Franco's Ristorante - skip the salads

In an uncharacteristic fit of spontaneity (prompted by last night's Dan Ryan traffic), my girlfriend and I peeled off at 31st Street and decided to take a chance on the first real restaurant we saw, which was Franco's Ristorante. They've got a nice, old neon sign, and even though I should really know better, I didn't allow myself to be put off by the lack of a menu in the window or the emptiness of the restaurant (just one other table at 6:30).

There's a big signed photo of Daley Jr. by the door...how bad could it be?

Well, it wasn't altogether horrible, but they're making some really damning (and avoidable) mistakes. The lone waitress was very obviously bored (can't say I blame her, but it didn't help) and listed their beer list in the exact-opposite order of interest to me. ("Miller Lite, MGD, Bud Light, Bud, Peroni, Moretti.") Our Morettis were fine.

The salads were the main sticking point. We ordered a "mixed-green salad" ($6) and a "romaine salad" ($7). I guess I'm lucky that I've never really had this problem before, but it seems to me that any restaurant that prices their salads north of $5 is obliged to offer something---anything---beyond a literal assemblage of the ingredients in the description. For our $6, we got about 50 cents' worth of limp mesclun mix (looked identical to the Stanley's mix) dumped on a plate with too much balsamic dressing. The romaine salad was torn squares of romaine heavily-coated with a too-creamy, probably commercial Caesar-ish dressing pretty much devoid of flavor, and a sprinkling of pre-shredded Parmesan, finished with a little dollop of chopped tomatoes. In November! I'm glad I didn't try the caprese.

I'm a pretty passive-aggressive guy, and very rarely send food back (the last time I can recall was at Kuma's, when my Mastadon burger wasn't cooked all the way and they'd forgotten the bottom half of the bun). I was frustrated, but I couldn't come up with any way to criticize these salads short of telling someone there that these were inarguably just bad, and at the price, insulting...but I wasn't up for that level of confrontation. I left 2/3 of mine on the plate to see if the waitress would take the hint, but no---she must be pretty used to it.

We had a rigatoni arrabiata that was fine, and a penne dish with a creamy pesto sauce with capers and prosciutto. The arrabiata was pretty good, and the penne was OK; a little gluey, but OK. They were both between $10 and $11, and we had leftovers, so I felt that they were worth it.

Needless to say, with all of the dining options we have, I don't foresee heading back anytime soon. If I get dragged, I guess I'd try the gnocchi, which have received some love on LTH:

http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t= ... ht=francos

But the salads...stay away. You'll be mad at yourself.

Franco's
300 W 31st St
Chicago, IL 60616
(312) 225-9566