my attention (when I was browsing dinner options on the Yelp app). My boyfriend avoids gluten because he doesn't like what it does to him, so I was also excited to see that gluten-free options were highlighted on the menu.

When we arrived on Thursday evening, the place was packed! Good sign. We enjoyed looking at the bottle chandelier and were very impressed by the hostess. She was doing a great job managing the tables, and my boyfriend mentioned that she seems to have a better understanding of what the waiters have to work with than most hostesses. She was very... good at managing a room of tables and customers, I guess. (Hard for me to explain?)

When we sat down, we mentioned a gluten intolerance and they said the hanger steak dish was one of the best gluten-free options. The waiter did a great job taking our orders and helped my boyfriend picked out a cider that he'd enjoy. When the food arrived, however... there were a couple sort of small issues. My boyfriend's salad had croutons on it and his steak had the cheese that he asked for them to not include. We ended up asking for a different salad, but he ended up just eating the entree because that's more of a personal preference (than the gluten).

We did enjoy our salads and rare hanger steaks (with veggies), but if we return I think we'll both ask for no cheese/butter on the steak. I'm sure plenty of people love and will love the cheesy flavored butter... but we are not those people. (I didn't ask for them to skip the cheese/butter this time because it sounded interesting and I wanted to try it.)

I don't live in Spokane and will probably not be visiting the city again soon, but... Manito reminded me of Brouwer's Cafe in the Fremont neighborhood (of Seattle), so I guess I can visit Brouwer's whenever I'm in the mood for something "like Manito." I guess another option is Fremont Brewery... Manito carries at least one of their beers! (If you also live in Seattle and like those places, then I think you might like Manito in Spokane.)

Fresh and flavorful food. Love the very local beer (we had Trashy Blond).  Yam chips are so light and tasty, much better than sweet potato fries. The Carne Adovado was absolutely amazing--the corn tortillas were delicious. The Chicken curry wrap was also seasoned to perfection and again fresh and delightful. The side of mac & cheese was not heavy-handed and sooooo tasty. This restaurant rivals gourmet restaurants anywhere. We're from Moscow ID and we'll be back.
(loved the bike repair station and cool bike racks too).
YUM!