Franco Manca Edinburgh - St. Andrews — Restaurant in City of Edinburgh

Firstly, great pizza! I tend to stick to the anchovies one as there are no halal options which is a let down but the one I get is delicious!

I find the staff slightly prickly and deceptive. They are running a "£5 any pizza" deal and when I went in on Saturday night with a friend, once I had been seated they told me that that deal was not on at that time. Fair enough, I can't expect a bargain everyday. I ended up with the delicious pizza and made a mental note to return between Monday and Thursday for that offer. The place was pretty dead. We were amongst maybe three other tables that were occupied that evening. The place shut at 6 due to pandemic restrictions. At around 17:30 the lady that waited for us could not wait to get us out. Again, benefit of the doubt to the staff, they probably can't wait to get home and fair enough, work is not always so much fun, particularly in these circumstances. I have to say though, passive aggression like this is not what I would expect from staff.

Today, I returned for a tasty pizza and I asked the staff member if the deal was on for "any pizza" and she said yes, I was directed to a table. I ordered my usual but as this deal was on I thought, heck why no add some buffalo mozzarella? And then I did.

Again the same waitress from Saturday was overbearing and after I had eaten my pizza, couldn't wait to get me to leave, walking incredibly fast around the restaurant that had three further tables occupied. I thought this time round it was just rude. The time was only 16:00 and there is no benefit for her to rush me to pay. I had spent maybe 20 or 30 minutes in the place. When the bill came, they had charged me for the mozzarella on the pizza, making my order £8 odd. The poster outside doesn't say that this is not for all pizza's but does say I should read terms and conditions. It does not actually have terms and conditions on the poster but says "any pizza £5", it doesn't even say Monday to Thursday! I never challenged this because I found the waitress quite passively rude, like someone with no patience for me. I'm sure she's a decent person, I just think that sometimes working in an environment can make people abrupt and she likely just needs retraining. The other lady that let me in knew that I was here for the discount and when I added the mozzarella, she should have told me that it's not in the deal as I asked her about it initially. Feels a bit like these folk just want to fleece you and get you out ASAP.

Honestly, despite the pizza being great, there are many places in this city where you can get pizza to that standard. I'm not sure I'll return because if there's one thing I really dislike, it's the feeling of a customer being viewed as nothing but a pound sign and the erosion of all good will the minute a request is made or a meal...

My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined. Nothing short of absolutely dreadful, and here’s why…

I do not live in Edinburgh, and was here for a nice Christmas break. I can confidently say that I probably would've got my food far quicker if I had ordered it online and had it delivered hundreds of miles rather than dining in and being served by possibly the most incompetent bunch of individuals I have ever seen.

After queueing outside for 25 minutes (due to the restaurant not taking reservations) we were seen to our table which was annoyingly slap bang in the middle of the restaurant and was not even big enough to put all the drinks that were ordered on it. After being seated, we were sat for a whole 30 minutes before anyone even bothered to come take a drinks order, let alone a food order!

Once we placed our order with the incredible rude member of staff, we proceeded to wait another 30 minutes for a starter and another 25 minutes on top of that for the mains. I was telling myself “it will be worth it when the food arrives” but despite the terrific job done by the kitchen, I was so infuriated and filled with a rage I have never possessed which ultimately ruined the entire meal.

To top this all off here’s some more things to show and highlight the disgraceful service we were met with….

I do not say this with the intention to insult by any means, but one of the waiting staff should by no means have been handling food. This particular individual looked like they hadn’t showered in days, and at one point, had food all in their hair. Another member of staff ignored us on severely occasions and was incredibly rude, which made my blood boil. And to top that off, the staff started to have a slight argument and debate which led to ruin the atmosphere even more.

I can understand that some places will struggle with high demand in busy periods, but this was absolutely not acceptable.

And on a side note, we were not the only table who experienced this, our party exchanged brief words with the table beside us, who also agreed it was disgraceful service. In addition to this, we witness a table who were there before us, not get their food until after we left, meaning they had been waiting over 1h30m for food.

I say this confidently and to save others from the poor experience.

Despite the fact the food is great and the kitchen do an undeniably good job, it is not worth being spoken to and waited on in such a disgraceful, rude and arrogant way.

Avoid...

We visited during the Fridge 2024. Saturday 17th of August.

The pizza its self was great, value wise was ok, we were stuffed. It did taste very good and the crusts were nice and fluffly!

I do not like to complain but where it went south was when I asked what the specials were on the board and if it was pizza. The server said no its not pizza, i expected to be told its this or that, or this is the pizza on special but I was greeted with a blank expression, no suggestions or take a look at this or that.

Then the final bill came, It showed the amount and a option 10% service charge. I don't leave service charges as that should be incorporated into the cost by the business - this isn't America! anyway the server approached with the card machine and had already included the 10% optional charge. I queried this and they pointed to the receipt saying optional, I agreed that it was indeed optional so why did they type it into the machine, present it to me for payment assuming I was going to pay the extra 10%.

The staff member didn't seem to understand, but this assumption made me pretty angry, given the food was great this left a sour taste.

An example that we had a coffee later that day and the server pointed out the option charge BEFORE entering the total into the card machine, pointing this out to me. I hope they don't do this to everyone unsuspecting member of the public, especially visiting tourists who may not...