Frankie's Modern Diner — Restaurant in Victoria

Frankies came well recommended by our hotel Concierge, specifically he stated they had the best eggs Benedict in town. I suppose we got there with high expectation, although not busy at all, we were told to be a 15 to 20 minute wait. In about 10 minutes we were seated, and we noticed that most of the seats were empty in the restaurant, perhaps due to a reservation system. No worries the server was polite and within a fairly short time, received our salmon eggs Benedict with a side waffle. The first bite we had, although delicious and well presented, was pretty much stone cold. As soon as the server came to the table, we mentioned this and she asked if we wanted new eggs? We deliberated, and thought perhaps a new plate of eggs Benedict would be more appropriate. At this point it gets a little weird, not one but two manager types came by to explain why the eggs were cold, or should not be expected to be scalding hot at least… they mentioned that nothing waits around to be served, but rather the fact the salmon is cold, and the avocado is cold that the eggs will also not be hot. yes, there was a small amount of nice salmon, and a thin slice or two of avocado, however, I would think the egg and the toasted English muffin should’ve counteracted that, in fact, I don’t think I’ve ever had eggs Benny, where the whole thing appeared to be cold. As an aside, the plain waffle I ordered was also room temp.

We were quite taken aback of the lengthy, thermal dynamics and heat transfer science conversation that took place, as opposed to simply trying a little better to get us hot or mildly warm eggs. Next was the real shocker, the manager type upon delivery said that they deconstructed the eggs Benny, the eggs being in a warmed bowl, and the rest being on a plate, as well as the hollandaise being in a paper cup to be squeezed on after we assembled our eggs Benny, just bizarre and reminiscent of the fellow that begrudgingly served soup on the Seinfeld episode … After starting to eat the second round of eggs, Benny, the fellow in the tie, said after we were done we are free to go and did not have to pay for our meal….a nice way to say, “get out, we prefer to defend our cold eggs, than try”

The hash browns WERE hot, Benny presentation was good, and nice flavour profile, not enough to ever make us want to come back… to be clear, collectively, we have been eating food at restaurants for approximately 90 years, and have never been spoken down to in such a way!

For what...

Well here goes, I never thought I'd write a review about a "beet" salad, but the cumulative experience outside of the salad is something to write home about.

The salad. Advertised glowingly on the menu as a beet salad with roasted beets, arugula, goat cheese, honey-lemon vinaigrette dressing ... arrived at our table, an absolute mound of limp oil-soaked arugula leaves with 7 miniscule pieces of (boiled, not roasted) beets atop it, a decorative garnish. Less than 1/4 of an actual beet was used in this salad.

I've run kitchens from pub fare to upscale fine dining, alongside Michelin chefs, and I would have been embarrassed to slap a $5 price tag on this "salad" at a pub you'd go to for cheap beer and cheap food. It was bad.

It was bad enough to say something, at the price tag of nearly $20 for a plate full of lettuce. I mean it. These guys are stretching their Sysco bill as far as they can, to call this a salad.

The most interesting part was that the salad was taken away by our server.

And then placed on our bill. Which was confusing. Why would we pay for something that was taken away, thrown in the trash presumably? (Or did they re-serve it?) No takeout container offered. Nothing. But there was that glaring salad on our bill.

Quickly pointing it out, the bill was reduced "by 25%" the server assured us - well, they didn't teach math very well, because 25% of the nearly $20 salad was taken off. A discount of $4.50. For a meal that was not started, nor taken with, nor finished. Taken away and brought back to the kitchen untouched.

In swoops in the overly aggressive manager who got uncomfortable close to a woman half his size, asserting his dominance to prove a point. Unrelenting on the bill. Or salad? I didn't know we were making habits of paying for things we weren't getting. At least the offer to take home the salad could have rectified the situation.

The only thing this place has going for it is its venue.

If you're looking for the same taste profile at a more realistic price point, go visit the Burger King downstairs. You won't be disappointed.

Also, before you get in people's faces Lee, you might want to consider brushing your teeth after having a cigarette. Needless to say, we were both put off at that point and...

Summary: Manager is terrible and clearly cannot handle the stress when it's busy.

Went to Frankie's this morning for breakfast (Oct 14th) with my boyfriend. We asked for a table of 2 and got seated quickly. Waitress was lovely, food was lovely. About 30-40 mins later, 4 of my friends later came to the same place for breakfast but at that stage the restaurant had gotten much busier and there was a queue for tables. Our booth was small but we could of definitely squeezed in as 6, or at least tried to. My boyfriend and I were finishing up eating but intended on ordering more drinks anyway, as we were not travelling until later that day.. I got up and asked the host if our friends could squeeze into our booth. And this guy, blue shirt, which I can only assume to be the manager came over and barked "I'll handle this, show me where you are sitting". He marched me back to my table and I pointed to our booth. He was already unncessarily agressive. "Oh come on, you're both finished. You want your friends to skip the current wait time of 35 minutes, and you're finished your food. You have have party of what?" I said 4. And they responded "They won't even fit there you that's too small, you can't just have them skip the queue" Now I can take no for an answer. His concerns were valid. Thats no problem, I just thought I'd ask. But I was completely taken back by the excessive aggression and how quickly it escalated. Its completely unacceptable for someone in management to tower well over 6 foot and start raising his voice at me for simply asking a question. This is very intimidating, for no reason at all. Camera Time approx 11.15am. I'm wearing a white hoody and I remember holding my hands up saying "that's okay". Twice. And he's still barking at me.

Incredibly disappointing experience. I did not tip or have any more drinks as originally intended, because I literally could not justify spending another cent in the restaurant after being treated like that. We paid our...