Fratellos Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria — Restaurant in South Carolina

A year ago, I left raving review about this place, and have eaten here several times. My favorite thing is the penne alla vodka which I ordered again tonight. It was so disappointing. I don’t know if you can see in the photo attached how oily the sauce is in the bottom of the bowl, but this is not the penne à la vodka that I am used to from this restaurant. I added meatballs on top this time and that was an added disappointment. I’m not sure if there was any meat in these meatballs because they were so crumbly and flavorless, I am left to believe that they were mostly if not all breadcrumbs. They were out of iced tea. Minor, but really? The waitress was very pleasant and polite. However, the overall experience was unpleasant. We walked in at 9 PM for dinner. The restaurant is not supposed to close till 10 so we expected to have time to pleasantly enjoy a late dinner. Back in the day when I worked in the restaurant industry if a customer walked in at 9:55 and the restaurant closed at 10, we served them the same way we would’ve served someone at 6 PM even if it meant we had to stay there until after 11 PM to do the cleanup . This was not the case. They started mopping the floor before we got our dinner. This meant that they were handling a mop and mop-bucket, and then using those same hands to deliver our food plates. I don’t find that sanitary, and it grossed me out. Not to mention while we ate, there was a clattering of pushing the mop bucket on rollers across the tiled floor, moving chairs around, turning off the lights while we’re still eating. We were clearly being rushed out, and we should’ve been allowed to eat pleasantly. The check was dropped before we were done eating and it was a very unwelcoming experience. I live very close to this restaurant and really want to support small businesses. I drive by it enough to know that they are not terribly busy. If this has become the norm for them, I see why. My son liked...

There were some things to like and some things not to like. When we arrived, all four of us (adults) commented on the pleasing decor. We were greeted warmly. When we asked for a booth instead of one of the open tables, they happily went and cleaned one off.

The server took a while to get to us, but he was very pleasant too. However, he seemed to have a little language trouble understanding us. I ordered some garlic knots with cheese. They were a generous portion for us all to share. Delicious too.

After we had placed our entree orders, the two of our group who ordered side salads got theirs quite quickly. Both said they were delicious, but our expectation was that a side salad is delivered with the entree, not as a separate course while the other two had nothing yet.

All four entrees came out together. My Chicken Parmigiana was delicious and I would definitely have it again. There was enough to take home. My wife had Chicken Piccata and she liked hers too. Also enough to take home. One of our friends had the Chicken Marsala and he was not real pleased with it. However, he’s generally not a big fan of Italian food. He said he’d choose the Eggplant Parmigiana next time. Our other friend had the Vegetable Lasagna. She was also a bit disappointed because there wasn’t really any vegetables. Just pasta and sauce. She would not order it again.

Will we go back. Probably. The pizza some other folks had...

When we first sat down and looked at the menu I was excited. We ordered entrees and my son got the shrimp scampi. An entree that came with either pasta or a salad. He chose to go with the salad. I got the eggplant Parmigiana with salad instead of pasta. When our food arrived I got a HUGE serving, enough for 2 people to share and a small salad. The shrimp scampi was LITERALLY 5 pieces of shrimp in the sauce. FIVE pieces of shrimp for $17 and a small salad. We were appalled and asked if that was correct which the server who was new didn't know. So we waited 15 minutes for the manager who came to our table and verified that was correct. When we inquired as to how 5 pieces of shrimp equals an entree valuing $17 she became incredibly passive aggressive and continuously interrupted and talked over us. When I asked her to just leave us be to finish our meal she reached over my plate to my son to take his food to add pasta that he didnt want to it. She was asked several times to just leave us be and continued arguing with us for 10 minutes. Never in my life have I experienced such horrendous service or such...