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Y! MyWebRestaurant Review
Brio Tuscan Grille
Menu worth sampling at Italian restaurant
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
BEAVERCREEK — Brio Tuscan Grille, which opened last month in The Greene, bills itself as a "casual, white-tablecloth restaurant serving authentic northern Italian cuisine" that is "similar to what one would find in authentic ristorante in Tuscany."
That's setting the bar a little high.
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Brio Tuscan Grille
The center is the Rack of Lamb, the foreground is the bruschetta, the back of the table shows the Beef Carpaccio. Brio Tuscan Grille
- WHERE: 4459 Cedar Park Drive in The Greene, Beavercreek. [Map]
- HOURS: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
- COST: Lunch $9.95 to $15.50, dinner entrees from $11.95 to $28.95.
- DISHES TO TRY: Bruschetta ($8.95), Beef Carpaccio ($10.50), oak-grilled lamb chops ($23.95).
- MORE INFO: (937) 429-7792 or www.brioitalian.com.
- MORE: Reader ratings, complete profile
More information
Featuring a menu that includes wood-grilled and oven-roasted steaks, chops and fish, as well as pasta dishes, Brio has opened to a seemingly strong response, with diners on some evenings waiting for tables in the spacious restaurant that seats 350.
Diners can eat well at Brio — a sister restaurant to Bravo! and part of a Columbus-based chain — but there also are misfires.
From the appetizer list, the beef carpaccio offers razor-thin slices of tender, raw beef fanned across a large oval platter, topped in the center with mixed lettuces, capers and a mustard vinaigrette. A companion declared the dish superior to a carpaccio he had ordered in Italy a few months earlier. The Brio Bruschetta contrasts two choices of toppings on sliced Italian bread, one a grilled shrimp with lobster butter, the other fresh mozzarella with seared red pepper and a drizzle of balsamic-style vinegar. A "tomato mozzarella caprese" would have benefited from higher-quality tomatoes — especially in Ohio in September.
The "bistecca" strip steak, cooked to the ordered medium rare, was tender and properly seasoned, yet lacked beefy flavor. Pasta dishes such as the shrimp and lobster garganelli and the garganelli carbonara boast rich, intensely flavored sauces that can overwhelm the pasta. More successful were the oak-roasted lamb chops — a generous full rack sliced into four two-rib chops and served with marsala sauce, asparagus and mashed potatoes — and the tournedos di manzo, twin fillets of beef served atop Romano cheese-encrusted tomato slices and topped with a dollop of hollandaise. The beef filets were meltingly tender and possessed the beefy flavor that the strip steak lacked.
The wine list is heavy on Italian selections, which match well with the food. But the restaurant curiously refused to allow diners to take home leftover wine in bottles, despite a state law that took effect allowing just that — a corporate decision, we were told.
And there were service missteps: a cup of cappuccino was served at room temperature, although minutes later that turned out to be most fortuitous when a server knocked the contents over and onto the leg of one of my dining companions. To its credit, the restaurant's response was swift and appropriate.
The experience isn't quite the same as dining in Florence, but the Brio Tuscan Grille brings a new dimension to the local dining scene, and its menu is worth exploring.
