The Brother Trattoria — Restaurant in Tampa

Was looking forward to dinner based on other reviews but unfortunately our expectations fell short.

We arrived early for our reservation and were sat immediately. There were only 2 other parties in the whole restaurant. We were sat directly next to one of them and the table location made it so my butt was split between 2 cushions along the front window.

Waitress took our drink order, we also ordered the fish bites and she offered bread. The bread and dipping oil was delicious. My wife enjoyed her sangria and I had a beer. The blackened fish bites were ok. The meat was tender but the flavor was very fishy. The dipping aioli was just ok.

We placed our order for the mains and I had ordered the lasagna while my wife ordered the rigatoni eggplant dish. When they finally came out I was a bit disappointed with the lasagna dish. Although the pasta was noticeably fresh and tasted great, the layers were mostly pasta with a soup of sauce, meat and cheese on the side. The portion was also underwhelming for the price. The portion was about a 4x4x4 square. See photo. My wife’s dish was filled a bit more but was very acidic and her pasta was doughy and mushy, felt overcooked.

At this point there were maybe 5 groups in the entire restaurant and I still had to ask our waitress for a water refill. She was not very attentive.

When my wife finished about half her dish she noticed that there was a short black hair under one of her noodles (see photo) We stopped and brought it to our waitress attention. She took it back to the kitchen and we asked for the check at that point.

Overall I was not impressed and I would not return in the future. It was a nice location and had potential, but has a lot of work to do on quality and flavor before I...

I'd eaten at the restaurant when it was called Matteo. This was my first visit to it as The Brother. Unfortunately, I had a disappointing dining experience. The windows facing out to the parking lot were filthy. It was made worse as the sun started to set. I hope the kitchen is cleaner than the dining room windows. We arrived early, before 6 pm. We were seated immediately, and water was placed on the table quickly. But, the waitress never mentioned anything about a happy hour menu that was available until 6 pm. We ordered a glass of wine and a Bloody Mary. The waitress returned after five minutes to tell us they couldn't make a Bloody Mary. No apology and no explanation. It's not a good start. We decided to order, and both of us were able to find something on the menu that appealed to us. I ordered the Spaghetti Carbonara (has pancetta) with meatballs and the other order was Pollo Limone. While mine was cooked al dente with a tasty sauce, I couldn't understand why the need for two small meatballs that I felt lacked any discernable flavor. The Lemon Cicken unfortunately fell short of enjoyable. The chicken lacked taste, probably because the lemon sauce was not what one would expect. Halfway through our meal, we noticed all the other tables in the dining room were being brought bread, but not our table. We had to ask for bread. Four small slices arrived with a over abundance of oil in a bowl filled almost to the rim. Overall, it was a disappointing experience and not worth the $74 bill before tip. It's unfortunate since I can't understand how a good restaurant...

I visited The Brother for the first time last night with a group of girlfriends. The ambience is great with the pops of blue contrasted with the light colored brick and comfortable seating. This space would make for a great date night as well as a nice family night out and everything in between. The menu is filled with so many wonderful dishes to choose from, since we had a group, I was lucky to sample many items. Let's start with the warm, fresh bread with deliciously seasoned dipping oil, I really could've made a meal of this alone. We then shared a margherita pizza, you can really taste the wonderful wood fire cook. I ordered calamari and melanzane from the app menu for my meal, both were great, the seafood tasted fresh with a nice light breading, the eggplant stuffed with ricotta was incredible. I cannot say enough about the sauces, each dish I tried blew me away with how delicious, light, and fresh the sauces were. I also sampled a friend's Alfredo and another's rigatoni della casa, both were great and will definitely be a consideration on my next visit. We ended our meal with a sampling of desserts and they were all great, picking a favorite is nearly impossible but I will have to say the creme brulee was perfection, the tiramisu hit all the marks, and the pana cotta was divine with the delicious vanilla notes. Every staff member was friendly and helpful, you truly feel like part of the family. I cannot...