Fresco Da Franco — Restaurant in Montclair

Dined here as a party of two recently on a busy Saturday night.

Atmosphere & Decor: The place is decorated like it belongs in LA or San Diego, with contemporary seating and wall décor. White everywhere and tightly situated tables surround you. Matter of fact, along my line of two-top tables was so little space, that we actually had to move our table more than once to allow our closest neighbor to come and go. Not ideal, but not terrible either. And frankly, some might find the closed quarters part of this restaurant's modern charm. I will concede that there is something conspicuously hip about having a seat in a place where there's seating everywhere, but hard to come by.

The place is lit a bit more than I'd prefer like a teen's Sweet 16 party. Mysterious primary colored lighting emanating from places unknown and cast like a moody haze onto the walls from floor level. I'm sure it's liked by most, but it's not exactly my thing.

It appeared I dined here on a night when everyone in Montclair was celebrating a birthday and this, Fresco does well! Every time they were ushering in someone's birthday, the wait staff surrounded the table, handed the birthday boy/girl a handheld, sparkler fountain, and the place became a nightclub, complete with Kool and the Gang's, Celebration wailing from the speakers above us. The sound was DJ quality too - not shrill or glassy like you'd expect of ceiling audio.

All of this said, the place is fun. But I do have one criticism - the noise level. I literally sat no more than 3 feet from my companion and I couldn't hear a word she said unless I literally cupped my hands behind my ears, to expand their capacity to overcome the wall of sound this place creates. I truly could not hear a thing and could not enjoy my conversation. This was cute briefly, but ultimately distracted from an otherwise lovely dining experience. This was a disappointment.

The Food Our waiter Fred, deserves kudos. He was fantastic. If not for him, I probably would’ve found the noise more disappointing than it probably was.

Fred was a delight. Understood how dining should be done, and per my request, served a single dish at a time. He matched our pace and style of dining perfectly and was polite and deferential. Fred showed why serving food is a specialization, no different than being a surgeon or an astronaut. Our first was octopus and was cooked perfectly. Not chewy and had a lovely char on it. If done right, octopus does all the heavy lifting. I've found that the best preparers of octopus simply get out of the way and let it handle all that is meant to be dazzling about it. And Fresco did this well. It was accompanied by seared baby tomatoes, onion, sweet sausage in a reduced port wine. It was a subtly sweet mix of flavors and a terrific start.

Our second was Papardelle, a wide, long flat noodle. Hearty and meal in itself if accompanied by nothing else. But this dish had a friend: lamb shank in a dense and pronounced ragu. The lamb wasn't gamy, and the dark, meaty broth was salted perfectly. This dish could have been lazily done. Too much salt, for instance, to hide a lack of talent producing a truly savory beefy broth. This ragu had lovely complexity however, but also allowed the lamb and perfectly al dente noodle to be the dish's heroes.

Our third was a scallop special. Three large sea scallops, atop a heaping mound of (I think) risotto. I am not entirely sure, as my companion selected this dish and I didn't read up on it. The scallops were perfectly seared and had that delicate translucence. There was a syrupy, maple profile to the risotto dish that made it more a dessert flavor than a main. I would've liked a larger portion on the scallops. more of a first, than a main (3 scallops).

Summary This is a lovely, crowded and skilled restaurant. They know how to prepare and serve food. I'd recommend going if you can stand the noise. It is a deep flaw of this restaurant and made more obvious by how well...

This place is atrocious. I have been going to Fresco since it opened even bringing in very large parties. Since this past summer when Franco took over the place it has been progressively going down hill. Just this past weekend a group of 6 of us went for dinner excited to have their specialties like the Burrata, the brick oven pizza with fresh mozz, or their nutella pie for dessert. When we arrived at 7:40 we were charged the normal $10 for valet parking. We sit and were not waited until after 8:15pm where by policy we had to oder the entire kitchen order at once. This is an apparent new policy since June as back then we were able to order apps then our meal in a relaxed fashion... Believe me there was no one beating down the door to have our table. We ordered the burrata, fried calamari, and eggplant stack. We then asked for one of their specialties (margarita pizza) for an app. The waiter disappeared to only come back to us shortly saying that a brand new policy is that they do not make pizza unless its a sunday brunch. Meanwhile it was on the menu. Since the disappointing information of this suddenly new policy even though their menu advertised pizza (which our friend was expecting to order as her main course) they brought the other apps that we ordered. In 1 small bite the burrata was immediately know to be VERY VERY sour. It was bad cheese, very bad cheese. As we politely complained to the waiter he then returned and said he miraculously can fire up the pizza oven and make us a "free" pizza as an apology. With the free pizza he then brought a board of cheese and "Italian Meats". When we looked at the board it looked as though they ran to shop rite and bought speckled Bologna rather then true Italian meats. It was actually disgusting to look at as it was a ball of thick lunch meat on a plate. Next our main course comes... Most of us ordered a dish with fish. I never experienced more less then fresh fish before then here at Fresco that night. The calamari was very touch, chewy, and smelled very fishy. Our friend at the table ordered the tuna special and requested that instead of the side it came with if they can put the tuna over mashed potatoes. Without hesitation the waiter said o yes no problem we can do mashed potatoes (meanwhile other dishes on the menu are served with mashed potatoes). When our dishes were served her tuna was over scalloped potatoes instead of mashed, liked promised. The waiters only regret was "I am sorry the kitchen couldn't make mashed potatoes" What restaurant does not know how to or does not make mashed potatoes, especially since dishes on the menu require mashed potatoes? By this time it is about 10pm when they finally refilled our water glasses and cleaned the table of our apps and dinner. Yes, our apps were still on the table along with our app eating dishes. He brought us dessert menus. He then said they probably can make us nutella pie. So that is what we ordered. The pie came out at 10:25 and was still uncooked all the way. by 10:30 the valet comes to our table and asks us if we have our valet tickets. We reply yes and he proceeds to tell us he is done for the night so here are our keys. So for the $10 that i paid for a valet my car was left on the curb where i had to walk half a block to retrieve my car. But before I knew the distance to my car we tried to pay the bill. The restaurant knew we were unhappy and automatically charged 20% tip not even 18% but 20% tip on top of the bill and expected us to pay. So now 3 people from our group put in cash and the other 3 credit cards. There were 2 american express blue cards and a visa. Just so happens that I have apple pay and saw they double charged me. When I bought it to their attention the waiter said I don't know dispute it with amex. So now after sour food, bad policies and $10 for my own retrieval of my car I have to...

The food and drinks were excellent here; it's rare that a pizza legitimately reminds me of my gastro adventures from studying abroad in Florence. If the service had risen to the occasion, this would have been close a five-star experience. It's a little disappointing that it didn't meet the mark, but it got close enough where the regrets were minimal if not non-existent.

My top-tier chum and I came here around 12:30ish yesterday at the beginning of Montclair's inaugural Porchfest (which is NOT something I'd recommend at this juncture - very poorly organized and the website information wasn't completely accurate), in need of a refreshing cocktail and overall sustenance. As Montclair experts know, liquor licenses are not an automatic around these parts so options were limited but we secured some sunny outdoor seating easily and were ready to rock.

We both played it relatively safe and each ordered the Reginella pie, which I can't recommend more. It's legitimately one of the best pizzas I've had in the area, an authentic Neapolitan pie where they drop the buffalo mozzy on it literally seconds before taking out of the oven. Just delicious. Both of us finished our pies minus a bite or two, which is more notable on my chum's end than mine - I'm an animal and finish most meals.

I'm not actually seeing the cocktail I ordered on the online menu; it was the first item listed, started with a "P" and was tequila based with a lot of fruit-forward action. Very well done/mixed with excellent flavors. The only downside is that it's $20, which even by Montclair standards is pretty egregious. If this were $15 or $16, I probably don't hesitate to get a second one, but the cocktails shouldn't cost more than the entrees - a bridge too far for me. Still. A refreshing nip on a pleasant May afternoon.

The service was very mediocre, which is unfortunate. My chum thought this might have been a weird homage almost to European culture, but since we WEREN'T actually at a street cafe in Naples, I don't know that that's remotely necessary, assuming that was the issue. We weren't on a schedule but it took about 20 minutes to get our cocktails and hailing down the waitress for anything was a process. It wasn't particularly busy while we were there so it wasn't clear why there were any noticeable delays, but any thoughts of ordering anything beyond our initial items was put to the side pretty quickly since it would have added probably half an hour to our stay. Disappointing and an unforced error in my view.

I'd absolutely come back, but only with a full wallet and some time...