Brio Tuscan Grille — Tysons Corner
Location: Tysons Corner Mall; Tysons Corner, VA.
After catching a movie at Tysons mall on Saturday, Annie and I decided to check out Brio Tuscan Grille. There were a few factors that influenced our decision. 1) They are a client of the company I work for, so it’s always nice to check out who I am truly slaving for 9 hours of the day and 2) my cousin-in-law mentioned that her and her family had really enjoyed their visit.
I am all for traditional Tuscan cooking. However, I should have known that the chain restaurant worlds interpretation of Tuscan cooking is not quite the same. Either that, or Brio just failed to execute their vision correctly. Either way, our meal left us not only unsatiated, but rather positively disappointed.
Ill begin with where we sat. I think using large open veranda-style doors is a wonderful way to create a faux “out-door” seating area when one cannot really be achieved. However, this seating area should be for show only. Why? Because it was sort of unpleasant sitting as close as humanly possible to one of the malls many entrances, and staring in disbelief as newcomers gawked and pointed at what I had chosen to eat…while I was eating it.
The service wasn’t much better. A youngish lady (the hostess) greeted us well enough, but then stared at me as if waiting for me to make the first move. Technically speaking, this isnt really wrong, but a good hostess should anticipate your needs and prompt you with “table for two?” Our waitress was non-existent throughout most of the meal, and when she did finally decide to show her face, she stared at me unnervingly and made strange, nonsensical comments under her breath. I kept trying to tell myself she was just having a bad day…
Now for the food. There were two kinds of breads that arrived with a large chunk of still frozen butter. One was a delectable sourdough loaf that was presented to us piping hot. It was clearly baked on the premises, and it was the perfect mix of hard crusty outside and warm gooey inside. Its accompaniment was a chip like seed covered flat bread that tasted like way too much garlic salt.
For an appetizer we ordered Zucchini Fritti, a classic Tuscan/Italian summer dish. I was excited to dig in, but when it arrived, it looked more like a sea of fried batter rather than veggies. The zucchini was over cooked so it was floppy like a wet noodle, which did two things. First, it made picking up individual pieces nearly impossible (they were cut long, like carrot sticks) and they were also clearly over-oiled, which, when combined with being over-cooked led to all of the batter just sliding off. So, what we ended up with was a pile of batter on the bottom of the platter, and a heap of un-eaten zucchini.
My hopes were slightly deflated, but I decided to with hold final judgment until we tried out entrees. They arrived well spaced after our appetizer, and their presentation was fairly well done. My one grip in this department would be the plates. They were simple white serving plates (which is fine), but they were adorned with a giant green BRIO, which stared at me for the remainder of my meal. It was as if they were desperate to make sure you wouldn’t forget where you were eating.
The food itself was a major let down. For myself, I ordered the Shrimp and Lobster Gargemelli pasta. The shrimp was grilled and were of average size, but one or 2 were burned. The lobster was imitation lobster, and felt like a gummy bear. The pasta was overcooked and mushy (which I personally hate) and the “spicy lobster butter sauce” tasted like someone dropped and entire pound of pepper in.
My girlfriend Annie ordered the Grilled Salmon Pasta, which she happily allowed me to sample for the purposes of writing this article. The salmon itself was completely overcooked, tasting of char and dried out fish. The pasta used was angel hair, which essentially tasted like a stick of butter, in addition to being over-cooked. The final ingredient was grilled asparagus, which surprisingly, was cooked to perfection. Suffice to say, our meal was a disaster. We were so discouraged that we didn’t even venture a look at the dessert menu. As with any chain restaurant, the experience could be isolated to our location. However, it was certainly a disappointment, and will probably keep us from visiting Brio’s version of Tuscany anytime in the near future.
Joel // Other posts by Joel