Franklins - renovated and re-opened

The second exciting piece of SE11 news for the day is that Franklins has re-opened. I haven't blogged about this before, but they re-opened in a renovated state at the beginning of May 2008.

Rather than just being a restaurant, it's now a food emporium / deli / cafe / restaurant. I hesitate with the "cafe" part, but it's much better placed for people to drop in for a quick bite to eat. I think the layout is much improved.

It was the three wheeled pleb's plan to go for breakfast, but after the visit to the fete, we ended up there at about three o'clock. It was absolutely packed with people, and whilst we wandered in and found a table, the service was slow. When I finally caught somebody, I was told that the food would take some time as they were busy (probably fair enough, since many of their staff appeared to be at the fete). We decided, once we'd seen the prices (I think we'd missed the breakfast) and waited around, that we'd go back another day.

On the positive side, they're still sourcing all of their food from local growers etc., making them very green. Unfortunately, It's still fantastically expensive - only £6.99 for a jar of lemon bonbons! Still, the place is absolutely packed out with well-off looking mothers and their children!

It was too busy (and I'm a little broke at the moment) to stop and eat today, but I'll try and do a fuller review at a later stage.