Fun at Frankie and Benny’s

**A guy’s perspective: Alex Pashley**

One Friday night, with Reading week tantalisingly close, Frankie & Benny’s extended an invitation to Lifestyle to sample their new cocktail menu along with two other courses. We happily obliged.
Themed as an Italian-American diner set in 1950s jitterbugging New York, the atmosphere was friendly, packed to the rafters with gaggles of chuckling families.

The walls of Frankie & Benny’s are daubed in baseball memorabilia, with moustachioed patriarchs pictured proudly with their immigrant families, and newspaper cuttings of the era abound. Italian lesson tapes hum in the Gents’. The chain has its own fictional backstory about the humble origins of its eponymous founders. I indeed doubted many diners knew of its somewhat more prosaic beginnings as a standalone restaurant in Leicester in 1995 – its numerous outlets are now swallowed up by the FTSE-250 listed Restaurant Group.

Nevertheless, we were served up decent soul food by diligent waitresses, swirling around with heavy matt-black trays and flicking the lights for children’s (and blushing adults’) birthday celebrations.

I ordered a mozzarella salad at first – a simple, healthy starter. All of the ingredients were fresh, and the dish was inventively assembled. I then plumped for the big boy on the menu – the 16oz rump steak. Sizzled to perfection, it came with broiled large Portobello mushrooms, near-cremated (yet good) fries and an additional side salad. While this included a cut good of meat and I was only just able to finish, I questioned the £23 price tag. The two cocktails, a strawberry daiquiri and a French martini were happily quaffable, although I didn’t quite catch the novelty of their new menu.

Frankie & Benny’s has no pretensions to reinvent the wheel of gourmet cooking; however, a hearty £40 meal for two in an atmospheric setting, attended by meticulous staff, made for a pleasant evening out.

**A gal’s perspective: Kim Simpson**

I started off with the garlic dough balls, and I don’t mean the humble portion usually presented to you a la Pizza Express; I mean a white dish overflowing with sumptuous buttered delights. The dough balls were hot, and melt in the mouth – exactly what you want them to be.

Having enviously observed Alex’s rather healthy starter in contrast to mine, I decided that this was really not the restaurant in which to choose nutritional food, so I went for the beer battered cod and chips for my main. The fish was well cooked, with the batter just the right consistency of light yet crispy round the edges. Needless to say I could hardly finish the fries.

As I was driving, my cocktail options were fairly limited, but I managed a Pineapple Mai Tai, which was delicious (but very strong) and then a ‘mocktail’, the Amalfi Sunrise, as fruity and exciting as it sounds.

The general atmosphere in the restaurant was one of welcome to all: we felt as well looked after as the larger groups visiting the restaurant for a celebration. There was also a distinct impression that the staff were comitted to maintaining the chain’s reputation- the waitresses constantly checked that everything was up to scratch, demonstrating a confidence and pride in the restaurant name. Though some menu prices might seem a tad steep, (especially on a student budget) the overall experience is well worth paying for.