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Fratello Ristorante Italiano, San Jose - 5/2/2015
Fratello is a casual neighborhood Italian restaurant owned and operated by two brothers: Carmine and Julio in San Jose's Willow Glen neighborhood.
Located a strip mall type shopping center next to Pho wagon so if you are not from the neighborhood you probably will never known this place existed. Tuan was searching for a restaurant serving risotto with squid ink and found out that Fratello was the only restaurant that have that dish on their menu. They have since removed it from their menu because it was not selling very well but Carmine told us that he can serve it as long as we call him a couple days ahead. We came here so many times that we are pretty friendly with the two brothers.
We love their fresh home made pasta so much that we came back so many times but I never got a chance to take a few pictures so it is way over due.
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Basically if you are not from the neighborhood chance are you probably will never know about this place unless someone tell you about it.
Patrons are mostly from the neighborhood and we are probably the only large group of Asian eating frequently here.
As you enter the restaurant the first thing you see is a large bar. We got a private room which is all the way at the end of the restaurant on the left of the picture.
View of the bar as I was walking back to the private room.
They have Entertainment on Friday night with live music (one man band) and the singer is actually a pretty good.
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The menu
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All the pasta are hand made. |
Olive oil and |
Wine by our sommelier extraordinaire.
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Two bottles of Paloma 2011 Merlot |
2 bottles of Sbragia |
Left: Phuc, sommelier extraordinaire, Huyen, Me, Loan, and Maily
Right: Tuan, Hanh, Hoa, Minh, and Tuan
This is their private room and it can hold easily 14 to 16 people.
Most of the time we usually get this room as it is difficult to get a large table in the dinning room.
Starting the evening with a glass of red and wine...
Calamari Fritti: lightly fried fresh Monterey Bay calamari ring - $9
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Carpaccio Kobe: Kobe Beef carpaccio, arugula, garlic aioli, shaved parmesiano and herb crostini - $14 |
Melanzana Pamiggian: Lightly fried eggplant, marina sauce, fresh basil, tomato sauce -$10 |
Their Eggplant is actually very delicious and the addition of fried egg enhanced the flavor of the dish.
Appetizers are served....
Pulpo alla Griglia: Grilled Italian octpus, sautéed with baby spinach, lemon olive oil, Sicilian oregano -$14
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This is probably one of my favorite dish from Fratello. They cook the octopus to perfection and they grilled so it has a nice charred flavor. |
The basic garlic and oil spaghetti is really delicious. It looks very simple but it is full of flavor. |
The oil garlic spaghetti goes really well with grilled octopus.
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This their special of the day: Home made pasta with seafood. |
Trofie con Salsiccia: Handmade trofie, sautéed local farm red onion, fresh chopped tomato, spinach, mushrooms, homemade seasoned Italian sausages with roasted garlic wine sauce - $23 |
When we eat at Fratello we always ordered the trofie (on the left).
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Special of the day: Grilled lamb chops with tomatoes and spinach--$40
The lamb chops are always delicious at Fratello.
As you can see we enjoyed the food and polished everything on our plate!
Fratello's appetizers dishes are better than their main dishes so when we are there, we usually order a bunch of appetizers, a few dishes of pasta, and a couple main dishes to share among us. Their home made pasta is definitely a must order.
Fratello is our favorite family style Italian restaurant and we do return there quite often. We have been eating at Fratello so many times that the owners welcome us with open arms. Very good service, reasonably priced, good atmosphere, and we never had a bad meal here.
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Fratello 1712 Meridian Ave, Ste FSan Jose, CA 95125
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Filed under: Restaurants
