Manka’s Inverness Lodge
by Kara DiCamillo, Newport, Rhode Island on 06.14.05
Just an hour north of San Francisco is the beautiful Point Reyes National Seashore. With coastal hills, endless white sand beaches and many hiking trails that crisscross through 80,000 acres, Manka’s Inverness Lodge seems like the perfect fit. Located in a quirky former hunting lodge, the restaurant and inn is a culinary delight where the food is always fresh, seasonal, local and strictly organic...
The menu features whatever is the freshest and ripest within a thirty-mile radius and dinner depends on what the local farmers, foragers, trappers and hunters bring to the back door. With “leaves of local chard wrapped around coastal goat’s milk fromage blanc served with crimson Bolinas beets and cipollini” and “a soup of Peter’s potatoes and Warren’s arugula” it is a “foodies” heaven. Blue cheese from a nearby dairy is paired with fresh grilled pumpkin bread and followed by “an ice of coastal cream sweetened with West Marin honey, scooped over wild Inverness huckleberries” and “ribboned with the doctor’s deep chocolate.” Make sure you have a reservation, especially if you plan to spend the night. It is recommended that you make them several months in advance. Decide to try Manka’s? Let us know what you think! Via ::Town & Country Travel (subscription) ::Manka’s Inverness Lodge
Point Reyes is absolutely gorgeous.
I ate at Manka's once it was one of the most expensive and worst meals I've ever had. The service was dreadful and the waiter couldn't answer any questions about the wine. When the wine arrived it was horrible and we sent it back. After that the waiter seemed to put us on the shit list and ignored our repeated requests for silverware replacements that they neglected return with forks they took from the table between courses. We finally took new forks off another table. The soup was salty, the vinson was tough and chewy. We got feed up and split before desert. I asked for our money back they refused. Nice way to throw away a hundred and fifty dollars on your tenth aniversary huh? We weren't the only ones in the resturant having a bad time either. One woman got in argument about replacing silverware that came to the table soiled and others were fuming at the slow service. So maybe it was a bad night but that's the last time I'll set foot in the place.