Franco's

This place holds a special place in my heart because it's where my boyfriend and I had our first date, so we go back every year on our anniversary. This was our first time going to their new location on Sunset Boulevard and it didn't disappoint. Despite it being inside of a strip mall, the food was impeccable. The space is bigger, but a little bit of the ambience from the previous location is definitely lost.

Everything we ordered was so finger-licking fantastic, we had nothing left over to take home. We order the following items:

Bone Marrow with the Gnocchi was exquisite and the truffle oil was a nice finishing touch. My only suggestion for the chefs is to lighten the amount of breadcrumbs they use.

Their Caesar salad is average, the Parmesan cheese was the highlight and they gave generous amounts of it.

The Short Ribs were hearty and the portions of mashed potatoes and sautéed spinach were appropriate. I loved the spinach and the slices of garlic, they were perfectly cooked.

The Aragosta wasn't presented in the most attractive way, but the flavor was definitely there. They gave good portions of lobster and the sauce had a nice, spicy tang to it.

We ordered the Flourless Chocolate Cake for dessert, which to my surprise came loaded with fruit sauce and sides of ice cream and fruit. I'm not a fan of fruit with my dessert, but my boyfriend loved it. If you check-in on yelp they give you a free house dessert, which was the Panna Cotta and it was surprisingly wonderful.

We brought our own wine and their corkage fee is $20. Overall Franco's is a nice choice for some quality Italian food with excellent service.

Such a cute italian restaurant with delicious pasta! Walk all the way back past the kitchen to get to the restaurant!

Parking
It looks like they have valet available, but we stopped by Sunday night at 6PM and didn't see an attendant available, but we were able to find street parking right in front for free.

We had reservations just in case, but it looks like we were the first customers for the night.

-Pestana- Seemed like everyone liked this dish so we decided to go for it. It's a great seafood dish (and they gave a good amount of seafood too!)
-Fusilli Franco's Mom- My favorite dish from our dinner. It definitely did seem like a safe choice, but I thought it was delicious!
-Complimentary bread- the bread was actually really good! But it did seem like whoever cut it just smushed the bread to cut it...

Service was great and we had someone check up on us often. We did feel a bit judged for not ordering appetizers or dessert though.

In search of an Italian spot, we came across Franco on Melrose and decided to give it a shot. Needless to say, I was really disappointed with my experience here. When you first walk through the front door, you don't feel like you're in the right spot. You're immediately thrusted into the kitchen area where all of the workers are hanging out. There's no signage telling you to keep going to the back patio area where all of the tables are located. Once you get past the weird front area, you're teleported to this quaint oasis that makes you forget you're in LA. It's an intimate setting that is nice for a romantic date.

As soon as we were seated, one of the owners ran us through the menu. Since there are so many options, he gave us his personal recommendations and said that all of the pastas are made from scratch, in-house. That's pretty cool! If you don't see anything on the menu, he said they can customize anything you want. He was VERY friendly, too friendly and kept going on and on about everything here is so delicious. He went around the table and asked us what we individually liked. He was so pushy with everything and almost guilted us into ordering certain things, especially dessert.

As far as the food is concerned, I thought it was below average. I got the Fettuccine ai funghi di bosco and thought the dish was disjointed. After reading the description, I was intrigued by the truffle oil but the pasta didn't fuse with the rest of the dish at all. Not to mention, it was overpriced! We also got an order of the gnocchi and it was awful. The gnocchi was SUPER soft... not al dente at all. So much for homemade pasta...

Safe to say, I don't think I'll be coming back to Franco.

OMGOODNESS, I ordered through yelp and I was pleasantly surprised by how delicious DELICIOUS this place was. (So damn good I had to say it twice).

I had lasagna- DUDE, do you know how long I've been trying to find light, fluffy, perfect cheese, perfect sauce, flaky, mouth-watering. Honestly I've been thinking of going back there in person for over 2 weeks now. Lol.

Branzino fish was seasoned sooooo well! Praise God for people seasoning their food! Light flaky BUTTERY and freakin YUMMY! Just like there Steak also!

Steak- my GOODNESS! We've landed on a goldmine. Buttery and seasoned steak. Just simply DELICIOUS .

I hope they don't change or do anything different by the time I go back. MAN, Franco brought a smile to my face and my families bellies. I can't wait to go back! Thank you guys so much.

Also, Yelp delivery was on point too. They were right on time!

Conveniently named, Franco's on Melrose is a diamond in the rough. Located on the busy streets of Melrose, one could easily drive by and miss the restaurant despite the dimly lit sign out front.

Upon entering the restaurant you will find yourself in the middle of the kitchen, but do not let this confuse you! That was indeed the entrance, and the host will lead you through the doors into an indoor garden.

Josh, our waiter and co-owner of Franco's was delightful. Not only was friendly and attentive, but his passion and love for the food he served was palpable! He happily provided suggestions from the menu and was extremely helpful.

The gnocchi arrived at the table, and I was extremely pleased with the texture. All of their pastas are homemade, and this gnocchi was definitely amazing. It was soft, chewy and bouncy. The mushroom cream sauce complimented the pasta well, and left me craving more.

Josh also recommended the Lobster pasta which was a sight in itself. The two tone pasta, with half a lobster on your plate definitely left an impression on the eyes! I enjoyed the flavors and liked the reduction sauce. It paired very well with the shellfish.

In addition to the lovely meal, it was recommended that we top it all off with a delicious home made Italian dessert. Everything sounded really good, but because we were stuffed full we decided not to order any. Josh would not take no for an answer and surprised us with a beautiful Panna Cotta paired with a variety of berries.

This restaurant has got to be one of the best Italian restaurants I have tried in California. Not only was the food exquisite but the service was also exceptional. I would highly recommend Francos if you are in search for some good home made Italian food.

Stopped in yesterday to try Franco's before heading to our Monday Night Trivia experience at The Den, and I was happy to see the offerings they got going on.

Originally I was upset Malibu Fish Grill left because they had such a great happy hour, well Francos came in with a pretty good happy hour as well.

I grabbed a glass of Pinot (Red) very good for 6 bucks, Calamari and Bruschetta for 6 bucks as well, and it came with free bread we could nosh on until we walked over to the other spot.

I really dig whats going on at Francos, and I hope to come back for a sit down real dinner, real soon!

If you're craving Italian, this place with satiate and exceed that craving. I ordered the Pappardelle alla vaccinara. It is not only so delicious, but the portions are immense. I couldn't even finish my plate which is the best type of pasta I like. I hate it when you go to restaurants and you can finish your "pasta" in two bites. It's a joke and Franco is not that so thank you! They also offer real shredded parmesan cheese so you know it's the real deal.

The wait staff is so friendly and attentive it's incredible.

The lighting of the place is so beautiful. It was a little cold since it is outdoors, there could have been some heat lamps.

I came here to celebrate my birthday with my friend who has the same birthday as me and Franco on Melrose is so accomodating! They presented us a Panna Cotta dessert AND a Tiramisu! I love tiramisu cake! It was such a lovely experience dining here. I can't wait to bring my significant other here for a date night. It's so perfect!

This place is such trash.
So for starters how do they have so many reviews if they just opened? Did they take the old Malibu fish grills page over???
We showed up around 330 on a Sunday. There were was only 1 other couple there.
Our server seemed knowledgeable and recommended the sausage raviolis. My friend got them and why arrived was 5 raviolis on a plate and the raviolis did not have much Italian sausage in them. for $18 bucks wouldn't you
want to taste sausage? My friend had to get up to go find the server. And shared with the waitress her disappointment the server just said that the sausage was really ground up.
Well wow this must be a super fine ground cause her nor I could see sausage.

I got a Cobb salad and asked for the dressing on the side. The salad came with the sauce mixed in.

The server was MIA most of the meal. For a place that's not really busy where did she go?

So disappointed with the customer service but also with the lack of follow up.

Dropped $50 bucks on lunch for 2x people and really upset that we had to pay for food that was


Just in shock how awful the customer service was and how expensive this horrible meal was.

Super bummed out about my first time to Franco on Melrose. I've had the restaurant bookmarked for months. I decided to take my friend here for his birthday dinner and ended up being disappointed with the experience. Really wish I had taken him somewhere else, because he didn't seem to enjoy it.

The restaurant is clean and the décor is great. It's spacious and I was impressed when I first saw the inside. After being seated, we were given menus. Then no one came back to check in on us. I thought it was a bit crazy that they only had ONE person waiting on the tables, with a woman helping him bring the dishes, fill waters, bring bread, etc. It was about 10-15 minutes in before the woman brought the complimentary bread to our table. So between the two of them, they were waiting on all of these tables. We started off with Fritto Misto (Calamari) and the Franco Salad. We ordered the Franco Salad, but got the Peach Salad instead. When I addressed this with the woman, she didn't seem to care. Also, at this point I didn't want to make it a big deal because I'm sure it would have taken a long time to correct this and didn't want to wait for the correct salad. The salad was okay, but not what I ordered. The Fritto Misto may look like a big order of Calamari, but the big chunks in there are fried veggies, mostly Cauliflower.

My main course was the Linguine Vongole and my friend had the Veganella with (Penne). The Linguine with clams didn't taste right at all. I've probably had this dish 5 times this month in the various restaurant during my travels. The clams did not taste fresh at all. My friend didn't enjoy his Veganella, as it was too salty for him. We decided to skip the dessert when asked if we wanted to see the menu. Then shortly, the server brought over a House Dessert. It was good, which allowed us to skip ice cream after dinner.

I think that if the service had been better, I could have enjoyed the food a little more. After reading the reviews, was excited to give this place a try. It was just really bad, and the few times that we wanted some assistance we found ourselves being on constant alert waiting for the server or his "assistant" to walk by. There are way too many Italian restaurants in the area for me to justify coming back here.

Valet parking is available, but free street meter parking after 6pm. Didn't check to see how much valet is.

I read that this is one of the better authentic Italian, fine dining restaurants in LA and I was surprised that it was even better than my high expectations.

First, I liked the fact that the Owner, Franco, greeted me when I walked in and had time to chat a bit. I told him I lived in Amsterdam and he told me he is from Naples Italy; so far, so good.

I was struck by how well lit the main dining room is with a very romantic and intimate ambience. The music was nice and low key but with a nice undercurrent of excitement.

I decided on:

Starter: Charcuterie board consisting of Tagliere, Sopressata, Prosciotto, Gorgonzola with marmalade and dipping sauces.

Entree: Aragosta-Fresh Maine Lobster in shells with black & white linguini, Rock Shrimps in lobster reduction.

Vegetable: Grilled Asparagus Spears

Wine(Owner Recommendation): Sauvignon Blanc White Santa Barbara 2014.

Dessert: Sorbetto pistachio & lemon

Everything was fantastic, tasting just right and large portions.

The Aragosta and Charcuterie were the best I've ever had-the al dente pasta tasted perfect with the meats, vegetables and sauce.

Service by Raoul was excellent.

I rank Franco on Melrose in my top 10 Italian Restaurants ever visited list.

Salute!