The Wine Bistro

This vaulty-​octoganal bank looking bistro hugging High Street in North Clintonville is so, so close to being a five-​star in the swanky near-​upscale category in my opinion. Not quiet a wine bar, not totally an Italian place The Wine Bistro offers a polish environment with a wine theme and some creamy eats. All it needs is another hook and some fine tuned beats to propel it up the charts in its genre.
Get a reservation if going on a Friday or Saturday night. The place was more popular than I expected and seating was taken by 6:30. Luckily there were seats at the bar. Just as well for two, most seating here is in long family style tables good for groups celebrating birthdays and graduations. Despite its faux rustic Italian and French romantic touches I don’t suggest this as a Valintines Day destination; the seating is not idea for intimate dining – different for a bistro.
True to its name, The Wine Bistro sell bottled vino displaying an impressive inventory on tall bookshelves lining the wall. Imports and domestics from cheep afternoon sippers to $ 100 special occasion pops are displayed bottle on bottle. The corkage fee is $ 8 in prime times, though I didn’t go that route, favoring instead a glass on their wine menu. The German Reisling I had met expectation of what a sweet, fruity Reisling should be. Mid-​quality, it was worth the price but I felt they were a little stingy on quantity; they could had at least met the center of the glass. Though I didn’t ask what a bottle cost so I am not sure of the economics to make a final judgment.
The food was delectable. I started with a bruschetta of truffled mushrooms, roasted crimini and buttons, with truffle oil on French bread. It came with melted havarti cheese and garlic cream — two of the flavors that will make me beg like a dog– garlic and anything near the flavor of truffles were headlining. Though the French bread was ordinary, the mushrooms with its toppings were so good I would had been happy just ordering three servings of that. My main course was the speziata chicken and fettuccine. Its parmesan cream was perfect, giving the pasta and chicken a mouth melting texture. The bacon gave it a kick, and the tomatoes a saucy fun. It could had used maybe a pinch of garlic, or red peppers, or a bit more spice but I may be nitpicking here, it was great.
On the downside the food came out slowly. The bar tender, who was on target all night besides, apologized profusely. But it took longer than expected to get our starters and even longer for our entrees. I am not sure if they were understaffed or there was a glitch in the process, whether this is a common thing or an anomaly, but it was way too long between courses. Fortunately, it was just a night spent with a friend in conversation so we weren’t too bothered. Though what if we had tickets to a show? Hopefully, this was just a one time trip-​up and not a constant problem.
I did get a kick out of their classic black player piano that chimed classical music all night. I hadn’t seen one in awhile. Outside and closed for the winter is a nice romanesque patio with stringed bulbs and a black mosaic floor. It looks like a great place for easting al fresco in the warmer months.
The place is pretty close to great.

Salad: I chose The Winery salad and it was quite tasty. The only problem is that it was not well dressed. The dressing was delicious and zesty with a hint of sweetness but, since it was sparingly dropped on instead of tossed for even coverage, I had some bites with almost no dressing.
Wine: I chose a bottle from the racks with the assistance of Chip (I’m assuming he was a manager). He asked me if I needed help choosing and I said yes, please! I gave him basic descriptions of my preferences and he made two recommendations. He told me an awesome story about the origins of the crop of grapes. Plus the wine was actually delicious. I’ll upload a photo.
Service: The manager was my server most of the time and he was really really nice and helpful. Once the manager got busy, Chris took care of me. He was attentive and timely (the best compliments for a waiter, IMO). To illustrate for you; I was sitting at the bar with my salad and bottle of wine for at least 90 minutes. I was reviewing my calendar and making plans for the weekend. Chris asked me if everything was to my liking/​if I needed anything at the perfect intervals. When I needed my check or more water he was right there. That matters to me as a consumer .
Atmosphere: In the afternoon, when I arrived, it was pretty empty but still very welcome and relaxing. Once 6 o’clock hit the lights dimmed and the music changed to contemporary jazz piano. The music fit the ambiance and the décor.
I am glad I randomly stopped here since I was in the area.

Excellent! The food tasted like it was described, and the wines included labels you don’t run into elsewhere — including some great value wines. JoAnna took great care of us. Rated five stars because of quality/​price ratio (yeah, you can get a better meal, if you want to double or triple the price.)

We chose The Wine Bistro in Clintonville for date night last Saturday. We could not have been more pleased. We arrived a little ahead of the crowd which hit around 6:30. As 1^st time visitors our server took the time to discuss the layout of their wine selection and gave us ample time to make our wine and small plate selections, yet we never felt that we were waiting on him. Timing was perfect. The small plate Rustic Antipasto Platter was amazing from size (perfect for 2 – 3) to presentation to taste. Paired very well with the decently priced Slingshot red we selected. We also shared a Chop Chop salad and the Beef Short Ribs w/​Mushroom Risotto dinner. I rather enjoyed the salad though my wife wasn’t a fan of the dressing. We both loved the dinner. The beef was lean & tender and the mushroom risotto was perfectly prepared. We are looking forward to going back. Sun, Mon, & Tue are no cork fee days. This would also be a great place to have a get together as they not only have ample, & flexible, dining but also a private party room. Cheers!

We’ve been in here a few times and have enjoyed it every time. The staff is friendly and helpful, the food is great, and the wine selection is incredible. The cocktails are very good as well. Given our great experiences I’m surprised to see the star rating as low as it is currently (about 3*).
We have even stopped in just to pick up a bottle to take home. The staff picks at the front of the place are really helpful and the pricing is comparable to other retail stores. The interior is very cozy and comfortable. The flatbreads like the mozzarella are really good as well as small plates like the hummus and cheese plates.
We’re excited to go back in the spring and summer to check out the patio. The no corkage fee days (Sunday through Tuesday?) definitely seem to be the way to go as well given that the wines seem to be very comparable to retail prices. We’re very glad to have this place close by in Clintonville!

Every location has its unique atmosphere and set up but the feneral vibe is consistent. On my last visit my girlfriend and I sat at the bar for an after work beverage and small bite. We both had Moscato D’Asti, I had soup, she had baked brie. The food never disappoints, the prices are reasonable and portions adequate. We were headed to dinner later so this was a perfect start.
The restroom was cute (chandelier and all), it only needed a cushy chair and coat hooks. Watch the mouthwash I mistook it for soap.
All in all a great experience. Service was a bit slow especially since they weren’t that busy.

Best wine bar in the city! Great atmosphere, baby grand player piano with soothing Jazz, amazing wine selection, great staff! I love this place! You definitely need a reservation; place was packed till 10.

The food and atmosphere are provincial French. The service is New York City. The prices are Columbus. My wife and I come here almost twice a month; we haven’t found a better spot to relax in Clintonville.
I’ll get right to the point here: The main attraction is the amazing retail bottle pricing concept. You can pick any bottle off the shelf and they let you drink it in the restaurant at the retail price. Glass for glass I don’t think there is another restaurant in Columbus where you can drink better wine for a lower price.
The best time to come is Sunday through Tuesday when the eight dollar corkage fee is waived, making the prices even cheaper. You can order your food, then browse the shelves until you find your bottle and bring it back to the table. Kate was our server last time and she made two great bottle suggestions (a juicy Zin for 18 bucks and a spicy Rioja for 23).
The menu has a lot of nice comfort food options (the tasty short ribs and risotto and cripsy cheesy flatbread with diced tomato and balsamic drizzle are two of our favorites).
Weekends can get a bit crowded and noisy but the wait is never very long for a smaller table away from the bar. Plenty of parking in the big lot behind the building.

Service is crap, food is over priced and menu hasn’t been updated since they opened. Used to be good but not anymore.

This corkage fee is a joke. Outdated business model. Price your wines appropriately, serve good food and move on. There are better restaurants in this city without the pretense.

I’ve waited quite a while to complete a review of this restaurant as I really wanted to give it a chance. I live within walking distance and the neighborhood was ready and willing to embrace the Wine Bistro when it opened. I’ve been here more than a dozen times and with few exceptions have been disappointed. The service is usually very lacking, particularly if you’re on the patio. There appears to be little training or oversight of staff. Or a chef. The servers rarely appear to want to be there, know little about the wine, and even less about the food. I’ve ordered the cheeseboard at least 6 times and only once was informed about what cheese was delivered. It’s not rocket science. It’s a menu. Learn it. I’ve ordered a range of items from salad with salmon to the flatbread and the preparation is consistently barely adequate. Our sad experience yesterday was our last. Time to move on.

I went with a group of 7 on a Friday night. We made reservations earlier in the day so when we got there it was just a short wait. There are many amazing bottles of wine to look like, they line the walls. However being on display with those bright lights makes me wonder about their shelf life. There are bottles for $ 15 to a $ 100. Corkage fee is $ 8; it’s free on Monday and Tuesday.
The group ordered Tuscan popcorn, Mediterranean popcorn, fried green tomatoes, cheese board, and warm olives. The popcorn was good with each appetizer being about 3 cups of popped corn seasoned with herbs, spices, and so much oil that the bottom of the bowls were covered. It was OK. The fried green tomatoes had a corn meal breading with corn kernels, onion etc over the top. It too was just OK, it needed a sauce. The warm olives were a mixture of green and black with Whole almonds warmed in Olive oil. They were delish. The cheese board had a small loaf of bread, one strawberry, few red grapes and 5 very small portions of cheese. We had no idea what they were. There needed to be some butter or oil for the bread, so we wound up dipping it in the popcorn bowl of oil. I would pass on the cheese board next time.
I had the braised short ribs, risotto was way too thick, the ribs were very fatty. The chicken parmesan flatbread was way over cooked. The chicken saltimbocca was way over cooked. The chicken was actually hard to cut! Another person sent their seafood fettucine back because it reeked of foul smelling seafood, so much so that a person at another table complained. It was really bad. When patrons at other tables are complaining you know it’s bad. But the chef sent it out anyway. Makes me wonder what else they purposely send out.
But that brings me to another point, there can’t be a chef here. All the food was meh, over cooked or reheated to death.
But we love the patio, atmosphere is very nice, the wine selection is fantastic, the chairs on the patio were awful but I guess they don’t want you lingering. Service was great. She kept apologizing for the food over and over. So I’m guessing she’s use to the mediocre food but still wants a good tip. She kept the water glasses full, cleared plates, apologized not only to us but the other tables around us. She had a smile on her face and was a good server; just too bad the food didn’t live up.

Monday and Tuesday are the day to hit up this place, when they waive the corking fee for all bottles you buy (great variety in styles and price points). Joe, our server, was attentive and knowledgeable.
I split the cheese fondue with my dining partner, and then had a cup of soup. Both were great, and were the perfect light meal for a late-​night patio dinner. I look forward to trying other more substantial menu items (the fried green tomatoes are on my short list!).

Wine Bistro.
This is the place I chose when going out with someone who is not an adventurous eater and is relatively easy to please. It is not bad, but not great or exciting. I describe it as Midwestern.
I would give it three stars but pretty consistently if you choose to sit outside the service is bad.
Most recent visit last week, we waited so long for the server after she dropped off the check, my friend had to flag somone else down to get her to pick it up. Then she brought the bill back to be signed, dropped the booklet on the table and rushed off, but didn’t leave a pen to sign it. So, my friend had to end up taking it in to sign it. All in all, it was literally 35 minutes before we left from the time we told our server we were ready to leave. Way to end the night on a down note.

Like the Unilocal star guideline says, «Yay! I’m a fan.»
My husband have been here on several occasions, and each time has been consistently great. The wine selection is no joke; the joke is me pretending I know anything about wine… You pay a corkage fee, but the fee is waived on Mondays and Tuesdays.
The food is great. Here is a weird analogy to describe the food: It’s like your mom (who is a really good cook) is in the kitchen preparing a well put together meal. The presentation is clean, the food is tasty, but there just seems to be something missing (Je né sais quoi) that makes it feel like a there isn’t a «chef» in the back. It’s not snooty– it’s matter of fact. Your food will be good. Period.
Even dessert. Good lord the dessert. Normally I skip dessert but since we went for Restaurant Week and dessert was included in the prix fixe, my husband and I shared a port-​cherry cheesecake option as well as a chocolate pots de crème. Both were ridiculously good– like, «this-is-why-I’m-fat» good.
All in all, I’m glad we have this option in our neighborhood. We will definitely be back!

The Clintonville location has a very relaxed and fun atmosphere. I wouldn’t say that the happy ho ur specials are really that special… you can get an average glass of wine for $ 5…and a half portion of their appetizers for half the price — so not really a deal. Our server was helpful in selecting a bottle of wine for us. You can walk around the shelves and select one yourself if you want. The goat cheese pizza was great and the hummus was pretty good too. I would go back for a fun location for a girls night, but necessarily as an affordable happy hour.

I’m still in limbo with The Wine Bistros. I’m still not convinced it’s worth the price. Definitely still confused with the décor.
Had the Short Rib Panini, which sounds fantastic, but the meat tasted slightly old and fatty. If you’ve ever cooked a roast or short ribs and it gets that sticky texture to it after a while? TMI?
I’m a sucker for cocktails, especially seasonal. Thus, I tried their $ 9 Apple Cider Sangria (no fruit here.) If you like crushed ice you’ll love this one. Yep. A lot of ice. Even though it tasted okay there was still something amiss with the mixture. Perhaps it was the Amaretto. You know how when you use nutmeg in recipes and people say, «What is that?» but in a good way? This review is turning into a cooking show or something.
The Veal Meatball app is still very good. I’ve had this at several of their locations. It’s always a good fall back.
In addition to their cocktail menu, which was new to me, was a beer menu, which is nice for those in the party not into wine, on that day or ever. No draft. I included images of both menus.

I love that the two-​star rating is defined as «Meh» because that’s exactly what I thought of my evening at Wine Bistro. I will start by saying that my small salad and the artisan cheese board were delicious but that is where my positive review will stop.
I came here with some girlfriends and we sat outside on the patio, there were several tables that were outside but as soon as the larger parties left, our service dwindled. It would have been nice to have a heat lamp and some sort of light source, whether a lamp or candle, at the table. Our server would disappear for long periods of time and didn’t seem interested in offering us another glass of wine. I understand that it may have been closer to the end of her shift but I would expect sitting down at 7:30 would still permit me to have a better experience.
Like I said at the beginning of my review, the salad and cheese board were delicious. We ordered a Mozzerella Fresco flat bread to share for the table and the flavors were underwhelming. I also ordered a crème brule for dessert. The two small bites that filled the dish were great but I would expect more for the price.

Oh, Wine Bistro. How do I dislike thee? Let me count the ways…
I’ve been to the one on Lane before, and it was mediocre. But the breaking point was that there was a bug frozen into my water. Fast-​forward many months later and I’m going to the Wine Bistro at a different location for lunch with co-​workers.
It’s a beautiful day, so we plan on sitting outside on their patio. We call ahead and make a reservation, no problem. First, you have to walk through the patio and go inside to talk to the host about seating you outside. No hostess on outdoor duty? A little weird, but fine.
Then, sit down. By now it’s about 12. We wait for our menus. And wait and wait and wait. We wait to order. And wait and wait and wait. We might have placed our orders, finally, around 12:30.
We then wait for our food. This was the worst waiting. We probably waited until 1:20 to get our food. Tables around us are waiting to get their food, but people after us had theirs first. The water we were given had a strange taste to it, like something was off. I didn’t drink any of it, so I’m also thirsty. Then, the people who got flatbreads got theirs first, whereas the people with salads were kept waiting. It was probably 10 minutes between when the people got their flatbreads and when everyone else got their salads. Not only is that unacceptable, it’s also bizarre. Pizza comes out before salad? Sometimes pizza WITH salad comes out before salad. And, as I realized, the salads we’d been waiting for left much to be desired.
My salad was atrocious. I paid $ 11 instead of $ 6 for the «entrée» size salad. I have no idea what the $ 6 salad is, because my salad was minuscule. I got the strawberry pecan salad, and there were probably 20 tiny pieces of lettuce, ¼ of a sliced strawberry, and 3 tiny flecks of goat cheese. The dressing was all but completely missing, making it dry and tasteless.
We wait for our checks. And wait and wait and wait. And when we get them, they’re wrong. I was charged for an iced tea I didn’t get.
By the time we’re out of there, it’s well past 2. Good thing we weren’t on a time crunch, I guess.
I’m sitting at my desk starving because I ate close to nothing for lunch and paid $ 11 for it. Outrageous. Will never be back.

Great place for a group of 8 – 12 to come and sit in the back room. I loved the ability to walk around and choose wine while you wait on your food. The room in the back is also private enough to hold conversations and not worry about being too loud or having another loud people interrupt a nice dinner out.
The downside of the place comes in slow service. The service was very slow and would disappear for 10 – 15 minutes especially when i needed my check because we needed to get going. The food was meh, as i ordered the Chicken marsala. I was very disappointed with this dish as the chicken was overly cooked and dry. The marsala sauce was ok but I could of used more to offset the dryness. The risotto cake was pretty good but also a little overly cooked. The prices were a tad high as my meal was definitely not worth the $ 16. The bread pudding dessert was also just meh. My wife liked this place a little more than me but even here flatbread was cooked a bit too long. I think the kitchen needs to either turns their ovens down or learn to pull things out quicker.
Great concept and a great atmosphere makes this place a three stars but the value and taste of food should drag this down to a 2 or worse. I think I would only go back for Happy Hour or when someone else is paying for my meal.