Fratelli's Italian Grill in Prairieville — Restaurant in Louisiana

So, I always feel terrible giving bad reviews, but I felt like it was necessary here. Given that these guys had a consistently high rating, I was expecting a great experience--but unfortunately, dining here was a big disappointment.

I'm a big supporter of small, independently owned operations, and I understand that running a family business (as this one appears to be) has its challenges. While I understand that every operation has its "off" days--big and small--the problems plaguing our visit were not ones which could be excused as flukes. Staff organization was so bad that we were not even sure who our waiter/waitress was - the staff member who escorted us to our table took our drink order, then returned to the hostess table, whereupon we were greeted by another server who introduced himself as our waiter - although we never saw him again. Before the end of the visit, we had been attended by the hostess (again), and two other members of wait staff - none of whom apparently communicated with one another or the kitchen efficiently. After a long wait for food (and none of the now-numbering-four attendants having returned to check on us), the appetizer ordered arrived with the main course - cold. The steak ordered was so tough as to be nearly inedible, the lasagna average and only lukewarm. Add to that, the martini accompanying the meal was (literally) probably 3 parts vermouth to 1 part vodka. When we brought it to a passing server's attention (again, we had to flag someone down), we were met with looks of confusion and awkward stares. They did eventually offer to remake it, but as they seemed confused as to what the problem had been to begin with, we considered it the better part of valor to leave the remainder of the drink untouched and cut our losses.

After another 10-15 frustrating minutes spent trying to get a server--any server--'s attention to get a check, I'm pretty sure we both sighed an audible sigh of relief as we finally paid our bill and left. No one thanked us for our visit, and no member of management ever visited our table to ask how our experience had been. This was by no means a packed-house dining experience - four servers should have been more than adequate for the number of patrons present during our visit, and yet the whole thing was a disaster from start to finish. I'm typically more than happy to give any restaurant another shot after a less-than-stellar visit, but the level of disorganization and lack of care and concern for customers tells me that we definitely won't be giving this...

Updated Location (10-13-24): This visit to the new location of Fratelli's was worse than our previous experience and we will not be going back here again. Although I do like the location and the atmosphere of the new building, the service and food was terrible. To start, our appetizers took far too long to be brought out alongside our drinks, the staff were slow not very friendly. The Italian Margarita was actually not bad, the highlight of the visit unfortunately. I had ordered a large pizza, cooked extra, once it finally came out it was like slop due to all of the grease and the center of the pizza seemed undercooked so it just immediately fell apart. The other food at our table was ok, nothing really stood out and was worth the price in our opinion. They also charge an extra card fee as well on the bill, so be aware of that. Overall a terrible experience and again I didn't see where all of the good reviews come from.

Old Location/Review (3 Stars): Our recent visit to Fratelli’s was unfortunately not up to par or what we expected. The dinner started off nice with some good garlic rolls and an appetizer. The entree’s were brought out one at a time but the pizzas did not come until 5+ minutes after everyone else had received their food, so it was an awkward wait. The food overall was decent, but not something to rave about. One person at our table ordered a pizza with mushrooms, garlic, and onions, but the pizza came out with pepperoni so we sent it back, no big deal. The problem came when the “new” pizza was received but seemed to be the same pizza as before, just with the pepperonis picked off and the new toppings thrown on. The suspicion was confirmed after she tried the pizza and it was still greasy and had taste from the previous pepperoni on it. After asking about it again, we just decided to send the pizza back and had it removed from our bill. We were given a dessert as an apology, which was nice and appreciated.

The service was not up to par either, as our server was not attentive to the table the entire time, not asking how the food was or cleaning the old plates off of the table. The prices of the food were very fair and fit the menu style and the small business feeling.

Overall the visit did have its flaws and hiccups, but I feel that we just had a bad experience just in coincidence, especially when comparing our experience with everyone else in...

My son and I visited Fratelli’s tonight and we were really starved and in the mood for some great Italian but unfortunately we got the opposite from this restaurant. We started with fried cheese sticks as appetizer which came out hot but soggy and saturated with oil. We both ordered the Italian trio of lasagna,chicken parmesan and alfredo. I also ordered a portion of spaghetti and meatballs with two meatballs. The lasagna was gross with a grey meat substance inside.The chicken parmesan tasted like a frozen chicken patty that was either baked or fried too long because it was really difficult to cut through and tasted very dry and chewy. The fettuccine alfredo was no better...the alfredo sauce had a runny consistency and a bland off putting milky taste..The spaghetti noodles were very hard to find in the bowl that was brought to the table since there was hardly any in the bowl...I’m not sure if they were running low on pasta or if that is just the normal portion. The marinara/spaghetti sauce which was in the bowl of the cheese sticks and all over the lasagna and chicken parmesan was very watery and had a metallic taste as if it were sauce that came out of a tin can...it was nasty. The meatballs were frozen meatballs...the same taste and texture as the ones found in your freezer section at the grocery store. I told the waitress about everything after we were done and she apologized but I explained to her that this was our second visit as to give the restaurant another try to see if the food had improved over the past year or so and it hadn’t so I thank her for the service she provided and told her besides her service there was only three things that was good....the complementary bread was hot and good, the sweet tea and the music playing across the speakers. Do yourself a favor if you have a craving for Italian make a trip to Gino’s or DiGiulio Brothers in Baton Rouge....hope this saves someone’s time,frustration and money....