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Vino Santo Bistro (Italian cuisine)  $$$$

 6.5
JaT Rating

2030 Broadway St, Redwood City, 94063  (Directions)


650.780.0793


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Quaint Italian restaurant and wine bar in downtown Redwood City


Reviewer: Jason
Total Reviews: 1005
Reviewed: 8/18/2006
Rating: 7
My photo gallery 		Vino Santo Bistro wasn't our 1st choice for a restaurant tonight. We had been walking around downtown Redwood City for 25 minutes looking for a place to eat. It was our luck RWC had a music festival and any restaurant within vicinity had a 45 minute dinner wait. We turned the corner on Broadway and found Vino Santo Bistro. We noticed 1-2 empty tables and asked to be seated.

The pictures don't really do justice to how dark it was. They need to do something with the lights, I could barely see my food. Definitely the clear winner on taking pictures in the dark. I couldn't be discrete about my photo taking and had to use the yoda green AF Illuminator. I had to do a lot of photoshopping for these pictures to become visible.

Started off with lobster bisque (picture #7) and I could not tell it was a lobster based soup. You could have told me it was a turtle soup and I would've believed it. It was nothing special and probably rather have clam chowder on my next visit.

Along with the soups we ordered shrimp appetizers in garlic and spinach. Some of the shrimps were slightly overdone but the mixture of garlic/olive oil and whatever spices saved the dish.

For my main course I ordered the red snapper and shrimp risotto. Good gawd, the wait time was a long time. I guess jatbar is used to eating quick lunches that aren't as complicated as a dinner meal. My risotto (picture 12) had fine plating and the taste was even better. Heavy mushroom cheese creme taste with plenty of red snapper mixed with rice. Shrimps were about the same size as the appetizers and cooked much better. Rice wasn't mushy and the flavor had a pleasant rich broth taste to each bite. Overall this dish was very good and would rate it near an 8.

Service did suffer throughout the night. I might have gotten 1 refill and getting the check was a task. I don't think it was expensive considering; 4 bowls of soup $20, shrimp appetizer $10, 2 glasses of wine $15, 3 beers $15, 4 x main courses $60-70. If you have the main course and waters, you can squeak by with ~$20 including tip. Vino Santo Bistro needs to work on their lighting as it's way too dark for eating. If you're going to leave it dark, place candles at the table. Overall, I thought the food was about average and would give it another run if I was in the area.
 


Reviewer: Terry
Total Reviews: 735
Reviewed: 8/18/2006
Rating: 6
My photo gallery 		Tonight we were supposed to goto the Lobster Shack but the line was out the door, so we gave up and went to downtown Redwood City. A few of the other places we wanted to hit were packed as well, so we started walking around the neighborhood. We eventually stumbled on Vino Santo Bistro. It looked like a nice upscale place with a decent menu and winelist. The place was not very packed at all. So we immediately get seated.

I went with (sharing of the) shrimp appetizer, the lobster bisque, and a lobster ravioli dish. Bread was deposited on the table quickly. I found the bread to be decent, nothing mind blowing, but they brought out an extra basket after we polished off the first. The bisque was just ok. Not much lobster in it, but enough for you to know its there. At $5 I would not order this again. The shrimp appetizer (I only ate one piece) was a bit flavorful with the seasoning, but again, nothing mind blowing. My main course was the lobster ravioli pasta (not pictured). I finished it off, because I was so hungry, but again, we are not talking about any record breaking taste here.

Now the food was definitely a 7 in quality, and with the high prices this just did not seem justified. A few minutes after we entered the restaurant, they turned down the lights to the darkest I have ever seen in a Jatbar review. The quality of these photos are testament to the quality of Jasons camera and his ability. There was just no way to even see what we were eating let alone try to photograph it.

After taking our orders we noticed that the waitstaff service dropped off considerably. We had a hard time finding a waiter for requests, for the bill, etc. Almost like they were trying to ignore us. Of course my mind was thinking they saw us taking pictures so dimmed the lights and ignored us. I could be just paranoid, but we felt disappointed with the evenings expensive fare, bad service, and average food.
 
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RenoRed ate...

What dish did you eat?

“Umm guys, I think this place has been closed for quite a while now.”

6/22/2007 7:06:43 PM

airen88 ate...

What dish did you eat? Veal Marsala

“What did you think? It was superb.”

11/27/2006 7:46:41 PM