Franco’s Trattoria

One of my favorites! Their fried zucchini appetizer is the best I’ve ever had, hands down. The veal romano is my go-​to entrée and never disappoints… Always cooked perfectly and so good!

OUT OF BUSINESS! RESTAURANT IS CLOSED… ALL STAFF WAS LET GO AND THE BUSINESS IS UP FOR SALE!!! Even though the website states that there will be a new concept coming Fall 2014, others we know have stated that there is no concept forthcoming and the business is to be sold…

A great consistent meal. We love the chicken piccata (maybe the best in the city)! I had the sautéed calamari over a side of pasta. Oh so good ! Love the Bloody Mary and wine selection! A great place that we have had family dinners in the private room downstairs ! The service is outstanding !

My husband and I absolutely love Franco’s! We look forward to coming here each year when we come from Florida to visit our family. They have the best meatballs and all of the food is excellent! All the staff is very friendly also. Highly recommended!

Our server made this restaurant a great experience. We let him know it was our first time here, and he suggested some of his favorites on the menu. We had fried calamari sesame style, fried zucchini, and for entrees a chicken dish with prosciutto and a seafood pasta dish. The seafood pasta was amazing. The calamari was a little salty because of the sesame sauce. But everything else was great. I wish I could remember our server’s name to give him a shout out. Thanks, bald head glasses waiter! I want to call him Brian, maybe. I will certainly return here in the future.

I hate to do this because it looks like a majority of people have had an awesome experience here, but… I was VERY VERY disappointed with this place. My other half and I went on valentines day, and neither of us really enjoyed what we ordered. He had surf and turf and I got a pasta dish with calamari, shrimp, crab, scallops and I believe another seafood I’m missing. My boyfriends meal was okay, he said he’s had better, but mine was not good. It tasted so fishy, like the seafood was not cooked right, or very cheap. The taste was actually repulsive. On the bright side, their crab balls were out of this world, and their featured bread pudding dessert was great as well. I’m hoping our experience had to do with the high volume of people that came through because of the holiday. Maybe our food didn’t get as much attention as it usually does because it was so crowded? We will definitely be back because I’m trying very hard to find an amazing Italian place near by, and I believe this could be is based on the very good things I’ve heard about it. Service was good as well, especially for an extremely busy night!

Great old school, classic Italian restaurant. Good bread, pasta, and sauces. Nothing too unique or new takes, but quality food.

This is my favorite italian restaurant and their food is delectable. The chicken romano is so good I dont order it anywhere else because theres no one that makes it as well. The cheese tortellini are great in their vodka cream sauce. Meatballs are amazing as well. I dont think I’ve ever had anything feom there I didnt like. Food is alway fresh and prepared well, service is always prompt and friendly! Large room for parties downstairs.

Am I at Bucca di Bepo? Seriously, that’s what I questioned during our meal here. In traditional Italian American fashion, the portions are ginormous. And by ginormous I mean a whole family of four could eat off these portions. This doesn’t even include the salad you get with your meal.
I wish I knew that before we ordered the fried zucchini. It’s okay though. I’ve never had such lightly battered, yet crisp fried zuc in my life. They were thinly sliced pieces of deliciousness. You can still easily split the pile of zuc they give you between four people.
For an entrée I was craving eggplant parm. What I got was two massively cut pieces of what looked like lasagna. I believe the make up was as follows: eggplant, cheese, eggplant, cheese and more cheese. Whatever, it was really tasty. Throw in a decent sauce and perfectly cooked ziti noodles, and I’m sold.
Family style rules here, and that’s okay with me, and my need for leftovers.

We went to the Peters Township location.
We were a party of 6 celebrating an 80^th birthday. We arrived 30 minutes early but were promptly seated. Although the restaurant was very busy, it seemed less so because of the very highbacked booth banquets.
Not realizing the quantity of food would be so large, we over ordered.
Below is the list of wonderful food we ordered
Soups
Salads
Zucchini
Beans with Escarole
Fried Provolone
Sausage and Polenta (the agreed upon winner of the pre-​entrée selections)
Chicken Marsala x 2
Wheat spaghetti with tomato basil sauce and meatball
Wheat spaghetti with meat sauce and meatball
Crab stuffed salmon
And one other entrée that I can’t remember
All the food was excellent. The meat sauce was especially good.
At the end of the meal we had 6 to go boxes.
I can’t say enough about Rick, our waiter. The service was smooth and professional. In the words of the birthday girl «They must have given us their best waiter.»
This was above and beyond what I expected for this suburban Pittsburgh location.

Hands down my favorite Italian restaurant in the south hills. AMAZING fried zucchini, yummy chicken pastina soup, excellent chicken Romano. Yum! This place is so good, you’d be crazy to pass it up! They also have a large room in the basement for big groups. The service here is always outstanding.

Looking for a local, affordable italian joint to have a nice family dinner? Look no further. Walking into Franco’s, I felt like I was transported back in time to the 50’s when it was all about family and good food. The décor is a little outdatd but in a classic, not kitschy way. I fully expected to see 4 older Italian guys conversing in the back booth clearly trying to keep their mafia business on the hush hush. The homey yet classy feel of Franco’s was equally matched by the delicious food and large portions. The menu consisted of classic Italian dishes such as chicken romano, shrimp scampi and gnocchi as well as specials of the day. To start, the four of us ordered the fried zuchini which easily fed four people and could have arguably fed 6. For my main course, I ordered the pork loin special with parmesan risotto and peas, minus the peas. The pork was tender, juicy and cooked perfectly. The risotto was out of this world. So thick, creamy and delicious. My husband ordered another special the penne vodka with prosciutto and mozzarella. Although the vodka sauce was not my favorite, he enjoyed his meal and ended up taking most of the huge bowl of pasta home. Another lovely surprise was that our dinners included a soup or salad. The salad I ordered was delic though once I saw the chicken pastaoli (sp?) soup, I regretted my decision to try to meet the suggested food pyramid guideline for vegetables. So many restaurants nowadays do not include a soup or a salad. Maybe I just like getting a deal but, when a soup or salad is included with the meal, i feel taken care of. Regretably, we did not try the desserts largely due to the fact that the portions were so large. The only thing I would change about Franco’s is the service. Our waitress did not take our order until after our appetizer came out and she was unable to answer a couple questions I had about the menu. Otherwise, a great neighborhood, family oriented place.

I ate here this past weekend with my girlfriend and two other dining companions for dinner. I had driven by this place many times before and barely noticed it until a couple of Saturdays ago and mentioned it to my friends who had also been wanting to try it. Upon entering the restaurant the first thing that I noticed was how large the restaurant actually was as it went back much further from the street than I would have imagined. After waiting around for a minute or two without being noticed I decided to try to find our friends to no avail. Finally after 5 or so minutes of waiting for the hostess someone appeared and explained that the rest of our party was already seated downstairs and pointed to a set of stairs. Surprisingly they actually have a second full dining room and bar downstairs.
For our appetizer our whole table decided to split the fried zucchini appetizer for two. The portion size was huge and it was easily enough for all four of us to split. The zucchini had been cut in very thin strips length-​wise and was breaded with a nice but light breading and served with a side of marinara and a bunch of different lemons. What was odd is that we were still left with our menus whenever it came out and seeing how we did not have much room to spare everyone at our table ended up doing something different with their menu. Personally I put it under my appetizer plate and ate off of it. Even with that odd arrangement I thought it tasted pretty good, after all who doesn’t like fried food, especially when squeezing some of the lemon juice onto the breading. Finally after we had finished our appetizer the waitress took our entrée order for which I decided upon the chicken romano with a side of their polenta. The chicken came out on a plate by itself as 3 decent sized pieces. It tasted good with some hints of lemon and cheese and the breading was also nice and light. The polenta came out looking almost like a piece a cake with the top very dark, almost black, and was surrounded by a bed of marinara sauce. It was ok although I can’t really tell you that I tasted too much other than the marinara sauce that I was dipping it into.
The bottom line for me is that I would probably come here again in the future. Our service upon entering the restaurant was not that great although it did improve the deeper we got into dinner. With that being said I loved the large portion sizes and ended up going home with a full stomach.

Overall, this wasn’t a particularly amazing italian place. Above average with good service. But, the fried zucchini and chicken Parmesan were absolutely delicious! There’s something about the way they bread/​fry things. YUMMY!
Atmosphere: very cozy! I’m not sure why there are so many bad reviews for the service. Our server was very attentive and gave lots of great suggestions. I would say the atmosphere/​service is probably one of the main reasons I would come back.
Food: as i mentioned before, above average italian food. pasta looks like it’s handmade (but I’m not an itlalian expert). portions are very large, so order accordingly!

The most delicious marinara sauce I have ever tasted. The bar was good; wine was great. I love the atmosphere. My fiancé proposed to me at Franco’s but I promise that even had he not, this would definitely be a restaurant I returned to again and again. Delizioso cibo!

Loved this place! The cozy atmosphere, the extremely well trained and hospital staff all set the stage for a wonderful dinner with family. The Food was all done well, from the fettucine pescatore to the sole fliet all were excellent. Sometimes it takes the sum of many good qualities to make a great evening, that Franco’s has many to contribute.
— Good Job !

Traditional Italian.
Thoroughly enjoyed every dish. Be forewarned – portions are ENORMOUS.
Appetizer portions are reasonable meals. Our party of 4 ordered these apps:
Calamari-​so tender, served in tomato sauce. Not fried!
Fried zuchinni– as good as it gets, plateful about the size of a basketball
Fried polenta and sausage– next time will be my meal with a salad. Full 1″ slice of polenta topped with a more than generous slab of high quality sausage and tomato sauce. Fantastic.
Stuffed banana peppers-​i did not sample this one, though everyone loved it.
We had at least half of each of the appetizers boxed to take home.
For dinner, I chose a chicken dish, I believe it is called «Salvatore». By the way, veal may be substituted for chicken in any of their dishes. Anyhoo, this was 3 (!) chicken breast halves, each topped with fresh mozzerella and a sundried tomato sauce. Absolutely delicious and ridiculously huge.
Random observations: the candied pecans that came with one of their salads and also on the Pecan Ball, might be something to avoid if you have extensive or fragile dental work!
Service was great and the bartender is every bit as generous as the kitchen. My 1800 on the rocks filled a rocks glass and was not stuffed with ice. I kid you not.
Will absolutely return, but order my food with less abandon.

So, a friend and I were going to try Varrati’s pizza. She had come all the way from New Kensington to visit me…
…only to find that Varrati’s didn’t open until 4pm. It was a little after 2.
Thank heavens for swerves in itineraries. We were meant to come here. Fate would allow nothing else this afternoon.
I saw Franco’s Trattoria, just a few blocks up.
«Let’s go there,» I said.
We walked into the posh establishment, and a distinguished older gentleman, perhaps the owner himself, greeted us as he dined with a companion.
«Seat yourselves,» he told us. «Anywhere’s fine.»
I felt a little slovenly in these surroundings with my jeans and AC/​DC t-​shirt on, yet our wonderful server (a beautiful Italian-​fashion-​magazine-​cover-​bound girl named Jennifer) told us when I asked about our casual attire, «Oh no, you’re fine!»
Once again, when you eat anywhere Italian in Pittsburgh, even if you’re an Eastern European/​Irish mutt like me, you feel at home.
Besides, a little kid ran past me in gym shorts and an oversized tee.
EVERYTHING we had was divine and brilliantly plated. I wish I had brought a camera with me so as to snap some pics of this gorgeous, gorgeous food with flavor and personality for days
«Angry. Look angry. Give me pouty. Pouty, that’s it!»
Yeah. Drop dead knockout food that should be against the law. It would make a grown bon viviant cry. Cue any other cliched hair metal lyric about hot chicks you can think of.
I really wasn’t sure what to order, but oddball me likes to make meals out of appetizers and salads. So it was…
…the masterful calamari. It’s hard for me to pass up that deep fried squid. Even seeing tentacles doesn’t deter me. Hell, I wanna see them! They were breaded expertly, were perfectly al dente, popping in my mouth as I chewed on them, that marinara sauce dressing the squid up in culinary love like it was Madonna in 1985.
You remember that song. Don’t lie.
At the same time, I was served something called Crab Joseph. I love crab, but I had no idea what Crab Joseph was supposed to be. Here it was a sweet, light, cold, lemony salad of sorts with greens, tomatos, scallions, shrimp and plump, juicy chunks of jumbo lump crab meat. A jones for crab and a sense of adventure can take you to Paradise.
My ladyfriend dined on her Ravioli and let me try one. I got jealous. Until they brought out the Victoria Salad anyway. According to their menu, it has «baby field greens, candied pecans, apples, gorgonzola cheese and raspberry walnut vinaigrette.» Oooh yeah. That viniagrette and the candied pecans made the salad as far as I am concerned, but the apple more than held its own. It was exotic, a sheer and sweet delight.
We had plans to go to an ice cream parlor about 20 minutes away until our sneaky waitress showed us the dessert menu.
You should have seen my tiramisu. It was ART, for the eyes as well as the tongue and stomach. It was light and rich at the same time with just the perfect blend of rum, coffee, and whatever cheese they use (marscapone?). It was a clinic in confectionery. Eccellente!
My friend could not finish her Three Layer Chocolate Cake, so I came in to save the day. Normally I like my chocolate cake rich and gooey, but this dessert made the case for a chocolate cake that doesn’t need to be overly sweet and dense to be delectable, and it was more than delectable. In fact, it was as angelic as a chocolate cake could be. It should be served with a halo above it.
Please take a date here, or if you’re of the fairer species, beg to be taken here or drop some weighty hints.
How many times did I ride past this classy, awesome, yet moderately priced place o’er the years without seeing it? È scosso il mio mondo!
And to think all we came out for was some pizza.

SOLID ITALIAN MENU. NICE AND COZY.
My hubby, myself and my bro headed here in search of some good Italian now that our fav place Café Naples is gone. So we headed to Dormont near where my bro lives to try out Franco’s. First off — bread is awesome– pretty sure it’s not in house made though. We started with some fried zukes and the calamari except we tried their Asian style calamari and that is my pick of the night for menu fav! Sadly, for our main courses I had order envy. My hubby got the Eggplant Parm which I stole from and it was good. My bro had Chicken Romano which was awesome. I had the Franco Salad which was more like a antipasti than a main dish. I would only get it as an appetizer to share in the future. I did try the black forest Cannoli which was OK. Would go back and try more of the menu!

3.5
Pretty big dining area and bar. The food was actually pretty good, especially the marinara sauce. Salads tasted fresh, the soup was good. Why only 3.5? The service was lacking a bit. The ultra-standout…fried zucchini