Franco Manca Balham — Restaurant in London

Went there yesterday for a quick bite in the afternoon around 4pm as I didn't have time to eat lunch. Did the prerequisites (NHS check in, virtual queue). Waited a while outside when the waitress (or manager) appeared and asked me if I was Sam. Well, no ! But if she had asked what it was for I would have told her for sure. Then she must have checked the phone for the virtual queue and asked me where I wanted to seat. I chose a table inside. The restaurant was empty only a table of 3 and they were getting very little take away orders. I must have been waiting 10 minutes (long time when you're starving) when she finally showed up to take my order. Ordered my pizza and some water. "Still or sparkling ?" Tap will do me fine. "Ok!" It took between 10-15 minutes for the pizza to arrive on the table... OVERCOOKED. I was hoping that some bits would be fine but not really. The waitress never came to check back on me and since I was starving I ate it. She finally came to offer me deserts and coffee. I asked for the bill and when she came back with the card machine to take the payment I tried to explain to her why an overcooked pizza is not a nice thing. Sourdough is nice for this sour taste and the chewiness of the crust but you get this only when there is a little bit of moisture left inside the pizza. If I wanted crackers with tomato sauce I was in front of Sainsbury's I didn't actually need to go to Franco Manca. Anyway she looked at me startled, a rabbit caught in headlights. A screensaver. I was confused cause it was not a lecture I was just telling her about the product SHE was selling. I wanted to tell her why Stilton shouldn't stay in the oven for too long either (cause then again once the water is gone you're left with just fat and salt : very unpleasant) but after her :"Thank you for the feedback !!!" I could tell I did hurt her feelings. Now it's strange cause if someone should have been upset it should have been me. But no, she was. Although she could have said : "Look I'm sorry. For sure a dry pizza is not really appealing. How could I make it right ? Would you fancy an espresso before hitting the road ? Or a scoop of Ice Scream ?" But no, she said the thing that really really makes me cringe (I work in hospitality and whenever I hear a manager telling this to a guest I think s/he should not be working in hospitality) : "I'm gonna take off the service charge !" Oh really, you're gonna take off something I had absolutely no intention to pay. Well thank you ever so much. They are a lot of people here in London who are complaining for the sake of complaining (sometimes because they know they will get freebies) but at times we need (us hospitality professionals) to acknowledge that we delivered appalling service and that we are way way below standards. That was the case yesterday in Franco Manca Balham but has not always been so. There was a time when there was a manager there called Kasia and she blew my mind away as she really was on board. Now she left and I wish her well too bad she has not been a source of...

How to turn a misunderstanding into a bad visit

Put ‘Pizza and a soft drink for £10’ offers on every table Accept an order when the customer says ‘we’re going to do the offer if that’s ok’ Have the customer get up out of their seat to get your attention for any request/menu. Charge the customer for swapping sauce from red to white having misunderstood the request as ‘extra tomato sauce’ When the customer asks why they’re being overcharged, tell the customer that the deal shouldn’t be on. And say with a blank face ‘it’s a bank holiday’ When the customer takes service charge off due to bad service…say out loud ‘you’re going to take service charge off..um..ok’ in an annoyed tone. Slam down a bill for £0. This was a petulant move, made out of frustration. We were happy to pay, not happy to overpay.

TLDR: Offer on table not valid and didn’t tell us until we paid. Slow slow service. Rude response when asked for offer to be put on. Petulant ‘on the house’ move to try (and fail) to make customers feel awkward. Cold environment and bad service. I would add a star as at least the chef was doing something right but the manager was that...

This review has been a long time coming but I figured better late than never! Customer service at Franco Manca has been one of the best I've experienced. A few months ago, I placed an UberEats order for a Franco Manca pizza. Unfortunately, the pizza was missing key ingredients. No problem - I figured it was an error on what must have been a busy weekend service. UberEats were absolutely rubbish at customer service. I chose to therefore reach out to the Franco Manca customer service team who then put me in touch with the Bedford Hill branch team. Ahmos Wasif, the branch manager was an absolute star. He apologized for the inconvenience and assured that he would contact UberEats to arrange for a refund. Failing that (since UE were useless) we were invited to the branch for a complimentary dinner for 2 on the day of our choice. We had the most wonderful evening on our chosen day with some great pizzas as usual! The staff also encouraged us to order dessert which we gladly did. We ended our evening with the most delicious Limoncello! Excellent customer service all around from the entire team which was very much...