Franco Manca Chiswick — Restaurant in London

Franco Manca gets my seal of pizzapproval!

Having upped-sticks and left my home of 7 years in Shepherd's Bush for the far more chic, distinctly less scary, and most definitely more beautiful Chiswick, I simply couldn't wait to get stuck-in to the many delights Chiswick has to offer for the foodie; the supper clubs, the posh local food markets, and not least the great looking restaurants.

Franco Manca was recommended to me by the owner of a lovely little coffee house place in Cambridge called Massaro's (completely unrelated); they are really serious about the quality of the meats and breads they serve, and they said I would love Franco Manca. In fact they were visiting London a week previously, and detoured all the way to Chiswick just to eat here.

They also told me the story of how it got its name. The original restaurant in Brixton was opened on the site of a little Italian place called Franco's. One day Franco went missing and nobody knew where he had gone.

After a while, the new owners took over the place, but weren't sure what to call their restaurant. So after a bit of thought they simply called it Franco Manca, Italian for "Franco's Missing".

Franco Manca is a pizza restaurant which serves really well-priced tasty Naples-style pizza, with an emphasis on good quality ingredients.

We visited for the first time of many on Saturday night, and found the pizza to be brilliant. The restaurant was very busy with queues out of the door at around 7.30pm Saturday night, and I can see why. Although there was a queue, the front-of-house chap knew exactly what he was doing and didn't leave anyone hanging, instead coming coming back to check numbers and tables every few minutes.

The crowd is quite young and unfortunately a little noisy at this time; maybe I'm getting old but the group next to us was so unbearably loud we had to move. One Glaswegian woman had the most unbelievably shrill voice. What is it with the unruly Brits?!

Anyway. Are you a fellow Chiswickian? Or are you seeking out London's best pizza joints?

The restaurant was extremely busy when we went, and they did mess up our order a little. Luckily we were quite excited about the pizza and overlooked the mistake, especially as an apology was forthcoming immediately. Subsequent visits I've had superb service, although on a few random occasions we've been rushed to pay the bill even whilst finishing a main course and the like. Overall, however, the service is very good.

Aside from this I found the service to be swift and no-messing.

Superb pizza, thin with toasty flavoursome crusts. If you are looking for a quiet Saturday evening then perhaps give it a miss, otherwise if you are no stranger to a youngish loudish crowd and you love good pizza, Franco Manca is...

I used to love coming to Franco Manca but after the last time I will find somewhere else to go.

Took the wife out after work mid week for a pizza and a drink and the service we received was awful.

We got to the restaurant just after 09pm, I asked the staff if they were closing and I was told they were still open and to take a seat, which we did.

We ordered the food and drinks, I went for their Franco’s special white pizza and the Mrs got a salad, I politely asked extra capers on my pizza but when the pizza came there were 5 counted capers on it (obliviously due to the non attentive way the waitress took our orders).

So the food came and we had to wait a good 10 minutes AFTER THE FOOD CAME for our drinks! I had ordered a lemonade and the wife an aperol spritz. There was one another customer at the restaurant so two tables to serve in total as the restaurant was empty and the waitress still managed to offer us such a poor service being more interested in chatting with the pizzas chef rather than looking after the customers. It was funny as at one stage my Mrs pointed out what was going on saying: “she can’t wait to go back home and have fun with him” referring to the waitress and pizza chef who were having good times chatting and laughing ignoring their customers.

Pizza was good but the wife wasn’t happy with the chicken salad as the chicken looked not fresh at all, or not made from chicken breast.

Once we finished the food we asked the waitress if we could get an affogato dessert and we were told NO, as they already cleaned the coffee machine, so we just got the bill and we left.

I never had such a bad service from Franco Manca in past when they had Italian staff, Cindy which I remember was working here before and was an absolute gem she went well above her duty to look after customers and made sure everything was perfect with the full restaurant! The service I received from the existing waitress with 2 tables to look after in an empty restaurant was a 1/10 compared to the 10/10 experience I previously had with the Italian staff…

Sad but after coming here for several years thanks to the bad experience I had from their current waiting staff I will...

What an utter disappointment, even Tesco has better pizza for much, much cheaper.

When I order food, I expect the restauranteur/chef to know better than me how to cook it, especially when their speciality is one dish, pizza. Well, I’d been hearing great things about Franco Manca for a couple years and particularly about the one in Chiswick so I thought I’d give them a try.

I’ve just ordered and to be honest, I don’t know what the hype is about. I ordered a Pizza 1 with extra basil, and a couple other toppings. Pizza 1 is basically a Margherita pizza. When it arrived the basil was burnt to a crisp and the garlic was undercooked. When I asked about the charred basil, all the manager could offer by way of an explanation was that next time I need to “ask for fresh basil.” That way, they’ll know to add the basil after the pizza I cooked. I asked why isn’t that standard practice like at other pizza restaurants. She replied that at Franco Manca they normally cook the basil with the pizza to bring out the flavour of the herb. To my mind, however, a piping-hot pizza is sufficient to “cook and release the flavour” from fresh basil if it’s placed on the dish as soon as it’s out of the oven. Am I in the minority?

Furthermore, the sourdough crust lacked any flavour whatsoever and had the taste and texture of wet cardboard in places. I must confess that I’ve never eaten wet cardboard or any cardboard for that matter. So I apologise if wet cardboard has better flavour and texture that Franco Manca’s pizza. Even the basil dip I order for the crust left much to be desired. The dip offered nothing to help this sorry dish even after I drizzled it over the entire pie. Do yourself a favour and try a different pizza joint. Perhaps even Tesco’s...