Frankie & Benny's New York Italian Restaurant & Bar - Watford

Raycee (15 September 2008)

I have eaten at Frankie and Benny’s restaurant in Watford on several occasions and have generally found it to be quite an enjoyable experience. However, this was not the case on Sunday. To begin with I found the service very slow, after being seated we had to wait over 15 minutes to get our drinks. I could not see any reason for this as the restaurant was only half full. When our main courses eventually arrived we were very disappointed. I ordered the NY chicken, which was dry, tough and overcooked. My daughters had the ribs, which did not look like they normally do and lacked in flavour. There was no effort made in the presentation of the meals. My corn which came with the meals was almost cold and there was a side serving of butter for the corn, which could not be used as the corn, was cold. So far dinner was a disaster - surely things could only get better. For dessert my girls ordered the brownies with ice cream and I ordered the chocolate cheesecake. It seemed to take forever to arrive and by the time it arrived we were getting more and more frustrated; once again we felt like we were completely forgotten. Finally desserts arrived and I wasn’t surprised to find that they had got it completely wrong. My girls received one tiny spoon of ice cream each, which was not enough to give a baby and no sign of the brownie. I called a waiter and he rectified this and then they received one tiny piece of brownie each with their spoon of ice cream. My chocolate cheesecake was the highlight of the whole meal. I waited and waited for the waiter to ask me if everything was okay with my meal but he never did. By now I just wanted to get out of there so I asked for the bill. This was my only chance to tell the waiter what I thought of the meal. He apologised but did not make any effort to rectify the situation. As a customer I felt I was not important. In a nutshell the service was poor, the food was terrible and we were there for over 1.5 hours, which I feel was too long just for a main course and dessert. I will not be in a rush to visit this restaurant again.

Phil (5 September 2006)

The food in F&B's as ever is great but the waiting staff need work. The service is not great. The atmosphere is always good and the fact that they are busy is always a good sign.

See more reviews of Frankie & Benny's New York Italian Restaurant & Bar - Watford