Frankie & Benny's — Restaurant in Rotherham

I'm only rating four stars because I have some bad things to talk about. They will be at the end.

The positives. We went here as a party of seven, 3 kids and four adults. The staff were very friendly and accommodating, and also very patient. We were catching up with old friends, and it took us quite a long time to actually place an order, but the staff were fine with it.

The food came out in a good amount of time, considering how many customers were in there, and except for one meal (See negatives) they were all really nice and fresh, and clearly hadn't been sat under the warmers very long before service.

We all ordered deserts, and they were really nice too. Their cinnamon waffle is possibly my all time favourite desert.

Over all it was generally a very pleasant evening, with good friends and good food.

Now for those nasty negatives.

1. One of the chairs was damaged, and the base had separated from the frame. My 8yo son managed to trap his fingers in it while shuffling it towards the table. The staff dealt with this quickly, but they should really be checking their furniture on a regular basis for such defects.

2. My wife is a vegetarian, so wherever we go her options tend to be quite limited. Last night she ordered the fish and chips, and it was seriously overcooked and dry.

3. The waiter that took all of our orders and served our food came to the end of his shift while we were eating desert. Because of this another waiter took over when it came to asking for the bill. There was a lot of confusion here for some reason, and somebody had either not done their job properly, or there was no hand over between the shifts. Our first bill was £114, but as we were getting ready to pay, she changed the bill saying that some items were missing from the first one and it had now changed to £136. This bill didn't seem right to us at all, but before we had chance to raise the issue, she returned with the third and final bill which was £125. It was very...

I was really disappointed when I went there for lunch yesterday. I've always loved Frankie & Benny's but was not impressed with the changes to the menu at the Rotherham one.

We were told by the manager 10 different restaurant had been picked to trial a new menu and theirs was one, and that all feedback was greatly received and would be passed on, which we did at the end of the meal.

So firstly they'd taken some things off the menu, we pretty much always have a chicken with hot cheese sauce wrap fries included. That wasn't on any more so we ended up ordering a chicken parmigiana panini, only to find out you now have to pay £1.99 for fries, not impressed at all!!

The Panini turned up on what literally looked like a small side plate, and the Panini wasn't a long one but a little square one, which although it didn't look very appealing it actually was filling and tasted OK. We'd ordered a bowl of fries to share but we could hardly fit them on our plates with them being so small they were falling off on to the table.

The manager said yes for some reason they had decided to serve some of the lunch time food not on dinner plates but on small side plates which just looked ridiculous.

On top of that we both ordered a pepsi, we were still charged £2.99 the usual price for it but when we asked for a refill we were told they weren't doing them anymore?!!

The manager told us she'd had a lot of complaints about the changes and the new menu, so hopefully they will listen to what their customers have said and at least stop charging for fries and put refills back on the menu, or they might start to lose customers. People go in at lunchtime for a good deal which it doesn't appear your getting anymore.

I will say however the atmosphere as always was lovely as were the staff, in particular our waiter Oliver he literally couldn't do enough for us, but don't know if I'll be going back...

Bravo Rotherham Parkgate branch. I love an open kitchen as you can see all good food practices for a start. Super friendly staff (unlike Inverness branch) great fast service (unlike Inverness branch) love the gluten free menu has loads on it and catering for us intolerant is a blessing on days out knowing I won't starve through lunch. This place is clean (unlike Inverness branch) loads of staff so you're not waiting for ages to order. Straight away you are serviced for drinks and even when I asked about the temperature being too high they were quick to sort out our section to we could be more comfortable. Food was served quickly even though place was busy as there were 3 very competent chefs on. Everything we had was perfect. Salmon was cooked beautifully, sweet potato fries were fab and piping hot. Salad was crisp and fresh and not drenched in sauces. My partners pizza was fantastic and my son loves all their pastas and burgers. We have had just about everything off the menu over the many years we go here for lunches when we have had hard day shopping. They never fail and I've never had any problems with their food, cleanliness or staff. Just a great place to go for good quality well prepared food in a fab atmosphere. Everything their Inverness branch lacks this branch leads the way. Keep up the great work F&B's Parkgate you all deserve the praise. Please do something about you're Inverness branch...its absolutely awful and let's the name down. Good quality food cooked terribly, unclean practices and front of house quite...