Franco's on East River Drive...

[Siouxsie]

Hi all. Newbie here. I was inspired to join and post on the "merits" of my meal at this restaurant tonight. Not good!

I ordered the capellini with crabmeat, which was billed as also coming with cherry tomatoes, basil, and garlic in a white wine sauce...what I got was capellini (OK) with what seemed to be canned crabmeat (OK...they didn't promise it was fresh), no apparent basil or garlic, but pale, diced regular tomatoes and...zucchini? Swimming in a puddle of a light sort of orange liquid. The whole thing was unappealing to look at and tasted worse.

I brought it up to the server and was told they'd try it again. It came out with a bit more basil and garlic, the same blah crab, and now with grape tomatoes? And, yes, zucchini. I gave up at that point. I hate to be picky, but at nearly $20, shouldn't it be a better match to the menu description? And look kind of appetizing? And taste like food?

They comped my dessert. I ordered the cheesecake with chocolate topping and berries. I got no topping and two strawberries. The cake wasn't too bad.

They were also out of Frangelico. Who ever heard of an Italian restaurant without Frangelico?

The others did a bit better, but nobody was thrilled.

Is it me?

Siouxsie

[ColleenD]

I think you are right to be upset that you didn't get what the menu said and no one told you they were substituting some items. It really makes me crazy when I order something and what comes out is different...I have ordered chicken stuffed with spinach and it came stuffed with olives instead, an arugula salad that was spring mix and probably the worst was when I ordered mushroom gnocchi and they gave me red pepper gnocchi instead and didn't say anything. When the server came to ask how everything was, I said--the gnocchi is good but it doesn't taste like mushrooms--she replied--oh yeah, we're out of the mushroom gnocchi so we made that instead! They might have mentioned that....luckily, I don't have any food allergies.

[Rich Pawlak]

Franco's?

Wherezat? And please don't say "East River Drive".

[philadining]

Formerly "Verge" - if that helps, it was there for a minute and a half. East Falls, East River Drive and Midvale?

[MarketStEl]

grumbleKelly Drivearrggh...

(Though the original name will always live on in the lovely Grover Washington tune inspired by the road. Yes, it's about the one in Philly, not NYC, but no Philadelphian would make that mistake, would they?)

As for truth in advertising, did you read about the "margherita pizza" I had in Fairmount? At least the waitress there sympathized with our protestations that what we were served wasn't the pie listed on the menu. As she told her side of the story, it became clear that the owner of this restaurant understood P.T. Barnum's old maxim: "No one ever lost money underestimating the intelligence of the American people."

[Buckethead]

I was there about six weeks ago, the food was OK but the service was incredibly slow. Our meal took over two hours, all we had was two apps split between the four of us, and an entree each. Much of that time was spent without water or wine. We didn't have any problems with being served different dishes than what we'd ordered. I'd rather have Verge back, but any restaurant is an improvement on a vacant building, especially in East Falls where there aren't many options.

[Siouxsie]

Kelly Drive...righto! Beg pardon.

Either way, I'll be looking to see if it lasts. I'd try it again, just would be hetchy to order anything with more than one ingredient that might not be commonly kept...like cherry tomatoes!

Thinking about it more, I wonder if maybe they're skimping a bit to save money. Easier to throw in some of the mountain of already diced regular 'maters than to buy and store the cherry toms?

I'm with you on the Barnum quote. On the way home, another member of our group was saying that most folks are so happy to eat out and get a huge plate of food that they're not so concerned/don't notice that it might not be too good.

I do like the Italian place on 2d and South tho. Heart of Rome? I forget the translation...

Keep on munchin'

Siouxsie

[Diann]

I do like the Italian place on 2d and South tho.  Heart of Rome?  I forget the translation...

←

Siouxsie -- (1) welcome! (2) Core di Roma. It used to be one of my favorite Italian places in Philly (nothing fancy, the owners were just really friendly) before they remodeled eight gazillion times. I'll have to try it again.

[layla17]

It's pathetic when a patron doesn't get what they promised. I recently visited a small Italian restaurant in Wilkes-Barre. I can't remember the name for the life of me. I ordered penne with vodka sauce and was served linguine with a chalky white want-to-be Alfredo sauce. I was quite upset and ask the waiter to return this. He complied and my ordered meal was served. My beverages were comped.

[Natasha]

We had dinner at Franco's last night after going to the Renoir show. Service was friendly and a little slow, but not terribly so. A homemade pasta dish with a cream sauce was a tasty appetizer. The entrees were adequate. We ordered two desserts, but only got 1 that we actually ordered. They were out of chocolate mousse so the kitchen substituted a molten chocolate cake without telling the server until he went to pick it up. He did offer to take it off the bill if we were unhappy with it, but it would have been nice to have a chance to choose something else ourselves.