Restaurant Review: Frank's Pizza and Pasta

Frank’s Pizza and Pasta offers carry-out as well as eat-in, but since I only have a half hour for lunch, I go with the carry-out option. I have the menu at my desk, and my coworker tells me that she has had the crab cake and it was one of the best she’s ever had, so we both decide to go for the crab cake sub. Unfortunately, that is not to be.

When I call, I discover that Frank’s no longer carries the crab cake sub because they have switched to a 6 oz. crab cake made in house. However, the extremely helpful and friendly young man on the phone offers some suggestions for substitutions, and I order a cheesesteak sub, a child’s order of ravioli, and the crab cake platter, which comes with a garden salad and steak fries. He has offered to give me a sub roll with my crab cake platter so I can make my own crab cake sub, and he even asks if I would like lettuce, tomato or anything else to create my sub. Unfortunately, they don’t have tartar sauce, but I decide to go with mayonnaise as a replacement.

When I arrive at Frank’s ten minutes later, our food is packed and ready to go.  Frank’s is cozy inside, with about six booths, Italian themed decorations, and a well-staged dessert tray on the counter.  I decide to add a piece of chocolate cake to my order.

The crab cake is delightful and a little spicy, with lumps of delicious meat and just enough parsley and pimento. Frank’s has gone above and beyond and actually put my crab cake on the sub roll with lettuce and tomato, with mayo on the side. The generous portion of steak fries is perfectly cooked and still hot, and the salad is a good size, with crisp lettuce, onions, tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers and hot peppers.

The child’s ravioli dish consists of three large cheese-filled ravioli in tomato sauce topped with provolone, and it comes with two pieces of garlic bread, which is an unexpected surprise. My coworker reports that her cheesesteak sub is larger than expected, which is nice, and very tasty. I save half of the ravioli and crab cake for dinner and dig into the chocolate cake, which is perfectly moist and dense.

Frank’s is fast and friendly, with a large selection of traditional Italian-American favorites as well as the expected sub-shop fare. I can’t wait to try the chicken parmigiana, manicotti, and the homemade cream of crab soup!