Food USED to be amazing, but the last few times I've gone its been awful. If you want Italian, don't go here! Its very bland on overpriced for how boring the food has become. I have been going here since I was probably in middle school, but I doubt I will eat here much anymore. Oh and the service is horrible, they all sit around and gossip.
Review Source:I've passed this restaurant several times before I finally gave in and decided to give it a try, and I'm glad I did. Â The location isn't the best, but when you first walk in, you know you are in an authentic Italian restaurant based solely on aromas coming from the kitchen. Â I went with my wife and family and ordered the Chicken Marsala, the Chicken Parm, and a spaghetti and meatballs. Â The foot came out fast, fresh, and delicious. Â The portions are huge and the bread also tasty and warm. Â The service was prompt and friendly. Â I'm a local and we'll definitely be going back.
Review Source:I read these reviews often and find the negative ones are from people who may have hit a bad day at the restaurant or they, themselves are having a bad day.
As for Fratellos, I Â can't go there enough. Â It is warm, not dark. Â Joey and Jamie couldn't be more hands-on with their business. Â Unlike another restaurant in the immediate area, where the "owner" runs around like a waiter, pretending to be a waiter. Â Tell him there is something wrong and he wills tell you that he will pass on your complaint. Â Joey, on the other hand, Â with have it fixed in a New York second.
As for the bar, talk about "Cheers", everyone knows Ben had he everyone. Â It is not a snotty watering hole...... ALL are welcome. Â Come see for yourself.
Fratellos has been a regular part of our dining for years. It is a family run restaurant. Joey, the owner seems to know many customers by name and he and his wife go out of their way, making sure your glass is filled and food is cooked the way you want. He will modify menu items and has a great broiled halibut. The portions are large. The only downside is there sometimes is a wait on Friday and Saturday nights of around 15 minutes. Its a great place for birthdays or just to get a drink and watch a sports game on their TV's
Review Source:Used to eat here A LOT. Food has gone downhill and fast. Very inconsistent and food is bland. Stay away. There are far better italian places to eat. This location is awful.
Ordered linguini with white clams. Sauce was so watery and no taste. Pasta was mushy and almost tasted like it was microwaved.
Very disappointing and learned my lesson. Will never be back.
Great Food & Great Service. My waitress was wonderful, always filling my water glass when it needed it as I only prefer water when dining out. The food also was delicious with great selections and fair prices. The enviorment was family friendly and made me feel welcomed. I will return, I enjoyed it that much!
Review Source:Great food great service, the prices are a little high for what else is around there but it's a good family oriented environment! The girls that work there are very sweet! I don't remember her name but she was shorter with blonde hair and provided excellent service that will make me come back!
Review Source:Have been here a handful of times. Each time was a worse experience. Service on multiple occasions was very slow. The food was not that great. They stop serving sandwiches after a certain time, which leaves only their pasta (with a heaping amount of bland sauce) to choose from. Has potential, just not there yet.
Review Source:I would actually give this place 31/2 stars if I could. Â
The service was great and our waitress was very attentive. Â The food itself was average and a bit on the salty side. I like that they offered complimentary bread to start off. Â The portions are huge but the quality of the food is not worth the price.
Unlike Zonas, at least this place serves edible food!
I would pass this up; in short, over-priced and low quality Italian.
First off the place is dank, dark, and needs some better ambiant lighting.
Location is bad bc it's tucked in the corner.
When we went in it was empty; my guess is the price + quality of food.
They have way TOO many menu options; a good restaurant keeps their food list "short" which in turn allows for  them to find tune their dishes.
The lunch specials are decently priced, however our server made sure to disappear until "lunch" was over with, me thinks to force us to choose a higher priced item (ok, force is a strong word as we could have got up and left).
For 9.95 the lasagna was promising, and was delivered in a deep serving bowl, six inches long and the lasagna was literally swimming in sauce, of which the sauce had no taste. I was hoping for some elegant tier of lasagna, but that didn't happen. Instead of a nice tier of lasagna it was goo, literally. There was nothing to cut because it had sogged itself too much. I'm thinking they pre made them in the dish, froze them, then cooked them instead of serving fresh.
The spaghetti and meatballs my daughter had was BY FAR the best thing on the menu.
This was not a "fine dining" experience. Perhaps if they lowered their prices their revenue would go up and they could justify charging what they do. The current prices don't match their food quality.
Final verdict: Olive Garden is more authentic than this place.
Tonight, my husband and I got the worst pizza either of has ever had in our lives (and we are in our 50's - hence a lot of pizza!!!) from Fratello's.  We used to go to Peppino's a lot when we lived in Dana Point.  We moved away from the area, and then a couple of years ago, we moved back to San Juan Capistrano.  We kind of forgot about Peppino's, especially since it is a bit of a drive from San Juan.  Tonight, my husband said he really missed Peppino's pizza, and thought it would be worth the drive to pick one up.  I called to place our order for pick up.  I was told that the restaurant was no longer called "Peppino's", but it was essentially the same restaurant.  Then, I was told it would be 30 minutes (which sounded about right since Peppino's was always so  busy) before I could pick up.  My total for a medium pizza with 3 toppings?  $16.11!!!!  We decided to leave a little early to go pick up, and on the way there, we laughed saying, " this sixteen buck pizza better be worth it - especially since we are driving by about 20 other pizza places."  When we got there, the place was like a ghost town.  There were two people at the bar!!  We remember having to stand and wait for a seat at the bar.  Now, this would be fine if it was 4:00 in the afternoon, but this was 7:00PM on a Saturday night!!!! AND, the restaurant portion was practically empty.  In addition, there was no one in line at the pick-up register!!  This had never happened back in the day!  I was about 5 minutes early, and to my surpirse, the pizza was ready.  I could tell immediately that it had been ready for a while.......when I got in the car and put the box in my lap, it was warm - NOT hot.  When we got home we were so disappointed when we opened the box.......there were three slices with basically NO TOPPINGS.  It was so bad,  we took pictures.  I didn't even call, as I did not want to be offered anything free for the future.....we will NEVER go to this place again!
Review Source:I came here right before my boyfriend got deployed... it is very family-ambiance but they sat us in the far corner so it was romantic for us. it was just us, away from the families, which was very nice of them
They had a decent list of wine (not the greatest) but a nice selection
The menu is ok also. It wasnt a huge list of food but still had good selections
I ordered the clam pasta (forgot the name) but it was REALLY good...
I love seafood pasta and ive tried alot of place... But this place seemed pretty fresh and good. Cant say it was the best but it was still highly up there
I'd recommend this place... good food, good price and good service...
This is a family-style, old-school Italian restaurant. Good food, good value and family ambiance. The menu is extensive and most of the items are traditional Italian restaurant fare. Hearty, plenty of flavor, not too much garlic and big, really big portions.
The owner Joey, is cool and he makes a darn good New York style pizza but you may have to "encourage" him to make if for you. As the owner, he spends a lot of time making sure everything is good and everyone is happy so he doesn't have much time to make a pizza. He has a full staff to do that but all you have to do, is tell him, "Hey, Joey, I hear Jose makes a better pizza than you, is that right?" That's usually all it takes to see him jump behind the counter and show everyone he's still got it. Jose by the way, is an absolute artist of pizza.
I don't want to think of the thousands and thousands of dollars worth of pizza I've devoured during my lifetime from all over. (One of the best Neapolitan style pizza's I've had was in Tokyo -- better than a few of the pizzas I had in Naples, by the way.) Fratello's is solid. It doesn't pretend to be anything else than it is -- a very good old school Italian restaurant. Say hello to Joey and to Jose when you go. You're bound to make this place one of your favorites.
When the menu is an inch thick there is NO WAY the food is fresh. Â The bread and calamari were good. Â Otherwise the food is disgusting, a big moosh of nastyness so gross. Â The "special" cream/Alfredo sauce is an up charge which they don't tell you about. Â (It sucks anyhow) Â The decor, oh boy, its kind of like being at a garage sale. Â Buy some new table cloths already. Â Want my advice? Skip this place!
Review Source:I love this place. My son and I go sometimes after picking him up in Oceanside. Now, I LOVE soup but I've never really enjoyed Minestrone. It's usually to bland. Fratello's minestrone is to die for. I could eat nothing but! The service is always friendly and prompt. The prices are great for the amount of food you get! Love Love LOVE Fratello's!
Review Source:My parents LOVEEEEE this restaurant. They're a Sunday night fixture. I, on the other hand, am harder to convince. I like to eat different places, I don't like to eat the same thing week-after-week, and I'm not a big fan of Italian food.
Tonight it appeared they had updated their table covers. It was an alright change. They've been trying to work with their appearance for a while, adding fake plants a few months ago to add to the decor. My biggest issue with all their updating is that the menus still come with sticky fingerprints more often than not. Yes, it's a family-style restaurant, but the menus are plastic and deserve a wipe down between customers (my parents, on the other hand, don't notice it -- mostly because they don't need menus anymore).
The wait staff are all very friendly. The owner is a nice warm guy that gives hugs and chats up with chummy conversation. My only issue with some of the servers is that they try to memorize your order. It only makes things uncomfortable and 9.5 times out of 10 its wrong. Grumble. My parents and I, on more than one occasion, have pondered carrying a writing pad with us to write our order down and hand to the server. So not impressive.
Interestingly, the waitress the served us tonight, I'm pretty sure wrote down the order. She was quick with drinks, salads, etc. I started with a hardy Caesar salad that is really one of the best I've add. Fatty and delicious.
Unfortunately, I didn't get what I ordered for my main dish. I ordered Spaghetti marinara with mushrooms and got some linguine with some sort of other funky mushroom saucey-thing. My parents made me feel like I was a young candidate for Alzheimer's saying 1st that it was just flat spaghetti and 2nd - that the sauce was probably a more watered down marinara. I tried to eat it but I wasn't enjoying it at all. After a few bites I was over it and grumbling to myself. When the waitress returned my parents told her (I was over it and could careless anymore). She was kind enough to apologize and quickly removed the dish from the check.
I know we'll be back. They do have some good dishes and my parents drool over their food. Their nice and friendly. If you like simple Italian food and want a warm atmosphere, you really can't go wrong eating here.
wow, i'm the 3rd lauren to review this place! and the second lauren b- trippy.
anyhow, went there with my hubby saturday night for dinner before a 730 movie, it wasn't overly crowded and we were served promptly.
the portions are huge! between the wine, bread, and soup, we were nearly full before our eggplant rollatina w/ pasta arrived. we had plenty to take with us!
food was so-so, but was overall an enjoyable meal, and is a pleasant environment. would go back again :)
For those of you not fluent in italian Fratello means F... you. "You wanna some water? Ima busy ova here" "You lika the tennis? Â I changa to the basaball. You order this I charga you for that. This was the worst service in recent memory. Fratello's offers Highish prices, mediocre food and miserable service Thinking about eating at Fratello's? fuhgettaboutit.
Review Source:The food really is good, even when its to go. Â We usually get it to go, although we have never had bad service there. Â The wait staff is wonderful. Â They have really good pasta and the tomato cream pink sauce is really yummy. Â The antipasto salad with any of there homemade dressings is also a winner! Â My mom usually always gets the chicken parm and its always come out perfect. Â And don't even get me started on the foccocia bread or Lena rolls, which are my favorite! Â My only grip is the pricing. Â Its a bit on the pricey side and I think they could tone it down a notch!
Review Source:This is the only place to eat in this part of San Clemente and thank God for it. Â With all the economic struggle restaurants can have, I hope this place never fails to prosper.
There are so many items on the menu that I love, it's hard to find somewhere to start. Â Ah the Veal Chop Marsala, the chicken Caesar salad with homemade croutons, the fresh hot breads, ice cold Stella's. Â I could go on and on, like the Pizza's and pasta dishes and the roasted tomato basil soup is one of the best I've ever tried.
If you have a big group, they can accommodate you, we have had many large gathering here over the years, with special rates for fixed item dinners and never been disappointed.
Family run with a couple of locations, Fratello's has good but not great Italian food. The service is friendly and the food reasonably priced. Â They always seem to be busy.
While I don't generally care for minestrone soup, they make a good one. Â The spaghetti is also tasty but their lasagna and pizza are just okay - nothing special. Â Try one of their veal dishes or the spicy calamari pasta.
Usually come here with my wine buddies. Nothing fancy but they are great for large groups of people and are very nice.
But this last time to tell you the truth my meal was not very good. I guess they have dishes that they are "known" for like the Chicken or Veal Sorrentino but me; I was trying to be good so I had the Antipasto salad. It was iceberg lettuce with rolled up pieces of lunch meat and cheese that was cut too big and over powered the rest of the dish. NOT very good at all, everyone else's dish looked good but most of them were eating more than a salad. However, the Chicken Rustica isn't bad. (Also a salad)
Overall, it's okay Italian with okay prices. I just had a bad dish.
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