Fratello’s

Excellent food and drinks! Friendly service. Love the Fratello’s red creamy sauce with sausage, paired with a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon.

Good food, good service, good atmosphere. It is hard to beat your Italian mama’s meatballs… but they were close.

Fratellos has been a great go to local spot. Recently we bought trays of pasta for a party and everyone raved about the food. Dinner tonight was equally outstanding. Gnocchi ala Joe was excellent as usual and my companion loved her mac n cheese w chicken. Service was fast and efficient.
We will continue to support this wonderful eatery.
Update; dining alone at the bar. Not crowded but lively. Service is stellar again. My wine choice was unavailable but the bartender was right on top of it with a very suitable replacement. I actually like it better than the old standard. Salad was served quickly along w the herb bread and butter. Didn’t rush through the salad so my main came out pretty soon. All in all another good night at Fratellos.

Ive always loved fratellos. Even before ehen it was peppinos. returning to san clemente we visited fratellos and i ordered a mini margharitta pizza… i received it as soup. I was very disapointed and quite disgusted that the kitchen would let this out. Super wet and when u try to lift it to take a bite the cheese (soaked) slides off and drips oil… i couldnt express it anymore than pizza soup.

Great family restaurant, besides Italian food which is all good, I love the halibut & filet mignon with grilled Brussel sprouts!

The only reason we gave it two stars is because, the food and price was passable. We used to go here all the time when it was Peppinos. although there was no ownership change I wanted to make sure the person reading this knew how long we have known about this restaurant.
If family came to town we would take them here. Over the years we went we noticed how the service and the interest to the customer went down hill. No one seemed to care either. Finally one evening I took my kids out to dinner here. We were basically ignored all evening. The food came out cold and the salad I ordered was wilted and had obviously been sitting in their cooler too long. That was the final straw, we stopped going there.
Fast forward about 15 years. My wife and I moved closer to the area Fratello’s is located. The other evening we went back for the 1^st time since that bad experience 15 years before. We were told to sit anywhere. We picked a nice table on the upper level. We sat for a good 10 minutes before the busboy brought us a menu. We sat another 10 min before he came by again to ask if anyone had asked us if we wanted something to drink. He was kind enough to bring us a glass of water. The silverware setting my wife had was dirty and honestly rather disgusting. I said to my wife, obviously things have not really changed in 15 years. This was a Wednesday evening, not many people in the restaurant. We watched as other tables had servers checking and talking to them. I asked my wife if we were invisible. In all honesty I was ready to leave.
Finally a nice «girl» came over to table and asked if we wanted something else to drink. This was almost 20 min since we sat down. My wife no but we would like some bread and butter and could we order dinner. This «girl» was really a buss person not a server. So here we were sitting for 20 min and still no server. This «girl» left and came back and took our order. Please keep in mind we watched servers attend the tables around us. We however, were still being ignored. I must make mention that we were never rude, or nasty to anyone so we had no idea why we were being treated this way.
Our food came, it was hot and as I said it was passable. It did take a good 20 — 25 min though before we were served. We both had simple pasta dishes. We had dinner portions, and if we wanted a green salad that would have been extra. Years before the salad I remember was include. So the service went down but the cost of dinner went up.
My wife’s water glass stayed empty until I finally flagged someone over to fill it again. By the way it wasn’t until we were half way through our dinner did someone ask how we were doing. I have to tell you we still don’t know who our server was. In the end no one ever greeted us, or introduced themselves.
We paid our bill, oh also we did leave a tip and we did leave a 20% tip only because our daughter is a server in restaurant and we know how tough the job can be. When we left one would have expected that as we walked out someone would have said thank you for coming or have a nice evening. Not one word or acknowledgement.
As you might we have crossed Fratellos off our list of places to visit.

Wednesday night at 8pm, 45 min for a Chicken Primavera that had a burnt cream sauce. Another 10 min to flag down the waitress, when I asked her to take it back to the kitchen, she threw it in a bus tub and started to clean her section. There was nor respect for the guest, the food or the restaurant. Stop letting the dishwasher cook, and have your staff follow proper management reporting procedures. I left hungry and pissed.

Pizza is very thin and not very much sauce. Salads are bland and some of the leaves were not very fresh. Service is okay if you are not in a hurry. It is very slow. Clean enough. Bread is okay. Toppings on pizza are so-​so.

Noisy, crowded, servers are polite and friendly but spread pretty thin. Our friends love this place, but it Took an HOUR to get our food tonight. Cheesecake Factory has better shrimp scampi, sorry!

So we usually hit our favorite spot in SC for Italian food, Romano’s; but we decided to try something new. First for the good, the Manager and hostess up front are great. Super friendly and welcoming. We also got a kick out of watching the kitchen toss the fresh pizza dough. The food is good, I would say on par for a family style Italian restaurant.
As far as the rest, well the manager said it all. He was working his tail off to keep the gears turning as well as guests happy, but I overheard him say he is having a hard time with his staff. This is their short fall. The kitchen is slow, it took a long time to get our food. The servers are kind but not very attentive. Why we should have to ask parm at an Italian restaurant is beyond me, but we did (twice) and wound up staring at our food getting cold for another 10 min before it came. We had to flag someone down to fill our drinks every time. They left the empty app salad plates on the table with the main course. We thought a nice cup of after dinner coffee would be great, and were exuberantly assured by our waitress that we were lucky because they were making a fresh pot, but what arrived was a glass cup of transparent tan hot water.
So much for trying something new. If you’re in SC and want Italian, stick to Romano’s and Sonny’s.

If you have kids and you are looking for a family restaurant with good food this could be the place for you. They have a large menu and a full bar.
I really enjoy the pizza here but most of the menu items I have tried have been very good.
It can get loud and crowded on the weekend nights with lots of kids and families. If that is not your scene you may want to go somewhere else.
Sometimes the service can be a little slow but not too bad. Overall a good family joint with good food.
Fratello’s is in the trader joe’s plaza sort of tucked in the corner above the AAA office.
O they have takeout too

Worst Service Ever. Took 45 minutes to get my subpar salad. And the pizza sat in puddles of grease. Do not go here.

While traveling we enjoy exploring local eateries rather than the same chain resturants that can be found anywhere. On this particular evening we were looking for pizza, and the first 2 options we wanted to try both were very packed with long waits so we went for a not so touristy area and option.
Very pleasant and welcoming upon entry and the hostess was prompt to offer us a basket of bread and even take our drink orders as our server was busy. Unfortunately that is about as good as it was going to get. We had a fairly simple order of a salad and a pizza. I am not sure if the kitchen was trying to close (an hour and a half before there posted hours) or were just experiencing their own challenges. I heard our server call through the window several times for the salad, but was not produced and brought to the table for 45 minutes from when it was ordered and of couse by that time the pizza was ready too! One of my biggest pet peeves when dining out is having my meal stacked and pushed to the table almost instantaneously, did I mention it took 45 minutes for a salad!
Now on to the food it self. The salad which took forever had warm greens and the ranch dressing is watered down, so much so it was splashing out as I was collecting it onto my fork. The pizza was of the street vendor variety, foldable thin, soft and flemsy toward the center and grease dripping off creating puddles on the plate. Not the worst I have had, still better than a national chain delivery, but also not the best. Most definitely not good enough to suffer through another attempt. Drink refills for soda were fine, refills on ice tea, get a second glass of ice on the side since all the ice seems to melt in the glass before it makes it to the table.
The atmosphere was quiet with customers. Had a very local feel and I almost felt out of place with several sets of eyes on us from patrons as we were making our seating selection. There were more servers than customers it seemed, and the table behind us was their spot to gather, count tips have a glass of wine, and talk about life. Not bad until 4 – 5 start collecting together and forget there are still customers in the resturant and there was still another 30 minutes left.
If you already enjoy this place great, if you are trying for the first time, good luck!

Jamie, you really need to sit down and have a Come-​to-​Jesus meeting with your restaurant and realize the service is simply woeful — or you may know this already and not care. I waited tables and bartended through college, so I know the challenges waitstaff, kitchen, and bartenders face. I’m just constantly gobsmacked at how brutally poor the service at Fratello’s is.
My family and I used to sit at the long, tall table behind the bar so we can catch whatever game is on, but it always turned out that our waiter would be the bartender (often you) who usually has a full bar of patrons to attend to, so we always thought our slow service was due to that. Tonight, though, I decided my 2 children and I would eat down below in the dining area so that we would have a dedicated waiter. When she took our order, my 9 year-​old was deciding on what sauce he wanted for his pasta and when I turned to the waiter to tell her, I caught her in mid roll-​eyes. Real nice. It took all of 45 seconds of her day to take their order.
My children’s order arrives via the bartender 15 minutes later and I finally get to place my own order. So I place my order with the bartender — a Caesar salad, because I just want to eat and get out at this point. After 25 more minutes I finally see my waiter again as she decides I’m allowed to have a refill on my water. She says, «Your salad will be right out.» I wait another 10 minutes and decided enough was enough, so I go to the bartender to cancel my order and pay for what my children ate. She summons over my waiter to tell her I need to cancel my order so she runs my card, tosses me the receipt for me to sign, and offers me absolutely no hint of an apology. No apology from anyone. It was as though I was at fault. I have never heard of such a thing. The only thing I did wrong was think I could get a Caesar salad at a restaurant at 25% capacity at 5:05 PM.
Jamie, I don’t know if your kitchen is just not logistically set up to handle your clientele or if the workflow your management has implemented just doesn’t work, but you have a serious problem with the service (speed and attitude) your restaurant provides. I should not go 25 – 30 minutes and not see my waiter. The thing that is really unfortunate is that I think your food is great. I think your pizza is some of the best, if not the best in the area, but I am not going to subject myself to your appalling service any longer. You guys can’t even figure out pizza delivery without all my toppings being slid to one side of the pie upon arriving at my front door (which you twice blamed on me for some reason), or it being served cold, or missing salads and other things that are ordered with it. I don’t know how much longer you will be in business, but until you figure out how to treat your customers, you will have to do it without my continued patronage. I will no longer be trading you my money for poor treatment from your staff. I hope you figure it out, I really do, because San Clemente deserves good Italian food.

I just want to give a shout out to Joey for allowing my son to have his first dairy free pizza on Sunday night. 11 years every party he went to that had pizza he was not able to be «like» the other kids. Now we have a place the will make dairy free cheese pizza!!!
Thank you!

I called in an order last night for the most simple items because it’s closer to my house than any other Italian restaurant.
1) angel hair with Alfredo sauce
2) angel hair with garlic and olive oil
3) Caesar salad
4) bread and butter
I get it home and there was barely any sauce for the Alfredo. The noodles for the garlic and olive oil was clumped together and not even fully cooked.
And I received ranch dressing for my Caesar salad.
& didnt even receive the bread.
It was $ 30 for noodles and sauce and we ended up throwing it away. Definitely going to make the drive to Sonnys next time.

Always good food, good service. Friendly comfortable, not much noise so can have conversation, family friendly, i eat here often because of all of these positives!

We have had family dinners at Fratellos about 6 times in the past couple years, and here are conclusions based on such:
Pros:
The food tastes fresh and authentic
Pretty location/​nice views
Nice family-​oriented atmosphere
Many vegetarian options
Cons:
Staff seem sort of cranky (Perhaps overworked?)
Prices increase pretty often
Menu changes pretty often
Long wait for food (+30 mins)

I hadn’t been here in a few years and I was worried the food may have gone downhill… but alas! My worries were found without merit. I had the stuffed shells with meat sauce and let me tell you they were yummy!!! So cheesy and flavorful! The complimentary bread is delicious and warm. They even have olive oil and vinegar at the table to for dipping sauce! The service is friendly, quick and attentive. The bathrooms were clean, which is a huge plus!
The parking structure of the plaza is awful… always has been… terrible planning on the part of the contractor. Here is a secret though… park in the back! It’s almost always empty because nobody knows about it!

Came here tonight on a tip from my daughter and her boyfriend. I’m a chef and a restaurant owner… And a big fan of Italian flair.
The good:
The food was very tasty. We did have to send back one item and I’ll get to that later. I had the pasta with meat sauce and added sausage to it at the suggestion of the waitress. The rest of us had various pasta dishes. We also had bread and calamari as an appetizer. The food came out in the proper order and our waitress was attentive. The food was also accurate and attractively presented. The décor was smart and casual with lots of roomy seating. They also have a full bar which is nice. The stand out for me was the sausage. They said it was made fresh on site. The waitress did an excellent job of correcting the entrée that was sent back.
The not so good:
The menu was a little jumbled and didn’t attract you to the signature items. Not a biggie but as a first time visitor I would have expected to see more of a call-​to-​action to help me. I did ask the waitress but she just seemed to really like everything so it wasn’t a help. Tip: waitresses should have their 2 favorite items with reasons readily available to convey. The only bad thing of substance was the «veal» dish we had. The sauce was very bland and more importantly the veal was way overlooked and very tough. It
was so over cooked That it was curled up. *The waitress did take it off the bill and didn’t charge us for the replacement entrée.
Conclusion:
I liked it. It’s that simple. I enjoyed it and thought the service was spot on. I read the other reviews and those that say the service wasn’t very good may have just visited on an off night. They put out a good product and when one of the entrees fell short they made the right corrections on the fly and did a reasonable job of «making up for it» within the visit. There’s ample parking and it’s easy to get to. I’ll be back and will suggest it to friends.