Light Bistro

This place is non-GMO, which is the reason my wife will come here with me.

The food is outstanding! The carbonara pizza is thin crispy crust and decadent.

Caramelized scallops are to die for! The preparation I had was with smoked trout, spinach and a corn velouté. It was tied for the best scallop dish I have ever had with a corn bacon scallop I had at Lola once. Really incredible dish.

Blue corn crab fritters in Vietnamese dipping sauce were light and not greasy. The sauce was a perfect compliment.

The service was exceptional as well, from the hostess to our server and the bussers everyone was fantastic.

Based on this meal I will be a new regular here.

If you're looking for a unique and very tasty meal, try the ostrich. It tastes like a cross between beef and duck. They perfectly sear the outside, and the inside is very juicy and tender. The only thing I didn't like about the meal was the orzo, which tasted too gummy to me. The sauce and the green beans, however, were very good.

Service was excellent. Our waiter was very knowledgeable and went through the menu thoroughly.

Are we allowed three updates for one place? I guess we are.

I just want to chant "Hap-py Hour! Hap-py Hour!" every time I walk up to Light Bistro. But, I think I might need to change that chant to "Lamb Ka-bobs! Lamb Ka-bobs!" Or, if you ask my boyfriend, he might say the Chicago dog is really where the chant needs to be...

Regardless, all of these items are $5 on the HH menu.

No, I'm not kidding you. Add that to high-end beers, wines and martinis all ridiculously priced at $5 as well and you've got yourself a party. But, when your fabulous, handcrafted cocktails are even cheaper, at a $4 price-tag, your just asking yourself for the ultimate happy hour love.

I'm sorry, but in my opinion, this is *the* destination for an upscale, fine-dinning, local-loving happy hour in Cleveland. You will not find a better deal.

In fact, just from this awesome experience, I think I'm going to sit at the bar from now on--no matter what. Their 'tender teaches cocktail design all over the country and he's awesome. End of story.

Excellent Happy Hour!

I just love the interior of this place. I'm a sucker for exposed brick...can't get enough of it ;)

Light's happy hour runs from 5-7p and includes great prices on beer, wine and food. I had some really decent $3 glasses of wine. I also had (off the regular menu) the Crispy Clams and the Classic Burger. The clams were really good with garlic aioli and fried olives. The olives were a cool unique addition. The burger was cooked perfect and included bacon and fried egg....mmm, heart attack. Seriously though, great burger and nice light bun. I'm not a fan of shoestring fries though.

Service was friendly and swift.

The regular menu can get a bit pricey, but there's enough economical options as well. You can't beat the happy hour prices either!

The wife and I finally had a chance to eat at light a few weeks ago on an increasingly rare baby-free date night.

It was surprisingly uncrowded for a Friday night, which was very much to our advantage. We were able to sit at a table outside in the cool fall weather and enjoy the beautiful evening.

We ordered the meatballs and stuffed figs for starters, and both dishes were excellent. I knew it had jalapenos on it, but they seemed much stronger than usual. Perhaps, it was an interaction with the mustard on the sandwich?

I had the bison sandwich, which was delicious, though unexpectedly spicy. The wife had the burger, which we both thought was amongst the best we've had. The burger was cooked, yet moist, and the bun was very light and pleasing chewy with a consistency that reminded me of an English muffin. Interesting, and very, very good.

Our server for the evening was really very attentive, and we had a wonderful time, and we can't wait to stow the baby and come back again.

Light Bistro is an inspiring change of pace in a land full of gluttonous comfort food restaurants. Priding themselves on small plates, aka "tapas", this is a perfect place to try many dishes on the menu without breaking the bank. Great food should be celebrated, shared and enjoyed and the tapas form of dining helps facilitate that.

A recent meal at Light Bistro included Butternut Squash Soup, tapas plates of Bacon wrapped Dates stuffed with Almonds and Valdeon Cheese, Lamb Meatballs with Mint Tomato Sauce and Braised Pork Belly with Grain Mustard, Braised Red Cabbage & Apples.

Our server was knowledgeable and treated us well. The food was plenty acceptable and I would like to return to try the rest of the menu someday. I will say that I wasn't exactly blown away by any one item I tried that night though. With that said, all dishes were moderately priced and the value seemed well worth it for a return visit.

I arrived early-ish (for me) to meet my distinguished guest for a Lenten Friday lunch at Light Bistro. Before I had reached my table, the manager took my coat and umbrella, gave me the nickle tour and answered any questions I might have about the place. The waiter approached to take my drink order and continued the trend of solicitous service. The service was fantastic throughout the meal, although the waiter had to be asked to bring the check-- he thought we wanted to gab more. Which we did, but we also had jobs calling.

After asking a few questions about the menu, including which items might be Papally approved for lenten Fridays, I chose the boxed lunch. After having my first two choices of sandwich nixed ( only panninis count, but nowhere does the menu distinguish paninis from other sammiches.) I settled upon the brie and apple sammich, with the bread and tomato salad and a ceasar salad (the soup of the day had meat, so they subsituted another salad). The bread and tomato salad was fantastically vibrant. Amazing considering it was February. The ceasar salad was inoffensive. The brie sammich was a lactose coma inducing, crunchy slab of bliss-- it could have used many more apple slices, however, to offset the richness.

The standout was the bread they brought to the table in little bags. It is warm, homemade, dense, rich and perfect. It's served with some lovely organic whipped unsalted butter. Joy. Joy Joy.

And Papally acceptable.

I came here last night for a bachelorette party and at first, I was surprised we picked light bistro for dinner instead of all the other "more known" restaurants in ohio city. The second you enter the room, there is such a claasy, romantic atmosphere. The front of the room seems like a more casual, happy hour atmosphere and when you walk through the hallway (and the hallway is filled with wine cabinets where you can explore different wine from.. bubbly wine, organic wine, etc..), you enter the back room. The backroom then has about 4-5 tables and it transforms into a reallyyy classy atsmophere.

Our server was AWESOME. He was so nice, so funny, and everything was on spot. The foods came out right on time, they were very considerate with a huge group of us, he filled our water everytime it was empty and he doesn't forget to ask if there's anything he can do for us. We were served by 3-4 people.. 1 person who fills our water and ordered our wine, 2 people to make our orders and serve our dishes, and 1 person who came by about twice to ask how our evening was.

Now...onto the main event: THE FOOD.

These are all the TAPAs we had: fingerling potatoes, marinated mushrooms, corn on the cob, salad, and clams.
Everyone LOVED their tapas. I believe every single one of us finished every bit of our tapas and didn't leave any leftovers. I had the fingerling potatoes with garlic aioli and it was SPLENDID. These are such good tapas. 1 thing though.. I don't think their tapas beat Bodega's (on coventry)

Then, the ENTREEs. I had the pork loin with bacon and banana peppers. The bachelorette sampled 3 people's dishes: my pork loin, a salmon main course, and a short ribs main course dish. According to the bachelorette, she thought the short ribs was the best.. because she liked the short ribs so much, she's planning to change her food order for her wedding! As for my pork loin, i loooooved it! The bacon pieces was crispy and delicious. The sweet potatoes were sweet and a perfect addition to the meal. And the pork loin was made to perfection. It was made MEDIUM and it was sooooo good. If I didn't have the tapas, I would've finished the pork loin with a heartbeat. My friend who had the salmon actually finished her entire meal too!

Overall, the service was great, the staff was great, and the food was AMAZING. I will definitely either be bringing my boyfriend here or at least making an appearance to their happy hour again!

Review in a gist: Nicely done, but needs some improvement.

The atmosphere is great, very laid back but still chic. Seating is kind of odd to me, but I'm used to the table-packed bistros of Seattle, but it definitely works.

I don't know if this applies to the men's bathroom, but the women's bathroom is TINY. Seriously, if someone is washing their hands, you could take them out with a single push on the door (which, hey, way to make it look like an accident!). Though, my little green-friendly heart LOVES that they use hand towels and not paper towels. And that they source foods locally. Rock on.

The waiter was a true delight. How he managed to entertain me as well as provide the service he did was just great. He was even polite enough to laugh at my dorky jokes, which I really appreciate.

To the noms!

I had the bacon-wrapped dates, the mixed greens salad, and the ribeye with goat cheese farro. My friend had the chicken croquettes, the butternut squash bisque, and a panini (the panini I didn't taste because she is not a good sharer). For dessert, I got the "coffee and doughnuts" and she got the chocolate cake (basically, molten lava cake?).

The bacon-wrapped dates were sublime, as expected. The sweetness of the dates, the tang of the cheese, the crunch of the almonds, and the saltiness of the bacon. Hell-freaking-yeah!

The chicken croquettes were good, but not spectacular (the red pepper sauce was divine though), and the butternut squash bisque was delicious but lacked something, couldn't put my finger on it.

Oddly enough, what really shined that evening was the mixed greens salad. The perfect combination of sweet, spicy, and tangy. The spiced pecans REALLY made the salad and the lucky penny feta was superb. Julienne pears were a great touch. I think next time I go, I'm just going to order a double of this salad and the bacon wrapped dates.

The Ribeye was solid. I love my steaks "black and blue" (crispy on the outside, cold in the middle). They really tried, it's a hard preference to pull off successfully (even more so when you have a party of 16+), but it wasn't quite right. Regardless, the steak was delicious and well-seasoned. The downfall of this was actually the succotash. WHERE WERE MY LIMA BEANS?! And why did the green beans taste frozen? Actually, why did ALL of it taste frozen?! YUCK! Had they left this off, I would have been far happier with just the root vegetables (which thankfully did not include carrots. I. Hate. Carrots.) It was thoroughly off-putting.

The goat cheese farro was solid, but not spectacular. It needed something fresh and green. Dill would have been fantastic or a touch of fresh thyme.

The desserts were a catastrophe. The "coffee and doughnuts" were supposed to be beignets with espresso ice cream. It would have been brilliant if the 'beignets' were actually beignets. They were these round globs of yeast dough that hadn't quite cooked through and were heavier than lead weights. Someone please please please fix this. It nearly broke my beignet-loving heart. The chocolate cake with whipped cream and strawberries....jesus. There is obviously no pastry chef back there. The cake was eggy to a level that I took one bite and was rather repulsed. I did not go back for a second bite.

Overall, it was a great dinner until the end. If they can fix the succotash problem and hire a pastry chef (or get some solid recipes lined up), I would highly recommend it.

I'd heard nothing but fantastic things about Light Bistro so I trudged in with my boyfriend on a snowy winter night to try the place out, sort of on a whim.

First of all, it was a Wednesday, and there were barely any other customers. A lot of the Yelp reviews I'd read in advance of our visit said the place tended to be empty on random other nights, and I can't figure out why. Maybe it's busier on the weekend? Who knows.

Anyway, rather than going the sandwich or entree route, we decided to order a pizza and some of the tapas and split everything. We got the carbonara pizza (which "seems perfect for a hangover," our waitress joked), the lamb balls, cheddar and ham croquettes, along with a side of spinach and a side of polenta.

Everything was pretty good and we left with lots of leftovers. The pizza is pretty generous for two people and while the eggs weren't quite as runny as I would have liked, it was still very tasty. And yes, probably good for a hangover, if you were to wander into Light Bistro after a bender.

We were both wowed by the polenta, which was creamy, and sort of smoky, and had a delightful coffee-ish undertone. We were surprised to find out that there were no special ingredients in it -- just cream, butter, salt and polenta. Yum.

The spinach was good, but a little on the salty side for my tastes.

With all the food, a glass of wine and two beers, we left with a $55 bill, which was pretty reasonable.

The burger came with high recommendations from a friend and his wife, so we'll be back, I'm sure.