Fratelli's - Saint Augustine

Made reservations for 6pm/5 people for fiancee's birthday dinner. Even though they had a lot of warning we were coming, including a call to Mary the owner to say that we would be there within 10 minutes, no table for 5 was set up for our arrival. Although several clean tables were available that could have easily been pushed together, we were seated at 2 dirty tables in a very dark, crowded corner by the door...no lights, no candles until we requested some be lit so we could see each other. The young girl cleaning off the table swept all the previous diners' crumbs on the floor so we got to walk out with that on our shoes. No water was brought to the table until we asked and then only 1 carafe for 5 people. There was no silverware or napkins on the table except what the young girl threw down. And though they brought bread out several times while we were waiting for our food, we had no plates for the bread and had to ask 3 times for the olive oil dipping sauce we ordered as an appetizer. The salads were minuscule and made of cheap iceberg lettuce. The food was good but delivered piecemeal. For the price and wait, it was not that remarkable. When we said we were ready for dessert, they only had 1 piece of day old cheesecake and tiramisu left...DISASTER for a birthday dinner, which, by the way, they never even wished her happy birthday in spite of the gifts we had brought in with us. We had to go to a Dairy Queen to get dessert...not exactly the special romantic Italian dinner I had hoped to wow her with. And though Jill and I like to give our dining dollar locally, Olive Garden or Carrabas would have been a better choice. Everyone was VERY DISAPPOINTED! and Jill was even a bit teary afterwards that her birthday dinner was such a disaster. P.S. You have to walk through the kitchen to the only bathroom...and even though our granddaughter had to go, they acted like it was a huge imposition. Seriously, don't waste your dining dollar here. It may have been good in the past, but the new owners don't know how to run a restaurant.

I come to fratellis many times before and it's ok