Frankie and Benny’s.
Situated at the Centertainment Complex a short tram ride away, Frankie and Benny’s is within a convenient distance to travel for a night out with a partner or friend. Having heard of this chain restaurant, just never experiencing what a meal there entailed, me and my boyfriend decided to try for ourselves one Friday night.
When we arrived, we were quite promptly met by our waitress for the evening who sat us down at a table for two, unfortunately amidst the bustle of the other customers who were mainly families with small children. Now, not that we weren’t expecting Frankie and Benny’s to be busy on a Friday night, but the atmosphere was lacking as tables and chairs were clearly too bunched together, cramming customers into space they just didn’t have. Still, we were given the menu and no sooner had we closed them up again, our waitress was sure enough standing next to our table to take our orders. Had the place not been fit to burst with people I would have considered this to be very good service, however as the night went on, the blustered waitress kept returning so very often, it became obvious we were considered more of a hindrance than respected paying customer. The food was on the other hand, delicious. I had the Mediterranean Vegetable Risotto, being one of about five or six vegetarian options, whilst my boyfriend opted for the Chicken Parmigana, which together we washed down with a bottle of white wine costing about £10.00. As it was a special occasion we also had desserts, mine an ice-cream sundae and his a cinnamon waffle crunch which added a reasonable £8.00 to our bill, but obviously ready made, our food was bought out straight away giving us little opportunity to talk or try to enjoy some time together. The waitress then again kept returning to our table every five minutes after we had finished, asking the same questions again and again ‘Do you want coffee?’, ‘Are you all done?’ and ‘Do you want the bill? Do you want the bill? Do you want the bill?’ most annoyingly. In the end, quite embarrassingly we then saw the waitress pointing at our table to other members of staff as she off-loaded us onto one of her other colleagues. By this time, we were definitely ready to leave, our bill came to just over £35.00, each main course a medium priced £8-£10.00 but to be honest, despite being good food the service and atmosphere just wasn’t worth it.
Unless you are looking for somewhere to eat with your children, or perhaps a new location for a party, Frankie and Benny’s does not offer the right recipe for a quiet or romantic night eating out. Main meals were made in front of you, which was good, but behind a kitchen counter which also occasionally created big flames which if you were seated near to, and we were, made you quite hot in an already stuffy room. Whilst not forgetting that every ten minutes or so the staff would burst into a loud rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ over some poor, embarrassed-looking person’s table to create a wave of even louder mumbling over the rest of the room as other couples tried to maintain their suffering conversation. Overall, I’m sure a Friday night was perhaps not the best night to sample a Frankie and Benny’s, therefore perhaps on a week night this could be a nice place to eat, it has the potential in décor, location and possibly staff (on a good night). My advice is to try eating here, just be prepared for all night cheesy songs from the 50’s and children running riot around your table.
September 28th, 2007 at 5:44 am
On 22/09/07 at 18:21 a few of us went for a drink at Frankie and Bennys in Didsbury Manchester. We waited at the bar for service and got none! There was a member of staff cleaning glasses etc….with customers made to wait. We will not return and have advised clients visiting your premises to take their own drinks due to the poor service.