Red Newt Bistro

To start, the wine was fantastic, the food mediocre and that’s generous. I chose the Fred Block Reisling, a semi-​dry wine. I loved it.
For our meal, I got the Chicken Speidies, 4 one-​inch cubes of chicken breast on a dry slice of folded bread. My husband got the grilled cheese with bacon. He ate half. It looked over-​oiled and he said it was, «OK». Our lunch was around $ 30, way too high for what we had.
My suggestion: skip the food altogether and enjoy the wine.

I can personally vouch for the integrity of the 2013 Dry Riesling. The food menu is small but well executed. We had a grilled cheese with black bean patty and the meatloaf. Both were highly appetizing. I would suggest more dressing on the kale and less acidity on the carrots, but overall this was an extremely pleasant lunch.

The view from the deck is glorious and the service is attentive and friendly. The winery’s dry Riesling paired well with the shitake mushroom grilled cheese, and bacon black bean patty grilled cheese my husband and I shared. The grilled cheese sandwiches were nicely toasted, with plenty of gooey sharp cheddar. I do think a little more salt and something to cut through the heaviness like a tomato sauce would have helped or more seasoning. The kale salad with shaved Parmesan or chess on top and pickled carrots with a light vinaigrette was a nice, light complement. And finally, the chicken spiegie was tender and well seasoned. All in all, this was a great and picturesque place for lunch.

Fabulous views from the deck. Great service and the grilled cheese with kale and bacon was delicious! Great place on the wine trail to just slow down and kick back for a bit.

Went for a wine tasting and also got food from the bistro. Staff was friendly and pricing was okay. I’d recommend doing the food and wine tasting /​pairing plate. That was really fun and delicious. Only suggestions are to make the menu easier to understand. Changing between the winery /​bistro was pretty confusing. One bill and a free wine glass next time, please!

I cannot recommend Red Newt Bistro (and the winery) highly enough.
On a Friday night, my friend and I stopped here for some wine tastings. We were so pleased with our service in the tasting room and the bistro menu looked so tempting, that we were lead out to the bistro terrace for a sunset dinner. Although there is no view of Seneca Lake, the vineyards and farmland are equally gorgeous and we had a perfect view of the sunset while dining. Our server was extremely knowledgeable and very friendly. She expertly guided us through the menu and wine pairings.
My friend had the ‘gourmet’ grilled cheese sandwich which she absolutely loved. I took a pasta special with local sweet tomatoes, zucchini, kale, and some other vegetables (my memory is failing me at the moment but I know that all the ingredients were local and the dish was incredible). Everything is sourced locally here and our server was even pointing to areas to show where some of our food (and subsequent wine pairings) came from.
We both were convinced to have a flight of Rieslings with our dinner which was perfect. There are two different Riesling flights available, both are which are interesting to order whether you are there for a meal or not. No matter how many wineries you’ve visited in the Finger Lakes, Red Newt is making excellent Rieslings from different vineyard sources and tasting flights to see how different one Riesling can be from another is a really great way to understand that grape a bit more. I took the flight that sampled three Rieslings from three different vineyard sites. My friend took the flight that went from dry to sweet (but even the sweet Riesling was not overpowering).
We had such an amazing dinner and our waitress described the dessert selection so delectably that we ordered dessert to share as well.
I’ll definitely be back to Red Newt and their bistro.

Do stop for lunch and check out their specials. We had a fabulous grilled cheese on homemade bread w local cheddar, bacon, fresh tomatoes & kale. Awesome paired w their spicy tomato soup. Good fuel for more wine tasting.

I would say skip this place for lunch. The menu is very limited and the quality of food was not there. The pork loin was just a bunch of fat. It was half fat half meat, but it was a small portion to begin with so for $ 18, definitely not worth it. Nothing really special here. Service was nothing to write home about. Left feeling like I got robbed. If you’re deciding between two places to go to, skip this one.

We ate lunch here and got the meat appetizer, which was ok. For our main entrée we got the pork with kale. It was disappointing at best because it was small and contained 40% fat which was not edible. When the waiter asked how our lunch was I said that it contained a lot of fat and he said sometimes they come that way and apologized quick and left. Bill came out to be $ 48 plus tax at 51.84. Left hungry and very disappointed. I’d say skip this place and eat at stone cat down the road.

Good food, good wine, good service. The gnocchi is amazing.

I went to this place the other day with my family for a quick bite. We we’re visiting the vineyards for the day and we all were hungry. So we decided to get a trio spread of dips before our meals. There was three spreads consisting of black bean, hummus and a cheese. We had to buy a cup of crostini, but one cup was not enough for the amount of spread that they gave us. So we had to order another cup of crostini. I would suggest the make the cup of crostini bigger. Then we all got our individual lunches. I had the grilled cheese with meatloaf. It was very good. I was original going just have the grilled cheese with bacon but the waitress said that the meatloaf was excellent. So I decided to take her suggest and she wasn’t wrong. If I’m ever visiting Seneca lake, I will definitely think about stopping at Red Newt again. It was very good food with excellent service.

Very disappointed based on everyone int the area recommending this place. they need to step up their game. Maybe Seneca Lake is just not used to good eats because everyone recommended it in the area. I’m sad for seneca lake if this is the best they’ve got for food places. Overall I had a lovely Columbus Day weekend with my husband as far as the gorgeous scenery goes… however the food for the entire weekend stunk!
We started with the meat and cheese board. That was actually my favorite part of dinner, except for the chicken pâté… just recuse I don’t like pâté to begin with. I would’ve fathered another meet live prosciutto instead. Also, I know it’s crustini, but I almost broke a tooth. Time to get a different bread selection especially because I saw another review complaining about how hard it was too. Stop ignoring reviews as reading them could help your business.
We ordered the prix fixe menu with the wine sampling and None of the wines were a hit out of the six glasses we tried between my husband and I and to make Matters even more annoying there were fruit flies swarming us. And how cheesy is this… they brought us random pieces of paper and told us to cover our glasses between sips to keep the fruit flies at bay. For paying $ 150.00 for dinner for 2 we should not have to deal with fruit flies!
Main meal: My hen was okay, nothing memorable.
Husbands main meal: the steak. COLD! He was so disappointed.
We will not be back.

Amazing few, awesome reds (tierce). Fresh delicious locally produced dishes. Had the linguine with bolognese. The bolognese was made with local lamb and sausage.
Service was impeccable. Had a crying baby and was very accommodating.

Def worth a visit. Great food and wine. 4 stars because some items were more flavor able than others…

I was kind of disappointed with the Red Newt after hearing good things about it from friends. I got an early reservation on a Friday night for my BF and I. It was pretty quiet, given the time of night, and we were able to get pretty quick service for our meal. We decided not to order from their prix fixe menu, as we were attending a champagne and dessert reception later that evening and opted just to order an appetizer and 2 entrees.
The meal was started with crostinis, which tasted stale and were very difficult to bite. We asked the waitress if we could get another batch, as they may have gone stale and were informed that they WERE crostinis, so they’re supposed to be crunchy, but she would check with the chef and see what she could do. We received another batch, which were crunchy, not rock hard a few minutes later.
We got the appetizer special of the day, which was a cheese, meat, and pickle assortment, — very tasty. I had the beef tenderloin & smoked branzino for my entrée, which consisted of 3 rolls of steaks on top of shredded branzino. It was extremely salty and a very small portion (i.e. I was able to finish it all if I wanted to, which is rarely the case for me). My BF had the duck breast & leg, which came in a very sweet syrupy sauce, that was a bit overwhelming for the duck. Neither of us particulary loved our meals.
When we got our bill for two glasses of wine, 1 appetizer, and two entrees, the bill was over $ 90 before tip. I was kind of surprised that the entrees were $ 28/​each given the size of them. I just looked online at their menu and I see at the bottom that each entrée is $ 28, no matter what it is if you do a la carte, as opposed to $ 45 for the 3 course prix fixe menu. I guess I didn’t notice that when we were in the restuarant. We might have been better off just getting an appetizer each for the size of the entrees they gave you.
I wouldn’t recommend this place for their entrees, but they seem like a good place for an app or two and a glass of wine. Otherwise, just go all out and get the prix fix menu, because the individual prices just don’t seem worth it.

We were tasting at Red Newt and noticed they had a Bistro so we stepped in for lunch.
It was a late lunch so the place was empty (which is fine) and the bartender was friendly. I ordered a cheese plate and a burger. The cheeses were really good but the burger was amazing (I never thought I would say that about a burger) but it was truly a masterpiece. I claimed it then and I still believe it now — best burger I have had!
One of the Chefs came out and chatted with us and told us that they use local farm fresh ingredients and you can tell the difference.
I did think the cost of the wine by the glass was a bit high but definitely a small issue.
The overall look and view are great too.
I HIGHLY recommend stopping in!

This would have been a 4±star review save for two potentially quick-​fix issues that really impacted us on the night of our visit. In turn, one of the issues could have been vanquished on the spot (gaining back 1 star) while the other probably should have been addressed a long time ago. These two items marred what could have been one of the most memorable birthday celebrations of my life.
I eagerly planned a landmark birthday celebration here for 11 persons on the Saturday evening of Columbus Day Weekend, and the staff were very helpful and accommodating to all my requests during the planning phase. Kudos for the phone manner and follow-​through on agreed requests!
On the actual night of our dinner, the food and setting lived up to its generally good Unilocal reputation. However, we were seated on the beautiful outdoor deck, and our experience there was marred by two VERY impactful problems.
1) The sunset over Seneca Lake and the hills along the shore are beautiful, but the completely unscreened sun glare nearly burned our retinae out. Red Newt… please consider installing some roll-​down clear but tinted sunshades to protect your balcony patrons from their eyes being boiled in their heads like poached eggs, and the sides of their necks being fried like bacon!
2) When your patron is celebrating a milestone birthday with 10 of her closest friends who have been dragged literally hundreds of miles to dine at Red Newt Bistro and WINERY, it is absolutely crucial that you actually BRING THE SECOND ROUND OF WINE (requested and re-​requested by us) TO THE TABLE. The failure of your otherwise friendly and well-​trained staff to keep the wine flowing, despite our entreaties for another bottle (…PLEASE!!!) was a total buzz-​killer for my friends and me, and cut the party short significantly.
In addition, one of the waiters could have responded in a more customer-​friendly manner to one of my friend’s objections that her beer appeared flat — e.g., «Certainly, miss — I will get you another immediately.» Not only was the non-​delivery of the WINE (and the mild beer skirmish) a disappointment and finally an annoyance, but it really abbreviated and marred our overall dining experience, even though the food and wine were both ruled «exceptional!» by everyone at the table. Perhaps we would have been higher on our servers’ radar if we had been indoors and not on the deck (damn…that deck again! :)).
In short, Red Newt did almost everything right. I suspect that for most people on most nights, it is a fabulous place across the board. But for me, on a very special night, they mis-​stepped in two very crucial ways and ultimately left me feeling a bit disappointed — and even embarrassed. When it was apparent that we would never get our wine we hastily called a cab. No-​one was keen to even stay for dessert — on an evening where I hoped my group would linger, laugh and talk (all activities which more wine would have tended to facilitate ;)).
Full disclosure: After my own experience, I still recommended Red Newt Bistro to another colleague and his fiancé — they raved and can’t wait to go back.
Please consider fixing the gamma-​ray balcony problem, and reminding your staff to never, EVER consider the patrons’ need to keep the wine flowing as a secondary priority.

My wife and I stopped in for lunch during a recent trip to the Finger Lakes.
While the food was good, it is very pricey. We had a NY cheddar dip appetizer for $ 12.99 that was worth around $ 6. While it was tasty, it was a cheddar and onion dip in a small crock with slices of French bread.
I had an open-​face Reuben with a side salad ($ 12), my wife had a larger side salad ($ 6).
Service was inattentive, and it was challenging to get refills on beverages.

Stopped here for a lunch on the recommendation of the tasting room staff at another winery. Very, very happy we did; I had an amazing free-​range beef burger with gorgonzola and sauteed onions, my wife had an excellent pasta. The food was prepared with flair and panache, the view from the porch (we dined outside) is excellent, as you overlook Seneca lake.
This is a place I’ll be recommending to anyone I know going to the area.
Lunch (2 entrees; we just had water to drink, as we’d been tasting wine all morning) for the two of us ran about $ 26 before tip.

Visiting off season we ate in the Winternet Café (their limited menu café with WiFi within the tasting room). We ordered at the cash register and service was a little slow, but hey we were on vacation and its the off season.
We each had the free range meatloaf with onions and pepper-​jack cheese, the veggie panini and the smoked turkey club with bacon, sauteed onions and apples on focacia. ALL were excellent, very well balanced flavors but the standout was defiantly the meatloaf — EPIC — slightly spicy, savory and everything else just emphasized the flavor of the meat.
Over all a good experience — and we’re looking forward to going back when the bistro will be open