Frankie’s Ristorante Italiano

My boyfriend and I visit Frankie’s often and we absolutely love it! Alina is always our waitress and she is not only helpful and attentive, but also very sweet. The cannoli’s are some of the best i’ve ever had and the zucchini fritti is our favorite app. We are both vegetarians and haven’t had a bad dish yet. I’m an italian from Jersey and i’m telling you this place is great !

Atmosphere and service were both very good, appetizer and entrees came out fast which was nice. Mozzarella fritta was bland and cold. I ordered the penne with vodka sauce which was also bland, the pasta was cooked perfectly though. I’m glad we tried this restaurant and maybe will consider visiting again in the future but trying different menu items instead.

First of all, the name of this restaurant is very misleading. It is in no way as welcoming and warm as a great Italian restaurant. You need to place reservations ahead of time on a weekend and if you don’t you are made to feel VERY second class and rushed. The waiters had the personality of a tired ox, doing the very basic minimal checks «Is everything OK?» and they were off before you answered. The service was OK, but certainly not welcoming or warm.
And this is the problem when you have a restaurant that charges on average $ 25 for a main course. For these prices, you EXPECT great service and comfortable seating. And when you don’t get that, the food REALLY has to work hard to make up for it (which it doesn’t).
Our first seat was at a table near the door – when making reservations, tell them you do NOT want to be seated next to the door. There is no curtain covering the entrance, so when someone opens the door in the middle of winter you are treated to repeated blasts of Mother Nature at her worst. shame shame Frankie’s, for not placing a heavy curtain over the walkway entrance.
After we expressed our disappointment with that table the hostess was very kind to seat us in their back room, much warmer, but bring pillows, their hardwood booths have all the comfort of a church pew.
The food is generally too much, I ordered the osso bucco with polenta and green beans. It all came drowning in a heavy sauce that was tasty at first, but eventually I needed a second plate to scrape the excess off, in a vain attempt to try the food underneath. The green beans did not taste seasoned, the polenta was very plain. The chef clearly considers the sides as an afterthought. Everything lacked nuanced subtleties of taste and presentation. In an Italian restaurant you can excuse presentation issues, but the food HAS to SING. At Frankies, it kind of moans.
After three appetizers, three entrees, no bread, no alcohol, we were up to $ 135. We knew the restaurant was expecting the next reservation imminently, so we gave up, paid our check and ran out.
I just don’t understand why this place is so packed all the time. The food is not very good, the prices absolutely outrageous. You leave the place feeling conned and scared of trying any of the other restaurants in the area. Skip this place.

First time visiting this restaurant, being locals I don’t know what took us so long to get here! It was soooo good. Everything was too knotch! From the appetizers of fried mozzarella and the caprese salad to our entrees of veal Marsala and the Delmonico steak. Then to top it off they gave us a piece of tiramisu for our anniversary that was the cream of the evening. Will definitely make this a go to from now on.

Unfortunately I was not impressed w/​the penne vodka I had… bland. The place was cute, we were able to get seated quickly but the food was so-​so. Sorry :(

We avoid carbs so usually Italian also. Frankie’s was gr8, the zucchini fritters are amazing, the service is also awesome

So… how do I say this. Mediocre at best. I ordered the Chicken Parm and I’ve had Chicken Parm many times in my short life. The Chicken Parm was like leather, very tough almost too difficult to cut. My wife got the Salmon. It was sort of flavorless, and bla. We ordered the Calamari as an app that seemed burnt. I know odd huh, it tasted like it was cooked too long. The other problem with the calamari would be to serve it with a marinara sauce not tartar sauce. I love tartar sauce and could spread it on anything, my wife although who ordered the calamari isn’t a fan of tartar sauce. The waitress was very good. She went out of her way to accommodate us and tended to our needs. Refills, napkins and any questions about the menu. so to sum it up, food was eh… but the service was great.

Wanted to surprise my wife on our 50^th year dating plus married anniversary. Made reservations for 7:00 Stopped in a couple of hours before with a vase of flowers and asked if they could be placed on our reservation table. The front end girl was more than happy to honor my request. Showed up for our reservation with another couple. We were seated right away with no delay (that hardly happens at other establishments). The flowers were displayed in a great fashion, (my wife thought we were at the wrong table, they were displayed so well). She was very surprised when she saw the card on the flowers. And the rest of the evening was just as fantastic, the meals were outstanding, the male server was spot on, service just great. Apparently the girl that set the table up had told nearby dinners what she was setting the table up for. As our neighboring patrons were departing, they all wished us congratulations on the special occasion. And finally the server comped our desert choices, a perfect ending. Excellent job «Frankie’s»…

Frankie’s is delicious! I had the Trout Almondine and it was fabulous, my dinner guest had the veal Al a Frankie’s and she loved it. Service is always great, we wanted the front porch seating but it was full, sat in the back of the restaurant and the atmosphere was lovely. the dinner order took too long to come out so they; without our asking or complaining; comped our first glasses of wine and the appetizers. To me, that is huge! Will most definitely be back.

Go, Go, Go! We stopped in Lee on our way to Martha’s Vineyard and looked for a decent restaurant for dinner. What we found was a great restaurant that had some of the best service I have ever experienced. We made dinner reservation for the front porch and it was great! From the moment we arrived they treated us like royalty. I felt as though they were focused only on us even though it was busy that night. We had to wait for only a few minutes but the manager felt bad that we had to wait at all so he offered our first round of drinks on the house. Who does that anymore? When we were seated our server and our water girl were warm and friendly. When our food arrived it was even better than the service. My father and I had the Delmonico steaks which were perfectly seasoned and cooked exactly as we had asked. My wife had the trout almandine and my mother had the lasagna and they both loved theirs as well! The service was amazing and the food was delicious.
If you are in, near, or passing through the area you must stop for dinner! It was a 5 star experience!

Mediocre to poor Italian food. Mussels in a red sauce that tasted and looked like tomato juice. Pasta with white clam sauce was tasteless and mushy. I couldn’t find any seafood in it that I would call a clam. I should have sent it back. Large antipasto was stocked with artichokes, olives and peppers from a bottle or can.
Sausage and pasta was tomato juice with too spicy sausage. I was raised in a town with lots of Italian restaurants, so I know good Italian food. I’ll never go back to this place.

We had an impromptu Valentine’s Day dinner here and it was amazing! Thank you for a wonderful meal! It was completely unexpected! Everything we had was absolutely amazing! I had the chicken masala and it was the best I ever had!

We checked in despite the low rating here — we were out of options. They seemed pretty booked out at 18.15 already — but they accommodated us! They warned us that the table is only around for 1h15 and we told them if their kitchen is up to it we will be fine. We were — so promise kept!
We had the large antipasti, the lasagne and the bistecca alla fiorentina. The antipasti were great. The Lasagne very decent. Not the best one I ever had but decent. The bistecca alla fiorentina was well prepared. Too much fresh garlic on it which takes a lot from the taste. But my wife loved it — so I guess tastes are different! :-)
Atmosphere is cosy. Its not too much a place for kids but (we went with kids) we were treated very nicely and our daughter had fun. Service was very good!
Prices are fair for the quality served.
So definitely worth a try at least!

Got dragged here this past weekend when visiting some family in the Berkshires.
I was stripped of any sort of anticipation due to Frankie’s rather unimpressive Unilocal status in comparison to nearby Italian restaurants**, but my persistent demands against dining here were shunned by more authoritative family members who would ultimately be paying for my meal.
Although I’m appreciative of my older, (currently) more successful family members who graciously took me out to dinner, I’m alarmed and disturbed by their complacency for Italian food when there are clearly better options in the area.
I find tablecloths to be hugely indicative of a restaurant’s success and operations. Frankie’s sports those silly red-​and-​white-​checked table mats, which immediately confirmed by suspicions: this place is average, they know it, and they accept it.
We shared some nondescript appetizers before our equally displeasing entrees. I had the penne vodka, which I could only imagine enjoying if I were to have faced my table’s two bottles of wine before eating.
Our table was situated in the front of the restaurant closely positioned next to another family. The neighboring family included a 14-​year-​old boy who possibly had the most annoyingly screeching and impassionately colorful voice I’ve ever heard. I was terribly embarrassed for the kid and his family, but these feelings promptly dissipated after I overheard him refer to his meal as «the best Italian food [I’ve] ever had.» Good luck to him and anyone else who may find themselves sharing a forgettable Italian meal in his objectionable presence.
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** This is not to say that I’m a Unilocal snob who exclusively dines at renowned, high-​rated restaurants, but rather that I trust this wonderful Unilocal community when it universally describes a place as being mediocre.

I saw some mixed reviews, so was a little cautious. It was bustling but not jammed on a Friday in August. The service was friendly and a little scattered. True, as one reviewer said, the bread was certainly not of a quality you’d hope for in Italy. But it was fresh.
The wine list was well selected but not too ambitious. We split a salad of arugula, sun dried tomato and grated Parmesan, also fine, certainly a good size, served on two plates. I had mixed seafood fra diavolo over spaghetti which was excellent — a very generous amount of mussels, clams, shrimp and squid. My husband had osso bucco served over polenta with haricots vert and was completely happy with preparation. Adequate coffee and gelato.
For quality, variety of menu, atmosphere, we were glad we ignored the negative reviews, and would definitely return to try other offerings.

This used to be one of our Italian favorites when visiting the Berkshires. Not so anymore. We had dinner there on Sunday night and there was confusion from the moment we walked in. There were 2 very young girls seating people and trying to figure out the reservation book — they kept colliding into one another as the bottleneck of people waiting to be seated grew larger. When finally seated the service was awful. We had to ask for menus, knives, bread, etc. And, the restaurant really was not busy. The final straw was the food was not good at all. I had grilled salmon that was over salted and my side of pasta was served on the same plate. We left without dessert and wont’t be going back any time soon.

I just got a comment from Stephane F., the owner of Frankie’s, taking issue with my one star review. Stephane has set me straight on the following: 1) Because I mentioned that $ 24 is a horrendous price to pay for veal parm, and I split it at that, I am a cheapskate. 2) They cut the veal themselves (from the round) and, therefore, the cutlet cannot have been tough and stringy. It follows, then, that I have no experience with Southern Italian food and therefore am an idiot. 3) I an idiot who can’t tell the difference between pasta and meat. 4) If I had a problem at the time, why didn’t I discuss it with the manager instead of being a meenie and posting a one-​star review. For your unformation, I did discuss it with the manager, who walked off without comment or further contact. 5) And don’t tell me that I can’t make a judgement without having sampled all the dishes on the menu. Veal parm is the most basic, basic. If you can’t get that right, why bother with any of the others?
Stephane, I don’t know what impelled you to respond to my review ten months later, but the reviews are in and they are mixed. I gave you one star, Jess L. and others gave you two stars. Are you getting the message? Sorry that your feelings are hurt, but where there’s smoke, etc. Despite the five-​star from Caitlin S (who works in Manhattan and has eaten some of the best Italian food in the world) I stand by my review. I have eaten in excellent restaurants of all sizes and types from the Piemonte to Perugia to Positano, so I guess I have some direct knowledge of Italian food.
I did reflect on your arguments and your ad hominum insults and am sorry that you are so defensive. Why not put that energy into raising your restaurant’s food and service overall? You could start with the bread. No restuarateur who claims to know and love Italian cuisine would ever insult his customers by putting such bread on the table.
Sorry you had to make this customer wrong, Stephane. But, on reflection, I stand by every word of the original review.

Great food, service and prices. Perfect for families, date night or just to enjoy a drink at the bar. Thanks Frankie’s!

My mom and I make it a point to visit the Lenox/​Stockbridge area a few times throughout the year and Frankie’s is always a must. We visited again last weekend.
I work in midtown Manhattan, which has allowed me to eat at some of the highest rated and most prestigious restaurants in the world. And still to this day, Frankie’s is some of the best food I’ve ever had.
For appetizer try the Baby Clams Positano Style. The fresh, slightly salty sea taste of the clams enhances the mix of lemon, garlic and butter. Soak the leftover sauce with the delicate and perfectly crusty bread.
My mom loves the Caesar Salad… And she never orders Caesars out because she loves her own homemade dressing too much.
For dinner I always get the Chicken Piccata. The lemony, buttery and dry white wine mix is cut with briney, meaty capers. Your taste buds will want to explode! The chicken in served with a slice of Ricotta Potato Gratin and crunchy green beans.
Other favorite dinners that I highly recommend:
Shrimp and Lobster Ravioli — Shallot Vermouth cream sauce enhances the natural sweetness of the shrimp and lobster.
Spaghetti alla Carbonara — First tried this last weekend — looks like a small portion, but each bite packs so much flavor. The pairing of the salty Pancetta with the sharp Parmigiano cheese calmed by the cream and thickened with egg, you’ll fill up after a few bites.
Order a bottle of their house Chianti, Mellini 2009; it rounds out the meal beautifully.
I’m always too full for dessert, but I’m sure it’s … Awesome!

I came here randomly one Friday night; it was one of the few places open on the off season.
Our waitress was nice and attentive, but the food was nothing to write home about: zucchini fritti was greasy, chicken marsala looked unappetizing and could have been made at home, and the grilled scampi (appetizer) was small and buttery. My goat cheese salad was the best part but too salty.
Definitely overpriced (though I hear there’s a $ 20 price-​fixe menu now?)