| rev:text
| - Brio is an good Italian restaurant that always seems to miss the mark to being a great Italian restaurant. The prices are great Italian restaurant prices, but the food and presentation, just miss the mark of being great. I say this because I like Brio, but I think it could be better.
We had been to Brio twice before in different states, so we knew what to expect. The decor is pretty much the same as other Brios -- kind of a Cheescake Factory, glitzy Italian Tuscany. The wait staff is friendly, helpful and professional and dressed in professional-looking uniforms.
We were there because of a birthday coupon Brio had emailed me. (NOTE: Sign-up for Brio emails on their web site! Before your birthday they will send you a coupon, not for a discounted meal or even a buy-one, get-one free meal...but a complete a la carte entrée for FREE with no purchase requirements!)
The coupon we had was for the "Beef Medallions with Shrimp Scampi". (One of their mid-priced entrées.) We ordered the "Brio Chopped Salad" with our meal.
The waitress brought us warm bread and seasoned, thin, crispy flatbread triangles. (The bread was fresh, but the flatbread was not. Instead of being very crispy the flatbread was a little soft. Our second batch of flatbread was very crispy, though.) We asked for olive oil and balsamic vinegar for our bread and salad, but only olive oil and red wine vinegar were available in paired shaker bottles, so our waitress had to go to the kitchen and have them pour some balsamic in a small serving cup for us.
The salad was OK. The chopped greens were all romaine lettuce. (Thankfully no iceberg lettuce to be found!) The salad also had sliced red onion, cucumber, little bits of Feta cheese, a couple cherry tomatoes, and a couple olives.
The entrée included three tender beef medallions, cooked to our order, which were very good. The orzo with veggies was a good addition to the meal. The shrimp were a surprise because they were so tiny...Just little cocktail shrimp. I don't know about you, but EVERYPLACE I have had Shrimp Scampi the shrimp have not been shrimpy...They had always been JUMBO SHRIMP! Even though the shrimp were tasty the whole presentation would have been more impressive had jumbo shrimp been used in the entrée, even if it meant using fewer shrimp!
After the meal the waitress brought me a little birthday dessert topped with a candle. The dessert was a shot glass filled with a chocolate mousse and a rich chocolate cake. I was surprised that instead of being topped with whipped cream, it was topped with what seemed to be Dream Whip! A disappointment to an otherwise very nice dessert.
I don't think I would order the "Beef Medallions with Shrimp Scampi", again, but there are plenty of other things I would like to try in the future.
Brio is not my favorite Italian restaurant, but I have enjoyed it the times I have eaten there.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)