French-Japanese cuisine? I must admit, it piqued my curiosity. My better half told me about Franco and we decided to pop over to 1 Utama and have dinner there. I’ve heard stories about long queues so I’ve largely given this place a pass since it changed its name from Miam Miam.
Franco sounds a lot more appealing than Miam Miam. They have a short, but sweet menu. It’s the total opposite of some F&B outlets who list around 100 items and do all of them badly. Franco only has a few pages in their menu and a LTO (Limited Time Offer) specials menu to go with it. Very French.
I ordered the Matcha Smoothie (RM 14.80) which was a really interesting drink. It’s topped with their homemade cream, tastes like proper matcha instead of cut-rate powder, blended with honey and there are red beans as a treat at the bottom. My dear went for their Oreo Banana Milkshake (RM 14.80) which is a variant of their Peanut Butter & Banana Milkshake.
Squid Ink Rice with Assorted Seafood & Omu Egg (RM 30.80)
This is my main! I thought it sounded like a nice concept on the menu so I ordered it. It turns out to be an even better dish! There were prawns, squid and even a mussel to go with the well-cooked rice (you can see individual grains). The squid ink rice was very flavorful – slightly salty and infinitely savory. The sweet omelet topping this dish is the proverbial icing to the cake. Delicious!
Lobster Bisque Pasta (RM 31.80)
My dear had this one for her main. It comes with just one (1) tiger prawn but that’s not too bad considering my hometown charges even more for a similar dish (but with a very different species of prawn). The lobster bisque that the spaghetti was tossed with is perfect, and we both enjoyed this dish. The menu states that this contains traces of alcohol so I’m guessing this place isn’t halal.
Vanilla Soufflé (RM 17.80)
This is what my dear ordered. Franco is known for their desserts, it used to be a bakery cum café before its current incarnation as a restaurant. The soufflé was light and airy, pretty textbook but good. They also have chocolate and matcha versions but we decided to stick to the original for our first visit.
Berries Cheesecake Parfait (RM 15.80)
Our server complimented me on this order and I wasn’t disappointed. It really tastes like cheesecake! It’s not very overwhelming either since the acidic elements cut through the richness. There’s the roughly crumbled base (graham crackers) as the bottom of the parfait, layered with smooth Philadelphia cream cheese and topped with frozen yoghurt. There are also fresh berries scattered on top and I joked that if they were Driscoll’s the blackberries alone would cost RM 1. 
Overall, we had a great dinner at Franco – the service was excellent, helmed by Angel, our server/greeter. The food was surprisingly good, my expectations were very much exceeded. The meal cost RM 138.40 for two pax and that’s about the average price for dinner at a similar establishment. We’ll definitely be back!
Franco
Lot 146, Ground Floor
One Utama Shopping Center
Bandar Utama, Petaling Jaya
WTF! Where’s the food? I like that! LOL!!!
Everything looks absolutely great, a tad pricey but if it is good, it is worth it. Sure can tell that it is from the looks on your faces!
Haha! Yeah, I noticed that on the wall too. 🙂
The food is really good, worth the price since most restaurants here will cost about the same for two pax, inclusive of drinks and dessert.
Food looks good! I love squid ink pasta but have yet to try rice 🙂
It’s even better with rice! 🙂
Squid ink coats rice surprisingly well and every grain has that umami savouriness to it. Awesome stuff.
French-Japanese cuisine? Sounds delicious already.. Long queue? Either food must be good or price is good, or both.. In this case, I think both.. I’ve eaten squid ink pasta with white cheesy sauce, but never tried squid ink rice.. My favourite gotta be that berries cheesecake parfait.. Anything berries, anything cream cheese, give me !!
I was betting with my dear on whether there would be a queue or not. 🙂
It was Saturday night and I said no queue. Haha. I was right.
Yup, the food is good and the price is reasonable too. I’ve had plenty of squid ink pasta too, with rice, never, this was the first time and I thought it was great.
The parfait was awesome too.
squid ink rice! what? literally squid ink? the other my hubby and I were talking about squid ink if it is toxic to human when eaten (because he kind of cooked some squid and didnt take out the ink pouch)… i said it wasnt toxic but i wasnt sure of my answer then. this means it’s not! LOL
Yup, it’s not toxic! 🙂
It’s been used as food for quite a while now, first time I encountered it was when I was studying in Melbourne around 2001, when it was still somewhat of a novelty in Italian restaurants.
The ink is used by the squid to disorientate predators, not incapacitate them, unless what National Geographic/Animal Planet told me was wrong.
it looks great, sadly i’m in Penang now
Yeah, it was a surprisingly good dinner! 🙂
I had no expectations too.
We walked pass this the other day. So many patrons inside, so we gave it a pass as I don’t see how I can squeeze my kids in there.
Yeah, it was full when we were there too! 🙂
Luckily no queue though, but we just made it and there was a table for two. It’ll be hard to get groups in here though.
Squid Ink rice? Hmmm… I wonder if I would like it . The Vanilla Soufflé looks very good from the photo.
I bet you will! 🙂
I loved it and it was my first time having it too. I had squid ink pasta before, this is even better coz the squid ink coats the rice more extensively.
Yup, the soufflé was good but I rather liked my parfait.
hey, our taste buds might be pretty similar … all the four items you ordered might be what i’d order too … and being an egg lover, i wouldn’t wanna share the omelette-covered seafood rice! 🙂
Nice! Yeah, they were the most intriguing items on the menu. 🙂
I love eggs too, and the way they made the omelet slightly sweet makes it go very well with the squid ink rice (which is very savoury and slightly salty by itself).
I want to try that squid ink rice. So intriguing. Parfait looks good too.
Yup, intriguing is the word! 🙂
I immedietely wanted to order it when I saw it. It tasted even better than I expected. The parfait was really good too, although if I had a quibble I’ll say that I thought it would be bigger from the photos in the menu. Haha.
I looked through Franco’s menu at The Curve last weekend and could not see anything I would like to try. Now many thanks to you (and I mean it), I would now go to the outlet in 1U instead to have the ink squid rice (I like the egg!) and the berries cream parfait!
I wonder do they mind if we share our food and not order a main meal each since we are small eaters. I know some establishments stipulate that each patron must order a main dish each.
I don’t think that’ll be a problem at all! 🙂
Sharing mains is pretty common here. Which F&B place has a rule which says each person must order a main? That’s rather unusual!
What if someone wants two appetizers but no main? What an absurd concept, never heard of it in my 5 years of eating in Australia and lucky enough not to have encountered in here in Malaysia.
Or maybe I did, I just never realized coz I always order two mains coz I want to try different things. Hmm…
Thanks for the info Mun!
So far in M’sia I have not encountered any restaurants that have this rule because I seldom eat at high end restaurants. When I was visiting Japan, I was told that for restaurants that have a long queue, we must order a main meal each. Then in Taiwan, I have seen restaurants where they specify that each table must have a minimum bill of $xxx per head. If your total bill did not meet this amount, you still have to pay extra to reach that amount. This is because they have long queues and to prevent people who are not eating much to occupy the tables.