I'm really sad to write this review. We went to Frank's the other night for the 4th or 5th time, and before this we've always enjoyed it. After our last experience, we won't be back.
We went on Friday night. It was slower than I've ever seen it. Each dining room was just over half full. We had a reservation for 7pm but called ahead to let them know we were running late and wouldn't be there until 715pm. Since it was pretty slow, we were seated immediately. We had a party of 4, and we were given one menu because the hostess said they were out of menus.
We sat down and we waited. And waited. And waited. After about 15 minutes of trying to flag down the many waiters who walked by and ignored us, we got the hostess's attention. My husband told her we still hadn't been greeted or been given water and asked who our waiter was. She said she'd find out. She came back and told us our waiter's name, then walked away. She answered our exact question, I suppose.
Our friends arrived right around then, and we continued trying to flag down anyone to help us. After another 10 minutes or so (25 min total since we sat down), we managed to catch a waitress. We told her what was going on, she apologized profusely and told us she'd get our waiter. She came back not two minutes later with bread and water for the table and promised our waiter was on the way. Several minutes later he materialized. No apology for making us wait, no introduction, just asked if he could take our order.
Our waiter was one of the people who we had attempted to flag down a bunch of times. The entire time we waited, he was extremely attentive and constantly going back and forth to the party of 8 well-dressed older people at the table next to us.
We never got the appetizer we ordered, but our salads came out in a reasonable amount of time. We waited an hour from the time we ordered (1.5 hours total from when we sat down) for our entrees. During that time I ordered wine which never appeared. We had to ask to have our water refilled 3-4 times before it was refilled. At one point I asked him for the water refills we'd requested 3 times already, and he sarcastically responded "3 times?", then walked away in a huff. We also asked for bread refills that he seemed irritated about. I get being irritated at the jerks filling up on free bread, but we would have preferred to have paid for and received the appetizer we ordered .
The food finally came and my wine (which at that point I had asked for multiple times) still hadn't arrived. So I asked for it again. The waiter looked at me like I had 3 heads and asked me to remind him of my order. We also asked for water refills and pepper flakes, which didn't come until we asked someone else.
Halfway through the meal, my wine still hadn't arrived. At that point we spoke with the owner (who we had spoken with before we had complaints and he was lovely). He was completely unapologetic. He told us that an hour is how long good Italian food takes. I guess this was the first time I had good Italian food at Frank's, because I never waited more than half an hour for my food on previous visits. And on those visits the restaurant was packed.
He also told us our waiter is new and overworked, so it's not his fault. But the owner didn't take responsibility for being short staffed. He dismissed it as something we just need to deal with. I waited tables for years, and I get that some nights are just bad nights. But I watched our waiter fawn all over the table next to us and then breeze right by us while we struggled to get his attention. I told the owner that and he just kind of shrugged his shoulders. I also mentioned that I was still waiting for wine I ordered half an hour before I even got my food, and then ordered again multiple times. Five or ten minutes later our waiter came over with my wine, and the owner followed with another glass because he didn't realize the server had already brought the wine.
On the way out of the restaurant, I walked past the owner speaking with the waiter, and heard the waiter saying "Well they spent like $30 and the table next to them spent $250, who would you have taken care of?" First, even if we had spent only $30, that's no way to treat any customer. Second, at the end we spent about $80. We planned to and would have ordered multiple glasses of wine each, after-dinner drinks, and dessert, which would have doubled our bill. But since it took until the end of the meal to get one glass of wine, we didn't have the chance (or the patience to wait anymore).
This is the first time I've ever considered not tipping a waiter. I'm not a jerk, so he still got 20%. Crappy waiters have to pay bills too. But the horrible service coupled with the owner's dismissive attitude means we won't be returning. It's really too bad because Frank's was one of our favorite places for a nice meal. By the way, the food was excellent as usual, thus the 2 stars. read more