The Franklin Café - Apalachicola (FL)

3 /5 Anna OKelley: My husband and I stayed at The Gibson and ate at The Franklin on 9/12/25, so not during peak busy season. Despite the restaurant being practically empty, the service was slow. The waitress was slow to refill drinks and at one point a kitchen staff member brought us food that wasn’t ours. My husband asked for his steak cooked medium-rare and it was well done. The brussels sprouts were undercooked and underseasoned. My crab cakes were okay. Overall, we paid $100 for a meal that wasn’t worth $100. The next night, we visited The Owl and paid $75 for a meal that was DELICIOUS. Skip The Franklin and visit The Owl instead!!

1 /5 D. Lewis: Dont ignore the bad reviews like we did. Were in the service industry ourselves, so we understand how nit picky customers can be when writing reviews, which is why we chose to ignore them and come here anyway. This was a mistake. Everything about this place is awful. Im not posting this to be ugly, Im posting it as a service to others so that they dont waste their time/money and can choose a decent place instead. Edit in response to the directors response to the original review: As stated, my purpose for posting the review was to help potential customers and new visitors to the area who are choosing a place to eat. Not to help the business improve. But I can provide a few specifics since you have asked. For one, even though the cups were disposable (which is perfectly fine), they were still somehow really dirty. Took forever to even get a water even though the place was dead. Food came out cold and tasted like cafeteria food. The service was the worst part. But despite it being the worst service Ive probably ever had, like I said Im a hospitality worker so I dont feel right sharing those details to their boss or on google. My goal is not to have anyone reprimanded. Just to leave a review that is helpful to the public.

5 /5 Michael Gaudio: Two times I give them 5 stars solely based on our server (Devin I think) who served us both times. We were staying at the Inn for the Labor Day weekend, which was beautiful. We arrived Friday evening and decided to grab some food before heading to our room. The first interaction with anyone was a staff member telling us the restaurant closes at 9pm as we walked in at 830pm…. Brushed it off and we were seated outside. We ordered raw oysters, stuffed flounder, and the chicken entree. The oysters were good, the rest not at all. Chicken was dry with no flavor and the flounder the same. Definitely could tell it was rushed out. When we asked about dessert, we were told the kitchen was closed…… umm? Server came back to tell us they would do it for us..We ordered tiramisu and cheesecake. The tiramisu was awkwardly large, like 3 normal sizes large…. Again, little flavor and poorly prepared. I assume this is something they make onsite. The cheesecake was just ok. Decided to try again on Sunday. As we stood in line for about 30 min to even be spoken to, all we heard were the staff members apologizing that they are extremely understaffed. This screams poor management, but the couple servers they had were hustling. We were finally sat and ordered. Seafood dip, NY strip, and the catch of the day. Good lord what a disaster… the seafood dip was crab cake mix heated up in a bowl with burnt flatbread, gross. The steak was ordered medium rare, came out well done. Not even a half inch thick, so you can’t blame the cook, again a management problem. My wife said the Cobia wasn’t bad just needed some more seasoning. We decided to get the bread pudding which was pretty good. The restaurant has good bones, but is screaming for help, the potential is there. Management needs to revise the menu, update decor, and do some basic training with the staff!

1 /5 Grace Account: Very disappointing experience… My husband, daughter, son-in-law, and our two year old grandson decided to try The Franklin Cafe. We were the only guests and after we were brought our coffee and soda and she took our order, we were never checked on again. We never received any coffee or soda refills and after 45 minutes waiting, we were ready to pay for our drinks and leave. During that time, two other couples walked in and they also did not get any attention. When our food arrived almost an hour later, she left without giving us any silverware or napkins. My son in law took them from another table. My husband also did not receive his toast. Our waitress came back once and he asked for his toast. The sausages looked like hockey pucks and the caesar wrap had no caesar dressing on it. Our bills totaled over $100 which I would have been happy to pay if we had good food or service- we had neither of the two. We paid our bill but did not leave a tip which we have never done. Will not be returning.

1 /5 Rachel Ayers: We thought it was the perfect place to take my sister for her 40th birthday…. Wow were we wrong . We had 9 women in our party and wanted it to be a night to remember. The food was good all except one steak came out raw . We nicely asked our waitress to please cook it to medium well. Long after we had finished dinner and waiting on our checks she brings back a completely burnt inedible steak. We nicely asked to speak to the manager and she refused to comp our one meal and was very rude saying we should pay for the mashed potatoes. It was completely ridiculous and caused a scene in front of everyone in the restaurant. It doesn’t matter how good the food is when your staff treats others the way this staff did, no one will remember the food . We will never go back and we will never recommend this restaurant to anyone. The owners should be more aware of their staff.