FRANCIS — Restaurant in Hong Kong

Updated Review - Nov 2020 Francis is an Israeli restaurant serving up high quality Middle Eastern dishes out of a quaint neighbourhood style restaurant on St. Francis Street in Wanchai. This is a place where we have enjoyed quite a few very good meals since they opened up a couple years back. Opening hours are 12 to 2pm (lunch) and 6-11pm (dinner) daily. They take no reservations and it is quite common to find them full up so be patient when arriving during peak dining periods or try to arrive at opening times if you don't want to wait for a table.

They offer a small and focused range of small plates and mains which they have mastered in the kitchen, all are well seasoned and consistently prepared well. We like most of their meze and veg/salad items. The Beef Cigar and Halloumi in particular are always great. Recently enjoyed their grilled octopus for the first time. That is another we look forward to having again the next time we dine here.

On this occasion, we very much enjoyed the Grilled Pepper vegetable dish which was a beautiful as it was tasty and were very pleased with the Short Rib Shawarma main. This was a very well seasoned beef shawarma with sumac, onion, chili and other garnish. Another delicious main that equals their Kafta, a main that we had during previous visits.

Francis have a couple regular dessert options and at times a house special on offer, they are light and similarly flavourful to the rest of their menu. Cocktails are well prepared behind the bar and there are some nice and reasonably priced wines which you can have by the glass or bottle while enjoying your meal.

In the end, we continue appreciate the dish execution in the Francis kitchen, personal service and timely meals taken at Francis. While no longer a new gem on the Hong Kong dining trail, this restaurant remains one of our first choices for casual yet very good meal experiences in the city. Review from 2018 - Francis is neat neighbourhood restaurant that opened up earlier this year in Wanchai. Seating area is limited and they don't take reservations so be prepared to wait a bit for a table to open up. Decor is simple and tasteful, making for relaxed, casual environs to share meals for couples and amongst friends. Opening hours are 12pm to 11pm daily.

We had a genuinely good meal experience here recently, one worthy of repeat visits and high recommendation. Arriving for Sunday brunch just after 2pm and had to wait around 15 minutes or a spot at the bar. Brunch menu consists of 4 shared meze, choice of main per person and dessert. Service was attentive and worked hard to take care of a busy dining area during our visit.

As for the food, everything was very good. Meze (small plates) orders showed finesse and skill in the kitchen. We particularly enjoy the avocado salad with za'atar (herbs) and the Halloumi (goat cheese) served with maple glaze, pomegranate and oregano. These two were just delicious.

For mains we tried a Iberican Pork was flavoured well and served on a skewer, fresh coriander really stood out. Lentil was more flavourful than expected as well. The other main was the spicy shakshuka served in a grill plate. This was also better than expected. Harissa gave a nice bit of spice to the traditional Israeli breakfast order.

Gin and tonic ordered before lunch was well made. We were also able to sample a new drink concoction the bartender is working on behind the counter. This was a refreshing and very promising cocktail. Wine list also seemed to fit the cuisine on offer quite well although we didn't order a glass during this particular meal.

In the end, we were very pleased with our fist meal at Francis and will eagerly wait in queue for another seating in the near future. For anyone fancying a bit of Middle Eastern cuisine in a nice neighbourhood style restaurant, Francis is a great option at this...

Average meal and felt cheated at bill time.

In love with middle eastern cuisine so decided to try Francis. Went quite late on a Sunday for brunch.

Very surprised when you read the menu for the brunch at 320 HKD and discovered that it’s the Chef who will decide which mezze you will eat. One question : why then put 9 mezze if the chef chooses 3? Also the ones we were going to have was hummus, Halloumi and cigars. Only one of those we wanted so we had no choice but go a la carte.

Ordered : hummus : fine but felt diluted, more liquid than we like it. Portion fair but remember it’s 90 hkd for a hummus… falafels : 4 pieces with a bit of hummus, nice, same thing 22,5 hkd for one falafel and not that big, burnt eggplant : not amazing, average and quite small portion for 90 hkd, baby calamari : nice and generous in size but remember it’s 150 for this mezze…

For main we had the sea bass at 260 hkd which was pleasant and the cauliflower which was nice also. Nothing I will go back for but nice.

For drinks we had one glass of white wine and a lime and soda.

The Bill was over 1 100 HKD which we found already very pricey but wait for the worse bit..

They brought the credit card machine and the first thing you can see is what pourcentage of a tip the customer would like to leave. We selected 10pct because that’s the way tip works not because the service was great.

Then we have a look at the bill and discovered that actually Francis already added 10pct service charge. We felt cheated. If the restaurant adds a discretionary 10pct service charge, the first thing you see on the credit card machin should not be more tip especially as the waiter didn’t say anything beforehand.

So to summarize, from a bill of 1010 hkd we ended up paying 1222 that’s 21pct of tip.

Not happy and not appreciated as a way to treat your customers.

After the meal, I wanted to put 3⭐️as it was an average meal and with the 21pct service charge for which we were pressured to, it...

Francis is a restaurant that has always been busy and/or too full each time my husband and I pass it. We were lucky one evening and got in, so we got to see what the hype was about. We decided to go with the “Let us Cook” just to try our everything. Honestly, the food is tasty (especially the mezzos- beginning appetizers) but nothing to write home about. Just pricey middle eastern fare that tasted decent. Two of the dishes in the Let Us Cook were lamb and one of the mains was cauliflower focused— two things I don’t readily eat so I wasn’t able to enjoy this meal as much as I would have liked. All in all, a good meal but i wouldn’t go out of my way to eat there again, especially for what they charge. Good service. Also, the food appears to be prepared in an upstairs part of the restaurant in its own area. I sat at the bar so I had a very good view of this. There was someone working in the kitchen wearing a black apron and rubber boots (like the kind you wear in a kitchen, maybe if you are cleaning the floors or doing something but not handling the food) who kept coming in and out of the dining room, carrying a white bucket. Not the kind of visual I want as I am enjoying a nice meal, so that was a bit...