Franco Manca Piccadilly Gardens Manchester — Restaurant in Manchester

Find yourself with fresh pizza at Franco Manca

On the edge of Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester, Franco Manca provides fresh pizza at decent prices. It’s in a good location after your shopping trip, and with plenty of space (including downstairs seating) you’re likely to find a seat. One thing to bear in mind is that it may take a little while for your pizza depending on the number of orders.

Starters were; \Green Olives (£2.35) - Round, ball-like olives still with the pits in. This helped to appease the belly in a yummy manner \Aubergine Parmigiana (£4.15) - One of us loves anything with tomato, the other loves aubergine making this the perfect item for us both. A nice, warm start with grilled aubergine in a fresh tomato sauce topped with bubbling cheese

We got pizzas; \No. 2 (£6.75) - A classic of tomato, mozzarella and basil with nothing bad to say about it. The base was cooked nicely and not burnt, which was nice as we’d heard negative reviews on this \No. 3 (£7.95) - Now for something different of tomato, potatoes, onions, Stilton cheese and pesto and it looked interesting and different. The potatoes were meh and not worth the double calories. The Stilton was strong but the sun dried tomatoes with pesto on the other hand were a good flavour.

Then ended with; \Chocolate & Hazelnut Cake (£3.95) - This would’ve been better warmed up or even at room temperature. It felt like it had just come out of the fridge because we asked for it. The flavours were decent but properly masked by the coldness and yes, we know there was ice cream that attributed to the coldness :)

If you’re tired after Primark (because who isn’t), and can’t walk another step give Franco Manca a try

Recommended for: Pizza, Fresh, Central Service: Medium Price:...

Group of four of us went for a quick meal before a show. Immediately shown to a table then left for a tad longer than I would've expected but no big issue. We all ordered food and drinks. A few minutes later the waiter came back to inform us that they had run out of lemonade (how?!) and the burrata required for the bruschetta but that they could substitute it for mozzarella to which we agreed.

Most of the drinks arrived, shortly followed by the pizzas but no sign of the water for the table or bruschetta we'd ordered. In the end I had to chase it with the waiter and they both arrived after we'd finished our mains.

By this stage we were running short on time so asked for the bill. When it came they had left the charge on for the lemonade (that they had run out of) and had charged me for a different drink than the one I had ordered - an espresso martini instead of a cuba libre. When we pointed it out to a different waiter he said it was due to their not being a 'cuba libre' option on the till so it had to be put through as a drink of the same price. I then had to point out that the espresso martini was more expensive than the drink I had ordered. The waiter also seemed incredulous that they had run out of lemonade.

Eventually, we got the correct bill (which still had the 'optional' service charge on it) we paid and had to hurry to the show by this stage.

In summary, the food was lovely (when it arrived) and the wait staff were friendly but they seemed to lack direction and attention to detail. Also, given the issues we'd experienced I would've expected them to take the optional service charge off...

Awful service. Had booked basement for privacy for large party, were told when we got there we couldn't have it as understaffed (fair enough). There were approx 20 of us. Our starters were taken first, but not our mains which led to us finishing our starters and waiting an hour for our main (after having to ask the waitress to order them). Manager then blamed us for the delay, and then 10 secs later tried to claim he didn't blame us. Gave us the worst tasting wine as "complimentary". When asked why he didn't pause takeaway (delivery etc.) deliveries for half an hour while his kitchen got on top of restaurant orders he just walked off, obviously pure greed and he didn't care that we ended up sitting there for 2 1/2 hours while only having a starter and a pizza. When the mains did come they were so staggered that those who received their pizzas first had finished before the last people had even got their pizzas. Food was however decent enough, the lamb sausage starter was delicious, and can't fault the lovely waitresses who were working incredibly hard even though they were understaffed. If the manager wasn't too greedy and wasn't obsessed with funneling out hundreds of takeaways orders, they could have focused on those who were actually sitting in the restaurant that had to suffer from awful customer service. Either choose if you're running a takeaway or a restaurant, as obviously you're too...