Friday, May 9, 2014

Fine Italian Dining – Miami Florida

Time to splurge!!  Tonight was the night that we chose to experience fine dining in Miami… I’d done some research and we had 3 choices for dinner, Indian, Argentinian or Italian.  We decided that Italian hit all of our needs and we were off to our destination in downtown Miami!


This, as you can see, is Fratelli Milano.  It offers both inside and curbside dining.  We chose inside…as we’re not really fans of dining outdoors next to a busy street.

I’d researched Fratelli Milano on TripAdvisor.  At that time, it scored 118 excellent or very good reviews vs. 5 poor or terrible evaluations.  It was well within my rule of a 10:1 ratio of good to bad!


This is one view of the inside of the restaurant as taken from our table.  There was sufficient room between tables, the décor was simple and tasteful…and our efficient and friendly waiter Francesco was definitely Italian!


For starters, our waiter brought us this nice basket of Italian bread and breadsticks, as well as this nice dipping sauce.  We do appreciate quality bread!


Dawn Marie took this photo of Laurie and me… We both ordered a glass of wine.  I’d started out with a glass of Pinot Grigio ($8.00) and Laurie had a glass of Malbec. ($9.00) Both wines were very nice…

Question: Does it ever bother you that proper English grammer insists that the correct sentence structure is "Laurie and me"...not "Laurie and I"?  Laurie and me sounds awkward to my ear...


We started out with 2 different appetizers.  This is the Fritto Milano…fried calamari piled over zucchini and artichokes…served with a spicy tomato sauce. ($14.00) Of course, we also had our waiter ‘cover it up’ with fresh grated parmesan cheese.  We loved this appetizer and it was kicked up a notch with that spicy sauce!


The second appetizer was the Carpaccio di Manzo. ($16.00) This plate included thinly sliced raw filet mignon, arugula, Portobello mushrooms, grape tomatoes, slices of parmigiano cheese…drizzled with lemon truffle oil.  It was excellent!

The menu included 6 different choices for appetizers plus the soup of the day and 3 different varieties of bruschetta.  I was also surprised to note that Fratelli Milano also offered 6 different small pizzas to choose from…  The idea of a pizza appetizer was intriguing but the 2 appetizers we ordered were more than enough!


For her entrée, Laurie ordered her favorite Italian dish…Ravioli di Aragosta (Lobster ravioli). ($21.00) This dish consists of jumbo lobster ravioli with grape tomatoes in a pink vodka sauce.  Laurie thought that it was very nice…

The challenge was choosing our pasta from the 11 options plus 3 risotto dishes offered on the menu.  Prices for the pasta/risotto dishes ranged from $15.00 to $21.00.  To view Fratelli Milano’s menu, you can just go to http://media.wix.com/ugd/668ebf_361ab061854f9542d8a5067e2dd23f5d.pdf?dn=Dinner.pdf.     


Dawn ordered the Gnocchetti al Gusto. ($15.00) These homemade potato dumplings are offered with your choice of a cream, pesto or fresh tomato basil sauce.  Dawn enjoyed her entrée…

We all stuck with pasta for dinner.  However, the restaurant’s menu also included chicken, steak, fish/seafood items and veal entrees.  Prices for these meat related offerings ranged from $17.00 to $27.00. 



I ordered the Bucatini San Babila. ($15.00) This tubular spaghetti comes with sweet Italian sausage, broccoli, garlic, pecorino cheese and fresh tomato sauce.  As you can see, I had our waiter add a lot more grated cheese!  This was a very satisfying and enjoyable entrée…

I was tempted to stray from my goal of ordering a satisfying pasta entrée but I persevered, staying with my original choice.  Two dishes were at the top of my list of dining options.  One was the Pollo Farcito…a stuffed breast of chicken with spinach, ricotta cheese and toasted pinenuts…then wrapped in prosciutto de Parma. ($18.00) The other option that I considered was the Vitello Prosciutto e Salvia… This offering consists of veal medallions cooked in Prosecco wine, prosciutto di Palma, sage and scamorza cheese served with roasted potatoes and vegetables. ($21.00)

FYI…Scamorza cheese is an Italian cow's milk cheese, similar to mozzarella but with a much stronger flavor.

We would highly recommend Fratelli Milano to anyone visiting Miami.  This restaurant is located at 213 Southeast 1st Street.  Phone: 305-373-2300.  Website: http://www.ristorantefratellimilano.com/#!

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by and sharing our dinner with us!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave 


5 comments:

  1. I'm impressed with the prices. They are very reasonable for a fine dining establishment. and the atmosphere looks quite lovely. As far as the grammar structure of "I and me" ( from a daughter of an English teacher), imagine taking Laurie out of the sentence (sorry Laurie) and here's how it would sound - Dawn Marie took this photo of I, which sounds wrong to your ear. So, Laurie and me is correct. Hope you both have a lovely weekend and Happy Mother's Day to Laurie.
    Sam

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  2. As you know good Italian is hard to come by around our place so I'm always pleasantly surprised to find a good restaurant.

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  3. I love the picture of the Laurie and you!! The place look lovely !
    A big hug to Laurie in Mother´sday!! xo

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  4. Miami is great and so is Italian food, so this sounds like a winner to me.

    I agree with Sam: take everyone else out of the equation and you'd say, "Dawn took the photo of me." So, "me" is right and that's the easy way of figuring it out. English can be a pain sometimes. :-)

    Have a great Sunday and Happy Mother's Day to Laurie!

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  5. Looks like a nice place. Tammy loves fried calamari and so do I. I am glad that you all had a good time and enjoyed everything. Great photo.
    Blessings, Catherine

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