Cafe Brio

Dine Around Victoria is an annual event in town where a selection of restaurants offer up cheaper tasting menus, I guess to showcase themselves and to fill up tables in a the quiet time before the tourist season sets in. Word of mouth is always a good advertisement. The old maxim goes that it's better to be talked about than not talked about, but I'm pretty sure in the restaurant industry, being talked about badly is worse.

Cafe Brio has had several people praise it to me, so I decided to try it out with their $30 Dine Around menu. The Cafe was purpose built on the location, according to the blurb on the website, and the restaurant itself is a fine building. Set back from the road it has a small court yard, before the yellow frontage, which I am sure is meant to remind you of Tuscany. In side there's a large space with a mix of booth, cost tables andlarger areas for groups. A nice high ceiling seems to soak up the noise, so while there's a buzz, you can talk and hear yourself.

Drinks were offered, the menu considered and the starters came out in reasonable time. We both had the Sweet Parnsip soup, which was indeed sweet, with large bits of black pepper in. Slightly too sweet for me, and the raw earthiness of the parsnip wasn't there.

For main course I had Sooke trout, with spinach, a brown butter foam and "pancetta-scallion arancini".   The trout was nicely crisped, with a nice flaky-yet-moist white meat.  The foam okay, and spinach is well, spinach.  I had never heard of arancini before, but they are fried rice balls coated in breadcrumbs, here flavoured with pancetta and scallion (of course) which made for a great delicate flavour.  

My friend had the beef short-rib, served with a stout-jus and seasonal vegetables (tatties and neeps, I think).  The short rib was lovely and tender, but the stout jus overwhelmed the beef flavour, making it a bit of a muddy mix of flavours.

For desert, the lemon tart was tart and light, with wafer thin-crust of sugar.  Probably the best thing I had.  And as not-a-dessert-person, one of the best desserts eating out in a long time.  The poached pear was served cold, which surprised me, expecting it to be a steaming juicy fruit with a light mousse topping.  

A couple of coffee's and we weren't hurried  out the door, even if the drinks server was a little over zealous on coming over to fuss during the meal. Nice relaxed atmosphere, good, but not great food.  Wasn't the super high mark I had expected from recommendations.  Plenty of other places to try, several of which I know won't be as good as here, but I know there's also better in town.

Final Bill :
Parsnip Soup, Sooke Trout and Lemon Tart - $30
Parsnip Soup, Beef Shortrib and Baked Pear - $30
Coffee x2 - $4.50
Vodka Cranberry - $4.75

Location : 944 Fort Street
Telephone : (250) - 383 - 0009
Website : http://www.cafebrio.com