Manoli's is the restaurant Salt Lake City points to when someone asks whether this town can really cook. Chef Manoli Katsanevas has run the corner room on East Harvey Milk Boulevard since September 2015, turning out from-scratch Greek small plates that earned a James Beard Award semifinalist nod for Outstanding Hospitality in 2023. Start with the Paidakia, grilled lamb riblets under a caper chimichurri, and work outward from there.
Key Takeaways
- Manoli's was a 2023 James Beard Award semifinalist for Outstanding Hospitality, and it holds a 4.7★ Google review average across 802 reviews as of June 2026.
- The one dish to order is the Paidakia: grilled lamb riblets with caper chimichurri and sea salt, $18 and gluten-free.
- Plan on $30–50 per person at dinner. The room is small, it books up on weekends, and reservations run through Resy.
From Crown Burger to Harvey Milk Boulevard
The Katsanevas name has fed Salt Lake City for almost fifty years. Manoli's uncle Nick, along with Nick's sister and her husband, opened Utah's first Crown Burger in 1978, and Manoli started working in the family business at 13. After Skyline High he enrolled in Salt Lake Community College's Culinary Institute, finished his degree in 2009, and cooked through lines at Fleming's, Smith's Bistro, and Caffe Niche before he and his wife Katrina opened Manoli's in September 2015, a few blocks west of Liberty Park.
The idea was simple and it hasn't changed: Greek food built from scratch on local, seasonal ingredients, served as small plates so a table gets to taste widely instead of defending three entrées. The menu calls them meze, Greece's answer to tapas. The 54-seat room stays loud and warm on a weekend night, and the kitchen's pace rewards people who order in rounds.
That corner of Central City suits the restaurant. Harvey Milk Boulevard is the newer name for 900 South, the "9th" in manolison9th.com, and Manoli's holds down its quieter western blocks, an easy anchor for a tour of the Mediterranean restaurants in Central City.
What should you order at Manoli's?
The riblets, and then it depends on your table. Menu prices below are current as of June 2026; the full list lives on Manoli's menu page.
| Dish | Price | The one-line case |
|---|
| Paidakia (lamb riblets) | $18 | The signature. Char, salt, capers, bones you'll pick clean. |
| Saganaki | $22 | Seared kefalograviera with cranberry mostarda and house pita. |
| Htapodi (charred octopus) | Market | The kitchen's technique showcase, over Zürsun beans. |
| Moschari Souvlaki | $19 | Short rib souvlaki with a red wine glaze. The comfort order. |
| Zimarika | $24 | Myzithra and spinach dumplings in manouri cream. |
The case for the lamb riblets
Most Greek restaurants sell you lamb chops, a polite cut you eat with a knife and fork. Manoli's cooks riblets instead, and the difference is the whole point. Riblets carry more fat and more connective tissue than a chop, which means they can take a real char on the grill without drying out. What lands on the table is blistered and glossy, seasoned with little more than sea salt, with a caper chimichurri on top that cuts straight through the richness. The capers do the job lemon usually does, but saltier and greener, and the plate is gluten-free without trying.
You eat them with your hands. There's no dignified alternative, and the room doesn't expect one. An order runs $18, and between two people it disappears in about five minutes, which is why tables that have been here before order two rounds of it up front. If you take one dish as the measure of the kitchen, this is the one: humble cut, exact cooking, one sharp idea on top, nothing decorative.
Pair it with the Psomi, grilled house pita with olives and olive oil at $9, and use the bread on whatever the chimichurri leaves behind.
What else earns a spot on the table
The vegetarian side of the menu is a bench, not an afterthought. Yemista, piquillo peppers stuffed with smoked feta, is $11 and might be the best pure value on the list. The Saganaki arrives seared and still bubbling at the edges, and the cranberry mostarda reads odd on paper and obvious on the palate. From the seafood meze, the Garides puts grilled shrimp over herbed polenta with a Greek coffee barbecue sauce for $17, a dish that shouldn't work and does. The Keftedes, pork and beef meatballs in a cinnamon-scented tomato sauce, are $15 and taste like Sunday dinner.
If someone at your table insists on a knife and fork, the lamb burger at $19 comes with a side and no judgment.
When should you go?
Dinner runs Tuesday through Sunday, 5 to 10 p.m., and the restaurant is closed Mondays. Brunch happens Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and it's the sleeper move: the same kitchen at half the crowd, plus Venizelo's Greek coffee at $4 and a Nescafé frappé at $5, the iced foam-topped coffee that fuels every beach town in Greece. If you're building a longer morning around it, Central City has a deep breakfast and brunch bench within a few blocks.
Google's crowd data, as of June 2026, puts the peak at Friday around 7 p.m. and the quiet at Tuesday around 5 p.m. Walking in early on a weeknight usually works; on weekends, book through Resy from the restaurant's site. Plan on $30–50 a head at dinner, before wine.
The comeback nobody ordered
In January 2023 the James Beard Foundation named Manoli's a semifinalist for Outstanding Hospitality, a national category. The restaurant couldn't celebrate: a pipe had burst in the space above it weeks earlier, flooding the dining room and causing roughly $250,000 in damage. Manoli's stayed dark for over four months and reopened on May 16, 2023, to the same corner and the same crowds. How many small restaurants survive that long a closure and come back at full strength?
The Beard nod sits on top of a long shelf. Salt Lake magazine gave Manoli's Dining Awards in 2016, 2017, 2018, and again in 2022. Time magazine put it on its 2017 list of the best restaurants in every state, and Zagat used it that same year as a reason to drive to Salt Lake City. Among Salt Lake City's Greek restaurants, nothing else comes close on hardware.
Is Manoli's worth it?
What makes it special: A chef who grew up inside Utah's most famous Greek-American food family, cooking the food that family actually eats, at the level national critics keep noticing.
Our take: This is the most decorated Greek restaurant in Utah and it still feels like a neighborhood spot, not a shrine. Order the Paidakia twice, let the kitchen pace the rest, and go at brunch if you want the room to yourself. Details, hours, and directions are on our Manoli's page.
Does Manoli's take reservations?
Yes, through Resy, linked from manolison9th.com. The room seats 54, so weekend dinner books out; Tuesday through Thursday you can usually walk in early.
How much does dinner at Manoli's cost?
Most diners spend $30–50 per person. Meze run $11–24, and the kitchen suggests a few plates per person, ordered in rounds.
Is Manoli's good for gluten-free or vegetarian diners?
Yes on both counts. The menu marks gluten-free dishes, including the lamb riblets and most of the vegetarian meze section, which runs six plates deep.
Where is Manoli's and where do you park?
402 East Harvey Milk Boulevard #2, in Central City. Street parking is the norm on this stretch of 900 South, and the restaurant is on the south side of the street.
Sources
- Manoli's menu, hours, and reservations: manolison9th.com (retrieved July 5, 2026); menu prices as of June 2026.
- KUER 90.1, "Just as James Beard came calling, flooding struck. Now Manoli's can't wait to reopen" (May 5, 2023).
- Salt Lake Community College, Distinguished Alumni: Manoli Katsanevas (retrieved July 5, 2026).
- The Salt Lake Tribune, "Manoli's broadens scope of Greek scene, one small plate at a time" (2016).
- Salt Lake magazine, "Manoli's: 2022 Salt Lake Magazine Dining Award Winner" and "What's New At Salt Lake City Restaurant Manoli's?" (flood damage figure).
- Press coverage index (Time 2017, Zagat 2017, Salt Lake magazine 2016–2018): manolison9th.com/press (retrieved July 5, 2026).
- Google review averages as of June 2026.
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“Pair it with the Psomi, grilled house pita with olives and olive oil at $9, and use the bread on whatever the chimichurri leaves behind.”
