Francesco by Franck Muller

Bearing the name of Franck Muller, Francesco seems like the place being misplaced in Causeway from say, Landmark in Central.
It’s not a completely novel idea to have Japanese and Italian fusion cuisine, but it’s still refreshing among all the Italian restaurants in Causeway (and to be fair, Japanese restaurants as well).
The restaurant (and the whole building) is quite small. It’s not full, but sitting at one of the tables not close to the wall would definitely make you feel uncomfy. It’s all everyone in the restaurant could have their eyes on you. But you have to appreciate the colorful décor they put on. Pretty lit too, unlike your typical fine dining restaurant. Not sure if it’s better or worse though.
We ordered a Grilled Lobster Risotto, Wagyu Beef Cheek with Italian rice (I looked at the menu online, it said it served with Inaniwa Udon instead. weird), and a Black Cod Saikyo Yaki.
The food were all okay, to say the least. The main problem was, it didn’t feel like fusion. It’s like a restaurant with both Italian food and Japanese food on the menu. Which is fine, but not that impressive. Say if you use Italian rice to make a sushi, that would be a first.
We did enjoy the dinner there and ended up being the last table leaving the restaurant. If you are looking for a nice dining place on a weekend, it’s decent enough. If you are looking for some innovative dishes, then look elsewhere.

Franck Muller is known for its watches, to me it’s always been its watches and that’s it.. When I first heard about Franck muller opening its first restaurants, I was very surprised. In fact I was even a little skeptical. How could a watch brand open restaurants and serve decent food?
This restaurant in particular serves Italian Japanese food. When you first walk in you quickly feel that it is a very comfortable environment. The restaurant is full of colors and they have nice open kitchen and bar.
We ordered a variety of different dishes between the four of us. Some of the things that we ordered included Okinawa miso pork, baked chicken casserole a wagyu beef cheek. I was impressed by the quality of the dishes, I just have to highlight them individually.
First of all the Okinawa miso pork was roasted to perfection it was fatty but they served it with a side salad. It was so tasty I think I could have had it with a bowl of rice and finished the whole thing on my own easily. the other dish we ordered was the baked chicken casserole. to me when they open the pot, it felt like clay pot rice. Really brought back childhood memories. it was so yummy and they even have the little pieces stuck to the bottom of the bowl, that was the best part. The final thing I wanted to highlight is the wagyu beef cheek, I like how they paired it with a Japanese udon. I think that was a classic example of what they classified as Italian Japanese.
I would definitely come back anytime, any day