Franco Manca Bath — Restaurant in Bath

Franco Manca, despite being a chain, still remains my favourite pizza spot in Bath. This could be a subjective or objective opinion depending on your standpoint. However, given their reviews, I might suggest it's an objective opinion.

I won't comment on the service as this was absolutely fine and other reviews cover this . I will however comment on the important thing, the pizza.

I have been to this branch of their chain a number of times over the past year. By far, I think they do the best pizza in Bath. Having tried other places like Dough, Italian Pizza Co, and Bath Pizza Co, I can say with some confidence that Franco Manca offers the best quality pizza for a reasonable price.

When compared to more expensive places, like Dough for example, Franco Manca still manages to deliver really great-tasting pizza at a good price. This could be due to their keen focus on ethical farming for their flour, which goes into their dough that is so fluffy and full of flavour, or perhaps it's just a good recipe.

For a chain, you wouldn't think it was going to be that good, but it certainly is. The cheese is creamy and tasty, the sauce is rich with tomato flavour and a hint of herbs, while still maintaining a nice, simple structure and flavour. The dough is a lovely, flavoursome base that's super fluffy on the inside and crisp on the outside. The little burnt bits on the top and bottom from their amazing wood-fired oven really complement the whole pizza.

My personal favourite is the ham and mushroom pizza. Typically served on a white base at Franco Manca, but I opt for a tomato base. There's plenty of mushroom on the pizza with that nice flavour you'd expect. The ham itself is thinly sliced but still has a nice, not overpowering, salty hit. Everything comes together on the pizza for what is a really wholesome meal. The added dips are a must-have in my opinion, especially the Nduja.

Overall, I'd say that Franco Manca represents some of Bath's best pizza without compromising on quality or flavour for the sake of being fancy. It's an extremely tasty pizza. In my opinion, it's exactly what pizza should be. Id highly recommend a Margherita and their homemade lemonade for any...

Sat in on Saturday evening and ordered 3 pizzas, side salads, and lagers. The salads were unmixed, just a few plain leaves, a handful of olives, sundried tomatoes in mounds & the smallest dribble of dressing. Two of the marinara pizzas we ordered were missing the additional Stilton when they turned up, so the waiter took them back. When they returned 15 minutes later (online Deliveroo orders had clearly taken precedence on account of all the bikers with helmets on storming in and out of the restaurant), by which time my husband had finished eating his, there was barely any Stilton on them anyway so hardly worth sending them back, the tomato base had no flavour whatsoever, and the pizza was burnt completely on the underside so just tasted of carbon. We tried to liven it up with chilli oil but that had no heat to it either! This is so different from how it used to be, everything was full of flavour and joy to eat, but the food has really gone downhill. At the end of the meal the waiter hung round my husband’s shoulder waving the card machine so he felt too flustered to check the bill and only did so once he’d paid and the waiter had disappeared, to find that we’d been charged for the two replacement pizzas too. It took 25 minutes of the waiter going between us and his manager, who was lurking out the back, to try to issue a refund. In the end he told us that head office would be able to do it within 7 days….so who knows if that’ll happen! So if you want to sit in an empty restaurant with only Deliveroo drivers for company, get appalling service, eat grim pizzas and try to deal with a manager who doesn’t give a s*...

The food at Franco Manca is always authentic and of fantastic quality, and fairly priced. I am a big fan of the brand and I eat at its restaurants every time I can, often preferring to Italian pizza! The service is usually perfect too, with friendly and young staff.

Today I’ve been forced to reconsider all of this. While the food and service were as perfect as always, my birthday lunch was plagued by the most obnoxious, abusive and unprofessional manager I have ever encountered when dining out. A slightly overweight woman in her 40s, she clearly thought she wouldn’t annoy me, assuming I didn’t speak Italian, so she proceeded to berate, insult, provoke and make fun of her employees both in front of them and behind their back, using patronising and disgustingly rude expressions. She was also so loud and went on and on which made it impossible for me to stand her and enjoy my meal, and I’ve had probably the worst birthday meal of a life as a result, as I couldn’t help feeling bad for the staff, who had done nothing wrong.

Even if they dropped a hot pizza on my lap, it would have still been extremely unprofessional and off putting to witness such a behaviour. I can’t help but feel saddened to know this is the image of Italy Franco Manca wants...