Francesca's Italian Kitchen Christchurch — Restaurant in Christchurch

Francesca’s used to be one of my favourite restaurants in Christchurch. I loved the food, the service and the location.

I took my partner last night, excited to take him to one of my favourite spots having not been for quite some time and very quickly my opinions of being one of my favourite food spots changed.

We were greeted by staff that looked unhappy to be at work, shown to our table and left for over 20 minutes. The restaurant was not busy nor full, with maybe a 50% occupancy. No staff came and checked on us or asked if we needed drinks or food. They continued to serve guests who had arrived after us and some even received their food before we had been asked for drinks orders… we were walked past and ignored multiple times until I ushered a waitress over to finally be served.

The drinks came swiftly and were great, our bread came quickly and was also great! And then our mains came and it was nothing short of disappointing.

We ordered a pizza and the beef cheek gnocchi to share. The pizza was fine, nothing great or exciting but definitely not bad, yummy base but lacked toppings. However the gnocchi was genuinely and simply gross? I know that taste and flavour are personal preference and subjective but I believe that my opinions are more than that…

The dish came with what felt like 5 pieces of gnocchi and a copious amount of beef cheek. The gnocchi was soggy and mushy and unpleasant to eat and the beef cheek was so bland in flavour and what flavour it did have was just odd? The gremolata was fine but it didn’t add anything to the dish. It was just bland and a texturally unenjoyable experience. We couldn’t finish the meal and left feeling hungry and unsatisfied.

There are a lot of great italian restaurants in christchurch and I would think that would drive a team to be the best there is in town but their standards have dropped and I no longer feel the need to have a francesca’s experience when I can find something better somewhere else.

I hope you can take this as an opportunity to do some quality control and encourage your staff to provide a service they would want to receive. I work in hospitality and understand we can’t be perfect and we all have bad days but this left us so unsatisfied and frustrated on...

Excellent gnocchi, +1 for unisex toilets. But here's the rub as to why I found it overall not outstanding. I found I had to check the booze list against what's offered. I was finally able to negotiate down their best Pinot which turns out they were asking over a 100% markup on with a misprint regarding the release year. Even then, was first served a reisling fun the same vineyard, with no offer to taste. Thankfully, with the taste I could identify it was not the pinot from the menu ("at least we sell the reisling by the bottle so it's not a total waste" !! ) . Only after my first glass of the red did I realise it was a 2020 instead of the advertised 2017. I still downed it, though was much more rough at the end than I would have liked. Acting duty manager had to call the owner/s to be given permission to correct the blatantly obvious error. So yeah, great food quality. Not so much the wine list accuracy. Duty Manager was excellent in handling the situation, given they didn't seem to have authority to work around such a wild mistake. Well worth the visit, but keep an eye on the listed price for wine stuff versus what you've received - particularly if you go after the heavy hitters off the list. I trust this isn't common practice, but still - caveat emptor etc. Edit: Sarah (acting duty manager) was thoroughly professional in sorting out the issue, a true credit to the...

Our anticipation of a family dinner at Francesca turned into a disheartening ordeal, primarily due to the handling by the host/manager named Vota. This experience starkly diminished our view of the restaurant's hospitality and management.

Upon arriving at Franchesca at 18:00 without a reservation, we were initially met with what seemed like a solution. Vota advised us to return in 45 minutes, assuring us that accommodations for our family would be made. Trusting his word, we decided to take a leisurely stroll in the neighborhood, looking forward to our meal.

However, the situation drastically shifted upon our return. Despite our timely comeback, we were informed of an oversight by Vota, who mistakenly seated another party in our place. Furthermore, we were asked to wait another half-hour outside, with a vague promise of possibly being seated. The suggestion that followed — to consider takeout instead — felt dismissive and was delivered in a manner that came across as both patronizing and arrogant.

The implication that our family, especially with small children, was somehow less desirable or not worth accommodating was palpable and deeply disappointing. Never before have we been treated with such a lack of courtesy and respect in a dining...