Frankie's Italian Bar & Grill

Tuesdday in December, the place was rock empty. The service was poor, we were rushed through our evening by a rather tricky manager who lacked manners without the charm to carry it off. The food was perfectly good, I had the steak funghi which was as expected, although with only six or so tables they could have done better. Overall we agreed it was as if we'd just arrived abroad and all headed with great excitement to the place recomended by all our friends, only to find that it had gone out of fashion years before. Someone needs to get a grip of this place. It was however cheap, but that said, I'd rather have paid more and got some atmosphere for it.

A group of 12 of us went to Frankie's for a celebration. There was no one to greet us and take our coats, we had to wait 30 minutes before anyone came to take our drinks order. The restaurant was not busy as it was 6.30pm on a Wednesday. The menu was uninspiring and dull, the decor dated and tatty, the food was below average and the service utterly appalling. None of us will return and I will not be recommending this venue to anyone. Very disappointing. Why are Marco Pierre White and Frankie Detorri outting their names to this place - their reputations are being ruined with every meal that is served (about 2 hours after ordering it!) has totally put me off ever going to a MPW restaurant.

Avoid - though judging by last night, a Friday, and the paucity of customers, you may not need to for much longer. Unfortunately, we WERE there.

The £18.50/3 course option was an uninspiring mix of low-end a la carte dishes and cheap-ingredient alternatives. Starter of bresaola and parmesan was bland and tasted old, though my wife's calaramari was passable. Mains took forever to come - a watery, dull and miniscule piece of halibut that didn't taste of anything, not even the jarload of capers that had been emptied onto it; and a paillard of chicken which wouldn't have seemed out of place in TGI Fridays. As compensation for the wait, we were offered a la carte desserts - a chocolate mousse had good texture though very mild flavour, and the semifreddo was, apparently, very nice according to its lucky recipient.

Add to this the rank smell of toilets that greets you at the bottom of the stairs and wafts through the eating area from time to time, overpriced wine and the forgettable vegetable sides I've only just remembered we also ordered, and this was quite the worst meal out we've had for years.

I went to Frankie's on 23 January 2011 and the experience was nothing short of painful.

On arrival our table booking couldn't be found so we had to wait to be seated. It then took 25 minutes for the waiter to take our drinks order. 10 minutes later, we were still without our drinks. We specified the £12.50 lunch menu but had to request the menus as we were only given the a la carte. This resulted in more delay. Ordering was difficult as the waiter clearly had no idea what was on the menu; this was evidenced by what came to the table 40 minutes after our order had been taken. The side orders were wrong and despite the menu clearly stating the ravioli was spinach and ricotta, the ravioli was actually filled with meat (thankfully the diner was not vegetarian!). When confronting the waiter about the wrong sides being delivered to our table he explained that the chef had dropped them. We ordered a different side instead, but it never came. After finishing our meals we then had to wait 1/2 hour for the plates to be collected and 15 minutes for dessert. The struggle didn't end there sadly...the bill was incorrect and we felt they had a cheek to add on the discretionary service charge. Despite repeated complaints about slowness and the promise of the restaurant manager at the start to look after us and ensure swift service, the service remained insultingly slow.

I have never encountered such poor service and this was when Marco Pierre-White himself was sitting no more than 10ft from our table. I can't imagine what the service is like when he's not there watching over his staff!

The food was quite good but it is certainly not worth the extremely poor service. A farce from start to finish - a Ramsay kitchen nightmare! Marco Pierre White might stand for it but Gordon wouldn't.

I was shocked by the appalling running of this restaurant. The food was ok, the starters were actually quite good. The service was the problem, though the Manager and staff tried their best they were hampered at every turn by a jumped up, arrogant, rude little twerp in the form of Marco Pierre Whites young son. He spend the evening wondering aimlessly around the restaurant and then decided to play the kitchen service bell like a drum. When a customer kindly asked him to stop he smiled and continued. When the customer complained to the waitress, she cautiously asked him to stop, he proceeded to rant at her about how she should tell the customer and his three guest to **** off out of his **** ing restaurant and continued to play his bell. I truly felt for the staff who were clear terrified to stop him.
Marco P W might feel that he can be brash and arrogant but perhaps he has worked hard to achieve his status and therefore mildly justafiable. But as for his son playing off daddies money and name, very sad!

This is a serious disappointment on all levels. I'd be ashamed to have my name on the door! Food seriously not traditional Italian and you couldn't pay me to eat there again!