Brio Italian Grille — Restaurant in Allen

Ask me politely about how well I handled waiting over an hour after arriving early for a reservation made days ago at Brio. Probably not well

I learned from Seinfeld that in a situation comedy, a reservation is what people do to reserve a specific time and table, so you know when to to plan and travel and show up to pay money and eat your cold food?...where high schoolers on tablets are running the joint and can't be bothered to bring you silverware, or a SweetNLow..or some bread...or butter?...In a dining room of mid afternoon empty tables?

None of the young staff looked like they were super energetic  or at all interested in making it a good experience for any paying customer....or even caring.

We ran into friends in the dining room and their experience  was no better. They were just glad they could take their leftovers and get out of there.

The three young hostesses and seaters at the front were sipping on their Brio to go cups, thumbing through their phones while the grown up lady with the cool colorful eyeglasses continued to keep telling guest after guest checking in that Brio would do their best to seat you as soon as possible. we called her The Librarian. She was sharp and chic.

Umm, y'all....it was Mother's Day 2024? Not COVID 2020. It's A big day that Brio and it's staff and manager...who looked like he was running around with head cut off and just wanted to go home.

There was no where to stand. To wait. it was pouring rain. He would come out and tell us they are doing there best to seat everyone with a reservation and add tables??

Like we're  at grandmas for Thanksgiving and going to get out the folding card table out for the kids?! It was  totally insane but it would be over an hour wait..at 2 pm....for our reservation??

That's insane. We should have left but we foolishly didn't. We grabbed our own silverware and napkins from one of the numerous empty tables. I asked our table neighbor if they wouldn't mind if we grab 2 sweet n lows.

My father went to the kitchen pick up order area to get some bread and find some butter.

Everyone's order came out at different times. A lot of expensive cold plates of ravioli. My niece never even got her flat bread...and was like don't bother them I'll eat my side ceasar salad...we were just happy  we didn't get charged for it. About 15 minutes later my Chicken Parmesan showed up. Lots of spaghetti. No sauce. No cheese. Just two well prepared and my compliments, delicious pan fried chicken breast over dry, unseasoned ,chewy pasta.

I was so upset and still am that this was the mother's day plan I made for my mother and my sister and our  families. It was just unbelievable.

And I've worked in food service so I never say a word or get upset and try to be cool. I think the only time I ever spoke up in the past was when I once ordered a Whataburger with cheese with mayonnaise only and got a bun, with a slice of cheese and mayo...no beef patty, lol.

This experience came close. At least we never have to come back to spend 275 dollars and be so disappointed. Please tey do better if you want to stay a popular spot in The Allen community. Thank...

A real true, honest review:

I came to Brio on my lunch break because I was craving a Bolognese & I saw they had a lunch special. Because my lunch break isn’t that long & I knew what I wanted, I figured I could call & place a Togo order. I called, no one answered. I decided to just go in & I waited at the host stand for about 6 minutes before anyone noticed I was there. To me, that was a long time considering how dead they were. I get sat & the server took a little while to get to me, no big deal just thought it was odd cause they were dead. Server was nice & I placed my order immediately. I got a water & the lunch special of a bolognese and a Caesar salad. Then a different server came up to me telling me she was taking care of me as well. I got my caesar and it was honestly one of the best Caesar’s I’ve had, the bolognese however ruined this entire experience for me and is the main reason I will never come back or recommend this place. For starters, the portion was really small. About the size of the palm of my hand (I’m a girl so it’s not that big). I don’t eat a lot so the size didn’t bother me too much but I felt the need to put that so others know it is SMALL for the price. The size was fine but this was the WORST bolognese I’ve ever had. Not because of the flavor but because it was so obvious that it was OLD. It was dry and crusty, as if it had been sitting out for hours or if it was made days prior and reheated in the microwave. There is no way to make a sauce covered pasta dry & crusty unless it was old. It was so bad I could not even finish it. I have never in my life been served food so unfresh. I was so disappointed to pay $19 for the smallest bowl of old spaghetti. Also having 2 servers consistently check on me and take care of me made me uncomfortable at the end because I felt pressure to tip both of them. I came in by myself & ordered a water & lunch special with no special requests. I didn’t feel it was necessary to have 2 servers. Had my pasta been fresh, I probably wouldn’t have said anything at all but what they served me felt like a crime. I felt like I was eating someone’s leftovers. If I didn’t have to rush back to work I would’ve spoken to a manager but it took them so long to seat me & took even longer to reheat the old pasta they gave me that I didn’t have time to talk to someone about it.

Again, had my pasta been fresh, I probably wouldn’t have said anything but that was disgusting and makes me question the character of the manager & chef for being okay serving that to someone. I’ve worked in the service industry my entire life & never have I ever had a manager that would be okay with feeding that to people. The only reason I gave this 2 stars is because the ceaser was good & the...

• Update* 3 out of 12 in our party has food poisoning. We were very thankful that the restaurant was able to accommodate our large group at the last minute, especially since they were already busy. When I mentioned that our entire party hadn’t arrived yet, they assured me it wasn’t an issue and that we would still be seated.

Initially, our waiter had a positive attitude, even knowing some of our group was running late. However, things began to shift when my brother asked for a water with lemon. The request seemed to throw him off, and he responded, “Well… yeah, I guess so. Does everyone else want water?” We said yes, thinking we’d start with water and order other drinks later. When my daughters asked for lemonades, he seemed to ignore them until my husband spoke up, after which he brought the drinks.

As we moved to ordering food, it became apparent that our waiter was frustrated. He told my husband he would start with him for taking orders. My husband, being old-school, prefers to let everyone else order first. This seemed to irritate the waiter, but my husband pressed on, starting with our youngest daughter’s order and going down the line.

When it came time to separate the checks, the waiter became visibly upset because he had assigned specific numbers to each of us, and my husband was pointing out who belonged on our check. The waiter raised his voice and started counting and pointing at everyone. I eventually stepped in, understood his system, and sorted it out.

Unfortunately, the tension escalated further when one of my daughter’s friends said, “I didn’t order a lemonade.” The waiter snapped back, “Then give them all back because they’re messed up!” This left us all uncomfortable and eager to leave.

The restaurant itself is beautiful, and the manager and hosts were fantastic. However, the food didn’t meet expectations. My sister-in-law’s dish was overly sauced, and my daughter stopped eating her chicken because it was “chewy and pink.” Given the situation with the waiter, we didn’t feel comfortable bringing up concerns...