Franklin Social American Kitchen & Bar

This restaurant is closed. There’s a new restaurant at this location

$25 for a basic well gin and tonic from the lobby bar? GTFOH.

Jacob the bartender was excellent!!!

Food was bland, nothing special. The place however was nice, clean and the staff were friendly.

The staff here are excellent. They are friendly and attentive. Robert is THE BEST!! The night we went was the opening night for their new restaurant so I'm sure a few things were being worked out. I had the fish and chips which was excellent. My friend had the butternut risotto and the flavor was delicious, but consistency was dry rather than the expected moist risotto. We will definitely go back.

We ate here today and it was not a great experience. (The picture of my husband’s side salad with a cup of Caesar dressing on the side tells you all you need to know. It was a comical amount of dressing that at first we thought it was an extra side of mashed potatoes or pudding or something). Clearly whoever is in the kitchen, does not know what they are doing. Our server was lovely but admitted to not knowing any of the questions we asked her about the drinks or menu items and didn’t offer to ask the kitchen or bartender (if they had a certain beer and if the fish was fresh/local or if the soup came with bread). That was probably our first sign to get out of there. My drink came with a rosemary sprig garnish….which was brownish and dried up - second sign, in hindsight. The ambience was beautiful which helped since we had to wait 30 minutes for our appetizers to come out (third sign?) We ordered the pretzel which was meh and the cheese sauce was inedible. The tots had a cheese sauce on top which too was not appetizing. My husband ordered the burger which was fine but the bun was old. All of our salads were swimming in dressing, didn’t taste fresh, and unfortunately we only ate a few bites. We wish we had tried another option during our wknd trip to Philly!

Franklin Social has a smaller but quite varied menu. Great options for everyone! And as we were told this evening before ordering, everything on the menu is gluten free except for the Philly Soft Pretzel, because, reasons. The head chef has Celiac disease and if you didn't ask you'd never know, but this is a Celiac's dream restaurant. It's all so good and the chef, staff, and ambiance are all top notch. Don't skip this one! We'll be back often now that we are locals.

Here’s a draft of a subpar review for Franklin Social’s “Miracle on Mercer”:
“Disappointing experience at Miracle on Mercer. The drink service was painfully slow, and to make matters worse, they were already out of their signature appetizer, despite the restaurant just opening for the day. Given the limited menu, we were forced to settle for a main course and leave feeling unsatisfied. Won’t be returning anytime soon.”

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 2

Service: 2

Service was lovely. Food was "OK". Drinks were NOT GOOD and dessert was also just about ok. For the price there are FAR better places in Philly downtown

This restaurant is a hotel restaurant. I am not judging it for that, however when checking in to be seated, the hostess stand was unclear and we were left waiting for some time before acknowledged. We were running 15 minutes late for my 11:30AM reservation and was told upon arrival that they wouldn't be only serving lunch. A bit disappointing since I scheduled it to have brunch. The food was solid and the service was good given 1) the cards were stacked against her and 2) she was one of TWO servers for a fair sized restaurant.

This is generally a more quiet spot a few blocks off the normal tourist walk. I’ve eaten here 8-10 times in the past couple months. Food can be really top notch or a “needs improvement” and no rhyme or reason for the inconsistency. Great menu, and the fries, I’m not sure what they do to them, are really top notch (always, unlike the mains). Service has been good normally, though when we’ve come on the tail end of normal lunch hour, seems break time impacts food service. Maybe just coincidence, but definitely slower service towards tail end. Burger is delicious and the salads ordered by our parties have always drawn high marks.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 4

Service: 4

Recommended dishes: Poor Richard’S Club Sandwich Lunch, Field Greens Salad Lunch, Benjamin Burger Sandwich Lunch

Overall, not a good experience. Out servor could not have been more disinterested in serving my wife and I on our anniversary. She handed us the menus and walked away. Didn't greet us in any way either. Comes back 2 minutes later and asks if we wanted to place a drink order, which my wife does and she proceeds to walk away without even checking to see what I wanted. Stopped her on her way out and she didn't even apologize or play it off like it was a misstep. Food was lackluster as well. I would not go back.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 2

Service: 1

This place was odd. I will admit I didn't have a drink or try any of their food. When we arrived, the hostess seemed confused as to what we wanted, the aura of the restaurant can be best compared to a funeral home, and the staff were openly complaining about the customers behind the bar. In the time we were there no one took our order.

Atmosphere: 2

Service: 1

There was nothing terrible but there was nothing great either. We knew going in that there was a small selection. The food was OK. The service was adequate but it was clear to us that our waitress was inexperienced. The setting was also nothing special.

wonderful servers and great attention was paid to our change orders! Mushroom soup was superior!