Franchesco's Ristorante — Restaurant in Rockford Township

After a long, my husband and I were looking forward to a romantic “date-night” at our favorite place, Franchesco’s. We drive over an hour and twenty minutes each way for the ambiance, anonymity, and well-prepared food in a romantic setting, with a backdrop of live, and well-executed light piano classics. We made our reservation an hour and a half before we arrived, and were assured there were plenty of tables, and they’d try to seat us with our favorite waiter. They told us that the piano player we enjoyed last time was to be playing that evening. Wish they’d done us the courtesy of also mentioning that they were hosting a DJ’d party playing at what felt like thundering decibels. That level of noise in that space at that time utterly precluded conversation and the sense of intimacy we enjoy about Franchesco’s. Despite the reservation, we waited over 20 minutes for a table, they’d given away all the tables in our preferred waiter’s section and the pianist we’d so enjoyed (and we’d been told to expect by the hostess) was not there. We were treated to truly mediocre canned music that didn’t fit the ambiance. The fried calamari we enjoyed during all our prior visits was over done were over-cooked, too greasy (frying at wrong oil temp likely), and the breading fell off too easily, which says new person was assigned to the frying station, I suppose. The waiter we had was not guest oriented to put it politely. Our waiter noticed our drinks were low once or twice in the hour and a half we were there, but he never refilled the ice, and he didn’t have the least sense of urgency to him, such that the meal was disrupted each time he missed a cue. He didn’t notice my husband had no silverware when the appetizer was delivered, and when the main course was served, my husband had no forks (his two were cleared after calamari and his salad courses), and it took several minutes to flag someone to obtain a fork. Waiter forgot to bring mashed potatoes with my ribeye. I’d confused him by paying for asparagus, as an extra side dish, so I received asparagus but not the potatoes that come with the steak. I wouldn’t complain about these things at a $10 a head dinner, but we were paying $140 dinner for 2 before our drinks in Rockford, IL (not Chicago), and the service we’d had here two dozen times before was truly 5-star on even the busiest nights (this was less busy than an average Friday night). When the DJ party commenced, it reverberated and dominated our dining room through the wall. No one turned down or off the canned and clashing music of the dining room making the auditory experience that much worse. My husband noted beer bottles littered every surface of the men’s room. Overall, everything felt off, and the staff seemed unprepared and under-trained for their roles, and unaware or unconcerned by their own shortcomings. The restaurant should have warned us they had a young and very noisy party so we could have elected to go elsewhere because we told them on the phone what we were looking for quiet, romantic dinner for two. If this restaurant is aware of their reviews, I hope they will appreciate a customer’s perspective of their performance 12/8/17 and get back to basics of great service. Our next date night is already reserved at JMK Nippon, next door to Franchesco’s with great seafood, huge koi pond, and consistently pleasant date-night ambiance. Previously, I wrote a 5 star review of Franchesco’s, because it was consistently worthy of 5 stars before 12/8. Anywhere can have an off night, but it is harder to overlook in a high-end dining setting, at the price point I spend every time we visit Franchesco’s. I do not advise dining with them during the holidays if you want an intimate date night setting, and I suggest you ask what type of function they are hosting in the party space adjacent to the main dining room to avoid a repeat of our visit. I note that the best servers skip homecoming/prom nights when they get tipped poorly by young people and their dates. Note: check your take away orders...

June 2019, went from 5 to 4 stars for repeated inattention to detail. Fine dining means you get what you order as you ordered it. Service staff has slipped with Eric’s departure. Sad, bc it has 5 star ambiance and menu. Prior review from 2017: Lovely atmosphere, excellent service, delicious food, live music- definitely a first rate choice for a special occasion dining, business dinner, or a romantic date. This place is fancy but not fussy, so you can wear jeans or a suit without feeling out of place in either. I would still suggest reservations on weekends just in case, but they have seating if you have a small wait. The main dining room is large, upscale, dimmed romantically but with enough with accent lights that allow for reading the menu. The back wall features floor to ceiling fountains, a modern fireplace. The plush booths have a "Wildfire" vibe without overcrowding and that overwhelming background din that turns conversation into a game of charades. Even when the piano player is on in the center of the room, you can still have a conversation- this isn't a lounge lizard routine- no singing, and a mix of melodies you'll recognize, and appreciate from the 60s-Present. Booths, plush high backed club chairs or regular event chairs means seating is comfy. (tables in the booths move for easier sliding in). The food is a perfect blend of Midwestern steakhouse and upscale Italian, and the prices are reasonable. Our gifted server, Eric, knows the ingredients, loves what he does and does it well- let him guide you if you don't know what to choose from the prime beef, Scottish salmon, or the pastas, and he can explain the farm to table concept that makes the vegetables and cheeses as fresh as they can be. My husband loves the calamari, followed by the ribeye, and the dinner salad, while my father loved his New York strip (with cognac peppercorn sauce) - my father was thrilled that Franchesco's did the "not on the menu" tangy blue cheese breadcrumb crust on his steak (they also do Dijon and Horsradish breadcrumb crusts by request). I'm torn because all the steaks are delicious but the ribeye with the bleu cheese crust with the side of smoked Gouda cauliflower (with a hint of bacon, mmmmmm) is probably my favorite. The lobster bisque is delightful- get the bowl, not the cup, because it's just that good. I'm not as much a fan of bookbinder stew but they serve theirs properly, with a side of sherry, based on an old family recipie that used to be the favorite at another Rockford restaurant. I haven't had the French onion soup yet but the heaped melty Gruyere and mound of croutons looked amazing. The lightly-breaded calamari served with remoulade, marinara, and lemon wedges on the side is tender and classic. The fresh bread with olive oil and herbs for dipping are warm and satisfying, but don't fill up on bread with so many wonderful choices on the menu. I highly recommend the smoked Gouda cauliflower purée and my mother raves about the warm carrot purée under the Scottish salmon and the fresh from the garden grilled asparagus medley. You cannot go wrong with the decadent desserts unless you make the mistake of skipping them - I can't resist the creme brûlée, my husband likes both their versions of tiramisu, and my parents adore the chocolate mouse-like cheesecake with chocolate cookie crumb crust. The only thing I wouldn't reorder was the Caesar salad, but that's a personal preference - the dressing was spot on, but I didn't care for the fancy lettuce. I prefer just plain old romaine lettuce for my Caesar. The steaks run about $30-37, the fish around $25, and the pastas $15-22. There were drink specials on the very good house wines and draft (Stella!) from 4-6pm on Sunday so everyone was happy. They also run special entree pricing on occasion so check their FB page, but give yourself a treat and find something to celebrate at...

We have been to Franchesco's dozens of times. It is my FAVORITE place to have a great dinner! We were even engaged there 6 months ago!

I was severely disappointed this past week though. We planned on making a reservation Saturday night (3 days after Valentine’s day) for a romantic dinner to celebrate our wedding date coming up! I made a reservation for 5:15pm and upon arrival were escorted into a desolate, banquet room smeared in cheesy/corny red and white table decor. I love the ambiance of the restaurant...but no one offered us the dining room, and kept us in the banquet room even after showing my dis-taste. No one told us this upon making a reservation.

Oh well, we wanted to make the best of our night, but as we sat there it was awkward to be the only ones sitting in the large room (with 5-10 waiters standing on the opposite side of the room with nothing to do). We then were told we had to order off the Valentines menu only. We love the food so we were making the best of it and knew we could find something off the menu that would be great (We were right. The food was awesome!). My disappointment is that I had been salivating all day thinking about my favorite Grilled Chicken Romaine Blue Salad and French Onion soup that I wanted to order...but was not able to. The receptionist on the phone did not tell us or give us any inclination there was a modified menu and or that we were sitting in a bright white and red plastered room. To top off the ambiance, we were sitting at decorated, flimsy CARD TABLE!

I would have liked to be treated like my service and experience cared. We drove 45 minutes to come to this place and could have made alternate plans. After we were there about 25 minutes, the room had a few more couples in it and their looks of surprise and annoyance were clear. One couple got up and left without dinner. We asked the waitress why no one explained the experience to us or others, and her response was that "I have been telling the owners for 3 years that they need to tell guests because everyone is upset that they are not told anything...but they told me there are too many guests to have to tell so don’t say anything at all." This was so severely disappointing to me as I have so much respect for the service, ambiance and quality of food. The guest should feel number one. Instead we felt like an ushered guest thrown in a room to try and get extra money out of the Holiday.

Lastly... we were getting ready to leave and we heard our waitress ask a neighboring table if they would like the complimentary champagne with dinner. We were never asked or given the Champagne either, and instead paid for our coccktails and $100 bill for two...

Overall... Not my favorite experience. I truly hope Benny and his family will try to improve experience/memories for their loyal guests in the future...and LISTEN.

I will continue to tell people about Franchescos in a positive light, but since our concerns were not heard Saturday night, I felt this was our...