Franco's is the best. We recently relocated here from Washington, DC. Been looking for good local bar to attend to. Friendly bartenders! The locals at this bar are awesome, very respectful and friendly! Love their foods. very reasonable priced foods. One of their bartenders makes the best desserts!!!!!!!!!!!!! Their customer service is so much better than Shoppers Cafe.
Review Source:Atmosphere: Â Blue Collar restaurant and bar. Â No frills, but they do have a couple of pool tables. Â Not a noisy place and if you want to catch the game they have some televisions to catch it on.
Service: Â The bar staff is great. Â Friendly people. Â At lunch we just go up to the counter to order. Â The guys there are good people. Â They are friendly, but not a chatty bunch, so don't expect them to be smiles and sunshine. Â These guys are quick (as you can be when making a pizza from scratch).
Taste: Â All I have ever had here is the pizza and with good reason. Â This is one of the best New York-style pizzas I have eaten. Â Granted, I am no expert on pizza, but it is a good slice. Â The cheese has a great taste to it and the crust has a nice crunch to it. Â The only recommendation I have is to eat it hot and fresh because when this is reheated it loses a lot of what I think makes it so good. Â It is a bit greasy, but it is cheese and pepperoni I am eating, so it is to be expected. Â
In all, Franco's is a solid pizza and the place I go in Waltham (of all the many pizza places) when I have a craving for pizza.
I have hunted high & low for pizza that tastes like home (NY Metro area) since I moved here in 1981. Â I quickly learned that "House of..." Greek pizza isn't anything that resembled pizza where I grew up. Â Regina's came the closest until I discovered Franco's many moons ago.
Their pizza has everything that you find in any decent NY/North Jersey Italian Pizzeria. Â A large thin slice that you can fold in one hand with melted mozzarella & oil dripping off the end tantalizing your tongue as you open your mouth . Â The first bite melts in your mouth as the cheese almost burns the roof of your mouth. Â Â As you pull the slice away from that first bite, the cheese stretches into mutiple little strings of mozzarella heaven & falls on your chin. Â Â The tangy sauce, cheese & thin, almost liquid crust all melt together into that instant taste of NY Pizzeria pizza. Â Â I think I just climaxed...
This is a diamond in the rough - - amazingly good pizza and bargain prices along with great service and good entertainment on weekends.
Dominic and Sylvania make good drinks and don't skimp on the liquor.
Mostly locals but some Brandeis and Bentley college kids when they have live bands.
This hole in the wall bar / food place has unbelievable pizza. Â They serve subs and dinners as well, and so far i can't complain about anything they have. Â I had their steak tips w/ onion rings and they were very very tasty. Â Dom and Sylvania are the nicest bartenders around. Â They are always on their feet. Â Drink prices are super reasonable and strong. Â Crowd is a little sketchy at times, but when i am there to eat i don't care who is there. Â The place is filled with friendly people, the usual regulars and on weekends they sometimes have a band that are usually entertaining.
I recommend this place for the food and drink. Â Its a nice place to go and just relax!
Is there a difference between a dive bar and a townie bar? Â Or is this exclusive in being a townie dive bar? Â Alas, this place is mediocre at best. Â The food is slightly above palatable and is definitely a better option than Shoppers, especially if you want to play Addams Family pinball. Â They have a decent beer tower, pizza, and wings deal, but you won't be blown away by any sort of flavor. Â The clientele is on the shady and gross side and the walls are littered with trashy posters about PMS or some other nonsense that someone picked up at Linens & Things and wrongly thought "hey, this speaks to my trashy customers". Â At least they're not trying to be something they aren't.
Review Source:This is purely a review of Franco's the BAR, as I've already reviewed the restaurant and didn't include anything about the bar.
Franco's is one of the greatest places to go if you're looking for a dive bar in the Greater Boston area. Beer selection is average, six beers on tap and several in bottles, mixed drinks aren't overpriced and are well-made (sadly becoming more and more of a rarity in some parts nowadays) and the staff is incredibly friendly. The atmosphere is great, if you like that sort of a thing (I think it's hilarious) or if you're a stuck-up prick, it's entirely frightening. Depends on who you are.
They have everything from darts to karaoke (which has a very good selection of songs and typically gets sung by old trash-y people or young trash-ed people -- amazing) and free pool. Several televisions for watching sports, and a good jukebox.
The food is amazing and some of the best bar food you can find (I just love their pizza, and I'll always be biased because of that fact) - the only problem is after a few drinks you find yourself ordering more and more and before you know it you've spent half your paycheck on their delicious food. I just wish they had nachos.
They have something called 'mystery shots' which are always a bit different and delicious and worth a try for $3. Sometimes they'll be nice and provide a few on the house.
Bartenders are friendly as heck and provide some of the best service on Moody St (I can't think of anywhere which provides better service when it's busy, though I know Bison County is also pretty good on service but are never busy).
So:
Food: 5/5
Atmosphere: 5/5 (or 0/5 depending who you are)
Drinks: 4/5
Price: 5/5
Service: 5/5
Venue: 4.5/5
I have been eating Franco's since I was a little kid and even though they have changed owners, things seem to be the same. They by far, have the best Italian style pizza around, great salads, subs and daily specials. The bar side, has, well, an interesting crowd. Plenty of regulars, which are just that, regular people....some bikers, 20 somethings and 40 somethings. Good place to catch a band or sing karaoke, if you are into that kind of thing, ugh.
Review Source:Ah, Moody Street... where else can you find a finer collection of culinary delights from around the globe? Â And where do you go if you grew up one street over and want to avoid all the gentrification?
Get yourself into Franco's. Â This place is townie to the bone. Â Although they make great claims to their pizza, I'm still giving it an 'eh'... bland tomato sauce and cheese on a sad crust do not a good pizza make. Â Even if they gave me three shakers of powdery garnishes with my slice.
Maybe I should try a full pie sometime, but the slice did not recommend another.
Why the thumbs up, then? Â Check the bar prices. Â The in-house microbrew (although they would never call it that, since microbrew is a yuppie thing and this is just a more affordable way to get beer) is named after some kind of hammer as I vaguely recall, and massively affordable at $3 or so a pint (I never got an accurate count since I've never had just one, and when I get the bill all I can remember it that it was cheap). Â They also have a sign behind the bar that says 'Mystery Shot- $3'. Â This is just awesome... big ups, Franco.
Also, on a side note, there's a laundromat three doors up the street. Â There's nothing quite like getting sloppy while your clothes get clean!
I have seen signs for karaoke, but I'm worried what might happen if I mix drunken karaoke with townie. Perhaps one of these days I'll make that leap and find out.
Evidentially if you write a bad review of Franco's the mafia and the Mob Boys will send you a nasty email. I guess their idea of fun is to drive from North Providence, Rhode Island to Waltham, Ma and eat really, really bad food.
Shame on Yelp for not having a reporting tool when a Yelper is threaten. So, if Scott T has nothing better to do than make the threats over greasy slimy pizza with vomit on the sidewalk, get a life.
So I was trying to decide between Franco's and Franca's last night because I was craving pizza. Â I had never tried Franco's before, so I thought, what the hell. The guy who took my order was really friendly and made me feel good about ordering pizza from Franco's. Â I drove over to Moody Street and the usual sketchy crowd was hanging out outside the restaurant. Sketchy people don't really bother me anymore though- I mean I do live in Waltham next to a halfway house. Â The place was pretty busy with lots of families eating dinner. Â I can't say anything about the bar next door though since I only saw the take-out side. Â The pizza was ready and waiting for me when I got there, and I noticed that Franco's has their own brand of bottled soda. Tempting but I'm on a budget soooo not this time. I got home and opened the pizza box and I was excited because it looked like a real NY pizza. Unfortunately when I took the first bite I was pretty underwhelmed. Â The pizza was completely mediocre and not very filling either. Â I ended up eating half a large pie on my own and was still very much unsatisfied. Â That's pretty gross, I know. Â In my defense though, I left most of crust on the plate. Â The fact that I'm still recovering from having my wisdom teeth removed might have had something to do with that. Needless to say, I am still on the hunt for the best pizza in the Waltham area. Â Next time I will have to give Franca's another go.
Review Source:You know, in spite of the drunk, shouting townies, ridiculously long waits at the bar, hilariously terrible karaoke, and bus-bathroom smell, I kind of like this place. Or maybe it's BECAUSE of all these things. I dunno.
This place is basically a Waltham townie dive bar. However, if you go there with low expectations, you can get a lot of amusement for your dollar. I've had some of the most bizarrely entertaining conversations ever with the regulars here, and the people-watching is superb (the fashions and hairstyles of the '80s are alive and well inside Franco's --and I don't mean in that ironic hipster way, either).
I've spent some memorably weird evenings here, and often had a surprisingly good time. If nothing else, I'd recommend Franco's as an empirical experience.
I just love Francos. Â For their food but also the bar. Â The bar is a dive and that is what I love about it. Â As I say to people it is all "Waltham's Finest" that visit. Â It was hard to get my friends to go in there but once they went in and had a drink they were fine. You can go in and not have to impress anyone and everyone is friendly. Â They always have either kareoke or a band- you can be a bad singer or dancer and it doesn't matter there. Â There is a mix of old and young. Â The bartender Dominic is very nice and makes the drinks super strong. Â I always stick to beers but watch him make the drinks and my friends have commented on it as well. Â Someone mentioned in a review that the taps were unclean, I always get bottled beer but a friend of mine mentioned that as well.
Review Source:Honestly I'm a little torn about this. Â I'd feel bad giving 2 stars because it's not awful, but 3 seems a little high. Â The pizza was just okay - good toppings, boring crust, but at least it was properly bendy, definitely not New York style though. Â The garlic bread was...well, it was not good. Â It tasted like the bread was stale when it was baked, so when I took a bite it just disintigrated. Â And there wasn't really any garlic on it, just some butter and cheese; the cheese was the best part. Â I always order blue cheese dressing to dip my garlic bread in, and theirs was just mediocre, small chunks of blue cheese without any real flavor. Â
We got takeout, and after being in there I have to say it's probably not a place I'd go to eat-in. Â There are two separate rooms, a place to eat and pick up your food, and what looked like a kind of townie bar. Â I drive past frequently and there are usually some rather rough looking characters smoking by the doors.
Overall, I think there are better places for pizza in Waltham.
Dearly beloved
We are gathered here today
2 get through this thing called life
Electric word life
It means forever and that's a mighty long time
But I'm here 2 tell u
There's something else
The afterworld
A world of never ending happiness
U can always see the sun, day or night
So when u call up that shrink in Beverly Hills
U know the one - Dr Everything'll Be Alright
Instead of asking him how much of your time is left
Ask him how much of your mind, baby
'Cuz in this life
Things are much harder than in the afterworld
In this life
You're on your own
And if de-elevator tries 2 bring u down
Go crazy - punch a higher floor
If u don't like the world you're living in
Take a look around u
At least u got friends
U see I called my old lady
4 a friendly word
She picked up the phone
Dropped it on the floor
(Sex, sex) is all I heard
Are we gonna let de-elevator
Bring us down
Oh, no Let's Go!
Let's go crazy
Let's get nuts
Let's look 4 the purple banana
'Til they put us in the truck, let's go!
We're all excited
But we don't know why
Maybe it's cuz
We're all gonna die
And when we do (When we do)
What's it all 4 (What's it all 4)
U better live now
Before the grim reaper come knocking on your door
Tell me, are we gonna let de-elevator bring us down
Oh, no let's go!
Let's go crazy
Let's get nuts
Look 4 the purple banana
'Til they put us in the truck, let's go!
C'mon baby
Let's get nuts
Yeah
Crazy
Let's go crazy
Are we gonna let de-elevator bring us down
Oh, no let's go!
Go crazy
I said let's go crazy (Go crazy)
Let's go, let's go
Go
Let's go
Dr. Everything'll be alright
Will make everything go wrong
Pills and thrills and dafodills will kill
Hang tough children
He's coming
He's coming
Coming
Take me away!
THAT is an awesome song, it gets 5 stars easy. Â francos pub (i know nothing about the pizza) gets -4 stars, so this is the average.
'a whole lotta ugly" about sums that place up.
I've never been to the bar area, so this is strictly on the food/takeout.
Oh the things you can eat when you are pregnant, and aren't worried about getting fat!!! Â I used to come here all the time when I worked down the street. Â I always went in for the special of the day. Â And you are never disappointed. Â The specials are cheap, and large portions. Â Definitely enough food when you are eating for two.. hehe. They are delicious. Â
They can get very, very busy. Â But no worries they will be right with you. Â Depending on how busy they are depends on the level of service you get (reason for only 4 stars). Â But don't let that deter you from coming here. Â All the food has that home-made taste. Â The grandmother makes all the sauce from scratch. Â
Yummy!!!
I'm not gonna lie... Franco's does have some really good, real Italian pizza. I had a real hankering for Franco's pizza on Friday and I just needed to fulfill it. And I remember why I love their pizza. It's fresh because it's made for you right on the spot. I had ordered a small Buffalo Chicken pizza - with tax it cost me $8.40 and lasted me 2.5 meals. Sooooo worth it! The texture is just right, the crust is the right thickness, not too greasy, and oh so delicious!
Aside from the pizza area, Franco's also has a bar and pool area. I wonder if Domenic still works here, he made some mean martinis. Oh yes, I remember getting carried out from here one time, long, long ago. I had sworn never again am I doing martinis and tequila in the same night ever again. But that didn't stop me from drinking ever again! There were other good nights here, including karaoke and pool. It's not exactly your upscale kinda place, but if you're looking for something to do at a dive bar and wanna hang with the townies, by all means, make this a pit stop while you're doing the Moody Mile.
TIP: Credit/Debit is only accepted with a $10 minimum, otherwise cash only. But they do have an ATM right next to the arcade game if you need it.
So why the 3 stars, you're probably asking? Well... it has to do with some of the attitudes of the employees. I loved Domenic as my bartender when I used to occasionally go in there for some after-work drinks and a round of pool. But since then, I came in here more recently and the guy who served me seemed very inadequate, and kinda pissed at me for not knowing that they only serve the slices in cheese and pepperoni only. Forgive me for not knowing, since I don't eat pizza very often in the state of Massachusetts. The funny thing was that I saw a Yelp plaque hanging up to the left of the counter. Little did he know, I would be Yelping about him.
In all honesty, I absolutely love the place. Â I've never claimed to be a classy broad.
The pizza itself? Â 5 stars. Â The closest thing I've found to New York pizza in this neck of the woods. Â The clientle can be a little sketchy but they're usually harmless and often amusing. Â It can be a fun place to people watch and it's also a great place to karaoke. Â In fact, it's the best place to karaoke in Waltham. Â Sometimes they have good bands. Â Cheap pitchers of beer. Â The pizza is the best thing about it. Â Don't go in and expect a classy joint.
UPDATE: Â 1/21/08 -- After a few trips there with friends, we have concluded that their taps must be unclean. Â We've all had problems with bad headaches even after one or two beers. Â So stick to bottled beverages in the future. Â But it's a dive and I still love the joint, so I won't dock points.
3 stars for the pizza alone! Â It is the closest thing I have found to CT style pizza and I am in love. Â I always get it with hamburger on top...yeah yea...make fun, go ahead. Â Anyway, this place is a cross between a dive bar and a family diner. ...all in one. Â On one side there is a casual dining area marked by the small tables lined up in neat rows and a walk-up type service window. Â On the other side is a bar drowning in shady characters and sketchy mcsketch bathrooms. Â And on the third and final side is a dance floor for the swingin karaoke/band nights and some outdated video games. Â
I like it, the pizza is good, and the people who worked there are great. Â The little old lady is the best...there is love baked into my pizza. Â I know it!
Beware of the weirdos that hang out there though... Â there was a lady (lady is way too nice of a word for her) standing near the door last time I was in. Â She was dressed like a hooker and smoked like she was about to eat the butt... Â she was wasted and yelling at people on the street. Â The best part... Â it was 2pm on a Thursday. Â Wow!
Everyone has been there. Â You're driving around; you want something quick and easy to eat. Â You decide on pizza. Â You pop into one of the many local pizza joints on Main St. and then it happens...You get crappy Greek pizza or pizza that has been sitting out forever or a slice that has weird sauce or that's too dry and sometimes you wonder if it was cooked in a microwave or toaster. Â Franco's is not that kind of place. Â Franco's has great Italian pizza. Â The ingredients are fresh and the pizza tastes similar to the original Pizzeria Regina in the north end, although it's not quite as good. Â The pizza is not burned or underdone it's cooked the way a pizza should be. Â It's greasy but not overwhelmingly so. Â There is usually plenty of parking on or right off Moody St. so that's not an issue. Â Franco's has a lot of townie regulars that are often drunk at the bar and occasionally wander into the pizza side of the place which most could do without. Â Drunken townies aside, if you are ever in the Waltham area this is the pizza place to visit. Â
The good: A local family owned place with cheap prices and good pizza
The bad: Â Some of the customers walking around have seen better days, hopefully.
The bottom line: The best pizza in Waltham.
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