Frankies Spuntino

Average (hotel like) Italian food at best, loud atmosphere, poor and rushed service… plenty more Italian restaurants in the area with better fare at the same price.

I can still taste their braised rabbit pappardelle a day after I’ve had it. My boyfriend and I had time for a long lunch break and wanted a place with good service and good food. We are happy we ended up coming to Frankies.
It’s not very often you find a place where waitstaff does not rush you during lunch service even though you’ve been enjoying the food and atmosphere for two hours. Our server was exceedingly pleasant and gave good recommendations when we had trouble deciding what to order.
If the weather wasn’t as chilly as it was, we would have opted for outside seating. The view of Hudson Street was a great complement to a delightful meal.

I came in on Thursday evening and sat at the bar. The bartender (whose name I know from the receipt, but won’t include) put a menu down in front of me with nothing to say and no eye contact. Immediately a bad sign. Throughout my entire experience he couldn’t be bothered to smile, make eye contact, or say much of anything at all. He was so cold, unfriendly, and unwelcoming. He ruined my experience.
But then there was this awesome barback named Alex who was all smiles, very friendly, offered me bread, kept my water full, etc. He was fantastic. The nasty bartender berated him in front of everyone for «standing around» which Alex was not doing at all. This really bothered me because it was enormously unprofessional and inappropriate for him to do this at all, let alone in front of guests.
The food I had was nice, so really the only reason for the 2 stars, which may seem harsh, is because of how totally unpleasant this bartender was. Maybe he was having a bad day? I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, but even on my very worst days (which we’ve all had) I can at least fake a smile and go through the basic steps of service. He clearly just did not care at all. I get chills just thinking about how cold and rude he was.

The food here is okay nothing special and overpriced for what it is compared to other good Italian restaurants in Manhattan that are not as expensive and give you better portions and most importantly than anything else better service. if there was a lower star to put than a 1I would put it because it was obscene how they treated me and my family here. We waited for an hour for our meals to come just to realize the waiter never put our orders in when we asked how much longer our food will be. Besides that the manager was so disgusting towards us after we paid for a very overpriced meal and terrible service. The manager blatantly blamed us for our experience and gave his opinion on what we did wrong while giving us grotesque sarcastic remarks and literally pushed us out the door. Let me remind you again this was the manager. Worst experience me and my family ever had in a restaurant. For viewers reading this please take this into consideration and go to any other restaurant before you ever think about going here!

This place is one of the worst places I have ever ate at in New York. My appetizer was cold and nasty and my meal was not appealing what so ever. Not to mention our waiter was very rude and was totally ignoring my husband and didn’t even bother to ask him what he wanted to drink. And seemed to be in such a hurry. Also our meal was $ 82! What a rip off. Me and my husband are definitely never coming back here to eat.

05÷18÷16 — we were a grp of six. It was so wonderful. Many in our group had pasta dishes. I only ordered the prosciutto and pecorino sandwich & glass of chianti.
Everyone loved the whole scene!

Got there early in the evening. Attentive service. Good beer selection. Antipasto was just ok, but the entrees, madone! Perfect eggplant… not buried under a slab of mutz, but swimming in delicious gray and just enough pecorino romano. Octopus… delicious. Sausage over polenta, great. Excellent bread to mop up the gravy. Legit Italian joint. Very satisfied.

This place is really lovely. A group of six of us got meats and cheeses and then split a few pastas and other plates. The pasta was amazing. Also easily some of the best grilled octopus I’ve had. So good. We also got some sort of linguine with peas or something that was also just perfect. Definitely want to come back.
Also was glad we made a reservation!

I brought friends here for dinner, mainly because of the great outdoor seating options overlooking Hudson Street. After our meal, I maintain that the patio seating is probably the best thing that Frankie’s 570 has to offer. Nothing was bad by any means, but I don’t have an overwhelming urge to return.
The rundown–
DRINKS:
Our group tried wine, beer and cocktails, so a decent sampling of their drink menu. All were fine, standard pricing and quality for the West Village though nothing remarkable.
FOOD:
Antipasto appetizer was by far my favorite! Fresh selection of cured meats, some roasted veggies, olives and cheese. They skimped a little on the cheese which is never the right move in my opinion but all around a good starter (though a bit overpriced at $ 18)
Two gnocchi dishes were tasty enough albeit very rich. Again, nothing spectacular here and for $ 20 pasta dishes I usually like to be a little more impressed.
Sandwiches might be Frankie’s best offering as they’re moderately priced and fresh (though once again, nothing amazing). The meatball sandwich was a hearty portion.
Skipped dessert, don’t regret it.
ATMOSPHERE:
Nice. Laid back, low lighting inside and a generally nice ambiance. Staff were accommodating and helpful too service is pleasant/​on the leisurely side.

Love this place. Perfect for a casual night out. I like their chicken under a brick and the grilled calamari. When ordering out, get the grilled calamari and put it over some salad, delicious!
Also love their cocktails. There’s probably better pasta elsewhere in the neighborhood.

I’m very disappointed! Hostess is arrogant unwelcoming girl who asked me twice to show my RSVP confirmation from open table. After standing for 10min with my child in my arms she finally set us down.
I expected food to be good as it was in Frankies 17(closed now) but it was not. First, portion of chefs cold cuts appetizers was hideous. They spread 2 pieces of prosciutto on the small plate and added 2 pieces of hot sausage and some burned cauliflower. Then when it came to my favorite dish cavatelli with brown butter and hot sausage it wasn’t good anymore. Pasta was breaking in pieces and overlooked. The texture of pasta was messed up. Oh they definitely, made portions smaller. Cheap!!!
Overall, very disappointing! Not going back there again.

Frankies 570 (not to be confused with Little Frankies, this is the original from Carroll Gardens in Brooklyn) is a where amazing classic home cooked Italian meets modern cuisine– and the atmosphere reflects it perfectly, complete with candle lit tables. On the corner of Hudson and West 11^th in the West Village, this restaurant is surprisingly spacious so you can sit and eat without constantly being bumped by people trying to wade to the bar or restroom, but also seats enough people to host a healthy number of guests.
The food is excellent and our server, William, was able to describe the dishes with a familiarity that made it apparent he was familiar with the dishes, not just good at memorizing a menu– always a good thing. The drinks are stiff enough that they aren’t skimping on the alcohol (but still taste good) and the food is delicious and prepared by chefs (not cooks).
Definitely worth a visit, but leave the kiddos at home; that’s where the new world supercedes the old. It is a little loud and your kids won’t really enjoy it much, so niether you nor other patrons are likely to enjoy their presence.

What the FREAK happened to this place?!? I’m at a total loss. I liked the Carroll Gardens site; I liked, a bit less, this West Village site. But the Frankies on Hudson has gone from really good to horrifically bad. What??? Why?
We started with the antipasto. Eighteen dollars — $ 18! — for two minuscule slices of unidentifiable cheese, four quarter-​size coins of pepperoni, some prosciutto, four — four!!! — small black olives from a can — and absolutely inedible steamed carrots and cauliflower, all overcooked to the point of limpness, and with no seasoning. The waitress said «we use salt and pepper.» And «the olives are a garnish.» Really? Overcooked vegetables with salt and pepper, which I can add at the table? Four olives? Two thin slices of some sort of crappy cheese? Four slices of pepperoni? And you’re charging $ 18??? Unreal.
We then had the pasta special, a «four meat ragu.» None of the meats was distinguishable from the others — it was a just a glop of ground beef in tomato sauce. And the portion was a half size that you’d get in any basic restaurant — for $ 24!!! What on earth are they smoking???
What a rip off. What happened?
We were starving.
We cut our losses and left. We’ll never return. Shame on them.
An absolute AVOID.
Awful.

3.5, but I reserve the right to round-​up if we ever actually visit the restaurant. We had a BLT delivered through Caviar and it was quite good. Good but not great. In any case, not a bad option for delivery at least.

Another little trendy spot In the West Village that gets packed to capacity over the weekends. Unless you have a reservation the wait time is pretty extensive and by pretty extensive I mean wellllll over an hour. Worth it? Thats debatable. Something has to be unbelievably mind blowing for me to want to wait that long. And although my dish was good I cant say that I’ll be running back here.
For my entrée I had the Sweet potato & ricotta raviolis in a parmesan broth. It was very unique and tasted delicious. All of the pasta is hand made here and it shows. Portion size was pretty small so be prepared. The drinks were good as well as the bartender recommended a mixed tequila drink with a smokey kick that I definitely liked. Overall yes this place is good but unless you have a reservation I cant say that I would wait around.

KenScale: 7.5÷10
West Village is always overflowing with Italian restaurants, and I’ve been to a good number of them but somewhat Frankies Spuntino has been off my radar for a while. Perhaps because this one is sort of an outpost of Brooklyn flagship that has been gaining praises here and there? Anyways, I finally made it to this casual Italian joint; overall, the food wasn’t bad but none of them was particularly remarkable either.
I’m always partial to grilled octopus dish whenever I order at an Italian restaurant, and the one at Frankies Spuntino was pretty solid, nicely cooked with decent balance of flavor. The pasta menu at the restaurant is rather short and both dishes that my dining group ordered were a bit uneven. I think pappardelle with braised lamb ragu could’ve used a bit more vigor in flavor (i.e. a bit on the bland side). On the other hand, cavatelli with hot sausage and browned sage butter was a bit too overpowering at times and the promise of textural combination between cavatelli noodle and sausage wasn’t realized. Bronzini with grilled baby artichokes and lemon aioli was a nice, simple dish that showed how well the fish was cooked without being overpowered by seasoning, but then I’ve had other more memorable and better-​cooked bronzini dishes elsewhere. For the dessert, red wine prunes and mascarpone looked interesting and actually didn’t taste too sweet to my liking.
Getting a reservation could be tough at this restaurant constantly flowing with people looking to have a casual night out. It’s probably ideal for a casual date or gathering with friends, with a nice neighborhood vibe that doesn’t wow you but makes you feel comfortable sipping a glass or two of mostly Italian wine. If Frankies Spuntino had more satisfying food, I probably would’ve used this place again on my next blind or online date.

Came here for drinks prior to dinner. Sat at the bar and had good service.
One expresso martini, a cosmo, a tequila martini, and a rum and coke. All were good, except their spiced rum is a bit harsh!!! In the 30+ minutes that we were here, the place became packed!!!
Looks like a great place to try for dinner next time.

This would definitely fall into the «don’t believe the hype» category.
A friend went to the Brooklyn outpost of this restaurant and thought it was just dandy, so we thought we would pay a visit to the Manhattan outpost.
The pasta was okay, nothing to write home about — comparable to any one of a 1000 other Italian restaurants. I had the pasta with sausage (so did most of the table). My friend had the pasta with lamb ragout.
The antipasto was a joke. We ordered it for 5 people and it only had 2 tiny pieces of cheese and hardly any olives. It was embarrassing!
The service was EXTREMELY slow. When we sat down, it took the waiter FOREVER to come and take our order. Ditto for our entrees and check.
With all the other options in the city, I don’t think I would come back or recommend.

Popped in here after a busy evening in the West Village for some much needed air-​conditioning and what turned out to be some pretty good food! Cool atmosphere that simultaneously manages to be casual but trendy and vibrant. I guess I would classify Frankie’s as «new american» but it also tends to lean towards Italian.
Wait staff is very friendly and attentive. Their gnochhi is on point, as are their crostini’s for an appetizer! I got the sweet sausage over creamy polenta, and it was decent — polenta was a little too creamy but I guess that’s what I was getting myself into!
All in all, a great space to either meet up with friends or go on a date. Lovely spot nestled on Hudson St, too.

I went here for Valentine’s Day with my boyfriend and we loved it! Good for date or dinner with friends. Not super romantic, more of a fun/​chatty vibe with light music in the background. I would come back here to eat.
RESTAURANT OVERVIEW:
–Very cute, good for night with a date or friends. Not super intimate, so it can lean either way: friends or date. Good for both.
–Spacious, does not feel overcrowded. Although our table was right next to 2 girls and I could overhear their conversation. Not all tables are this close though and I didn’t really mind it. Lots of places are like this — I’m pretty used to this now. Would not sway me to not come here on a date at all.
–More casual vibe
–Dim-​lit, candle lighting. Good/​fun ambience.
–Definitely make reservations
APPS:
–We got the Ricotta, Honey & Provolone Crostini — very good! Highly suggested.
–We also got the Sweet Soppressata from the «Cured Meats» section as well as a few cheeses to pair with the meat from «Formaggio». Very good! I love me some meat and cheese.
DINNER:
–My boyfriend got the Gnocchi Marinara & Fresh Ricotta (pic below). It was good — very typical yummy, pillow-​y gnocchi. Nothing out of the ordinary.
–I got the Cavatelli, Sage Butter & Spicy Sausage. This was SO good. We both liked my dish better. It was VERY tasty! (Pic below of this too).
DRINKS:
–We both got Old Fashioneds. They were good — no complains here, but nothing blown out of the park kinda thing.
SERVICE:
–Attentive! No complaints.