... My family, thought this was warrant enough to go out for a meal, where I live you have a choice of 3 places to eat, The Orchard, Strawberry Fields & Frankie & Benny’s.
I have to say here, I was going to do a ‘specific’ review of the Frankie & Bennys where I live however, I’m a bit of a ... Read review
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I have to say here, I was going to do a ‘specific’ review of the Frankie & Bennys where I live however, I’m a bit of a chicken and I have no idea what this review is going to turn out like and I don’t want the next time that I go into the place for them to throw pasta at me or something like that.
We were planning to go after college/school on a Friday, before 5pm ... .../>
==History of Frankie & Benny’s==
When Frankie Giuliani was 10 years old, he moved from Sicily to Ellis Island New York back in 1924. They moved into a predominantly Italian neighbourhood called Little Italy, and there they opened a restaurant. In High School Frankie met Benny, a third generation American, and when Frankie’s father retired in 1953 Frankie & Benny took over the business and they combined the best of popular ... more
On Wednesday I had a University Interview, this was my last choice of University and the only Uni that wanted an interview. I went, I got nervous, but the interview itself was perfectly fine. The day after, I got an email saying I had been accepted to this particular University, which meant that each one that I applied to wanted me at their Uni for some strange reason. My family, thought this was warrant enough to go out for a meal, where I live you have a choice of 3 places to eat, The Orchard, Strawberry Fields & Frankie & Benny’s.
I have to say here, I was going to do a ‘specific’ review of the Frankie & Bennys where I live however, I’m a bit of a chicken and I have no idea what this review is going to turn out like and I don’t want the next time that I go into the place for them to throw pasta at me or something like that.
We were planning to go after college/school on a Friday, before 5pm and the great deal that Frankie & Benny’s does really does entice us to go each time.
Oh and if this review does not turn out good, you can blame SweetTooth93 as she has been convincing me since I’ve been talking to her outside of Ciao and low and behold, my first restaurant review, let’s hope it goes well. Have fun.
History of Frankie & Benny’s
When Frankie Giuliani was 10 years old, he moved from Sicily to Ellis Island New York back in 1924. They moved into a predominantly Italian neighbourhood called Little Italy, and there they opened a restaurant. In High School Frankie met Benny, a third generation American, and when Frankie’s father retired in 1953 Frankie & Benny took over the business and they combined the best of popular American food with the best of popular traditional Italian dishes.
Now there are hundreds of these restaurants all over the world, and one finally opened in my little town.
The Menu
I started off writing this part of the review and including everything in it, not only did this seem like a waste of my time and yours, and it pretty much would just be a filler. I’ll include the meals that I think are relevant and what would bring people in, but that is it. I’ll give a link to the actual menu on the website at the end of the review if I remember.
Appetisers
Soup of the Day Bruschetta Loaded Potato Skins Mushroom Alfredo Crispy Coated Chicken Strips Chicken Wings Prawn Cocktail Little Italy Mussels Fried Calamari Mozzarella & Tomato Salad Tiger Prawn Diavlo
I always seem to go for the soup if I have an appetiser, I’m not too adventurous when it comes to the appetiser, the soups are usually lovely, I have to say the one I had today was lovely however looked and tasted too much like the tins of Heinz soup we had in our cupboard at home though, I’m sure they wouldn’t serve that though. The prices are between £2.95 for the soup of the day and £5.95 for the Tiger Prawn Diavlo.
Main
Spaghetti Bolognaise Spicy Sausage Pasta Meatballs on Spaghetti Chicken Americano Pizza Hawaiian Pizza BBQ Chicken Pizza Salmon Fishcakes Oven Backed Pesto Salmon Salt and Pepper Scampi Cheeseburger Veg Burger Meatball Sub Chicken Club Triple Decker
I have either tried or seen my mates have all of these meals, the only one that I’ve seen go wrong was the meatballs on the spaghetti and that was my own, I complained about the meatballs as I’m sure I could have played tennis with them they were that hard and of course they sent it back and they came back out again and they were exactly the same. In the end I asked for them to take the meatballs off and put some more bolognaise on top, of course they still charged me for the meatball one. This was our first time within this restauraunt and I have to say it put me off slightly, however as a whole we’ve all stayed away from this particular meal and we’ve never had a problem since. I really like the BBQ Chicken Pizza, and of course the Cheeseburger is mouth-watering.
I tend to go for the Brownies and Ice Cream, it is quite small when it’s put on your table, however you try eating three little brownies after a big meal, it tops of the meal lovely and you’ll be full for ages afterwards. I have always wanted to try the chocolate orange profiteroles but I’m not usually a fan of profiteroles so I’m wary to waste my money on it.
Lunch Menu
The lunch menu is probably the best bit about Frankie & Bennys. If you go between 11pm-5pm Monday to Friday then you will get the lunch menu, if you don’t just ask. The lunch menu allows you to get the following.
Main Courses: £5.95 2 Courses: £7.25 3 Courses: £8.45
You get to choose from a quite small menu compared to the main menu; however you are looking at paying a ton less than if you got your three course meal from the main menu. Me and my friends are hoping to go here on our last day of college and I’m sure we’ll be using the lunch menu because we’re all pretty skint being students.
My Experience
For some reason, being in the middle of the countryside means you have to go miles for decent food. There is one ‘pub’ that we used to end up at called The Orchard, however after quite a few bad times there; we needed a new place to eat out. In the November of 2007, Frankie & Bennys was built about a ten minute walk away from my college.
First Visit
As soon as it opened, I and my family went in and I have to say we were not impressed the first time. We were seated near the kitchen, which is open plan so you can see the chefs working, so of course that is naturally hot, however for some reason the lights above our head were burning us, and the waitresses did not seem to care, because of the business of the restaurant.
To add something worse, our food was not up to the standard that we have been receiving since. My meatballs in the meatball with spaghetti were rock hard and after several take backs to the kitchen, they kept on coming back the same, so I asked for just the spaghetti instead, only to be charged the extra couple of quid for the meatballs when I could not actually eat them. We weren’t happy the first time we went in and we left hungry because we really wanted to get out of there as quick as possible.
Second Visit
The second visit to the restaurant was not with my family, but with about 12/13 friends, we pre booked and got a lovely little table near the kitchen, this time it wasn’t too hot and it was lovely how the food started to taste lovely, I noticed no one had the meatballs after my story of the last time, but everyone got the meal that they wanted, and everyone had a good time.
We were a bit shocked when it came to the bill however, not only were we badly prepared, we all came with £10 notes, none of us really had any change, so it was a shambles when it came to paying the bill. Not only was that a shocker, but at the bottom of the bill was an extra £15, a service charge. I was enraged, no one told us about this, and when I questioned it, she said it was part of the policy. I could not understand (being a waitress myself over the past few years) how they could say that serving a table of more than 8 meant that you got a 10% service charge on your bill. If we had none before hand, we would have requested two separate tables of 6, then we’re still all together but they don’t get extra money out of us.
I had to leave early from this little visit, but was told the next day over the phone that the money we gave them was not returned until my mate asked for the change. They had assumed that we were not only giving them a service charge, but a tip as well. I think £15 covered it any way. Everyone was happy with their meals and the service and everything like that, but as it’s my 18th coming up soon and we have planned to go here, we will be making sure that we get around that pesky little service charge, because when it comes down to it, we’re all skint students anyway.
Other Visits
Every other time that we’ve been to the this restaurant have been brilliant, we’ve never had any problems with the service or the food and service that they provide, the quality of food at this restaurant is brilliant, we now usually make sure that we go during the week, before 5pm as you get to have the lunch menu. We went in the other day after college which was about 4.15pm and they attempted to pawn off the full priced menu onto us even though the sign outside said lunch menu from 11pm-5pm. As soon as we asked for the lunch menu they were happy to give it us however there were other customers who walked through the door about 5 minutes after us and they did not ask for the lunch menu and so they got the full priced one.
Because it was such a nice day yesterday, the only problem we had with the restaurant was finding a nice warm place to sit as they had the patio doors to the restaurant open, which left a very cold breeze running through the restaurant. It took a while to warm up, but other than that it is a lovely place to eat out.
The Restaurant
I have to say, that the Frankie & Bennys that we go to near where I live is lovely. It’s a small little place, with about 15 tables. The style of the restaurant is lovely, when you walk up to the doors of the restaurant you are greeted by ‘rat pack’ music, which my Nan seems to love as it is music from her era. When you walk in you get quite a homely feel due to the restaurant being quite small in comparison to other restaurants around where I live.
You sit down in a booth kind of seat, the centre of the restaurant has 8 booths which are all separated by a piece of wood, when you sit down you can easily see over this wood, however it does become very cosy when you start to eat, and you don’t really notice the people around you. Around you when you sit down, the walls are covered with old pictures from the 20’s, 30’s, 40’s etc all of famous people from baseball players to famous stars, these pictures all add to the Ratpack atmosphere that they seem to be going for within the restaurant.
For the kids when you walk in they’ll be giving a little party pack which will keep them entertained whilst they’re waiting for their meal, very disappointed when we wern’t offered one, I get called a kid enough so why shouldn’t us teenagers get these party packs as well, of course I’m just joking here. The tables are usually all set for you, on there you have extra menus and things so you can look at the different beverages and if you want, the deserts that they offer at the restaurant.
Quality of Food
After the first time I wasn’t very happy with the quality of the food, we’ve had a few problems since but nothing that hasn’t been sorted out. I have yet to try the meatball on spaghetti again, so I don’t know if they still serve rock hard meatballs or not. I now usually go for the pizza when it comes to having a meal there, even on the lunch menu when you would expect your portions to be made smaller the size of the pizza is huge, you really get what you paid for and the taste of the pizza is lovely.
Some moan that you don’t get proper pizza by that I mean the ones you buy frozen from a supermarket, thick based and doughy all the way through, the pizza at Frankie & Benny’s is paper thin, I think no matter what ‘size’ pizza you buy your going to get the pizza like this.
The rest of my family all have different meals, if you want to go out and have a cheeseburger, you will be getting a cheeseburger believe me. The burger is huge, it’s not like the ones you get from Maccy D’s when you can swallow it down quickly, the burger probably wouldn’t be able to fit into the palm of your hand and you will have great difficulty finishing it.
Everything else that we have tried is lovely, the only problems we’ve had is the extras that they provide come very small, for example if you had a cheeseburger, expect to have a small portion of salad and a small portion of chips, as well as that if you have spaghetti then we have on countless occasions found that they don’t always offer cheese and the bolognaise is very minimal, a couple of spoons full at most, I know they have to save the cost, but if you are like me then you expect a good amount of bolognaise on spaghetti.
Overall, prepared to be full when you come to Frankie & Benny’s depend on how much you want to spend and what menu you have, then prepared to be full afterwards.
Quality of Service
Usually you get pretty good service within Frankie and Bennys, even when it’s busy as hell in there. In the restaurant we go to they seem to like hiring look a likes. We have a woman serving us once, who I would have bet good money on the fact that she was David from little Britain, the only gay in the restaurant of course. The next look alike might be a bit foreign to some of you, but I swear this guy is Adam Lambert from the latest season of American Idol, I keep expecting him to burst out into a very high singing voice.
It really depends where you go when it comes to the quality of service, I think most of the time because of the relaxed attitude of the staff you do get good service and your meals should arrive on good time.
Waiting Time for Meals
It usually takes about 10-15 minutes or so after ordering our starters to get them delivered in front of us. They are very good at getting the food out quickly and in piping hot condition, I have on one occasion had quite cold soup before, and they took it back straight away and I got some free bread as conciliation. This I think is good and as soon as you are done with your starter, they’ll give you about 5-10 minutes and then they’ll bring out your main course. You don’t usually order your desert until after the whole meal has been eaten and then they get it out to you pretty quickly.
Price
Frankie & Bennys is probably the cheapest place around for a good restaurant meal for us. We don’t have anything like a pizza hut or KFC near us, you’ll have to travel about 15-20 miles to get either of those. The prices that you pay all depend on when you go and if you get any deals or anything like that.
If you are looking at paying under £10 including starter, main, desert and your drinks then I would really recommend going between Monday-Friday 11pm-5pm as you get the lunch menu. This is a certain price depending on if you have just a main course and starter, or main course and desert, or even all three of them. I think really £10 for a three course meal, which are good portion sizes and then on top of that unlimited refills of your drinks depending what they are is brilliant and I would really recommend coming to Frankie & Bennys during the week.
If you are either going on the weekend or in the evening then you should expect to pay a little bit more; this is when the prices do get into the extremes. I believe that the price of spaghetti bolognaise with a tiny little bit of bolognaise on it is around £7.50 and if you want to add some rock hard meatballs to the mix then be prepared to pay about £1.50 more.
I do think if you like trying new things then I would go with the lunch menu as you get a three course meal for under £10 which is just brilliant, however if you go on the weekend or evening I would recommend taking quite a bit of money. You are looking at paying £15+ per person if you have a three course meal and drinks which can be a bit excessive.
Service Charge on Large Party
We did have a little moan about this service charge as we were not told about it before purchasing our meal, apparently the person who booked it (she denies ever being told this) was told about the service charge on such a large party. I know some people will be sitting there going 10% or whatever it is, is nothing, but to students who are skint it does begin to add up. I think we were more shocked that they not only took the service charge, but then assumed that the excess money we gave them was a tip, it was in the range of £15 extra, and apparently they were quite rude when we asked for the change.
Final Opinion
In my opinion from what I’ve read, your experience with Frankie & Bennys really depends on which restaurant you go to and where, I’ve not met anyone on the site yet who lives close to where I live, so I’m sure that there’s no point me putting this particular review within the Worcestershire Frankie & Bennys.
The Frankie & Bennys that we go to is a small little restaurant, with a lovely homely feel to it. Despite the service charge on a large party over 8 and the few problems with had with quality of food, we always find that it’s a lovely and quite a cheap place to eat out compared to the other restaurants around where I live, especially if you get the lunch menu.
If you are looking for a new place to eat then I really recommend checking out Frankie & Bennys, even if you are not too adventurous you will find ‘normal food’ there as well, spaghetti, pizza, hamburger and much more that’ll appeal to the more unadventurous of us and some lovely looking meals for people who love to try new things.
All in all, check out Frankie & Bennys, I’m sure your experience will be different from mine, but in general I’m sure you’ll get good service and good food.
(C) Kirsty
Please comment. Thanks for reading my review. Remember if you didn’t like this review, blame SweetTooth93, I’ll even dedicate this review to her, as it was her fault I wrote it in the first place :D xx
...when we remembered the new Frankie & Benny's Restaurant that had opened only recently in our area. So we called our friends, Izzy & Carl, asking if they would like to join us, and that was settled, it was dinner at F&B's this afternoon. _* This review will be based on the Colchester branch * _
== Arriving ==
We arrived at the restaurant at around 3pm and the place was rather empty, finding car parking spaces relatively close to the restaurant was ... ...quickly. What I like about Frankie & Benny's restaurants is the fact that you can see all the food being cooked and prepared in the kitchen, so you know for sure that all the food is fresh and you can see that the kitchens are lovely and clean. Our appetizers were brought to us after about 5 minutes and all four were brought at once, which was nice. As I mentioned earlier, I opted for the Mushroom Alfredo and I have to say, it was gorgeous! I'm not ...
4Paws 21.07.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: exceptional Review of Frankie and Bennys
Advantages: Lovely food, relaxed atmosphere, good music, good service, well priced, good deals, cater for kids Disadvantages: Not a huge selection of vegetarian main courses, not situated in the most desirable of locations
Frankie and Benny's is a New York Italian themed restuarant. It is a chain which currently has 180 restuarants spread across the UK. Frankie and Benny's originally began when Frankie Giuliani was just a little boy. He moved with his family to an all Italian neighbourhood in New York in 1924. Before long Frankies father managed to get a restuarant up and running in which the whole family pitched in and contributed their own favourite recipes, but ... ...home-style cooking'. Frankie started high school where he met an American boy named Benny and made a life long friend. When Frankies fathers retired in 1953 Frankie and Benny took over the business where they combined 'the best of popular American food with traditional Italian dishes'. I have been to 3 different Frankie and Benny's (Basildon, Chelmsford and Braintree) and they are all very similar in terms of appearance and service. The restuarants ...
karalouk 28.09.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Frankie and Bennys
Advantages: Varied, well presented and prepared, inexpensive food Disadvantages: Too many calories in the desserts!
...a little hungry,
Went to Frankie and Benny(s)”!!!
Doesn’t quite scan, I know, but you get the idea!!
Yesterday was my 38th birthday and, as we only had the youngest of our brood at home over lunch, we felt safe enough venturing out for a celebratory lunch and opted for Frankie & Benny’s in Tamworth. Neither my better half nor I had been before, although I have been to the restaurant in Dudley, so we both sallied forth eager to find out more!!!
... ...family restaurant set up by Frankie Giuliani’s “Momma and Poppa” in Brooklyn in 1925, a year after the family arrived in the USA from Sicily. Frankie met Benny in High School and the pair took the business on in 1953 when Frankie’s father retired. They grew the business based on traditional Italian and popular American dishes, and it has now become a very successful and identifiable chain.
Whilst the chain is a large one, with standard menus and ...
stevielad123 21.05.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Frankie and Bennys
Advantages: Good value at lunchtime Disadvantages: Feed the kids!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Frankie and Bennies
F&B's is the well known American-Italian 'restaurant'/diner. There'll be one near you somewhere. They have the usual Italian restaurant chain story. Papa Luigi arriving in the states with just 20 Lira and a goat. Had to cook the goat with a pinch of dried Italian seasoning to feed knife-toting steel workers and on that a reputation was built. Well, not quite, the real story is on the same lines but the steel workers didn't have ... ...Decor
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Every Frankie and Bennys looks the same. Pretend Italian from a catalogue. Not unattractive, just well cheesy. Toilet wallpaper made of newspaper clippings from New York newspapers and 1950's music in the background. Diner style furnishings.
The food
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Arrived hot and was tasty and the portions were very generous. We all struggled to finish, apart from me who ate everyone else's left-overs until I felt sick. My wifes ...
dhillcrest 31.03.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Frankie and Bennys
Advantages: The toilets are nice, we got a table without booking Disadvantages: Everything else!!
...cook and as we neard Frankie and Bennys we saw the luminous lights, the 'happy eaters' and the nice looking atmosphere.
Neither of us had ever been to one before, so we thought it would be worth a look.
Being a Wednesday night it was easy to get a table, without booking. The first thing that struck us was the cheesy 60 style dinner look. The seats were red leather benches, musical instruments were on the walls, photos of jazz musicians etc were ... ...and given the menu. As you'd expect this place done steaks, burgers, chicken, pizza, pasta dishes etc. etc. The prices would be reasonable - if the food was good, but for the c*** we were served, the prices were extortionate!!
We ordered a cheesy garlic bread, and this was the nicest part of the meal. This does not bode well when you consider that it came out of a packet, pre-prepared, and only had to be chucked under the grill till the cheese melts. ...
yackers1 18.03.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Frankie and Bennys
Value for Money
Standard of Menu
Atmosphere
Standard of Service
Cleanliness
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Advantages: Yummy starters/desserts. Variety of menu. Disadvantages: Price of alcoholic beverages. Poor service. Burnt food!
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I was impressed by the variety of the menu and the prices did not seem too expensive compared to other chains such as Frankie and Benny's or TGI's.
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Little_Jem81 21.04.2008
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Advantages: Great food, great atmosphere, great service Disadvantages: Limited beer
, luckily in Norwich there is Fatsos, Frankie and Bennys (DO NOT GO THERE), Pizza Hut........... in fact there are too many to list that are more family orientated close by. Consequently there are no screaming kids, angry parents etc about.
The back ground music is soft and not over-powering. It is not cheesy like other places - a refreshing change.
The toilets are clean, adequate and regularly checked. The only complaint is that they are upstairs - but this does not really create too many issues, unless stairs are a problem.
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Some of the tables are bit close together - but I think this is a complaint in all eateries.
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Advantages: Some good value meal deals to be had (Caffe Uno recommended) Disadvantages: Limited availability of dining; Embarrassment caused by use of card
I'm just coming to end of my 2nd and probably last year as a member of the Hi-Life Card scheme. The concept is a very good one - but unfortunately, the real-life experience of using the card doesn't match the advertsing hype.
For around £40 - 50 a year you get a card and a directory of participating restaurants for your local area (North West/Yorkshire/N Ireland or NE England). The idea is then that you can use the card to get 2-4-1 meals (up to 3 courses) at mainly off-peak times and days of the week.
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