Frankies Italian Bar and Grill is one of Caro and Nate’s favourite restaurants. They have been talking about it for ages! With restaurants at Knightsbridge, Chiswick, Putney and now Selfridges its clear that this partnership between jockey Frankie Dettori and chef Marco Pierre White is a highly successful one.

The Knightsbridge restaurant is located underground and is decorated to give the impression of intimacy, despite the size of the room, with the dark colours offset by golden balls and mirrors along the wall. Tables are, for once, nicely spaced apart. The restaurants are billed as family restaurants but clearly at this time of year most of the customers appeared to be office/work christmas parties.

Despite booking, when we first arrived we were first directed to a small lounge area near the bar whilst our table was prepared. It wasn’t a particularly busy night but because of an apparent staff shortage service was very slow – it took a while for us to be seated, menus provided, drinks served and eventually food delivered. We were starving by the time our main meals were delivered so just as well we’d ordered a starter and bread to share. Based on reviews of Frankies slow service is pretty much the norm.

The food, when it arrived, was very impressive. Good portions and very tasty. My veal milanese was perfect. Our desserts, when they did finally arrive, were also great and the cheesecake in particular was delicious and huge.

Caro’s Lasagne	My Veal	Our Desserts

Overall, I’m not sure how to judge the restaurant. It was very good food but the speed of the service, though friendly when we got it, was abominable. However we did get some benefits out of it – we given a Frankie’s card which will give us 20% off dining whenever we produce it plus all our desserts were given to us free of charge! So, for the three of us, including service and a couple of glasses of wine and for basically three courses the bill came to just over £45. Not too shabby for a night out in Knightsbridge.