Frank's Italian Restaurant - Italian restaurant in Van Buren - 525 N Plaza Dr, USA

I enjoyed a late lunch with my friend at 2:30 we had the place to ourselves. The service was excellent! I had not been here in a few years and had high expectations from my previous visits. I was not disappointed. The bread is always great for a starter. My friend ordered the stuffed mushrooms and said the were really good. They had bell pepper so I had to skip tasting them. For our mains he had the pasta trio (fettuccine Alfredo, stuffed manicotti, and a small piece of lasagne). I enjoyed the tortellini alapana. The sauce was a delicious silky, creamy, tangy blend paired with a cheese stuffed tortellini. The only thing I would add/change is the beverage selection. This location is Pepsi products only, but the sweet tea is nice.

I do not have enough of the menu digested to give a 5 star. But, Philly cheese steak was proper. Staff was pleasant even though I had more than my order at the register. I hope that my gesture at the register and the entire restaurant patrons is something that is paid forward.

Great food, warm inviting interior, friendly staff, and an overall lovely dining experience.

I grew up in the northeast, the home of Italian food in America, so my personal bar when it comes to this type of cuisine is very high. That said, Franks Italian Restaurant gets near the bar, but certainly not over it. The restaurant is clean, the service is good and the food for this area is pretty good. The prices are fair and the portions are are enough to satisfy just about any appetite. My biggest disappointment is they no longer serve pizza. The used to make on of the best pizzas in town but it’s no longer on the menu.

Nothing but praises for this wonderful, truly pet friendly restaurant. It was cold but we were going to sit outside rather than lock our dogs in the car. When we told the waitress we were going to eat outside, she said, "just a minute ". When she returned, she told us to bring the dogs on in. We ate in the party room. The food was delicious but the warm, caring atmosphere was outstanding.

I will start by saying Frank's appears to be in a remodeled fast food joint. When we pulled into the parking lot I actually asked my wife if it was fast food based on the building shape and how it sat. Beyond that initial moment of question, the way the building was remodeled looked very well done, inside and out. The interior wet an ambiance expected of an Italian restaurant. Service was very good and we were given rolls and ordered mozzarella sticks. Both were outstanding, and the marinara sauce was very good. At this point we were heading for what we thought would be a 5 star review, and my wife even commented on how slow business was, for such a great place. Then our main course came out. I will say that while fast food service is something I like, there are some places you want the food to take just a bit longer to be fresh. Authentic Italian is probably one of them. This was not the case at Franks. Service was very fast, but no complaints, but goes with what we felt about the entrée quality. I had the Chicken-parm cremera. The chicken was not breaded like I have had before, but that was not a negative or a positive of the dish. The chicken was nice and tender, and tasted really good. It was served with spaghetti noodles, and topped in cremera sauce and what I assume was supposed to be parmesan cheese. My only issues with the dish were the sauce and cheese. The sauce was good, but tasted like it was either not homemade or was not fresh.it had a resemblance of sauce from a jar that had not been seasoned. The cheese on top seemed to be pre-shredded cheese froma bag. Over all the dish was good, but was either not authentic or possibly just not made fresh. My wife had the pasta sampler with ravioli (substituted meat for cheese), manicotti and lasagna. I tried the ravioli and it tasted just ok. The marinara sauce was again very good, but there was nothing special about the ravioli. It seemed again like it was not homemade. My wife said the manicotti was decent, but there was something about the lasagna she couldn't figure out. She said the meat tasted "weird" and I will refrain from saying how she actually described it. We are thinking maybe this was bout frozen and maybe was old. Overall the food turned out to be okay. It was definitely worthy of eating the whole dish, but beyond that there is not a ton to praise. I wouldn't count this a bad review, but also can not count it as great. If we were from the area I would probably give it a try again, but it is not a place we would be running back to.

The waitress is really hard-working, serving 12 people including us simultaneously. I even got a refill on my bread (awesome inhouse baked bread) & dip and a bottle of Tabasco. Food is very homely. Yum Alfredo.

Alright, honestly the food was great and most of all the waitresses Megan & Kenzie were sweet and on top of our drink refills to the point it was honestly amazing. Thank you for another full belly.