Simply Red Bistro

Simply  Red Bistro
Scaled 1 to 10, 1 being repulsive and 10 being orgasmic (of course!)

Food 3
Ambiance 5
Service 4
Overall Rating 13
Good For the view , a glass of wine and a straigh foward cheese plate


7448 County Rd. 153  Ovid, NY 14521

 Tel 607-532-9401
    Well I must confess  that the biggest reason why I decided to stop here for lunch is that this restaurant is at the Sheldrake Point Vineyard , whose reisling has drawn great reviews as a bargain jewel. As many of the Cayuga reislings, I didn't love it much especially for the price point.  The menu seemed inventive with a supposed focus on local ingredients. Lunch, was outside in a nicely landscaped garden  with unfortunately obstructed views of Cayuga Lake. It might have been a sign that those running this establishment are not the brightest kids on the block that they would hire a landscaper that would block what is the place's greatest asset. The food I would soon learn was not in this category.
      We arrived before the lunch rush at 12:30 pm. Although the place only had 4 tables seated, it took about 10 minutes for us to be seated.  Our waiter, a fresh faced teen, fumbled through the specials while we pondered the overpriced  and all over the place lunch menu. There were only three appetizers to choose from none of which made our mouths water so we opted to go straight to mains. 10 dollar chicken sandwich  to a 22 dollar roast half chicken.. I settled upon a 14 dollar 4 cheese pizza which my waiter stated was his favorite and truly filling. My husband opted for the 10 dollar  free range chicken sandwich. Both were served with a side salad.
      My pizza arrived, appearing suspiciously like a 6 inch thin crust  frozen pizza jazzed up with dressed salad greens placed on top. Aside from the odd placement of seasoned greens in the middle of a pizza, the greens were quite good and fresh, with an interesting mix of fennel fronds,arugula and others. Unfortunately, the pizza tastes as uninspired as it looked.  Because I was so hungry and after seeing the sandwich my husband got, I calculated that the kitchen was fundamentally flawed and suffered through my frozen pizza main. My husbands sandwich  tasted a little worse than a Au Bon pain sandwhich, heavy on the mayonaisse, with fennel oddly strewn in, on a tasteless whole grain bun. After the disappointment of our mains, we decided against dessert as we were not willing to waste any time or money in this place.
       To call this place Bistro is a decided slap in the face to any halfway decent bistro out there. I have to say that even as I write this review, the memory of that pizza, leaves me  sad and partially embarrased. After having tasted the amazing simplicity  and flavor profile of pizzas in Italy, I am always confused when American high end restaurants have such problems rendering a good pizza. A good pizza is after all predicated on 3 things: dough, sauce and cheese. I might venture to say the same about a good chicken sandwich: chicken, bread, tasty vegetables.  That this restaurant could not get right the simplest of fare makes me shudder at what dinner here would taste like. Never mind the cost.
The Quest continues....