Franco's - Tendring

We have been regulars at Franco's for the past 3 years, but the restaurant has undergone multiple management changes in recent months. Our experience in October, as evidenced by my previous review, was disappointing. However, we learned that the former chef had returned, so we decided to give it another try. Our meal was a hit and the service was back to its usual standard. Paul, the chef, impressed us with his fantastic seafood spaghetti dish and a trio of delectable desserts. It was a delightful evening and we plan to return again soon!

This is the first time we have been to this restaurant under this management. The restaurant itself looked lovely and the staff were very welcoming. We were seated and two waitresses asked what we would like to drink! A little while later our order was taken. Our starters duly arrived and they were delicious, sadly we waited a very long while for our plates to be cleared. Our mains arrived a bit later, unfortunately the wrong main had been served and we had to send it back, we sat for a while and then my husband asked for his dinner to be kept warm whilst waiting for mine. When we received the correct meals the food was delicious. We had then finished our mains and again waited a while for plates to be cleared. Once the plates had been cleared we waited another 15 minutes for someone to take our dessert order, the waitress did apologise and said they were having huge problems with the tills. Desserts duly came out and unfortunately I had to send mine back as I had custard instead of cream, in Franco’s defence they did take the price of the dessert off the bill. We weren’t offered more drinks until we had nearly finished desserts and to be honest we weren’t going to chase this. Overall the food is delicious and fantastic value for money but the service on this particular night was a shambles which is so sad as this restaurant could be amazing.

I had a pleasant evening at this restaurant. I decided to come in on a whim, and despite it being a winter evening, I was greeted warmly by the staff, especially Shannon. The lamb and the chicken were both delicious. I would recommend this restaurant if you're in the area.

What can I say! Food and service was fantastic. We had a family meal for a birthday and we all enjoyed our food. Me and my husband went back the following week as we enjoyed it so much. We will definitely be returning.

We had been to Franco's many times before and loved it, both under the original ownership and the new. However, it seems that it has changed hands yet again and not for the good I'm afraid. Although, judging by the November reviews maybe it is back on track again. I also note that late September/early reviews are similar to ours, which was very poor. In fact we left before the food arrived, mainly due to the extremely poor level of service we received with our drinks. We were out to celebrate my wife's birthday and to start the evening, the four of us all ordered double Gin Tonic's. However, it took 40 minutes for the drinks to arrive. And if if we thought the time taken to bring the drinks was bad, then you can imagine our disappointment when one of the waitresses brought four large dirty glasses with what looked like water in them. No ice, no lemon, and the mixers already poured in the glass, so no way to judge what level of gin we had received. When we asked about the ice and lemon they looked at us in astonishment. We assumed that they had none of neither, otherwise why bring drinks without the basics? It was like they had never worked in a bar/restaurant before and had just wandered in off the street. To make matters worse, they then arrived later with a glass of lemons and a glass of ice. By this stage we could see the evening descending into chaos and we decided to leave. No apology from the staff or questions, they just allowed us to leave and got on with their business. Very off-putting. We decided to try Killocks, which was surprisingly good. Unfortunately, that's another restaurant off the go-to list.