The Franchise

Good food. It’s a bit pricey. The Franchise Fries are good and I like the steak here.

The food is so so. It seems to be a very clean place to eat. That makes a big difference to me. I will go back.

The food is good. Better than fast food, but not that great compared to other independently owned restaurants.
The worst part of the experience is the awful waitstaff. They don’t know what they’re doing.

I have visited many times since it first opened but my most recent meal was very disappointing. The building continues to be very clean and the atmosphere during the day could use some music or at least the television turned on, otherwise all you hear is the waitress and an occasional train pass by. The food has always been good but we were told that they are now using a new food distributor and it was very obvious! The look of the food was almost as bad as the taste.

This was the third restaurant we hit on our trip to Jefferson and Caddo Lake over Labor Day weekend. We had been really disappointed in the other two. We glanced around and almost did not stay thinking it would have standard sports bar food which we were not in the mood for. Thankfully we stayed! Do not let the typical sports bar vibe turn you away from FANTASTIC food and service.
Our waitress was super attentive and friendly and the chef is really really good. We started with the crawfish queso which is a meal in itself but it was SO good we had to to try more food. We split the ragin’ Cajun and then split the bread pudding. When we met up with fellow B&B ers the next morning they had all been there as well, and all raved about their food.
I’m not going to bash the other two establishments that we attended before here on Unilocal because this is a tiny town and I can see that they can get easily overwhelmed with even small crowds. I would just say expect to slow down your pace and go with the flow.

Came to Jefferson for a work event. The food was good. No complaints. The service leaves a lot to be desired. The waitress said she was new and had been there 4 days. We waited about 45 min to an hour for our good and they forgot one of our workers food. After everything was said and done and we had sat there talking after eating when we get up to walk out. A guy (he may have been the manager) follows us out and accuses me if not paying which I had and he remembered I did after a minute. Needless to say I will not be back.

Food is really decent. Husband had the jambalaya and I had a burger and cajun fries. We also had the bread pudding which was okay but not fabulous. The waitress was really sweet, but stretched way too thin, thus service was miserably slow and haphazard. We dined here on a Thursday night, so it wasn’t too packed, but a lot of what seemed to be locals. They have a full bar and a decent beer selection. They only played newer country music and they had two different playlists going, one in the front and one in the back which made my head hurt. Meh. In a town with limited dinner choices, I may return but it’s not on the top of my list.

Italian food masquerading as Cajun, a meh beer selection, selection of sports on tv that totally ignore any requests from the customers. I would recommend that you pick someplace else. Not anyplace for a return visit, that’s for sure. No wifi, or at least hostile to a request to use their closed wifi. Overall not a friendly place, with blah food, and a llimited rep of beverages.

Went on a Sunday afternoon. Excellent shrimp PO boy, fries are good. Friend had a burger. Said it was very good also. Great selection of beers, six (?) on draft, plus quite a bit of bottles. We ate in the front dining area. In the back was a large area with a stage. They have entertainment Thurs.-sat, I was told. Large projection TV, plus many flat screens in the back. Great ambiance, seems to be a old bank building. I asked if there was a website or list of weekend entertainment on their FB page, I was told the website was under construction, nothing on the FB page. I guess they just want locals to come for the entertainment. Great food, neat environment, POOR information available of what is happening at the restaurant. Oh, there is screened in side porch for dining also.

Waitress was over work she was good food was cold and took a long time to come out of kitchen was not the fault of the waitress it took an hour and a half for a basic meal from start to finish the entrees were cold in the center and the grilled catfish was cold on the plate you had to ask twice for the basic condiments

I visited The Franchise with friends during the Mardi Gras weekend 2014 and we each tried a different dish. I had the boiled shrimp which was to come with sausage, potatoes and corn. The shrimp was very good with just the right amount of spice. I was disappointed that I only received one potato with the meal, and it wasn’t quite done. The boiled corn was fabulous and I would suggest asking for a second ear if you’re a corn-​on-​the-​cob person.
We ordered the garlic Parmesan fries as an appetizer and they were good, but I would’ve liked a little more crisp on the fries. My first instinct is the oil was not quite hot enough, but the flavor of the fresh garlic and Parmesan cheese made the dish enjoyable.
The wait staff was inexperienced and it took a while to get our drinks because the bartender was busy chatting with friends at the table next to us and chatting/​texting on her cellphone. Our waitress was friendly, but her inexperience was clear. Hopefully, this is just because the restaurant is still pretty new and these issues will work themselves out because the food is really good.

I can honestly say that my expectations were high going into this place knowing the chef was amazing but, sadly I was extremely disappointed with how I was treated, with the service, with the management and with the all-​around atmosphere. The food however was great. This is definitely a place that I would consider to be a to go food place only.
I took a friend there that I had not seen a very long time because I’ve heard the food was great and her the place was awesome. When we got there we were treated incredibly rudely by the 12-​year-​old hostess that I assume was related to the owner in someway. We finally got our seats they had us so close to the people next to us it was almost like we were in some sort of Cattlecall.
We ordered our drinks and it took at least 25 minutes for her to walk the 15 feet from our table to the bar, sit there and chat with the bartender for a little bit, put our drinks into their point-​of-​sale system, chat with somebody else for a little while, go back and pick up our drinks which we watched her do, set them back down walked back over to another table and chat and then finally go back over and pick up our drinks and bring them to our table. We then tried to order and she said «give me one minute I will be right back» which turned out not to be the truth. We did not see her for another 30 minutes and when she did come back I was so angry that I had gotten up and walked over the manager who told me oh she’ll be with you in a minute. By the end of the night they overcharged us by $ 85 for drinks and for food and when I complained to the manager, shed looked at me and said I what have to take it up with somebody else.
So then step two and week two of my journey with this wretched place, I called and finally got a hold of the owner, told him about the transgression, told him how angry I was and he said «don’t worry about it, I’ll fix it.» I told them I was going to refute the charge and he said not a problem go-​ahead and refute the charge we won’t stop you. So, I went to my bank to refute the charge and six weeks later the money was pulled back out of my account because these people said «nope, the charge was valid.»
Bottom line if you just have to have the food, order it to go otherwise they are going to scam you out of money. They lied to me they stole money from me and they don’t care. They believe that they are a big fish in a small pond and unfortunately they kind of are. I did not suggest this place at all.

The Louisiana Bowl– was chicken and sausage gumbo very nice the bread with it could be better. , The classic Wedge salad OH MY some one at my table said «That is too much bacon an blue cheese «LOL yes it is just like too much money best wedge in East Texas