Dinner on 11/21/09 What a disappointment after a fantastic dining just a month ago. The place was packed and the staff had trouble keeping up with the crowd. When we went there a month ago, it was on a Wednesday so the place wasn't as crowded and the food/service was hot and excellent. This time, all the dishes were lukewarm, soggy and it was obvious that they were hurried. Kids' pasta had barely any sauce on them. Never again will I return here on a weekend but save it for a weeknight. read more

I came here for lunch today and was pleasantly surprised by the options! Very large portions that are worth the $12-15. The service at Francesca's is typically slow, and it was about the same today. read more

Things go awry when an Italian restaurant decides to jazz up standard fare...my husband and I went to Francesca's on Saturday night. I ordered the shrimp dish with a funky pesto sauce and my husband ordered the spaghetti with sausage. The taste of the sauce with the shrimp was inedible and I had to send it back. What came back was same shrimp in a sickening pompdoro sauce, not a marinara sauce as I had thought....My husband liked his dish but the sausage was overpowering and he had to pick most of it out....We did, however, enjoy the Caesar salad and bread. I will also have to say that the shrimp were huge, but, next time, please take the tails off ! read more

I'll start with the bad - this place gets ridiculously crowded at night and I have found the service to be generally slow and inattentive. The food here is so good, though, that it doesn't even matter. Huge portions, so you usually have some for lunch the next day. The bruschetta is delicious, as are some of the risottos. I have never been disappointed by a main course, but now I usually order the Pollo alla Salvia, which is chicken wrapped in prosciutto and mozarella and covered with a tomato sauce. Absolutely fantastic. I am usually too full to order dessert, but I would recommend taking some of your meal home and getting one. The cake with fresh berries is good as are the bread puddings. Great place. read more

Francesca's has redeemed itself for me! My first experience there really was BAD, but that goes to show you how a waiter can make or break your experience. Because of its proximity to my home, we have now become semi-regulars here and I have to say.....I crave it and love it. The food is consistently great and the wine selection if always interesting and changing. I have had a varied degree of service levels while here. My last server was a younger "kid" (early 20's) who seemed a bit frazzled and hurried (but this place IS always packed, so who wouldn't be a bit frazzled, I guess.....). My husband and I were here a couple months ago and we had an awesome service experience here. I'd just say : TRY IT! I would probably give it my vote for one of the best in the North Shore. read more

The food was mediocre and overpriced, and the service was decent. Three of the five of us were unsatisfied. The person that suggested Francesca's North was with us and she had no comment. My grandma was the fifth in our party, and she never complains. For better service, food, prices, and soup or salad included with your entree, I recommend Ristorante Abruzzo in Deerfield (the next town over). Abruzzo is in a strip mall, so it isn't exactly fancy, but the food is delicious. Francesca's has a nice interior (the strip mall they're located in is upscale as far as strip malls go), and their bread was good, but those are the only positives I can think of. Our group decided there was no good reason to go back. read more

A group of us went for dinner on a Saturday night. We ordered calamari for appetizers and also some risotto which were fantastic. I ordered the seafood pasta and it was a bit bland, almost bare noodles. There was really no tomato sauce and was a bit watery. Other than that, the service was great, prompt and professional. read more

Absolutely horrible food and service. Ordered something from menu and waitress came back and told me they did not have any more left. Then ordered a different item on menu and again waitress came back and said they were out of that as well. WHAT KIND OF PLACE OFFERS DISHES ON MENU AND DOES NOT EVEN REALLY HAVE. Then I went with the waitress's recommendation and it was DISGUSTING. 0 Stars but have to give at least one star. read more

I made a reservation at Francesca's because my 93 year old aunt from out of town was visiting and wanted some "chicago italian food". What a mistake. Our server was inattentive, rude and snooty- dropped menus on our table and forgot about our table for 10 minutes, took our drink order, was gone for another 15 minutes, dinner, another half hour, do I need to go on. I was embarrased that I had made the reservation here and even thought of getting up and leaving at one point. This was on a Sunday night at 6:30. Needless to say, my aunt was not impressed with my choice. The restaurant was loud, bright and not conversation friendly. As a consolation for our poor service we were offered a desert which is probably a regular offering. The food was fair but was soured by our unfortunate experience. read more

If you like to get ripped off, this is the place if you order a drink. My friend and I had a couple of JW Black Labels on the rocks. $16 per drink when we got the bill, and these were not generous pours. We asked what another premium scotch would cost and the waiter asked if we wanted on the rocks or neat. That raised alarm bells, so I asked if they charge for the "rocks." We were shocked when he said they charge $3.00 for the ice. You can buy a bag for that price. Food was OK, not great, but we will never be back. We do not want to be screwed. read more

Have not been here in a very long time but it was always enjoyable so we went out for a special night. I pulled into parking lot and it was crowded they share a lot with a very popular grocery store. Not a problem found a spot quickly. I made reservations and was seated quickly. Good thing as it was very crowded. The table was next to the server station which I don't usually like but it was ok not a lot of dishes banging or or anything. We reviewed the menu everything looked good. Our waiter arrived after about 5 min and seemed a little flustered. No introduction, welcome or anything just what can I get you. Figured he would wait for our drink order but he said he would be back. Ok 7 min later he comes back and takes mine and my wifes drink order and completely ignores our guest! Good thing we were right at the server station so I just tapped him on back and asked him if our guest could order a drink as well. He took the order and we did not see him again for 10 min. He pops out and takes orders from table next to ours. 3 min later our drinks come out. Puts them on the table and vanished again. We had put our menues Down and were ready to order about another 5-7 min go bye and he has another table ge greats gives them the special menu. There is a special menu? We never received one. So I grab him as he is flying by and ask him for one and he says oh they never gave you one? (But I just saw him give one to the other table) not sure who they are. We finally ordered appetizer and soup and salad and main course. Thankfully they were not all served at the same time but guest and my soup were served and not wife's salad. I could see him frustrated with the kitchen but he comes back with a salad. Not the right one but it was a salad so we did not say anything. Things did get better from there. Appetizer, soup, salad and main course we're all very good. He did stop back as we were eating main course and said "everybody happy"? Maybe it was an off night for him. I would go back for the food even though it seemed a bit overpriced. $175 for 3 people 2 glasses of wine and a mixed drink including 1 appetizer and soup salad. read more

The food is DELICIOUS!!!!! It is definitely also a little overpriced for what it is...and the restaurant is NOISY! Don't go if you want to carry a conversation. :D Service is decent and the food is good....maybe next time I'll try it during a non-peak time? read more

After trying to find a place to get decent Italian food in the area, I found Francesca's North, which I've already been to more than once. The first couple times I went there, it was for lunch. The food was city quality in the suburbs (which is something I'm looking for!), and the waiter was attentive-ish. My mom ordered the tilapia, which she said tasted "fishy", but everything else was good. She complained to the manager and the issue was resolved quickly, by giving us a free dessert. The apple crisp thing (it wasn't called that), was one of the best apple crisps I've ever had! Completely, totally delicious, as was the sausage prosciutto pasta, which I savored the flavor of. The place was dead, though, and I was really wondering why it was, because everything (but the fish) was SO good. Then I figured out why, I went there on a saturday night and was smashed up against other people. The food and the service were still good (but they didn't have the sausage prosciutto thing on the dinner menu) but it was crazy packed... I'll definitely go there again, but I'll be sure to get takeout (which they have) for dinner on a saturday night if I'm craving it... read more

Always great daily specials on the menu with fresh ingredients. The menu is always changing, which makes it exciting to try new things. The pasta dishes are very reasonalby priced and are always delicious. As in most Italian restaurants...the servings are huge! read more

I went here for dinner last minute because we were in the general vicinity. I have been to Mia Francesca's in the city and I have to say I did not enjoy this as much as I enjoyed the restaurant downtown. The food was good, but the ambiance is no where near as much fun as the one downtown. I split a pizza and the sea scallops. The sea scallops were cooked well but the pizza was a disappointment. read more

LOVE..THIS..PLACE! I have never seen such friendly staff! I went here with a friend a couple months ago and ordered an appetizer and entree (which were superb). Since we didn't see anything completely unique about the desserts being offered we opted to get the check. Instead of the check, we get a complimentary dessert from the chef himself! How sweet! I have been a frequent customer ever since. Its evident that the staff want to be there and enjoy what they do. Highly recommend for any occasion. read more

Top 3 best in the area. If you are looking for Italian food its a must. Friendly all around great place.

Casual atmosphere. Your typical olive oil and bread as you sit down. The olive oil is a little heavy on herbs (rosemary). Minestrone was good. The sea bass and salmon was OK - lacked flavor and was most likely previously frozen. The tiramisu was good. Our server was attentive and tactful. read more

Pro Decent pasta Good portion Con Pricey Tried Linguine with shrimp and shitake mushroom Got shrimp linguine which turned out pretty good. $20 for the past but portion was large enough to make up for the price. Service was good. read more

Very average cuisine and fairly limited menu. Ambiance was cold as the restaurant is huge compared to Lake Forest. Food has been better in previous visits. Not in a rush to return. read more

Went to Francesca's North for my father-in-law's birthday. Dreadful. Unbelievably loud (couldn't hear beyond the person next to me). About a dozen of us eating -so family style dishes. Three large salads swimming in some balsamic vinaigrette. Next the entrees. One was a pasta - rigatoni with a few vegetables and about a tablespoon of plain tomato sauce. Almost tasteless. This was served in a family sized bowl! The other entree was chicken breasts and steak-cut potato fries. The chicken was dry, no sauce. The potatoes equalled about 1.5 potatoes cut into steak fries. Again -tasteless and bland. Then dessert - profiteroles? Dark chocolate drizzled over the pastry filled with vanilla gelato. I was underwhelmed. The place was packed on a Friday night. There was no room to walk between tables. The servers and bus staff never took away the unused wine glasses (after asking who would be drinking wine). Plates were taken while people were still eating from them (if your fork wasn't on the plate, it was fair game for removal.). The single toilet washroom on our side of the restaurant ran out of toilet pare, and the staff didn't know where to get more (maybe the basement? How about the other bathroom?) Don't waste your time and money here. There are better alternatives. read more

We went to Francesca's North in Northbrook for our anniversary. We have eaten there before and other than the very loud ambient noise level, we usually had good food and good service. Today, everything went wrong. The service was terrible. The waiter was untrained. I expected some Parmesan cheese with my dinner, no cheese was offered. I asked another waiter, I asked the hostess, I asked to speak to the manager. I waited until my wife was halfway thru her meal until a guy showed up with a plate of Parmesan. My food was cold. A waiter (not ours) brought it back to the kitchen where they microwaved it or something. But, I wanted hot food from the kitchen, not re-heated glop! It was a nightmare. Avoid Francesca's North. They admitted they are understaffed. We told the manager that is not our problem. You need to cut back on diners if you can't handle the customer load, not make the customer suffer! read more

I went to Francesca's North in Northbrook TONIGHT! I was seated directly in front of the cook line. I had a perfect spot to stare at the cooks. Upon sitting down, I saw one of the cooks on the line (the one wearing a blue EHC - Egg Harbor Cafe hat) drinking his beverage, wipe his nose, then wipe his eyes - all WITHOUT gloves. He never left the line to wash his hands. He never put on sanitary gloves. If you care about eating in a sanitary place, this is NOT for you!!!!!!! I also saw the woman in the red shirt greeting patrons at the door going to the cook line to help by plating silverware. She never washed her hands although she was touching silverware!! read more

Francesca's in Northbrook was a favorite dining room for a "nice" night out with the kiddos. We went there a lot over the past few years and enjoyed it immensely. It was one of those places where we even got to know the service staff a bit and that made the place even more likeable. I should have known this would be a disaster when we were seated in the second room in the corner and only one other table was being used (of about 20). The main dining room was busy but not every table was in use. So exiled in an air conditioned Siberia we began the worst dinner we have ever had at Francesca's. Everything went wrong. It took over an hour to receive our food and only after I went up to the kitchen and asked the manager why the delay was so huge. Even then the food was not arriving quickly so my husband went to the manager and asked to close the bill - we had received one appetizer and 4, yes 4 loaves of bread for just a few people at the table. She insisted we stay. We all wanted to leave. The waiter apologized profusely, the manager comped us our meals and we ate and left. The food was way oversalty, the kids meal, supposed to come with a drink and dessert offered neither and the calamari fritti was frtti beyond recognition. It's sad to see a decent place go into the dumps. I doubt we will return there anytime soon. Francesca's can do way better than they did with us this week. read more

What happened to this place? In the past this was one of our go to places. Tonight's meal merits ZERO stars..really! We had a 6:00 reservation. We were sat upon our arrival. As an appetizer we ordered fried calamari. For starters it was not fried. It seems baked. It was tasteless and rubbery. The server came by twice and said, " you still don't have your salads?" The Caesar salads were okay. We ordered 5 entrees. They were all cold! My wife ordered her dish to be spicy..it was not. My sister in-law ordered sea bass. She has had sea bass in the past. Her fish was "fishy" it was her opinion that the fish she was served was not really sea bass. The manager came over to ask how things were....he actually seemed to argue with her about the fish. While they removed it from the bill, she didn't have a meal. At the end of the meal we informed the server that all the entrees were cold. I would have expected that alone to get the manager back to our table...it did not. This meal was a complete waste of money. I wonder when this place slid so far downhill? I wonder why it happened? I wonder if Scott Harris knows this has happened? I wonder if he cares? There are other places to go to in the suburbs that serve decent hot and tasty food. This is not one of them. Sad! The 5 of us plan on never returning. read more

I really like Francesca's North, but on Valentine's Day 2011, they did a so-so job with the crowd, stretching the restaurant beyond capacity. For my 7:15 reservation, they sat me about 8 after assuring me at 7:15 that I'd only have to wait 15 minutes. Why did this happen? Because they added extra tables for the night that surpassed the kitchen's ability to cook. This also explains why my appetizer I ordered immediately upon seating took 20 minutes or so to arrive. They comped the appetizer without me even asking, which was nice. And my server was attentive and did a good job. But restaurant management didn't, taking more reservations than the restaurant could handle, which was not nice to do to their (now slightly less) loyal customers. read more

Whenever we find ourselves in the suburbs we love to eat at Francesca's North. The service is great and the food is always delicious!

I have been eating at this place for awhile and I am always satisfied with my experience. There pasta is always amazing. There Calamari is also super good really with good marinara sauce. read more

Menu seemed limited. Service was average. The bread was so good, but it took a while to get it. My salad was great too. If someone asked me to go,I would, but I wouldn't suggest it. read more

Eh. Solid italian food, but extremely limited menu (I guess that is because it is a rotating menu--not my thing). I ordered the spaghetti and had to ask for them to add chicken. When i got my meal i took three bites and all the chicken was gone. Should of just ordered the spaghetti, not much of a difference and not worth the price. read more

What a fun restaurant... We had our wedding rehearsal dinner there for a party of 30. The place was packed but we still had plenty of room for our large group and it still felt private. The staff was friendly and efficient, I don't think my glass of wine ever had a chance to ever be empty throughout the night. The food was tasty and filling and the kids all had fun drawing on the paper table cloths with crayons as well, so all in all it was a win win!! read more

Went there with my office colleagues for a dinner, and I must say it was a nice choice. They had a nice variety of food and daily specials, and the food tasted really nice too, not over the top great, but pretty nice, tasted quite authentic too for an Italian place. I ordered lobster ravioli, and it was not only tasty but certainly a good amount too, enough that I couldn't finish the whole thing. I would definitely recommend this place for a nice office dinner, not for a casual friends hang out though. The only thing that put me off was their shrimp and calamari appetizer. It tasted well, but while they claimed it was for 10 people, it was barely eni uh gh for 5, that's what brought it down to 4 stars for me. read more

Been here twice with my fiance and we've enjoyed our visit both times. The food has been great both times and the service has been top notch. They have a solid wine collection as well. Cannot wait to go back again! read more

Restaurants are limited in Northbrook but Francesca's North makes a trip to visit mom worth it. I love their bruschetta with it's perfect combination of EVOO, spices and tomatoes. Their rotating menu always offers fun fish options that have never steered me wrong. And we do carry out more often than we should. My mom's favorite on the carry out menu is the Pasta con Asparagi which I always have to indulge in. The thick cream sauce is delicious but I'm sure high in calories so I won't let myself eat a who order. For a lighter pasta choice I typically go with the al Pomodoro. And we both always select rigatoni as our noodle because they are the best! read more

Was seated by the bathroom and when it was time to order server would gonto other tables before ours. Then when ordering utensils was not available to eat with. I can say portion size for the food was good along with the salads. Was not happy with service or have to be waited on for to get service in a timely manner. read more

Great Italian food! The service is great and the restaurant is clean. A nice place for a family dinner.

Probably my favorite dinner spot in Northbrook. The pasta dishes are delicious, and there's always enough left over for lunch the next day, which is a plus in my book. The bread is of high quality, and I love the garlic and herb infused olive oil they put out. I came here once just for dessert, and I had to stop myself from eating some, just the smell made me crave it. The dessert is also great, I love the chocolate lava cake. read more

Great food! Good wine. Fast service. Overall a very satisfying Italian meal. Tip: DEFINITELY leave room for the tiramisu.

Food was delicious! Drink service wads little slow. And I asked for Parmesan twice and it never came. Been to the Clark location many times, this one a step down from that. Still, real good food and I will be going back. read more

Addicted to this place. The best chicken romano ever. Everything from the bread to their changing menu is always amazing. I could eat here 7 days a week. read more