Franco Manca — Restaurant in London

Talk about a disappointment.

The location is convenient to several notable attractions, the closest being St. Paul’s Cathedral. Because of that, I’m sure this place will always stand, but if you want better food and a more relaxing stop, try elsewhere.

The interior DOES look nice. Industrial with warm accents - the wood wall facing the pizza oven is trendy and nice. The pizza oven itself is adorned with shards of material that make it stand out (along with being white and huge!). The atmosphere is ruined with music so loud we had to all the server to repeat herself a couple of times. (This was during lunch, so I can’t imagine how they pump up the volume come dinner time!)

The food was at best average. The #4 (ricotta with ham and assorted mushrooms plus mozzarella, of course) was totally bland. The tomato sauce hastily thrown on top was absolutely needed in more places than just the middle. It was lacking acidity or any depth of flavor. Very one note - and not a good one. The #7 was much better, though the cook was stingy with the cheese and half-hazard with the toppings, at least it had multiple flavors that seemed to go together nicely. That’s one star. The other is for the pepper-infused olive-oil, without which we couldn’t have choked down the first bland pizza mentioned. NEITHER PIZZA WAS CUT FOR US. We at first thought, “Maybe that’s just how they do things here?” Then we noticed the absent-minded waitress cutting pizzas for other customers. We didn’t think it was an intentional jab toward us since we had only ordered our pizza and beer and didn’t see her again until she delivered the uncut pizza. (And not again until we flagged her down for the ticket - when the restaurant was practically empty and we had been waiting for 10 minutes.)

Speaking of service, she was pretty terrible. We figure she’s able to get by with that kind of attitude because an “optional” 10% service charge is AUTOMATICALLY added to the bill without choice or question. She didn’t cut the pizza, didn’t clear used glasses or plates, and didn’t mention why she threw down a printed receipt after we ordered. (Well before our meal and the payment receipt.) She set it down without looking at us, and then she walked away. We picked it up, confused, then realized it was a “scan this QR code to join our rewards program.” Would it be so difficult to explain why you printed a receipt and left it? (Last pic of review.)

It was an unfortunate trip, topped off with the “optional” service charge that the server absolutely didn’t earn, and left us feeling that we needed to leave a review that was honest and still fresh...

This was a pretty dreadful experience all round. I decided to try this place as I am a local to the area. As soon as I walked through the door (despite waiting at the front of the counter), I was ignored for the tourist groups behind who were dining in. After about 5 minutes I was finally served by a waiter who was more interested in having me place my order fast rather than actually being helpful. After returning for my meal at the assigned time, I was once again ignored and pushed aside to have more people behind me acknowledged and served. It was still another 5-10 minutes of waiting around before my food was brought out to me. The pizza too was very disappointing, the added time waiting around had turned the sourdough soft instead of crunchy, so it became more of a jawline trainer than an enjoyable pizza. In top of that the pizza was barely cut into slices. So it became more of a shredding job than anything else, which obviously results in the topping falling off everywhere. This was great because it exposed the tiny about of tomato base.

Honestly I can always overlook disappointing food when the staff are friendly and helpful. But there were just not redeeming factors here at all.

Obviously tourism is what keeps places like this going and I fully appreciate that. But I just wish that didn’t have to come at the cost of long term returning customers.

I am sorry but I would not...

(one star, only because zero isn't allowed)

I don’t know what I did to deserve this, but whatever it was, I paid for it dearly at Franco Manca, St Paul’s – a place where pizza dreams go to die a slow, chewy death.

The highlight of this fever dream? Being refused a small pizza because — and I wish I were making this up — we didn’t bring a child with us. That’s right. You can only order the smaller pizza if you’ve got a kid in tow, as if dough has suddenly become age-restricted. We weren’t asking for Happy Meals or crayons. Just a marginally smaller portion. Apparently, that request was too radical for the sacred Franco Manca rulebook.

When we asked politely if there was any flexibility — maybe we just weren't that hungry? Maybe we were, I don’t know, adults who know how much food we want? — we were met with the kind of unblinking, policy-drunk stare that usually precedes someone calling security. Imagine being told: “No, you can’t have that food unless you reproduce.” I half expected them to ask for a birth certificate before serving tap water.

Not particularly hungry and thoroughly baffled, we left. Walked right out the door and straight to Pizza Express, where – shockingly – adults are allowed to choose how much food they’d like. Revolutionary...