Franco Manca Chichester — Restaurant in Chichester

This was a really bad and disappointing experience. I had not been to Franca Manca before but I looked at the previous reviews so was looking forward to it.

Our large party was placed downstairs - understandable given our party size, but the room had no ambience and resembled a school canteen, especially the hard wooden chairs.

Having worked in the restaurant trade, the organisation and service was terrible. One young and inexperienced staff member left alone to deal with a large party. I had to ask for drinks as she didn't ask us. When they didn't arrive after 20 minutes I asked again - "oh what was it you wanted?" came the reply.

That experience set the tone for the evening. We had pre-ordered our food but my unexceptional ham and mushroom pizza took an hour and a half to arrive, this, only after several members of our party began to complain. I have had better pizzas from supermarkets. Barely any ham or mushroom on it. I had ordered a dessert but gave up on that after it had failed to materialise after a further half an hour. Had I not been with friends I would have walked out a lot earlier. As it was, there was little by way of an apology and a grudging offer to waive drinks and a service charge. (By the way, this service charge is routinely included in the bill - very sneaky - so if you do come look out for it - you don't have to pay it!)

I refused to pay for the pizza as by this time I was so angry that an evening I had been looking forward to had been ruined - and I was still very hungry!

I felt sorry for the youngster attempting to look after our party, but she should not have been put in that position. At one point I went outside for air and noticed that four of the staff were round the back of the restaurant - some vaping, maybe taking a break. Meanwhile a lot of unhappy customers were sat inside.

It was almost farcical: pizzas were being regularly handed out to Deliveroo, Uber Eats etc. while we were waiting, an hour to provide a bowl of olives, one guest being told they couldn't do the salad they'd ordered because they'd run out of ingredients, one waiter spilling drinks down a guest and thinking this was funny

I certainly won't be coming back and I'd strongly advise anyone thinking of eating out in Chichester to go elsewhere, there are plenty of much better...

Service disappointing , pizza second rate !!

Unfortunately service was disorganise and greeted by lady manager arrived at 6 pm . Half the restaurant was empty , Manager wanted my group to sit on Corridor table . Middle of the service area and cash till , and entrance .

When I said we prefer to sit on another table she Said it’s a table … and raised her eyes … it was so funny , she made us wait at entrance for few minutes until she decided where to sit us . Very reluctant to sit us in the other empty half of the restaurant . She took extremely long almost 15 minutes to take our drink order … arrived holding cokes in her hand . No Tray use anymore , came back five minutes later with other drink x2 for group very poor . Another table arrived behind us and she managed to take our order and there order at the same time …. Never seen that before !

Pizzas arrived 25 minutes later , dough was tough .. could not use a knife , had to pull it to eat it was extremely chewy and cold . Managers had changed over . No personal service at all , very unfriendly prices were expensive considering quality on offer . Unfortunately was unable to eat mine due to eat being chewy . With my experience with sour dough my professional opinion is the dough was made more then 24 hours as stipulated by the company , I think it was 36 to 48 hours old...

Lovely restaurant with friendly staff and delicious food.

Everything is fresh and tasty and it's wonderful to find a Gluten Free sourdough pizza that tastes just like a regular pizza.

Staff are attentive and friendly and despite it being a busy it didn't take long for us to be seated and served. The food comes out quickly.

Pizza is nice, but the topping slides off the base a little, meaning you sometimes lose the lovely buffalo mozzarella.

I'd definitely come back here!

Accessibility: level access entry (manual doors which are a little heavy/awkward to open). I had no difficulties navigating around the space in my electric wheelchair.

The staff were helpful in moving chairs and finding a suitable space for our party of two.

A fully wheelchair accessible toilet is available just to the back of the store (it's not well signposted - the main bathrooms are downstairs so if you don't ask, you might not realise they have an accessible bathroom).

Unfortunately, they stack their highchairs in the hallway leading to the bathroom, so it was difficult to get around them. But, by the time I exited the bathroom, someone had moved them so I could get by - attentive staff....