My friend and I were in the mood for some Italian food so we turned to Yelp to find an Italian place we've both never been to. That's how we came across Gina's Bistro and it's glowing reviews. We headed down there for dinner on a Friday night after making reservations earlier in the day. Gina's Bistro is located in a shopping complex right next to a Salvation Army store. From the outside the bistro doesn't look like much but on the inside it's a cute little restaurant with dim lighting, white table clothes, ideal for a date night. The place itself is small with about 15 tables inside. When we went inside the place only had about 3-4 other occupied tables at the time so reservations were probably not needed. Service was nice enough nothing too memorable. However, the food left a lot to be desired.
We ate:
-Homemade Bread (free) - The bread was a little bit on the chewy side and had a spongy texture to it. When I took a bite of the bread it felt like I was chewing for a good minute before being able to swallow it down. Can't complain too much I guess since it was free.
-Caesar Salad ($7.50) - My friend and I shared this as an appetizer, personally both my friend and I like a robust Caesar salad dressing and the one served here was a bit too mild and watered down for our taste.
-Cheese Ravioli ($13.95) - The cheese raviolis could have been good but I had no way of knowing because the entire dish was overpowered by the sauce which had a strong tart/sour taste to it.
-Penne Campagnola ($14.95) - My friend ordered this dish and the roasted garlic chicken was pretty tasty and the sun dried tomatoes was a nice addition to the dish, however, the dish was again overpowered by the tart/sour sauce.
I'm really sad that we did not end up liking this place, I was hoping this restaurant would be a hidden gem to eat at. At least I can say that I tried this place and didn't like it...on to the next Italian restaurant to try!