Scott F. wrote re I Fratelli: : We had a great dinner there. The risotto was a little bland, but : I'm a real risotto snob... Yes, but this is from the guy who opined in print that Spiedo of San Mateo, quite possibly the worst Italian restaurant in existence, was a fine place to eat. If you like Italian food with strange and inappropriate flavors from bad Asian cooking (tandoori in a jar meets Italian roast game hen???), it's for you. Most people should avoid it. Piatti in Palo Alto is similarly flawed, but not quite as blatantly. I've found that Il Fornaio does a reasonable job in both Burlingame and Palo Alto. And why would one generally order risotto in a restaurant anyway, especially if you are expecting something close to homemade? Risotto is one of those dishes that cannot be made really well in a restaurant setting without high cost, long waits, or both. You can get tasty dishes under this name, and yes I do order them sometimes, but nitpicking them in restaurants seems a waste of time. I've not yet been to I Fratelli, so it may indeed be excellent for all I know. But seeing this rehash of Mr. Fisher's Mercury News review in this forum seemed to call for a warning label that you can't get in that paper, for all its posturing about "reader participation". I'd rather they simply hire reporters who know their beat. Michael
San Francisco Bay Area, CA