frankie. Bar & Eatery — Restaurant in Victoria

I was really looking forward to dining in at Frankie and giving it another shot after a bad takeaway experience - we ordered a curry and some bao to share and they were both very bland and completely not worth the high price. There were very little options for vegans but we assumed this was because of a reduced takeaway menu over lockdown periods. My partner and I went for dinner there last night in hopes they were just having a bad night that night and had more vegan options on their dine in menus. I was pleased to see a note at the bottom of their menu stating that they “cater for all dietary requirements” and to ask staff for assistance. I asked a waitress and she brought out their vegan/vegetarian menu which was the exact same menu with vegetarian options highlighted and a “VGO” key for vegan options. We ordered the Indian street pops, crispy fried cauliflower, curry puffs and the eggplant bao. Three of these dishes came with sauce containing eggs/dairy so I asked if it could come on the side for my partner and if they had an alternative for vegans. The waitress said she wasn’t sure but the chefs were very good and would figure something out. My partner also received the wrong beer whilst waiting for our food to come out. A different waitress brought our food over and said she noticed that there was a vegan note on our table and advised us after putting them down on our table that the curry puffs were in fact not vegan - they were made with butter (I am also lactose intolerant). I said I asked for the vegan option as they had a VGO note by the side of them on the designated vegan menu and that I couldn’t eat them. She asked if she wanted us to take them back which I replied yes please. We were hoping that we would get a meal check as we weren’t asked if we wanted to order anything else instead of the curry puffs - we only had three entree dishes to share between us. Unfortunately, they did not return and I did not get any alternative sauce - not even a chutney or a sriracha. I had the bao and the Indian street pops with no dressing and they were both very dry, the bao was completely bland without sauce. The “crispy” fried cauliflower was also barely fried and not crispy at all, and we noticed that this dish was completely cold. I was so disappointed to see that they could barely cater for a lactose intolerant diet and that there were only a few vegetarian (and apparently vegan with no sauce) items on the menu. I would’ve really appreciated something to make up for these issues - if we could just have gotten some service they could have been amended. I noticed it wasn’t particularly busy on this Tuesday night either. We were not asked if we wanted any more drinks or anything, but by that time we didn’t want to purchase anything more from Frankie. Unfortunately I will not be returning, I really recommend checking that they can actually cater for all dietary requirements before stating it...

ZERO stars if I could!! We arrived for a 6pm booking and were promptly told they need our table at 7.45. I said to the waitress they should have told us when we booked.. she responded in a very rude and entitled tone ‘wellll it does say that online’. I said I actually booked over the phone and was not told this. She said oh well sorry about that! Food took ages, then we were literally bombarded with many dishes and about 15 mins to eat them. While we still had cutlery in our hands and food on our plates the waitress tried to take our food away.. we said we are still eating. Then she put a bill on our table while we were still WAITING FOR A DRINK!, followed by another waitress half a minute later who put another bill on our table. We had to finish our last drink while we waited in line to pay. I’ve never felt more rushed in my life. Food was just deep fried and disgusting , service is appalling. Absolutely shocking way to run a business. Oh and not to mention we were shoved on a table in the back room next to an extremely loud group, we couldn’t even have a conversation on our table. Clearly you don’t care about offering a relaxing dining experience, you just want people in and out. Felt like it’s run by an immature group of teenagers. This is not the first bad experience here, I will...

0 stars if I could!

My first and last time visiting Frankie

Went for dinner with a group of 14 and we had a 2 hour sitting, 6-8pm. We ordered some drinks first and then some food around 6.30-6.40pm. Come 7.05pm we asked to order more food and were told that we cannot order anymore now. At first it was portrayed as if the kitchen was closed for the night. Later, the explanation given to us was that it will take 20-30mins to get the food out and then atleast 20mins to eat and that could take us past the 2 hour sitting.. Firstly, it is their responsibility to come around and tell us that the kitchen will stop taking orders at a certain time. Secondly, who are they to tell us how long it takes us to eat, even if it did take us longer, we could've left the remaining food or taken away if it got to 8pm.

Terrible attitude by the manager (who was also our server), kept talking back. She told us if we had any issues with this, we can speak to the owner as it is their rules, but couldn't give us a contact for the owner (owner was not at the restaurant). Felt like there was no compromise or understanding from the waitress and overall quite disappointed with the experience!

At the end, they did us a 'favour' and served 2...