Tucked smack dab in the middle of the Battaramulla town, a little off the general hustle lies a pretty gorgeous white house that -from what I remember, has always been some sort of restaurant. This is called Brio – The Italian Kitchen.
Ambience
One of the best things about Brio is the ambience. Everything from the blue tints to the white walls giving bits of Mamma Mia vibes to the air-conditioned space that's available for diners who prefer to sit inside to the far back part of the restaurant, we loved it.
While the air-conditioned part of the restaurant is pretty cool and all, it's nothing compared to the back. It's quite literally the perfect place to have a romantic dinner. And we don't mean romance in terms of an s/o. It could be with a bunch of friends or even with your mother, the outside area is a haven of dimly lit spaces, dark corners, comfy cement seating with handloom cushions. Plus, all this combined with the giant plants and such they have around the space, it's perfect.
The Food
Brio, as the name promises, mostly does Italian fare. They also do a couple of standard grilled mains and such and also a teeny part of their menu that's dedicated to Asian dishes, basically, if you're craving Kottu, it's up for grabs.
Given how I can never really say no to Pizza (Rs. 1590) due to my pizza-gluttonous self, we decided to get a half-and-half apart from the actual main.
A Margherita on one side and a Black Pepper Pork on the other, the pizza came as a thin, but doughy base with the perfect amount of burnt bits topped with Marinara sauce and such.
With a pretty balanced amount of sauce and cheese, the Margherita was actually quite nice. There was adequate amounts of both elements to make it not boring and we actually enjoyed it. And if we were to pick, we'd say that from the two, they do a Margherita better than they do the Pork.
The Pork, on the other hand, was a tad bit of a disappointment. While there were good amounts of sauce and cheese, there was very little pork involved. The addition of veggies made the pizza not too boring, but that being said, the almost non-existent amounts of meat was very disappointing.
The Chilli Chicken (Rs. 990) was the other main-ed option we went for.
Here's the thing. The only real problems we had with this dish was the fact that apart from the obvious lack of chilli, was the part where the fish tasted like fish. While we're positive that none of the pieces of meat they served belonged to the seafood category, there was a distinct taste to the whole thing which probably came from either baking the meats together or something. We're not entirely sure.
Apart from that, the dish was not bad. The salad was hella fresh and had bits of olives and pickles in it t make it interesting and the meat, albeit a tad on the tough side, was flavoured quite well and combined with the BBQ sauce cocktail they serve on the side, we liked it.
Pictured Above: Ceylon Passion (Left), Passion fruit Mojito (Right)
Both priced at Rs. 950 each, the cocktails were pretty great. The only real difference between the two was the alcohol, which our tolerance says was well satiated. With lots of tang coming from the excessive amounts of passion fruit pieces involved, we liked the Passion fruit Mojito.
However, if given a choice, we say go with the Ceylon Passion. It's a tad on the sweeter side but the arrack goes well with the passion fruit. Plus, it's less sweet than the mojito.
Unfortunately, if you're one that doesn't drink alcohol, you're gonna be at a bit of a loss because apart from the cocktails, they only do a mojito for non-alcoholic stuff.
Service
From greeting us when we walked in, to following us around when we walked around looking for the perfect spot to taking our order, the staff was efficient and pretty great as a whole. They didn't even fuss when we kept moving around for a bit looking for the perfect lighting.
Conclusion
We liked it. While the prices can be a tad on the pricier end of things, we didn't really have anything to complain about wholeheartedly. So if you're looking for someplace with a great ambience and you're cool with spending, this just might be it.
