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| - Walking into Brio, you can definitely tell it's a chain restaurant and not "fine dining," though they try. One look at the menu will confirm that. I've had better at Olive Garden at a cheaper price, and at legit Italian restaurants at similar prices.
Service was OK, not great. Didn't get a single water or bread refill. No dessert presentation. Besides that, our waitress was sufficient.
Overall, the food was not satisfying and did not justify the price. We started off with the Beef Carpaccio, which I would say was the highlight of the meal. The meat was perfect and the salad was delicious. It came with fancy crackers that tasted exactly like Cheez-Its to me, so we chucked those to the side.
For the main entree, I had the lobster/shrimp ravioli, which as I described was understuffed (maybe had one decent sized chunk of shrimp). The sauce was thin and had way too much lemon. By the end of it, I was still really, really hungry. Another member of my party ordered the carbonara, and if you like your meal tasting like garlic, then you'll love the carbonara. Another member ordered the lamb chops. They were cooked appropriately by request, with a side of mashed potatos and asparagus. The lamb was good, but I couldn't help but be reminded of the flavor of Banquet's own microwaveable dinner, the classic Salisbury Steak. It tasted exactly like it. I enjoyed it, maybe because it took me back to my childhood, but when a $27 dish tastes like a $1 TV dinner, you have some work to do. The mashed potatoes were underwhelming and bland. The asparagus had a subtle seasoning, but was cooked perfectly and tasted great.
We finished off with the dessert trio of Apple Bread Pudding, Vanilla Creme Brulee, and Chocolate Cheesecake. I'm not a sweets fan but they were all pretty good.
I won't be going back. I'm not a huge fan of Italian cuisine, and this restaurant turned me off even more.
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