Franklins

Decided to go here last minute to have a Sunday roast. I managed to book a table 15 minutes before arrival in the early evening, which was really handy! The seating area is spacious, light and you can see the chefs cooking in the kitchen. Although the food is a bit on the pricey side, the portion is huge and they also give you complimentary homemade bread and butter. Also, the staff were really nice and the food came quickly. It lost one star because my steak was a bit too raw for my liking, even when I asked for medium rare and the yorkie pud was a bit burnt.

I have been wanting to go here for ages and finally managed to last Saturday night. First lesson — don’t go on a Saturday night! It was heaving, and when the tables are so closely packed together as to make you wonder which person is actually your date, it ends up being pretty claustrophobic. Plus there seemed to be an entire rugby team gathered round the table behind us, which made our conversation absolutely impossible.
Due to the place being packed out with severely limited room for the wait staff to get to us, we were horribly neglected service-​wise. One very nice chap was great for the first ten minutes, but after that we literally had to shout ‘excuse me’ over several couples when someone got within hearing distance — usually to rush on either without hearing or without wanting to hear.
The food was also below par — I did have four very nice oysters to start with, but my lamb wasn’t terribly flavourful and the spiced aubergine it was sitting on didn’t work for me. My side of Savoy cabbage was cooked in such a way as to mean I had to chew each mouthful for a full minute before I could swallow.
My dining companion’s Glamorgan sausage to start was alright (nothing special) and they described their asparagus main as «a dish that a meat-​eater would invent for a vegetarian without actually trying it».
The pudding of cinnamon chocolate parfait was lovely and we ate every scrap.
To their credit they took the Savoy cabbage off of the bill, but it was still fairly substantial for the rather uncomfortable and unsatisfying experience we had had.
I may go back and try it on a less busy night, just to see if they can function better when not stretched to breaking point.

Beautiful food, they really care about their ingredients.
Great for a special occasion.

Good vibe, with a nice deletion of drinks on offer.
The food was simple and of great quality for a Gastropub.

When I want to pick up a quick meal for my kids (and myself) I pop into the farm shop and grab the salmon fish cakes or the pork pies. They are DELICIOUS, and made with wholesome, basic ingredients rather than the preservatives and fillers one finds in other ‘fast food’. I always buy bread from here now, and the produce is consistently seasonal and wonderful. This store isn’t much more expensive than others in the neighborhood (apart from Iceland), and the quality is a universe apart.
As for the restaurant, I like to bring my foodie friends from out of the country here, particularly those who are unfamiliar with British cuisine. The last meal I enjoyed at Franklins was one of the best I’ve had in London, and it made quite an impression on my guests.

Ok, I admit, I’m dropping a couple of stars for this place because they didn’t get my order right — but then again I never said anything to them because I felt like I’d done nothing but complain in restuarants lately and I wanted a break from feeling like a moany cutsomer.
The manager and all the staff were extremely friendly, the coffee was very good and the Sunday roast was lovely (try the greens-​they really were something special!)
But I ordered a pork roast and asked for a Yorkshire on the side, when my roast came — no crackling as promised. Come on, surely that’s the main event in a pork roast?! I didn’t say anything because I thought that they had simply replaced crackling for Yorkshire. But when the bill came, I’d been charged £1.50 for my Yorkshire. No fair!
This place also lost a star because I ordered a chocolate and orange pot, which, whilst lovely in texture tasted nothing like orange and only like chocolate.
I feel bad for this review because otherwise this place was delightful and I would like to give it another go sometime. But this time, I couldn’t give it a great one…

Really great little place. The atmosphere is cozy. Service is nice. Food was very tasty and standard gastropub prices. Wine list was pretty good as well. Beer selection is excellent.
–Bean & chorizo soup: Nice but not amazing
–Game Terrine: Really lovely
–Venison: Cooked perfectly and tasted amazing. Nice baby carrots on side.
–Greens: Basically boiled cabbage with some seasoning. Tasted good but not really worth getting

More of a restaurant with a bar than a pub serving food, this is nonetheless a pleasant place to stop for a drink. The food has a good reputation among locals, and is noteworthy for the presence of game when in season, which a lot of places are not brave (or skilful) enough to pull off. Can get busy, and is not the cheapest pub on Lordship lane — £25 for a jug of Pimms is a bit steep.

I’m not entirely sure why this is being called Franklins Pub.
It does have a pub /​bar area at the front and seating outside n the street, and though a good place for a few drinks, nice lager on tap and good wine selection, but the place is really more of a restaurant, I’d be hard pressed to call it a pub.
Anyway, it’s small and intimate, very much a neighbourhood restaurant. The food is of the St Johns ‘nose-​to-​tail’ style so great for carnivores. There will be one vegetarian dish so if it’s not to your liking as a veggie then choice will be very limited (though the cheese selection is fab).
The quality of the food is why you go though; I’ve very rarely had anything that wasn’t superb from stalwarts like the steak to more adventurous game dishes or sweetbreads. Like anywhere it can have the odd day when a dish has been merely competent and delicious as opposed to the usual excellence.
The service is also good and strikes a good balance between formal and friendly. Wine list is excellent, talking of which I marked it £££, but if you’re tempted down list from the 3 – 4 (of each colour) house type wines it will quickly become a ££££ (there’s a great Margaux, a steal at £45,half price you’ll find it anywhere up town).
I’ve been going for the best part of a decade and it remains not only a local favourite for me but has trumped many a pricier option in town.
Definitely worth a try.

I used to come to Franklins with my then-​flatmate so we could sit in the window, drinking wine and feeling glamorous on a Saturday afternoon. In hindsight we probably looked more like wino wasters with nothing more productive to do with our weekends but hey ho, we were having fun.
Franklins has a lovely ambience to it with a cosy bar area and rich smells constantly wafting through from the restaurant in the back, it’s a nice place to settle in to for a long chat with a close friend. I’ve never eaten there — just salivated as I sipped on my wine (decadently and with style, as discussed above) — but I’ve only heard good reports.

Walking into Franklins is like diving into a haystack in a barn: oh so pleasurable. I absolutely love this place. I feel like the happiest donkey alive in here. It has jams, honey, vinegar, flower, cheese, wine, any kind of organic food product you can think of for semi-​reasonable prices. They even carry honey from a South London bee farm! How amazing is that? This place definitely supports local producers of authentic, non-​poisonous food that is hearty and über delicious

Franklins feels like a trip to the farm, or at least to a country farm shop.
Baskets of organic English apples, huge bunches of garlic and Mrs Marmalade’s homemade pots of chutney invite you into the shop.
Not only is all the food hearty, organic farm produce but is displayed in a basic but beautiful and honest way.
Franklins is simply but wonderfully a farmers market transformed into a shop. While across the road is the Franklins Restaurant. I am yet to try this out but it is definitely next on my list.

This is where my husband proposed, so I’m biased, but even before the proposal we couldn’t stop talking about how good our food was. My husband has the pheasant, which he thouroughly enjoyed and I had a sort of steak stew which was incredibly tasty and rich. It’s a bar upstairs so you don’t expect the comfortable restaurant to be hidden downstairs. A truly exceptional eating out experience, although it’s not cheap, but that’s to be expected for food like this.

Franklins has a pub at the front and a fantastic restaurant, selling seasonal British food at the back and downstairs. The atmosphere is good. The menu sometimes looks a bit challenging (lots or offal etc.) but everything we have eaten there has been great.

Nice & relaxed atmosphere, good tunes (blues, jazz, sixties underground etc.) and pleasant service made this a welcome choice after the hectic buzz of The Bishop further down the road.
3 or 4 ales on as well as the usual lagers & couple of ciders. Small but effective menu on offer from which the chips, black pudding on toast and lentils, beetroot & beans were sampled and enjoyed.