Almost as reliable as a VolksWagen, Da Franco, Friern Barnet Road.

 13 Feb 2025

I checked back through my posts, and 11 years ago, exactly, I reviewed this traditional Italian local restaurant near to where I live. You should check out the post after reading this.

This is an old fashioned Italian restaurant, like they used to be in the 1970's and 80's, and comparing my notes to those of 11 years ago, it has not changed either the menu, clients or attitude. It seems to be what people want, and whilst other local restaurants come and go, this just keeps on plodding along, doing what it does do well. I even had almost the same meal, but swapped the previous pasta dish for fried calamari.

My wife always eats veal here, and they seem to have found a good source, because you cannot get it in the supermarkets round our way.

I guess some of the staff must have moved on, or at least aged a bit (as have I), but it seems to be the same family which was running the place all those years ago. I spoke to the front of house guy, and he told me that the place had been their's since the early 1980's transforming from a pizza house into a trattoria style restaurant, and I have been there several times because you know what you are dealing with, and the chances of a disappointing meal are low.

My wife had seafood salad followed by veal in a lemon sauce. I had the calamari for starter and veal in creamy mushroom sauce for main (exactly the same as I had 11 years ago). There were also some fried zucchini as a side. We shared a panne cotte for desert.

 

This is good old fashioned Italian style food for British tastes. It was great, and it was really hot, scoring about a 9 on the CHOF. Just what you want.

The prices, like everything else, had followed current trends, but checking back on what we paid last time, it was entirely consistent, and whilst a little high for suburban restaurants, compared to other places we have been recently, the bill came in at £90 for two including service for 2.5 courses each and one glass of house wine. It is also interesting to note that unlike many other places, clients are offered bread and butter at the table. A nice touch, even though it is probably built into the bill. Will definitely go there again and again.