FRATELLI Frankston — Restaurant in Melbourne

Average food. Quite expensive for what it was. Service was a but chaotic. Started with a glass of red. Had a fairly good rating but didn't taste anything like the review on the menu. Guess I chose poorly, my bad. But the fact that it's wasn't room temperature but literally warm definitely didn't add to the experience. I ordered the vegan arancini but was told they didn't have any. Had been looking forward to trying them and didn't expect them to run out on a Saturday night. Then had the vegan bruschetta which was probably the saddest bruschetta I've even seen. Nothing Italian about it. Didn't even have any basil. Was literally tomato and cheese on toast. Tomatoes weren't even chopped up. Had a vegan pizza for main. Was tasty enough but seemed to be missing a couple of the ingredients and for being around the $20 mark you'd expect it to be complete. My husband was supposed to share the bruschetta with me for his entree but when he saw it he was so unimpressed he decided to pass on it. For main he had the chicken schnitzel. Chicken was perfectly cooked and he quite enjoyed it which is why I bumped my 2 star review up to a 3 along with the fact that they have a vegan section at all. Chips were average but wait staff were so confused we managed to receive an extra chips and salad which I can't complain about because after skipping entree my husband needed something extra. Salad was also quite nice. Daughter had the kids fish n chips. She can't speak sentences yet so I'm not sure of the standard. She ate most of the chips but avoided the fish which she usually does if it's not fresh from the boat because she has a sensitive palate but it did look good and portion was quite generous for a kid's meal. Atmosphere was standard family style "Italian" restaurant with a mid 90s feel. Loud, busy and not sure of the actual colour scheme but for some reason I'm remembering a lot of beige and peach. Could just be my memory playing tricks on me and taking me back to my teen years working at another sub-standard Italian restaurant. The bill for our meals plus a kids meal, a glass of red and 2 glasses of soft drink came to around $85 which was way off the mark for the standard of food on offer. Friends who had the steak with mushroom sauce were both quite sad that the mushroom sauce was literally gravy with mushrooms, no cream as they expected but it didn't actually say "creamy" mushroom sauce in the description so I can't hold that against the restaurant. If you are looking for overpriced, average, half completed food then this is the place for you. Half of Frankston seemed to be there so they must be doing something right or maybe their usual clientele just have low standards and pockets full of job seeker...

Went to Fratelli the other day for lunch. It was my day off and I wanted to let my hair down, have a few cocktails, maybe some wine, who knows? I noticed their sign saying $10 pizza pasta Wednesday's! When I enquired I was told they only do that at night time. There were a few tables of people that had already eaten or were eating, it wasn't overly busy.

We ordered a round of drinks and bruchetta to get started. Drinks took around 10 minutes which is fairly standard for cocktails I suppose. We ordered a pizza, garlic bread, and vegetarian canaloni to share as our mains. As soon as we ordered we had a garlic pizza base brought out. When the staff realised it was a mistake, they fixed it within 5 minutes, however the bruchetta did not have the bocconcini cheese the menu said it came with. It was tasty though.

The mains we received were, the pizza we ordered I think it was BBQ lamb, a large garlic pizza, and the vegetarian canaloni. We didn't order a garlic pizza, we ordered a garlic bread, but I was fine with the mistake and let them leave the pizza. It was average, loaded with cheese, the base however was decent and obviously house made which I appreciate. The pizza we actually ordered was really good! I think pizza is a safe and enjoyable bet at Fratelli's.

The pasta dish we ordered however... The side salad was really really nice! The canaloni was not my favourite, the napoli sauce had been cross contaminated by their bolognaise sauce. I made the manager aware of it and he was apologetic. I know what owning a small business is like so being I am not vegetarian, I once again told the manager not to worry about swapping the dish. The sauce was once again really delicious, even if the actual pasta dish as a whole was not.

After the second REALLY strong cocktail I decided against drinking any more alcohol. I planned on spending a few hours with my partner hanging out but after the third messed up dish I decided to call it a day. The vibe was not amazing after that. To put meat into a vegetarian dish is a total no no. I feel like the front of house staff kind of avoided our table after that.

I might come back one day and try again, I feel like the food is hit and miss, but what is good is GOOD, work on what's not and you'll be...

We've been ordering from Fratelli's for some time now, getting delivery to Frankston South. The food is usually fairly good, but being Italian and having many restaurants to choose from within the inner city previously, they are pricey in comparison. Last night we ordered for delivery again, and when the door bell rang, by the time it took me to get up and walk to the door, the delivery driver had dumped our food on the cold wet concrete and was half way up the street! Since when does service like this occur? I approached him and asked him if it was too much trouble to have waited an extra 15 seconds to hand us dinner that cost over $80.00. He couldn't seem to comprehend.. In hand, they'd forgotten to deliver a pasta. I called the restaurant as we ate warm pizza, to clarify and was passed around on hold. Another guy finally answered who was short and sharp. He agreed that the food was missing and extended his own inconvenience through his tone and mannerism. In the end, the pasta arrived later, though this time another driver decided to hand us our dinner! Overall, the people on the phone always seem to be bothered and too busy - with no customer allowance or respect of their time, and to charge accordingly as they do, it's barely worth the price tag along with an attitude as to say they're doing us a favour. If you'd invest the time into your staff to learn how communication and hospitality works (look up the word 'hospitality' in the dictionary), it would make a certain difference within your business. There seems to be a lackluster losing trend in hospitality these days overall, and at this price tag - thanks...