Franco's - Tendring

Wasn’t expecting to find this in Clacton. A great Italian restaurant, food and service fantastic and in true Italian portions!! Wide selection of wines as well as other drinks. Great value for money too. Best I’ve had in Clacton for years.

On our family vacation, we celebrated our youngest daughter's 11th birthday with a special meal to mark her passing with flying colors and securing her place in the school of her choice. The food at the restaurant was fantastic and the staff was exceptional. I highly recommend this place to everyone!

We had been to Franco's many times before and loved it, both under the original ownership and the new. However, it seems that it has changed hands yet again and not for the good I'm afraid. Although, judging by the November reviews maybe it is back on track again. I also note that late September/early reviews are similar to ours, which was very poor. In fact we left before the food arrived, mainly due to the extremely poor level of service we received with our drinks. We were out to celebrate my wife's birthday and to start the evening, the four of us all ordered double Gin Tonic's. However, it took 40 minutes for the drinks to arrive. And if if we thought the time taken to bring the drinks was bad, then you can imagine our disappointment when one of the waitresses brought four large dirty glasses with what looked like water in them. No ice, no lemon, and the mixers already poured in the glass, so no way to judge what level of gin we had received. When we asked about the ice and lemon they looked at us in astonishment. We assumed that they had none of neither, otherwise why bring drinks without the basics? It was like they had never worked in a bar/restaurant before and had just wandered in off the street. To make matters worse, they then arrived later with a glass of lemons and a glass of ice. By this stage we could see the evening descending into chaos and we decided to leave. No apology from the staff or questions, they just allowed us to leave and got on with their business. Very off-putting. We decided to try Killocks, which was surprisingly good. Unfortunately, that's another restaurant off the go-to list.

We have been regulars at Franco's for the past 3 years, but the restaurant has undergone multiple management changes in recent months. Our experience in October, as evidenced by my previous review, was disappointing. However, we learned that the former chef had returned, so we decided to give it another try. Our meal was a hit and the service was back to its usual standard. Paul, the chef, impressed us with his fantastic seafood spaghetti dish and a trio of delectable desserts. It was a delightful evening and we plan to return again soon!

We're visiting and found Franco's by chance and goodness are we pleased we did!! The service is spot on, traditional, honest to goodness customer service. Made us aware of their presence but were not overbearing. Friendly, chatted just enough for us to feel warm and comfortable but not so much to disturb our meal. I cannot find an appropriate adjective for the steak... I asked for a blue rib eye and was not disappointed. A perfect sear on an otherwise beautiful piece of butter soft meat. The sautéed potatoes were a seasoned offering to the gods. Excellent, cannot recommend enough. We will be traveling back the 120 miles just to eat here again.