Frankie and Bennys

Very over priced for such basic and simple food! Sandwich and fries, £10.99! Really!!!

Alright… Had better

Big changes have been promised at this restaurant, so the area administrator advised us as she persuaded us to try it again after a couple of disastrous visits. So we did. And it was much, much better.
I’ll leave the original review below this, out of fairness, as that did happen. But I have to say, the restaurant put in an excellent performance today. We were extremely well looked after. Everything went well and the food was delicious. I had resisted their pleas for me to try the place again, but now I’m glad we did.
We’ll certainly put it on our list of good places and now hope to dine there once every month or so. So long as the good work continues. (If it doesn’t, we’ll tell everyone.) Yes, we wouldn’t have believed they could turn things around like they have. But it seems that this restaurant could now be on the up and up. Fantastic performance, today. Long may it continue.
.(Original review follows).
Having avoided Frankie & Bennys for six years following a poor show at their Bracknell place, a closed road into Reading saw us swerving away and coming face-​to-​face with this out-​of-​town Frankie & Bennys. We thought we’d give it another try.
Little did we know, the foul play that we’d suffer twice! (We were awarded a voucher after the first let-​down and an assurance from the area manager all was rectified so we returned, and the same thing happened. Either there is a serious management problem there, or the area manager commands no respect and his directions are ignored. Or maybe they’re having a laugh at customers’ expense).
The big issue (I’ll detail other misgivings further on)? My dish arrived with past-​its-​best limp browning salad. Yet when I sent it back, a lovely crisp fresh salad came out. Are they trying to foist old rubbish-​bin food on paying customers while keeping back the good stuff? This formed the main part of my complaint to head office (amongst the other disappointments) and we promptly received a £20 voucher and a vow that the staff had been told and that it would not happen again. So why, when we returned for the exact same dish a fortnight later, did it reoccur? Yes, same dish, same old limp brown out-​of-​date salad. And again, replaced by nice crisp salad when sent back? !!!
I see this as a brazen attempt to cheat customers. And it’s obviously ongoing. Do be warned if you dare to try this restaurant.
I contacted their head office again, stating they must not send any further vouchers (didn’t want them to wrongly think that’s all we were after) and that we will steer clear of the place for six months. To give them a chance to sort the place and its many deep-​rooted problems out. Their area manager then tried contacting me by phone but unfortunately missed me twice. We’re in 90% of the time, and he’s not tried since. Perhaps giving up is their way. I’m not too concerned, as we will not be returning yet.
Why might I return in the future? The food, once correctly adorned with this week’s salad, was actually very good. And our waiter the second time, Joe, was superb (perhaps if he’s placed in charge, things might change). But the cheek of trying to get away with using up their old food on unsuspecting customers is plainly rotten.
Also Ignored by four staff while waiting at the entrance to be seated, chucked two plain pieces of paper and a fistful of coloured pencils (7 out of 10 of which were broken or too worn down to work) for our little boy, not asked how our meal was, not given a balloon, overcharged for an extra drink (I spotted it) and blanked by the manager who clearly saw all this going on. On return (because of voucher and assurance), greeted better, given a lovely drawing pack for our boy, and again, food delicious once it was correct. Plus, brilliant waiter, Joe. BUT near-​criminal salad issue again, wrong pizza brought out for wife, again ignored by manager even after we let on the area manager had implored us to try the place again, and then they tried to tell us we couldn’t use the area manager’s VIP voucher along with the £5 off a £20 from main menu spend offer we had. Oh, dear. That VIP voucher just counts as ‘cash’ of course, with no small print about not being used in conjunction with any other offer. I insisted they found a way round it (they blamed the till).
Nice food, if you have your wits about you and refuse last night’s leftovers, but don’t suffer the service of this place until someone there decides to care about customer service. Or until Joe the waiter is running the place. Or becomes area manager.

A definite slap in the face for anyone mildly Italian. Service is a lottery.

went after the luchtime rush so more relaxing. had the the 2 courses for £7.95 calamari starter was fresh and crispy, meatballs and spaghetti great flavour, managed to eat it all but no space for the lovely tiramisu gatueax that they do, service good, definately go again, great way to spend a monday afternoon.

This restaurant is a source of good food, mainly pizzas but there also a selection of tasty starters and main meals. The desserts are large !!
We started with a large Bruschetta to share then I had their Mushrooms and an All-​day Breakfast followed by Apple Crumble and Cream.
There are two menus, one full price and one that is almost the same in content but at a fixed price which totals less than £10 per person. Of course we had wine and beer but the total bill was very reasonable. The waitresses were very nice…