Franco Manca Edinburgh - Stockbridge — Restaurant in City of Edinburgh

We were looking for a place to eat dinner the other night near our Airbnb. I remember seeing a pizza place down the street near the bridge that looked pretty nice ( Franco Manca.)  My family said pizza sounded good, so I checked the Google reviews on Franco Manca and it sounded like a good option.

Many reviews mentioned the wonderful crust of the pizzas. Well, I will tell you I agree with those 5 star reviews!

We walked in and saw every table in the upstairs seating area was taken, so we thought we just might have to take it to go, not realizing at the time they had a downstairs seating area as well. The host met the four of us,  and walked us back to an empty table on the back patio. What a score, dinner and a view! The staff were all very friendly and attentive.

The place was pretty busy, but the pizzas arrived at our table faster than I expected. We all loved the pizza! I have to say coming to Scotland and having some of the best pizza I have ever eaten kind of surprised me. The crust was fantastic and of course the rest of the pizza was just as spectacular! My 17 year old son could not stop raving about how delicious his pizza was. I thought we were going to have to buy another one for him. Our daughter had the number 2, our son had the #9, and my wife and I had the #7 (spicy pizza.) I love spicy food, and this pizza hit the spot for me! Our daughter took a photo of hers, but I dug right in before thinking about a photo.

Great location, friendly staff, and...

The food was poor and not up to the usual standards of Franca Manca. The quality of service was woeful.

I am normally a big fan of Franca Manca and have eaten at their restaurants in London over many years. I understand that this is a new franchise, but think that the 'special vegetarian' pizza I paid almost £11 for was as bland as it could have possibly been.

The staff were highly disorganised, to the extent of being borderline comical. We received no welcome on entering the restaurant, instead making our own way downstairs to find a table. Our waiter had no idea what the specials were despite advertising them to us as being 'very good' (they were not). We had to ask for cutlery. We had to ask for pepper and oil which sadly no one ended up bringing to us despite being promised this (we ended up nabbing some ourselves from a nearby table). We had to ask for our side salads to be brought 10 minutes after our pizzas had arrived, and then were presented with the wrong food. Our waiter tried to clear our table which one of us was still eating. We were then presented with a bill with a 10% service charge automatically added, which we declined to pay.

Overall I think the staff need some basic training. I think the food was disappointing in comparison to previous experiences of this brand. I would not return to this restaurant despite its prime location. Overall very poor and...

I’ve tried the Franco Manca in the city centre but tried this on as we were walking in Stockbridge. Best one I’ve ever been too. My father is gluten free, dairy free and egg free (all intolerances) and this use to be a pizza express who do gluten free pizzas. I took him here cause I knew they do gluten free pizzas too and hoped my dad would like them. He LOVED it. My pizza was amazing first off. Caramelised onions, spicy salami etc. so amazing!!!

But my dad got the same but with gluten free and dairy free cheese and it was the best pizza he’s ever had he said. It looked exactly like every other pizza. The taste was soo good. And the staff was amazing. I didn’t get her name. But she was the absolute sweetest. Talked me into the caramelised onion pizza and I’m so glad she did. And she was so sweet to my dad and reassuring him about the intolerances. She had these beautiful earrings with feathers. So if the managers read this, she is fantastic and when my parents come to visit again I’ll take them here because she made the experience so memorable!

Great food is great. But great service is even better. That’s what makes us all want...