Fratelli Lyon

Not sure if they serve bread with the meals but we did not get any. I only realized when it was too late and not worth asking. The seafood appetizer is blah – small serving of raw seafood and poorly seasoned. Not sure if my palate is not that sophisticated but I enjoy sushi and sashimi but did not enjoy this. For mains my wife had the ribeye and I had the lamb chops. Ribeye was ordered medium and was delivered well done and was like eating and old shoe. If the three small chops, one was perfect and the other two overcooked. Flavor was ok. Sides are extra and cost $ 8. We tried the polenta, which we usually enjoy, but it tasted like it was cooked in insectized. I wish I would have tried the pasta. I doubt it but maybe their pasta is amazing and that’s why the restaurant was so crowded. Very perplexing.

I had lunch here today for the second time. I really want to like this place more than I do. The location is awesome and the set up is super modern and cool. There’s crazy loud construction going on outside the restaurant, but, hey, not their fault.
I went with my parents around 12 this afternoon and we were the only people there. A few tables filled up later on, mostly families. The complimentary breadsticks and bread plate that they bring is amazing. Really crunchy breadsticks and high-​quality olive oil for the bread. My issue was with the pasta. I ordered the tagliatelle with duck ragu — sounds awesome right? It was ok. Good home made pasta, but something about the ragu was off. Kind of too saucy, and then they just piled this random meat (not duck) on top of the pasta. My mom’s penne with spicy boar sausage and goat cheese was really good and my dad’s prosciutto panini looked good as well. I guess I was just expecting more from what I ordered. I would be willing to give it another chance though — definitely think this place has potential.

First of all, if you are a fan of contemporary and modern art, then this is THE restaurant for you in the Miami Design District.
It sits in the front of a design shopping mall, and the full dinning room is open with the modern bar in the middle. The room have a high ceiling, floor to ceiling glass on two side and exposed duct work on the top, so urban chic. Love it. There are only two colors in the room, white and orange, this is classic.
I came in the restaurant with hesitation, as there is only 1 table or 2 seated with people during lunch time?! While the tapas restaurant across the street is full! Well, let me tell you guys, you are not going to be disappointed choosing this one.
I ordered the duct pasta dish, and it was heavenly amazing as an Italian dish. I have never been a fan of pasta with tomato sauce. However, this is the first time, I’m impressed and actually fully enjoyed the dish. And I wish I can have more. When you have this feeling, you know it’s perfect!
When you are in this building, please tour a little of the mall. On the day I visited during Art Basel Design Miami, there is an American-​Korean artist who is performing a live art show: Live like a pig for 108 hours, naked. No photo allowed, so I can’t prove to you all, but she is basically eating and living inside a pig pit with two fellow pigs, and everyone can see through the window. I’m not sure how to define ART, but she is a Columbia Univ graduate, so it must be good?! They said the project will be shown in Paris next year!
There is also a Dior pop up store during the week, what a wonderful day!

Stopped back for another good meal, and it was a good Italian meal. However, having just been to the other «brothers,» Fratelli Milano I fear that by comparison I’m about to downgrade Fratelli Lyon a notch. Lyon’s flavors are good, but not nearly as good, the service is good, but not consistently as good, matter of fact this time bordering upon lousy, and the culinary artistry (yes, I do mean «artistry» as in a work of art), not the equal. The clams and pasta, good but nothing special and the clams run of the mill ordinary as opposed to the razor back clams at Milano. My thought is that Fratelli Lyon has been gradually slipping, losing the culinary pizzazz, attentive service and attention to detail with which it started.

Disclaimer: I’ve only eaten bread here and the free almond cookies at the bar– but I have lost almost 3 hours of my life sitting around waiting for Lyon. Let’s just say, I thought the «slow food movement» to which they ascribe meant something completely different.
WTF moment #1: Wandered in one 2^nd Saturday evening — asked how long a wait for a table. «15 minutes — tops.» 40 minutes, 2 beers and too many almond cookies later, our party split. Hungry but not dejected. We figured it was late, we had no reservation — such is life. In retrospect, the hostess was full of crap and we were young and naïve.
WTF moment #2. Armed with a civilized 9:30pm Saturday night reservation, we arrived with 5 minutes to spare — ready to valet and pig out. «Sorry, no valet now.» «Waaaa???» «We’re full.» «Can we wait?» «No valet now.» And so — the Italian WTF-​ness began…
I just deleted what was to become a too-​long, useless review. Let me cut to the chase…
We finally put in our order 45 minutes into our wait and patiently sipped our complimentary, «I’m so sorry for the long wait drinks.» 30+ minutes after that– we had it with the waiting for the waiter who had nothing to wait and left our table at 11:00pm — just walked out — never to return again.
No one around us had much in terms of food on their tables either. I wonder if they left too? I’d recommend just skipping this place all together and go to the wonderful Mai Tardi across the street.
Arrivaderci, Lyon.

I have been here a few times and always enjoyed the food. This last time however, the service was so bad.
We were a table of 8 and I think we were sitting down for about 25 minutes before our lips ever touched a glass of water much less our cocktails/​wine. I enjoy taking time for the food and can handle a little slowness there but please god don’t be slow with beverages on a saturday night when we want to get our drink on.
Everyone was happy with their food but not with the service. Not just at the beginning but pretty much during the whole meal, the server made us feel like we were bothering her. No need! Won’t be in a hurry to return.

Very disappointing — I have been here 3 times before and each time it has gotten worse. I will not be returning…
First the sea bass smelled fishy, really fishy (it must have been frozen)
Second the service was slow
Third broccoli rabe, sausage and pasta — seemed to be plain old broccoli
Overall the entrees were blah and way over seasoned to cover up for the low quality ingredients. The very worst part is that Cricket, the world’s best bartnder (ess) is no longer there. So the drinks kind of suck. The restaurant is nice, but for the same price or much less, there are better options in the area.

If I could give 3.5 I would. The service is great. The ambience very modern European, clean, lofty. The quality of the food is excellent, fresh, savory, delicious. The bread is fresh, crispy and awesome. I had the polpette (veal meatballs) and loved them. The bucatini alamatriciana looked very good also. The salad was the size of a side salad and totally overpriced for a small plate of lettuce tossed in olive oil and pine nuts.
The portions are super tiny and we all left hungry because we refused to pay $ 6 for a scoop of sorbet or $ 10 for a possibly more substantial dessert.
If they lowered their prices by a few $ I would consider coming back but in the meantime I’ll stick to Silvano’s on the beach for better value.

Pretentious crowd mixed with the most horrible (so-​called) Itlian food ever makes this place the worst restaurant I have been to in a long time.
Seriously, chef boyardi tastes better!
This place is all about location, don’t go here and expect great service (or even mediocre service), go here only for the drinks!

This is another one of those stereotypically Miami, high on style but low on substance restaurants. My girlfriend and I went for dinner last Saturday after hearing rave reviews about this place. First the good: the menu looked very appetizing. Our server was very good — passionate about food, knowledgeable about the menu and able to recommend a really nice glass of wine to go with dinner. The place itself is very funky-​attractive and has a real energetic feel which makes dining there fun. And prices, overall were reasonable, especially given the Design District location.
However, the food was nothing more than average. Our two biggest gripes was that dishes we ordered that should’ve been high on flavor (e.g., pear and fontina stuffed ravioli with a brown butter sage sauce) were incredibly flavorless. And dishes that were Italian classics (e.g., orrechiete with sausage, broccolini and tomato) were not even close to authentic, nor were they a chef’s riff on that theme. For example, my orrechiete dish had pasta that was overcooked, sauce that was watery (possibly because the pasta wasn’t trained well enough) and a tomato sauce that tasted canned.
So, while it was a reasonably priced dinner and we had a nice time together, the food was wholly unmemorable and we would not go back again.

Finally decided to try this place out. We went on a Saturday afternoon to enjoy a Linar (lunch/​dinner). I enjoy Linar’s. As we walked in I thought the décor was cool, modern, nice color scheme, and really liked the very large bar in the middle. They had a good crowd of people and I thought wow this is going to be very good. I guess my expectations were to high. Hostess sat us and we scoured over their lunch menu. First thought was they were a bit high for lunch, but did not matter if it was good.
It literally took fifteen minutes for our waiter to come and greet us. We just kept looking around like are we ever going to get waited on or should we get up and leave. OK so finally he comes over and we were more than ready to order our food. We both ordered a salad and our entrée’s. Finally the bread comes over, very nice delish foccacia and Italian sliced bread with so so oil.
Our salads arrived and although they were very fresh and crisp they had NO flavor to them at all. I had to ask for Balsamic and oil and salt and pepper to give some kind of taste. The food does take a very long time to come out, so please do not come here if you are in a hurry. We were not in a hurry but we also did not expect over a two hour lunch.
Then our entrée’s finally arrive. I ordered the pasta with clams and hubby ordered mussels. His mussels were made with saffron which was the only saving grace to his dish. The juice had very good flavor especially for dipping bread into, in which I did because it winded up to be my meal. The mussels were just OK nothing memorable. Now my dish whew, talk about non descript and boring. It was spaghetti with clams, if this dish is made properly it can be very good. Again no flavor whatsoever.
After putting salt, pepper, oil, nope it was still very unimpressive. And for I think around $ 15 bucks, so not worth it. Hubby finally ate it, while I ordered more bread for dipping.
Service, slow, slow, friendly waiter but he was not good about coming to check on us at all. Glad that I finally made it here but will not return as there are so many other places that are much better with better service and food, and price!
Unimpressed!!!

Ok, I’ve revisited — and I have to say that while I still think prices are high in the regular menu for some things (desserts $ 8 to $ 10 is too much for me), they still bring out high-​quality ingredients and cooking.
And in making their restaurant more accessible to the locals, they also have a happy hour menu that’s pretty… dare I say it — cheap! And they’re a good deal. Very Italian, very fresh, and even a few interesting flavors in the mix.
But my favorite thing about this place on a hot Miami summer day? Their homemade sodas. They have pomegranate, and many other flavors. My favorites are lime-​ginger and blood orange sodas — they’re refreshing and fresh-​tasting! Where else are you going to find such a good soda that’s homemade in Miami?
In other words, get your butt over here! Happy hours from 4 pm to 7 pm, Mondays to Fridays.

We came here for appetizers and drinks with a couple of friends on a Saturday night. We were surprised to be seated right away at 08.00 at night, which was very nice. The valet is only $ 3.00, also, which is a nice touch.
The restaurant is very dark and romantic. The lighting is mostly candlelight, which makes reading the menu difficult yet a great atmosphere.
We ordered a few meats, cheeses, seafood and veggie appetizers for the table. We were also brought fresh olive bread, which was very good. My favourite item from the appetizers was definitely the fiori di zucca, which I think was a special. Fried zucchini with a seafood stuffing — absolutely amazing. The artichokes and scallops were also very good.
The prices are reasonable (a combo of three appetizers is $ 16 — enough for two-​three people to have a few bites of each item) and the service is impeccable. We will be back to try the entrees, the waiter mentioned a lamb steak with pomegranate reduction that sounds delicious.

I went to Fratelli Lyon last night, at the peak of my interest in the slow food concept. I’ve recently sworn off anything processed, heavily preserved, and mass produced, so when I read that Fratelli Lyon lives by the motto: «from the farm to the kitchen,» I was stoked. Seasonal veggies and free range meats sounded right up my alley.
Imagine my excitement when even the cocktail menu featured herbs and fresh fruit in drinks. Well, you’re already expecting it, so here comes, the food wasn’t that great and the service was noticeably terrible; the ladies at my table wanted drinks and they wanted them yesterday. Our server came by the table maybe 3 times and it was only to deliver the 3 rounds of cocktails.
Anyway, the meal. The strip steak’s main flavor came from the light char on the outside, otherwise it was pretty flavorless. My flat pasta with veal? Also uninspired and bland. But the cold mushroom appetizer was perfectly lemony and garlicky and the cocktails also featured a harmonious balance of flavors. Too bad the main dishes couldn’t follow suit.

I stopped by here on a whim with my girlfriend because we were so hungry we didn’t want to wait for a table at Sra. Martinez. In retrospect that was a mistake because having already experiencing THE «Il Gabbiano», there was only so much this place could do to compete for the affection of my tastebuds.
Yes, it’s true the décor has an IKEAesque feel to it. Actually I’ve never been to an IKEA so I would have to say I was reminded of a SEARs showroom for the kitchen appliances. That didn’t bother me except for the fact that I felt overdressed and I kept knocking over things from the display abutting my dining table.
The food was decent nothing to write home about. Good enough for the masses, but not fit for a foodie. I had the Cavetelli for my primi and the duck for my Secundi. Both plates were spotless after I got through with them, so maybe my memory of the meal is harsher than the reality of what transpired on my side of the table. On the other side of the table my girlfriend had the Papparedelle with veal ragu and she wasn’t having any of it. She thought it would be a good choice because she had the same dish at Mai Tardi and loved it; (All Italian restaurants are not created equal is the moral of the story kids). Anyways, the waiter took it off our bill without asking which was a nice surprise!
We both liked the complimentary cookie nougat served with our tea as well as the bread pudding dessert. The service was friendly and unpretentious. We walked into the restaurant without reservations on a Saturday night and were seated right away. Parking across the restaurant is free after 6pm on the weekends. Decent restaurant, little pricey, not in a rush to go back, but wouldn’t be upset if someone treated me to dinner here.
Namaste

After the amazing sunset happy hour at Smith & Wo, we tipped over to the design district. Fratelli Lyon was our dinner spot.
Its like a loft turned restaurant. All glass and exposed concrete with red accents (candelabras, globe lights).
Our server, Fernando, was very special. I highly recommend requesting one of his tables.
We ordered a bottle of the Barbera, had the olives, the burrata, shrimp & zucchini risotto. Actually, we’d also ordered the duck. However, we realized we were too full to eat that in time for the kitchen to put the kibosh on it. Whew! We were stuffed!
It was a nice meal. Nice setting. Great staff. Decent restroom. I’d go back.

Since décor doesn’t make or break a restaurant for me, although the place is super cute and you can buy absolutely anything, from the chairs to the place mats its not going to be part of the review itself when it comes to giving or taking away stars. Sure the décor is cool, but I don’t eat décor now do I?
I pass by every day Monday through Friday, and there is always someone eating inside. Today we had a rare moment where we could stop and finally try it out so we did.
The hostess was super duper nice and informative. The place was empty, it was for a very late lunch. I would expect that since there was absolutely no one else in the whole restaurant besides us at that point.
So we sit and are waiting for my daughter who would be out in 5 mins from school, and would walk right over. Its next door. The waiter was really cold, distant and just didn’t seem like he wanted to be helping us. Again, no one else was in the whole place, he works for tips so dude. work it, OK? As soon as Danielle sits down he comes to take our order, poor thing rushed her decision because he was standing staring at her. Poor thing looked intimidated by him.
OK so they also have a ‘Miami Spice type’ menu. (Remember this is still the lunch menu) One appetizer, one main dish and a dessert. This is when it gets fun and by fun I mean NOT fun. You can order one of two of the lesser expensive appetizers — a soup or a salad basically, one of two of the main dishes, both sans any protein and a dessert. OK FINE, so there is only one choice for dessert, we asked him if we got two of the specials if we could choose two different desserts. This makes sense right? Well, again, he COULD have asked the manager (helpful to customers makes for a better TIP) or look at us rolled his eyes and say no. Guess what he decided to do? Yup. rolling eyes & a big no.
By then I was already a tad unhappy because of the attitude, my hubby said — y’kno. I am not eating (he really wasn’t hungry anyway when we had got there) and I only ordered the Minestrone Soup.
SO another very wealthy looking couple comes in and he virtually ignores us and fawns over them until we flag him down for the bill… but I get ahead of myself.
OK so now for the food: The soup was very colorful, it had an assortment of zucchini, squash, cherry tomatoes, and even teeny tiny green beans and what I guess to be Barley. It was good — not mind blowing and a bit salty.
My daughters five ravioli were very good, the pasta was obviously home made, it was filled with ricotta and basil and instead of sauce it had oil and seasonings. That was IT though, no side of anything. Throw some polenta, sliced tomatoes, a sliver of toast, I don’t know. something on the side. All it had were five lonely ravioli for $ 16 — thats over $ 3 PER ravioli. I don’t mind paying for mind blowing food, but my baby was still hungry when she finished. Don’t give me the primi, secundi song and dance. Not for lunch, for dinner I would be willing to order a slew of different dishes like in Italy but not for lunch. I know how it works in Italy, I am not a dufus.
OK. so this is the LUNCH menu, this guy didn’t even ask us if we wanted anything to drink (we are an easy up sell, he didn’t even try.) we ended up paying $ 23.78 before tip for a bowl of soup and five medium ravioli. No beverages, just water.
Mind you, if he — the server — had a better attitude about helping customers we would have gotten (aside from the ravioli) TWO of the lunch specials. Since we would have done that to taste various dishes because of all the rave reviews we have seen, more than being hungry so its his loss. Instead of an 18 — 20% tip on a $ 60 bill he got a 15% tip on a $ 23 bill.
My whole opinion of a restaurant is based on more than just the food, again, if they are going to be pretentious and charge dinner prices for lunch then treat me like I am a queen because the food sure as heck did not in any way blow my mind. Good? Yes. Great? Hell no. Overpriced for what it was and for the ambivalent attitude and pretentious lunch? Yes
Again, I am here in the District every day of the working week — they could have won me over as a regular customer but had they just don’t want me.
Oh well… my experience can be summed up with one expression — Meh.

I returned to Fratelli Lyon for the inuagural «Aperitivo in Milano» happy hour last night, and it was really great. We were a little worried at first when the promised free hors d’oeuvres didn’t appear, but our fears subsided when we were brought a tray with a selection of Italian-​style tapas. And after that, the free «tastes» just started flowing. We sampled several different kinds of pizza, including a mini pie, a olive & fish paste on fresh bread (tasted way better than it sounds), and some kind of ricotta cheese concoction on toast. It was all delicious.
The wine selection is pared down for the happy hour, which runs from 4−7p.m. on Thursdays. The piccolo is the way to go, as you can get a flight of 3 for $ 15, when they run $ 6 a piece. Of course, you can opt for the bigger pours if you’re so inclined. The bartender was extremely helpful in helping us pick our wines, and allowed us to taste quite a few before we committed.
Aperitivo in Milano was great! I will definitely return!

hmmm… I didn’t like it as much as the other reviewers. I liked it, but I didn’t love it.
I thought the food was good, but the atmosphere for dinner didn’t match the spendy bill. The acoustics there are bad. It’s just very loud, and it echos in there. And just my luck, we were seated next to a dinner party of 6 in which one of the people in that party found everything humorous and worthy of a hearty laugh. The trouble being that her laugh wasn’t too pleasant. It was more of a bird cackel than a laugh.
Wine selection was elaborate yet limiting. I don’t think they had one bottle there that was under $ 40. There are tons of terrific $ 10 and $ 20 vintages. A good restaurant with considerate management will offer a selection in variety and in price range. Sometimes you want to splurge, but not always. It should be up to the individual diner to have that option.

From reading other Unilocalers reviews I had some pretty high expectations. Located inside Driade, Fratelli has a modern ambiance. Pair that with a modern aesthetic, with old world flare and we have a winner.
My friend and I decided to go with the Miami Spice menu, so we enjoyed four courses. First the cheese course, then a small pasta pesto dish. We actually had to send the second dish back to the kitchen. Something just didn’t taste right and the staff immediately took away the plates and first returned with the chef’s sincere apologies and then with a fresh dish.
The third course was a copper bowl full of a seafood medley soup, and then I had vanilla and chocolate gelato. My friend ordered the same thing except he got the prosecco custard with berries for dessert.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the restaurant was the caliber of the staff. Jorge is an amazing server and a charming conversationalist and Aniece, part of the management staff was helping out and was also delightful.
Easy parking, good food, great staff… it’s easy to like this place. But I didn’t love it.