Fratellis Restaurant

Last night was my third visit to Fratellis and it was great as always. We were a party of 5 celebrating my husband and daughters birthday and they really made them feel special. The food & staff are amazing and you are not at all rushed to turn over the table. We will be back in a couple of weeks with the in-​laws and I can’t wait to try something else new.

Fratelli’s is now serving Sunday brunch, and we couldn’t be more delighted! We enjoyed a fabulous avocado and poached egg caprese with delicious fresh mozzarella and pesto. You have to try it!

Terrible place. It’s changed hands several times in the last few years. It had a good start but each succeeding owner has been worse. However, it’s bottomed out now. They didn’t have anything other than the cheapest Chilean house wines, despite their wine list, and they were «out of» most entrees. We ordered what they had and it was awful. The worst lasagna I have ever had in my life.
Service was bad and the only pleasant thing was that there’s parking.

Staff was nice and friendly and the place quaint. Good atmosphere. The shrimp fra diavolo’s sauce very tasty. However the shrimps themselves were soggy and overcooked. St. Augustine is such a great place for fresh local shrimp that this transgression cannot be overlooked.

Went in around 8pm on a Saturday and the place was empty. Surprising because the food was amazing. Great service and LARGE portions for a reasonable price. Only down side was we had left overs and were going home the next day so we didn’t get to enjoy them.

Just received a «Compliment» today from the owner. Again harassing me about using a coupon, and reiterating that those who use coupons are not welcome in their establishment:
«People whit coupon bring problem old time
Better Fratellis don’t have more coupon and only go in Fratelliis who appreciation good food and pay what eat «
Fratelli’s, there’s really no need to keep trolling me, I promise I won’t be back, coupon or no. And customer service issues aside, your food is no great shakes. If I want quality italian food, I’ll go to Romano’s.

There are not enough good things I can say about this place! Atmosphere was beautiful nice soft music dimly lit. Food was excellent. The night I went the chef was also the server. New favorite place to eat downtown St Augustine

Great food… great food… great food… new owner is awesome… the entire menu is in play… great for kids… great for groups… huge wine selection!

Fratelli’s on Anistasia Blvd in St Augustine, Florida has the best Italian food I have ever had! You owe it to yourself to eat there when you are near.

Let me begin to tell you about my Fratelli’s experience. I came to St Augustine for a trip for work. My co-​worker and I stopped in for dinner before heading to the lighthouse ghost tour. We had about 2 hours before the tour began. PLENTY of time, right? WRONG. It was about 45 minutes to even get our salads and some water, meanwhile the TERRIBLE (I am assuming owner) sat on her lazy ass and did NOTHING. There was maybe 6 people in the restaurant total. I come from an Italian family, so I understand the experience and conversation’s for dinners. That wasn’t the main issue. The BIG problem was– we were waiting now almost an hour and this family walked in, who obviously knew the owner. She said with them while they ordered their food and talked and laughed, they have definitely been here before or at least knew her. Shortly after, all these appetizers and food trays started to come out for the family «compliments of the chef» the waiter kept saying. Meanwhile, the some of the 6 of us here, HOURS before these people showed up, were still waiting on salads! I have no idea how much longer the other people were waiting, but we were all very agitated. HOW RUDE. I immediately shook my head and shrugged it off. I was enjoying my time in St Augustine and wasn’t going to let this rude environment bring me down. The HORRIBLE excuse for an owner, however, saw this gesture and began to freak out! Talking overly loud in a foreign language OBVIOUSLY talking about us– and then said «If you want fast food go to McDonalds! You have to wait for food in this kind of place!»…This kind of place? Lady– it is a cheap poor excuse for an Italian restaurant. It actually was probably the worst one I have ever been to– and I have been to some dumpy Italian restaurants. I immediately asked the waiter for our food to go– the tour was about to start and we only had a salad at that point. SHOCKINGLY the salad was the best part of the meal. The food was NOTHING special AT ALL. And, DEFINITELY not worth a 2 hour wait. UNBELIEVEABLE. I will NEVER go back or recommend this place. The woman was so horrible! THEN!!! To top it off!!! I paid with my COMPANY CREDIT CARD. At the end of each month we total up our expenses, keep all our receipts, etc. When I got my bill– Fratelli’s charged my card MORE than I had written on the bill! They STOLE money not from me, but from my company! I had to call the bank, and now there is an investigation in progress. You can’t just STEAL from someone, let alone a multi-​million dollar company! IMBECILES!!!

From such good reviews to a bad experience. The food was adequate at best. The night we were here, mid December out of 3 things early in the night. Server/​busboy was alone tonight with a full restaurant of 3 tables. Salad was small. Service was slow. Overall not a great experience.

This place is going downhill fast. Horrible food, out of iced tea and chianti. Meatballs hard as a rock. Don’t waste your money here

Although Fratelli’s is a quaint spot with a small, but descent ambience, the management is sorely lacking and the food is okay — not the Italian-​homemade-​pasta, Mom-​and-​Pop-​kind-​of-​place we were hoping for.
We were greeted enthusiastically by the hostess, who was hurriedly flitting from one table to the next, delivering waters, totaling up tabs for patrons and clearing tables. It quickly became obvious though that she and the server were the only two taking care of the room full of customers and the bar. There was no bus boy, no food runner, no bartender. Just the two of them for a room of 14 tables (all full) and a small bar. You get the picture.
When it came time for us to order, we waited… and waited… and waited. The hostess (who it seemed had some management/​ownership stake in the place) promised several times the server would be by soon. After about 25 minutes of this, the server finally came over and took our order for an appetizer and main dishes. He was friendly enough and it was obvious that he was working hard. We do not fault him for trying to serve everyone — taking orders, bringing out food, refilling drink orders, providing more water, clearing tables. But the service was painstakingly slow. We couldn’t understand why the «hostess» didn’t take our order. It certainly would have helped the server, plus he didn’t know all the items on the dessert menu. He had to ask her!
Suffice to say, if you don’t mind sitting around for a while waiting, this is the place for you. As far as the food, the bread rolls came out piping hot… so hot in fact we almost burned ourselves. I can handle hot dishes, but not these rolls!
The hostess had recommended the risotto and salmon, but I ordered the stuffed shells, my husband ordered the spaghetti with marinara and our son ordered the chicken Parmesan — all Italian restaurant mainstays. We also ordered the garlic olive oil dipping sauce as an appetizer. It came out about 10 minutes later with grated mozzarella cheese in the middle (an odd addition for a dipping sauce). We had to ask for more bread for the dipping sauce, since none was served with it. A few minutes later, our salads came out.
Each entrée came with soup or salad and we all ordered the house salad with Garlic ranch dressing on the side. The salads of mixed greens, one slice of cucumber and one small tomatoe wedge, were extremely small but the dressing was tasty.
About 45 minutes into our arrival, our main dishes were served. None of it tasted homemade. The marinara was not bad, but honestly, it could have come from a jar. There was no homemade or fresh flavor. And forget about getting freshly grated parmesean cheese. It was not offered, and even if we had asked for it, it probably would have taken another 10 minutes to get it. (Not sure if the even had it!) The pasta shells could have come from a package, again nothing special. Same with the spaghetti, which was swimming in heaps of marinara. There was way too much sauce on both of these dishes. The chicken parmesean was just okay too. The prices seem reasonable enough, but we expected more, not gourmet, but better than what we got.
We were so afraid it would take forever to get the bill, we asked for it before finishing our meal. We didn’t even look at the dessert menu. What was odd was the server didn’t total up the bill, the hostess did… which again took about 10 minutes despite the place clearing out. The appealed to us to come back when they weren’t so busy. Management needed to step up and call in two more servers!
If you have read my long review this far, you probably get the hint we were not impressed, and we will not return. If you are looking for authentic Italian food, this is not your place. They were nice enough, but don’t waste your time.

We love this place !! Our first time here and the food and service was excellent !! I had shrimp, mushroom, and pasta with a lemon cream sauce. It was sooo good !! Our server, Virginia was very knowledgable about the food and she was very friendly.

This is one of the best Italian restaurants I’ve ever eaten at! It’s truly a hidden gem! A local recommended this place to us and they sure knew what they were talking about! We shared the Parmesan and artichoke dip to start and it was amazing!!! I had the shrimp Elizabeth, HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT! Our server was very nice and helpful! The whole staff was friendly!

Susan, the amazing woman who was renting the restaurant space in the mornings to host and serve breakfast is no longer there (AND WE ARE HEARTBROKEN!!). So do not expect breakfast at this location. I have not been for dinner.

We had dinner Saturday night which was our second visit to Fratelli’s. The food was excellent but the service was off on this particular occasion. We had to ask for napkins, water refills were slow and we waited longer than normal for our check etc. None of this was a deal breaker because we were not in a hurry but the service wasn’t up to ours or their standards. But as I said earlier, our entrée’s were excellent and very hot. And the Chocolate Lovin; Spoon cake was to die for.

This was my first visit to the American Italian restaurant. I had salmon w/​almonds and my wife had salmon with dill sauce. Thr meals where fine. Service OK. For my money I would not go back. To get to the men’s room you have to walk through the kitchen. I think this is a health violation.
I can’t dismiss with the other reviewers of said but like I said it really is not a great Italian restaurant. It is a one man kitchen — lot’s of pasta and when i asked to change my marinara sauce for olive oli and garlic the said that would be and extra $ 2.00 …

«This is the place by which we judge Italian food. I’d go to Italy and say, ‘Yeah, it wasn’t as good as that place in St Augustine.’» So says the Mister and I cannot contradict him. In fact, I’m craving their delicious garlic bread just writing this.
The exterior of Fratelli’s will try to fool you by looking like a typical neighborhood bar in a working class neighborhood. This is just to keep the unworthy away. Inside, the vibe continues to be pretty blue collar — in a good way. This not fancy eating.
The garlic bread is amazing. I have never in my life had better garlic bread. So much butter. So much garlic, Such delicious hot bread. And the second basket came so quickly.
The salads were probably the least impressive part of the meal. Iceberg lettuce with some cucumber and carrots, and a decent Italian dressing.
But, oh, the baked pasta. What deliciousness. Hot, cheesy, and covered in sauce that has clearly been simmering on the stove for some time. We left very full, and with money still in our wallets. We’ll absolutely be back.

Meh… just didn’t light me on fire. Haven’t had retro American Italian in years. The restaurant is small, almost cozy and the wait staff tried hard to please. The food was ok, not great, not terrible.
The extra star is for being the only restaurant open on Sunday in the area (and we were very hungry!!!)