Franklin Giant Grinder Shop — Restaurant in Hartford

Stunningly amazing old school pizza and grinder place.

PRO: Cheese and pepperoni pizzas are the best in CT. Without question you'll like it. The crust is crisp, sauce is deliciously seasoned, and the cheese is the perfect level of stringy. Grinders are as massive as you'd expect. I'm a huge fan of the meatball and eggplant combo grinder. It's extremely dense, but spectacular.

CON: Local area is awful. You may not want to visit when it's dark out. The parking is the worst you've ever seen. There's like 2 spaces up front and then wherever you can fit on the road. Inside is crazy out dated. There's one aspect of it that's kind of cool because it's frozen in the 1980s,but then you snap back to reality and realize it's kind of sad and lazy. They have a minimum spending limit for credit cards. I think its around $20. That can be very frustrating for those of us without cash and only looking to buy a limited...

Seen featured on “must stop in place in CT”, so I was in the area and stopped in. Place honestly looked closed and not in business from the outside but proceeded to the door and they were indeed open. The look and feel of the place is as if you walked into the early 70s. But I am not judging a book by its cover, some of the best places are “dives”.

Ordered 1/2 meatball and eggplant. It is a full sandwich more than one can eat in one sitting. I think next time I will try cold cuts instead. At 3pm when I arrived the counter and slicer was dirty and nothing was cleaned. A dirty rag was under slicer on counter. As I said I will try again, but I am a stickler for cleanliness and you can be a dive and still be clean.

I think they were closing for the day, I am not sure. All the reviews speak highly but they all speak of the sandwich and not...

Still the same place from yesteryear. I had not been to Franklin Giant Grinder in ages. I happened upon a chance because I was in the area. The grinders are still like I remember. Fresh ingredients, nice grinder bread with enough meat to make two more grinders. You always get your money's worth with these grinders. Yes the prices have gone up, but that's inflation and to stay in business you gotta keep up with cost. Even with the increase they are still cheaper than most places that give you 1/2 the food and none of the quality. Staff was really great, friendly and competent. The old juke Box is a cool piece of nostalgia. My only complaint is come on man, redo the floors or have them professionally cleaned, paint, do something. I'm not saying it gotta be swanky, its a grinder joint. After awhile no matter how much you clean, out dated just...