Frankie & Benny’s

It’s chain american-​italian food the likes of which you’ve never experienced before. Unless you’ve been to any other Frankie and Benny’s in the country.
The food was okay, the drink was okay, both in line with every other F&B restaurant you’ve ever been in. The service equally was just as any other F&B place you’ve ever been — which is to say friendly (almost overly so) and attentive (almost overly so).
What surprised me most was that breakfast was only a fiver. And in that I might go for breakfast every Sunday.

My second trip to the Frankie & Benny’s at Crown Point was actually quite an improvement over my first visit. I’ve never been a fan of the food at any Frankie and Benny’s, but this was the best food I’ve had there by far. Whether this was because of a new menu/​recipes or just a lucky one off, I couldn’t tell you. Yesterday I opted for the crab bruschetta followed by a ranch burger. I would’ve gone with a couple of pulled pork based options, but annoyingly they were out of that (worth noting here that we sat down at 8:30 so ours were the last meals of the day being cooked). But both courses were pretty good. The bruschetta was very tasty, and the crab was a welcome addition to an old favourite. The burger was a little on the thick side, but apart from that was good, and the cheesy bacon chips I had with it were lovely.
The service was also particularly good last night. I was there on a leaving do for someone at the nursery I used to work at, and there are a few rowdy (but lovely!) women there to say the least. The waitress and barman were given a bit of a hard time, although all in good spirits, and they handled everybody very well, always smiling, being very polite and going along with anything that was coming their way.
The restaurant itself is well kept and seems to be clean all round, and is nice enough to look at when you’re inside. Drinks wise I was paying £4 a pint, which along with the food prices, was a little on the expensive side.
Despite all the generally positive things I’ve said so far, I still feel a little odd giving this place 3 stars. My previous visit to this particular restaurant was a definite 2 star affair, and every time I’ve been to another Frankie & Benny’s I’ve always wished I was somewhere else, and felt like I was paying expensive (ish — it’s not that bad, but considering the usually quality it’s over the top!) prices for pretty poor quality food.
So 3 stars for last night’s visit, which could be a sign of improved quality, but for now Frankie & Benny’s in general is solidly in 2 star territory.

A LITTLE GEM AND IN A LITTLE TIME WILL BECOME A DIMOND I HOPE. Attended this resturant this morning for breakfast and found the place nice and clean and the waiting staff polite on entry. We seated and ordered our food I had the egg benidict and my wife had Pancakes with maple syrup and Bacon and a side order of Hash Browns, Cappicino, white coffee and OJ.
Good Points Coffee’s were hot and of good quality, OJ was as well. Food presentation was good and tasted great.
Bad Points Food cold when it arrived at table dont know if it was the plates or was it just cold but very disapointing to say the least so spolit the breakfast.
Table next to us ordered pouched eggs on toasted and it looked like a dogs dinner, she sent it back but then took around 15 minutes to come back to them after her husband had finished his, did not know if she paid or not as we left but I would not have.
Staff clearly struggled when they got around 10 tables in this included the chef so manage better with more staff or a better chef who clearly needs to wake up or learn to send out hot food consistantly.
Was going to give 1 star but very harsh and don’t think it was that bad so I think 3 stars is fine but managment need to address the little details then it will be better.

Now I am not a fan of chain restaurants I hate them as much as the next guy, but in a pinch they do have their place and with a small child you kinda have to sacrifice your hatred of these places because not all places are children friendly. Lets start with the positives Greeting when we walked in: check Small wait: check Clean table: check interesting high chair that connected to the table: check. decent food for you money: check. Now lets get on with those negatives, Obscene wait time for our orders to be taken: check Cold starter: check Obscene wait time for main: check seeing that out food was on the pass and it still took 6 minutes for it to hit our table even though there were only 6 other people in the restaurant: check Cold Main: check.
Now for those that read my Unilocal reviews I hate being negative and disrespectful about anything business but these people seemed more interested in talking to one another than actually paying attention to their job. Seeing the chef’s face as he put our food up to the pass and they the annoyance that he was expressing when the food wasn’t being picked up just shows that big chains not only not care about you as a customer but feel that if they lose you business they have 50 other people to take your place and while this is true it is a horrible way to treat customers and not a good way to do business. They did receive an extra star just for that cool high chair that clamped to the table so your child doesn’t feel like he/​she is missing out on anything.