Cafe Brio

One star for the patty melt and the other star is for our server Clare. Despite 2 other people working (at least one being the owner), our server is the only one we saw lift a finger. The bloody Marys were so bad I couldn’t even finish it. The fried pickles were… unlike anything I’ve ever tasted before… and not in a good way. It’s cheap, but not worth it.

Rough evening. Staffing challenged. Owner, Mike, «working» the bar. Waiter, June, doing his best (yes, his) to make up for the poor service. He did a great job and the fries were great. Unilocal gave a coupon for a free dessert, which this management does not offer, but did recognize w/​free doughnut holes. I’m Betting it’s typically much better than this…

I love having brunch here when I’m in Springfield. The tamale cakes and breakfast tacos are yummy. Service is always friendly. I just wish they opened earlier! If you’re in town visiting, 11am is a little too late to start your day. They should run a bottomless mimosa special to pull in the brunch business.

I was hopeful that Café Brio was back on track with new ownership. I went for the first time in a while today. It was utterly disappointing! I’m not sure if they didn’t pay their light bill or what, but there was no overhead lighting and they had candle sticks on the tables for light… that was weird. Also, almost all of the paper menus were completely gross with food stains, water rings, grease, etc. The tables and floor felt sticky and gross. The food was «meh»
I won’t be back.

Had dinner with a friend here recently and it was a pretty disappointing experience. The $ 6.99 margaritas were terrible. We asked for them to be frozen and it was almost as if they didn’t know how to make a margarita. Not much flavor to them and they were very watered down tasting. The menu seems much more condensed now than I remember it used to be. I got the smoked chicken sandwich, the bits of chicken included on the oversized bun were good, but the sandwich overall was incredibly dry… no sauce of any kind. Sweet potato fries are delicious… sadly, that’s about the only thing they have going for them.

I am saddened to say one of my favorite restaurants Café Brio well formerly favorite restaurant Café Brio is just atrocious. I order a falafel the first time it came it was raw in the middle they remade it brought it back it was not cooked again! The waitress proceeded to tell me falafel is supposed to be doughy in the middle. I have had them there before and never had they been like this. I asked is the manager available she proceeded to say oh yeah she didn’t come talk to you and I said no. I then waited thinking she might come by nope no word whatsoever. I was not very surprised at this waitress she is not good at all. She also made sure to state a couple of times she is the owner’s daughter, she didn’t come talk to you? The new management or new owner whatever is totally making a good place a very BAD place for service & food. Needless to say I had sweet potato fries for lunch I will no longer be dining there and will let everyone know how bad they have become.

My friends and I are visiting the Abraham Lincoln museum from out of town and were hankering for some good Springfield cuisine. We looked at place after place, all closed, until we come upon Café Brio. It looked closed from first glance and the whole staff was in the back not paying any attention. We even had to walk to the back to get their attention to seat us. The waitress did say they were extremely busy for St. Patty’s weekend, but it doesn’t really excuse the lack of service and all of the quality issues we encountered. The drinks we ordered were not in stock or took a long time to get to the group of 3 people. The chips were soggy, greasy and chewy. There is also no longer a kids portion of penne… reprint the menu or offer a smaller adult size.
The Southwest Cobb salad is appropriately described on the menu and met expectations. The penne was missing mushrooms… one of it’s only 3 ingredients. The jerk chicken wrap was made entirely incorrect as to what the menu claimed.
The owner came out and apologized and comp’ed two out of the three meals. The service got a little better in the end. It’s a shame that the entrees were all pretty good in the end, but the rest of the dining experience ruined a possible repeat customer.

Food is cold, and the restaurant temperature feels like a freezer, they need to work in their mexican dishes to be more authentic,

Apparently, Café Brio is under new ownership. They seem to be doing an excellent job! The house chips and salsa came out right away– perfectly crisp (not greasy or chewy) chips and spicy salsa. My ma and I shared the shrimp BLT with sweet potato fries and southwestern Cobb. Both spot on! Very tasty! To boot, we checked in and got a free slice of hot choco silk pie. Mmm… Happy campers! Perfectly fueled to head over to the Dana-​Thomas House.

The shrimp blt was excellent. Too bad the service was not good. The poor man who waited on us seemed really confused by everything that was going on at our table. We told him to separate the checks and he could not comprehend this process.
Moral of the story: the food is good but the service was not.

Beautiful everywhere. Love the funky feeling of the painting.
Service exceeded expectations. Never rushed or stuffy. Always anticipating every need. Friendly and informative without being intrusive.
I had Salmon which is cooked perfectly. My husband had Steak special, he enjoyed every bite. We would definitely go back.

I ordered thr special which was a 8oz ribeye with a crab cake and 3 shrimp scampi. The shrimp jad absolutely no flavor, the crab cake was salty the steak was ok. The mashed potatoes were also too salty to consume. Complete waste of dinner. I should habe went to Augies

The service was good and prices reasonable, which is all that saved this review from a single star.
The food was over salty, had cheap ingredients, and was overall just not good. Both my husband and I felt sick shortly after eating the portobello sandwich, but our kids were ok after eating quesadillas.
Good tasting chips are brought out with jarred salsa to begin. The sandwich had a terrible hoagie bun with some oily aoli and cheese sauce and a HALF portobello mushroom ¹⁄₈ inch think. If the rest of the menu items are this terrible, run!

Stopped in for lunch today and the staff was super friendly and attentive. I sat at the bar and promptly taken care of and and had a hot fresh meal in minutes. I’ve been here once before and I will definately be going back again.

Friendly staff. Laid back atmosphere. Kid friendly. Mediocre food. Wouldn’t come back, but didn’t have a poor experience.

First time in Springfield in a long time. Stumbled on Café Brio while waiting for 4 hour break before a wedding reception. My husband and I both had the shrimp BLT. LOVED IT!!! Jonathon the bartender was very welcoming.

Café Brio was one of my favorite restaurants downtown until it changed owners about a year and a half ago. During this period the food was terrible and the service was even worse. I heard through the grapevine that the old owner was back so a friend and I went today to test it out. Sure enough the old owner was back, the menu was back and the food was back to being delicious! I couldn’t be happier and will definitely start recommending it again!
(And my food recommendation for lunch is the soba noodle salad with blackened chicken. I could eat that every day!)

Came here with a group of students for dinner. I appreciate that their menu has a little bit of everything so it’s great for my picky eaters. The food is good, but the service is rather slow. I had the shrimp BLT with sweet potato fries. YUM! However, It would be better in a wrap instead of the bread roll that they serve it with. The roll was falling about and made it difficult to eat my sandwich.

Delivery downtown is advertised to start at 11:00am. I’ve been calling for an hour, left three messages and still they have never answered the phone, nor called me back. Out of principle I thought I’d see how many calls it would take before leaving this review, but I give up. I literarily called 40 times to no avail.
I wonder how many orders they have lost based on simply not answering the phone???

I was impressed with my trip to Springfield, and Café Brio was an enjoyable lunch.
We had a certificate from Travel Zoo for our stay and we received a gift certificate good for $ 25 to Café Brio, which obviously we were gonna use!
Now, they don’t tell you this, but LEMONADE REFILLS ARE NOT FREE, but it was worth EVERY penny. That’s how good their lemonade is. I would literally make every attempt to swing by just for the lemonade next time I am in Springfield! The food wasn’t half bad either!
I had the orange chicken, the chicken itself was moist and delicious and the flavor was outstanding. I like the overall experience and would definitely recommend them for lunch anytime!