Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Review: Franny's Pop-Up in Soho

I haven't done a restaurant review in a long time, so I thought I'd jump right back in with a review of Franny's in Soho.

Franny's is a pop-up Italian restaurant located at 11 Frith Street, very near Mooli's and Ronnie Scott's. It was due to close at the end of January, and be replaced by Giraffe, but through some stroke of luck, their lease was extended by another few weeks, and the restaurant is now due to be closed in March.

The first thought I had upon walking in was that it looked nothing like how I expected it to. I'm not sure what I expected, to be honest. Possibly cheap furniture made out of cardboard and graffiti all over the walls. But, no, there's clearly been a lot of thought and effort put into decorating the place in spite of the fact that it's pretty much just temporary.

Service in the form of Matt the waiter was nice and friendly. He was very smiley throughout, which is always a nice quality to have.

Given my slight health kick, and the fact that I was out on a first date, I found the menu a little limited. I don't do pizza and pasta so as to minimise the possibility of mishaps, but, it was my own fault for suggesting an Italian restaurant, so oh well! I opted for a seafood risotto which also had chunks of pumpkin for my main, while we shared a bread basket and an antipasti platter to start. I must say that the homemade bread with chunks of garlic baked in was incredible and scoffed it down. Clearly, I wasn't at all concerned about the unwanted side-effects despite the occasion. I didn't like the sourdough so much, but, then again, I've never liked sourdough anyway.

The risotto was pretty good. I haven't had a bad risotto in a long time, so I guess it must be difficult to mess it up. My date didn't enjoy his pasta too much, although he said the sauce was nice.

All in all, the bill for all of that plus dessert and coffee came up to £40 inclusive of service. Best of all, if you keep the bill and present it on your next visit, you get 25% off your food order.

Franny's will only be open for a couple of weeks more; if you're looking for a nice, affordable, chilled out place to eat and relax in central London, I'd definitely recommend Franny's. Drinks are 50% off during Franny time from 4 pm to 8 pm.

Reservations can be made via Twitter (@frannys_soho) or by calling 020 7494 3491.

P.S. Apologies for the lack of photos. As I was out on a date, and wanted to preserve my blogger-nymity, I chose not to take any.

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