Trattoria Fabrizio

Returning Customer, Amazing Experience!

My mother and I have for years now enjoyed returning to Trattoria Fabrizio every summer during our annual visit of the Stratford Festival. We love the company and food so much so that we often eat all of our meals there. I am sad to hear that it may be closing. When you enter the restaurant you see a beautiful image! To your right is the gelato counter, all around you are little tables often populated with happy returning customers and a few feet ahead is desert counter covered with cookies, biscotti and more.. Which is dirrectly beside the cake fridge. With all of these beautiful treats now in mind you are hit by the aroma of their beautiful tomato sauce which is a staple of their food. At our first visit I was very surprised how welcoming and amicable both Teresa and Sabatino were, they greeted us like friends even then. And since we have been greeted like family. When you are first seated you are served home-made breads to dip in olive oil and balsamic vinigar. The caprese salad is simple and beautiful with a fresh taste, I find it a nice way to ease in to a heartier pasta meal. The canneloni is topped generously with their tomato sauce and filled with a very moist, creamy and flavourful cheese filling. Then once you feel that you have eaten your rations for the next couple of days (in a good way!) you are welcomed to visit the desert counters or chose some gelato. I almost always go for pistachio gelato and chocolate gelato. The combination is refreshing! In such a great area with shops around, and the theatre nearby going to Trattoria Fabrizio is never a task, I always just find myself there! With amazing servers and owners, delicious food and a good atmosphere my only minor complaint is that air conditioning could be beneficial in the hotter months. (Though the fans tend to do the trick, on a over-hot day it's not always very comfortable..) But even then I can barely say that is a complaint- just an excuse to help myself to some of the gelato they make every day! P.S. My brother bought the first cookbook and we have made several of the recipes, it is a must have book!!

I recently visited this restaurant. I walked in and was immediately reminded of my time in Italy. Great atmosphere! I ordered the chicken caccitore with a side greek salad and my partner ordered the chicken parmiggiana with a side greek salad. Both the caccitore and parmiggiana were cooked to perfection. The chicken caccitore had a nice variety of vegetables and the parmiggiana had a light breading on it which was very pleasant. The sauce nicely completmented each dish. The greek salad had beautiful plate presentation and tasted amazing. There was a balsamic glaze or thicker dressing on the salad which added great flavour to it. My partner and I shared a slice of strawberry shortcake for dessert. The cake was moist and filled with lots of strawberries. Overall, a wonderful dinner and great experience. Our server was a well-informed and very knowledgeable. I will most definitely be returning to this restaurant next festival season.

Avoid this place!

We ordered 500ml of the chardonay. It was passable but not great and the only white on the limited list. ($15.00). We odered 2 of the Veal Parmiggiana and a choice of salad or pasta..we chose pasta..the Cheese Cannelloni ($15.49 each). the 3rd in our party ordered the Cheese Cannelloni as her main ($10.99). The menu described them as and I quote.."Tender veal cutlets marinated and seasoned to perfection. Slow cooked in a tomato sauce & topped with two cheeses. Severed with a choice of salad or pasta". What sat before me was a semi bowl like plate with a cheese cannelloni and a single piece of what was assumed to be veal...and it was literally swiming in oil...with some tomato looking stuff on the bottom. And to top it off it was so tough you couldn't cut it with a knife! We explained the problem to the cook. She asked if we would like her to make another couple of plates, we agreed. I said to Linda....watch...she is going to nuke our dinners....GF said..."you're kidding"...nope there they go one in the top nuker and one in the bottom one. MICROWAVED our veal!! The new dinners arrived..sans the canneloni. I guess we weren't worthy of the full dinner in round two. Needless to say we will not be returning

would not return - rude manager, food lacking

Salads were good. The main courses were way below average. We have had lots of Italian food before, Trattoria style, but this was well below standard. It was the same tomato sauce poured over everything. The veal was VERY tough and disappointing, served in tons of sauce, running off the plate - did not look good, did not taste good - very salty. The lasagna was just OK. We had wine with dinner (it was a small glass, not very good wine, even for average tastes). We asked for water with our meal and 2 of us were served bottled water, for which we were later charged $2.00 per bottle. When we were paying our bills, we mentioned to the manager that we should not have to pay $2.00 for bottled water, when we just asked for water (one person at our table got water in a glass - no charge). The manager was very rude, did not want to hear us and obviously did not care what we had to say. He just said we had to pay it. We get together each month to dine out and thought this looked like good place to get a nice home style meal but were very disappointed. We could even overlook the food but we could not believe how rude and arrogant the manager was. Needless to say we would never return and would definitely not recommend this restaurant to anyone. Annette, Laurie, Dawn and Carla

This Restaurant is #1 in Stratford!!!

Definitely the place to go if you are looking for excellent Italian food, fantastic service and affordable prices.