Trattoria da Franco

A very quiet little place, not pretentious. But the quality of the food is fantastic. More astonishing is the price of the food and the wine, incredible! If you're looking for a relaxed lunchtime or dinner, eta great, drink great and spend less, don hesitate to choose this restaurant!

We have eaten at Trattoria Da Franco twice in less then a week. Although the food falls short of perfection, it's nevertheless a welcome Italian restaurant in the neighborhood. Our first visit was late on a Sunday afternoon. The dining room was crowded, but a waiter quickly found a table for us. The noise level was extremely high, to the point where we couldn't have a conversation across the table. My wife had a basic salad, which was drowned in salad dressing. I had a Misto of eggplant and sweet red peppers, which was delicious although sharp with vinegar. For my second course, I had an order of Pasta Da Franco, also delicious with shrimp and octopus. The only flaw was an excess of oil. The kitchen is heavy-handed with oil. Yesterday afternoon, we returned for pizza and salad. I made a point to sit in the quieter section to the back. We chose a pizza Quattro Stagioni. It was pretty good. The crust was thin and crisp. The mushroom topping was best. I didn’t like the cut up marinated artichokes as much. The clam topping was not bad, but a waste of clams. The black olives were generous, but just ordinary black olives. The pizza sauce was kind of dull. Despite all that, we enjoyed our meal. We also had a couple of salads. Sra. Cuevas had a bountiful Insalata Hortolana. My wife requested dressing on the side, and it was granted. I had a pale and anemic Insalata Vegetariana. Despite its skimpy appearance, devoid of any leafy greens, it tasted pretty good. I'm not a fan of canned white asparagus, but I managed to eat those on the salad. It came with the dressing already on, not excessive. The noise level had greatly diminished on yesterday's visit. Service is courteous although the waitstaff is stretched thin. Sometimes our requests took a while to be fulfilled. Despite their flaws, we enjoyed our meals at Trattoria Da Franco. The cozy, neighborhood ambiance adds a lot to the experience.

Trattoria da Franco is the best place to eat Italian food in Leon. Although the place is very rustic and the furniture does nothing for the place, the food is the main reason you must be visiting this place. Its variety of oven pizzas is amazing, as well as its pastas and salads. The entrees like frutti di mare are also a very good choice. Staff is nice and since it is a family bussines it is kid friendly and families can gather in big tables to have a great time and delicious food.

This restaurant has a long time tradition in León, Gto. I remember when I was younger, this was the place to go if you wanted authentic Italian cuisine. The owner (and head chef), Franco, IS italian and has lived in León for a long time. The service was really quick, the waiter took our order and started serving less than 10 minutes later. (It was 9:30-10ish so there wasn't a lot of people in the place), but we did see some people coming in to pick up some take-out. As an entreé, we ordered 1 Carpaccio Misto (Salmon and beef) but the waiter brought beef carpaccio only. I told the waiter he could leave it but to make sure he did fix the check. (He did offer to change it right away though, but we were very hungry). The carpaccio was pretty good, served with capers, parmessano cheese sheets and vinaigrette; however, the bread they served was regular mexican bolillo- we expected some fresh in-house, hand-made ciabatta at least. They also brought a small bowl of (what seemed store-bought) Leon-style chimichurri (which is made with mayonaisse, chili and garlic, not the herb recipe). We ordered Lasagna and Pesto fillet with salad and pomodoro pasta. The lasagna was pretty below average for a traditional trattoria, it was pretty bland, not enough cheese on it and the sauce tasted supermaket-bought. Price: $109 MXP. The fillet was absolutelly disappointing. The steak was floating in grease; the sauce covered the steak completely (I couldn't see the condition of the steak), I'd say waaaay too much sauce. The steak, the salad and the pasta were all served on the same plate, which caused the salad's vinaigrette (also excessive) to mix with everything else. I couldn't determine whether the pesto sauce was too oily, the vinaigrette was too much or if the spaghetti was watery. By the way, this was pre-cooked spaghetti, not fresh, hand-made spaghetti- the least that I could expect from a traditional trattoria; the pomodoro sauce on it was minimal (and also seemed store-bought), and at the end, the pasta was all mixed up with all the other oils. The presentation was terrible, they could've served everything in smaller separate plates and could've improved my experience greatly. Price: $179 MXP. I could've cooked these very same dishes at home with supermarket pre-made sauces and pasta, and still manage to make them taste way better. If I go to a trattoria, I expect everything to be fresh, hand-made and with at least a fair presentation. With two glasses of wine and tip, we paid $550 MXP for 2 people. I think it was not worth it to spend this money here. Even chain-restaurant italian food like Olive Garden would've been a better experience. The parking situation described in other reviews is true, you have to find a parking space on the street but you can't park right outside the restaurant as it has the No Parking sign, you'd have to park on the contiguous block and at night this street is not very lit. The restaurant has been remodeled and it is somewhat bigger now, the tables and the decoration are new and more modern, and the place is not as dark as I recall it to be. I'd give the facilities an 8/10. It had been at least 10 years since I last visited, but after this experience, this will be my last visit.

Comida italiana con sabor casero!! Vinos y comida a un precio excelente! Recomendable las conservas de berenjena y hongos, la ensalada verde, pizza cuatro estaciones y lasaña. Deben mejorar el servicio, aunque vale la pena sufrirle un poco para saborear la comida!