Franklin Hotel — Restaurant in City of Rome

Upon our arrival the waitress gave us our menus and about 3 minutes later came for our dinner order. During the entire dinner she kept trying to remove plates with food before we were done with them. She tried to remove the antipasto 5 times while it was 1/2 full and we specifically told her time after time we were not done. I had prime rib which was cooked good but was at lest 1/4-1/3 fat. They smothered it with the gorgonzola sauce so you didn't see that until it was cut into. The tomato sauce was subpar. We were seated next to a window which was opened about 3 inches, we kept closing it and the waitress kept opening it, it was 15 degrees outside. We told her we were cold, she said well the rest of the dinning area is hot. We asked to be moved and she refused. The meatballs were not edible, they were hard and dry. Everyone who had meatballs only had 1/2 or less of a meatball. When we would ask the waitress for something like a straw or a refill she said, I busy I will get to you but rarely did. She started clearing our table off before we were even done eating. My soda was half full and she took it, I told her I was not done with that and she went to leave with it, I had to physically take it from her hand. When it came to desert I said I wanted a lobster tail, with the ricotta filling. She insisted that wasn't a lobster tail and called it something else, that the lobster tail had custard and chocolate or vanilla on top. I said you mean an elcair? No a lobster tail with custard inside and chocolate or vanilla on top. Now I looked in the case earlier and knew she meant an éclair. So I took what she said had ricotta. It was about 2 inches across, round and had ricotta and lemon in it. Definitely not what I wanted. My girlfriend said she would take the lobster tail. We got home and opened the box sure enough what I called a lobster tail was a lobster tail and she did not give us anything she described with custard and chocolate. To top it of the small pastry was $3 and the lobster tail was $10, that was the most I have ever paid for any. We were there with a party of 7, one was a toddler. For our bill of two, Antipasto, veal parm with forgotten pasta, Fatty prime rib, 1 soda I had to retrieve from the waitress' hand, 1 lobster tail and some other tiny pastry, $58. Total bill for 7 $160. Way overpriced for subpar food and...

I have been coming here for about 40 years. We had friends meet us there from Syracuse since Utica was full of people due to the Women's Hockey Tournament. I figured restaurants would be packed. The Waitress was rather abrupt. For locals, I think she thought it was Pelitere Joe's. The menu and specials were great. We were excited, we decided to get the Portobello Prime Rib, and the Squid, Shrimp, and Mussels. We would share and make our own surf and turf. They brought 3 of the 4 salads, the one with Ceasar dressing took 10 minutes to make the dressing. So we sat waiting since we have manners. Finally it came, the bread was ok, by Utica/Rome standards. The seafood said butter, garlic, and wine sauce. It came out with marinara, the Waitress brought back, the chef said it was correct. Hidden on the handwritten specials. Is was a marinara almost buried in other items. No offer to change it. The Prime Rib was good, the mashed potato was fine. The pasta with the seafood was pretty bad by local standards, the sauce mediocre at best. I grew up on LI Sound. We use to pick Mussels off the beach, these were TINY. Never in my approximated 50 years of eating Mussels, had I ever seen one so small and there were only 3 TINY Mussels! All in all , we were kind of disappointed. The Waitress didn't make it any better. Obviously she never heard the term " hospitality" industry. I was a Waiter, Restaurant Manager, and every other possible job in the industry. It was not a good experience. Which is a shame after decades of good ones. Maybe when the kids took over, they changed things. Unfortunately, I have seen so many local restaurants started by the parents, that were outstanding, lacking once the kids take over. We won't...

My friend & I stopped for dinner-about 4pm on Sat. .. It was definitely busy, but no friendly greeting when we approached the hostess stand.. We asked to not be seated directly under an AC vent so we moved one table over…. Our waitress approached us- not friendly at all. After our drink order was brought(water only)- My friend ordered her Florentine Chicken- I ordered the Bacon Cheeseburger and stated clearly- NO PINK INSIDE- but not burnt on the outside(that can be accomplished)- Friend got her salad which I guess was fine.. Then our meals came- again- no smile - just asked if anything was needed..(no)- I took one bite out of my burger and saw definite pink but the outside was overdone: read charred.. As I got further into it- there were a couple spots that weren’t pink but half way done- it was definitely not cooked through. Should I have called her over to make her aware of the issue? Would she have asked if it could be remade? Or possibly cook it longer? Um, not without making the outside more overdone than it was?? No… I didn’t -maybe I should have but, I think saying “NO pink but not burnt on outside” pretty much said how I wanted it.. but, didn’t get it.. The fries were great! My friend said her chicken, etc didn’t have much flavor. Hmmm… I’ve read many reviews on this place since our visit and they’re all very positive, some are glowing, many have eaten there many times and rave about the food- this was my friend’s second visit- my first- and we both said NEVER AGAIN!! I guess we ordered the wrong things- I don’t know- but it wasn’t a good meal for either of us!! And for $40+ total. I guess I expected...