Scaring Madeira Folks and a Good Meal at Trio!

I took my good friend Scott to Morton's a few weeks ago for a free dinner so he decided to repay me by treating me to Trio! (He had a gift card - so it was really free for everybody!)

I'd been to Trio once before (with Scott actually) and enjoyed it but we just don't think about going back. There's a large veranda on the parking lot side...the windows were open and I said "Wouldn't it be fun if you yelled at me and we got into a fight?" I was just thinking how all the hoity toity Madeira folks would be shocked! He immediately proceeds to tell me to "Shut the F*** up!" It was just as good as I'd hoped!

Once inside, we decided to not sit in the veranda. Once we were seated and ordered, we were brought a basket of warm rolls with perfectly temperatured butter (is that a word?). It was firm yet very easily spreadable and had some chives or something like that in it. The rolls were like Panera - crisp and thick outside, soft inside. Not my personal favorite but very good.

Since we had a $50 gift card we decided to share the dinner salad that came with my entree - we decided on the chopped salad and it was EXCELLENT! Perfectly dressed and full of interesting vegetables (we just don't get radishes enough). It was very large too for a "dinner salad".

GROUPER - CALIFORNIA STYLE

ARTICHOKE HEARTS, SPINACH, TOMATOES, GOAT CHEESE, GUACAMOLE $24.95

I chose the Grouper "California Style" and wow - was it great! The fish was cooked perfectly. Grouper is a thicker fish - ala halibut. There was a ton of vegetables (maybe a few too many artichoke hearts) and it was topped with guacamole and goat cheese. Yeah - BOTH! That's like telling me I have a date with Eminem AND Taylor Hicks at the same time. (tmi?)

PESTO CHICKEN
SUN DRIED TOMATO, ARTICHOKE, ALFREDO, GOAT CHEESE, MOZZARELLA $12.95

Scott got the chicken pesto pizza (actually we shared both) and again - perfection! Scott likes Palomino's super-thin crust better but I like this far better. It's all preference. But the toppings were plentiful and yes - more goat cheese!

We wanted to make sure we used his full gift card and decided on a chocolate chip cookie - it was only $2. It wasn't very good...it's really the only part of the meal we didn't like. It was fine but nothing WOW for a cookie. I'd rather have Max & Erma's.

Overall we really really enjoyed the meal. Yeah - TWO really's! The prices are pretty steep - but it is good. Seafood ranged from $19.95-29.95. The pizzas were all $9-13. Meat dishes were $17.95-36.95 (meatloaf to steak oscar with chicken in between). Pastas $21.95-28.95 (that seems high).

It's a nice restaurant and has a good feeling - it is expensive though. But we were very pleased with our selections and would not hesitate to go back.