The Kitchen at Bernardo Winery

Holiday Nights Menu is an all day Menu. Went at lunch expecting the full menu, planned out my meal ahead but actually they only have a small menu of premade pastas and salads the few pizzas they make to order. I didn’t want premade food so we just got a pizza, which was good. Just wanted to warn anyone in case they didn’t know about the menu.

What a great restaurant at the Bernardo Winery. It's the perfect place to meet up with friends for lunch before walking around the cute winery and do some shopping in the boutiques on site.

There are lots of outdoor tables to choose from and most are shaded. It opens at 11am and it was busy soon after. We went on a weekday too.
You can get wines from the tasting room or delicious coffee from Manzanita next door.

You order from the counter and your food will be delivered to your table. Everything we had was delicious though the pizza was a little on the burnt side from the wood fired oven.

Parking: There are two small parking lots and plenty of street parking.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 4

Decent food. The food is better than the horrible wine. We had two pastas and a pizza for ~$85, so it’s on the pricey side. It’s not good enough to warrant coming out of your way to get here, especially since the wine is so bad.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 3

Service: 2

I do miss Cafe Merlot and this is a little bit more fast casual self-serve, but honestly they have the loveliest charcuterie!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

MANY probs.. NOT enough HELP & OBSCURE SERVICE.. I want to say Mirabelle & Kane are kind, they have to follow company protocols, which I understand, but seems at first
not compassionate. (I changed my perception later on).
After calling numerous times, trying to place an order.. NO ONE answers.. I thought Google had the hours incorrect.
I was released from the hospital few hours prior, I was equipped with a service to provide my transportation.
It is a common problem with this restaurant; For years, not answering calls. I knew that, but usually it is because of storms, or other probs locally.

Please pay for a Cell phone to FWD calls, a secretary to answer, a text system, SOMETHING!!
What is more disappointing, is the way service is handled now.. I wasn’t allowed to order Gelato after dinner, because that is in a different building, & it closes before the restaurant does??. WHaaa??? Didn’t used to be like this..

Hassle:
Go inside, order, & pay
They took away the wine area inside where you could get a glass.
However… if you want wine, you need to go to another building for the wine. You cannot order wine at your table. The wine steward I had on 6/12/2024 was Michelle. A very cold, insincere, unpleasant, wine steward. She saw my arm in a sling, & was callous. I will say, after I told her the type of notes of wine I liked, I was given a tasty glass of wine, but it was $16.50, plus a tip. I did not like her cavalier attitude, but to know, I couldn’t order a glass of wine at my table, it is not worth $16.50 for a glass of Vino to have to shlep it back to your table, especially, when injured & no assistance offered either.

Worst thing about this type of customer service is the disengagement. I know the world is so different & uncaring now, but… you hope a neighborhood place would be more sincere.. Very disappointing when you get out of the hospital, & crave a good meal. I won’t go back for dine in.
Again, Mirabelle & Kane tried.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 3

Service: 1

Hot Ciabata bread awesome.Ordered with Prosciutto & salami as well as buratta, olive, and tomato.Prosciutto quite thick, unusual.Bit too much balsamic with olive oil.Spaghetti al Dante. Meatballs nice. Sauce quite nice.Paired well with wine. Didn't try pizza or charcuterie but want to try next time.From tasting flight, white taste the beat over rose, burgundy.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Cool little winery with shops and a little museum nestled in a residential neighborhood. Decent food, decent wine. 20 bucks for a tasting board. Cool place to bring the family.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 4

Service: 4

Expected more than a take out

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 3

Service: 2

We wanted a nice, relaxed evening after a busy work week so went to the RB winery. Last time we dined here we got served like in a regular restaurant. This time it was without service, an upgraded In-n-Out or Wings-n-Things experience, but with high prices. Just like at In-n-Out or Wings-n -Things you order yourself inside (inside dining is gone), pay, and take a number to your table, so an employee can bring out the food. Employees, including behind the register, are all pleasant and nice. In order to get our wine to accompany our dinner, my husband had to walk to a different place at the RB winery, where wine tasting happens, pay separately there, and walk back with bottle and glasses to our table. You get water yourself from a water station at the restaurant. Sorry, but that's not a "dining" experience. If you have the concept of a fast food place you shouldn't call yourself a winery/restaurant anymore. The food was okay, we had a board with Ciabatta bread with all the goodies, cheese, charcuterie, artichoke, meatballs, from the menu. The bread itself was too hard and too much of a crust to be used as such, and the prosciutto wasn't the best quality. The wine, a bottle of Petit Syrah, was nice. We've had way better experiences at other wineries around Temecula and at this restaurant before things changed. Atmosphere is nice because of the location and decoration, but we don't go to a winery for a dining experience to get an "upgraded fast food experience".

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 3

Service: 2

Recommended dishes: Petite Shirah

We loooved coming here all these years and really bummed about the recent changes. Seems like the quality of food really began to suffer in the past 3+ months and the transition from the sit down restaurant service to cafeteria style tainted the whole experience. Not sure what triggered the change, but it really isnt the same

Atmosphere: 2

Food: 5

Service: 1

The food was great , nothing like a fresh bread and sauces, but didn't like the fact we had to bus our table when we had the chance to sit. No wait service , had to wait for someone to do a search and find to bring us our food. No one to ask for help or extra anything, we had to get things for ourselves, but pay regular high prices For cafeteria style eating. Very sad about the changes (so not classy)

Kid-friendliness: Space for kids to run and food that kids will love to eat

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 2

Fabulous location and setting. Was extremely busy. Food was good and service a bit slow.

Kid-friendliness: Lots of things to keep kids engaged.

Parking: Street and parking lot

Wheelchair accessibility: Well designed access for wheelchairs in many places.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 4

Service: 3

Food was decent. The service was great and they had a nice setup! I enjoyed this place but would get something different next time.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 3

Service: 5

The food is good, ambience relaxing, and service slow, but acceptable. However, they have a new paperless process for paying that is ripe for abuse. The waitress shows you an electronic screen at your table with a half dozen selections for tips, the lowest being 18%. She taps your credit card on the machine, and you are done. The total bill before tip is not presented, nor is there a tabulation of what you ordered and the total. You can’t tell if you were charged correctly for what you ordered. Recommendation: I am sure the electronic screen can show a tabulation of what was ordered and the total. Ask for it. If you liked the service and want to leave a 15% tip, which is what I normally do, ask for that option.

Had an impressively unfortunate experience sharing dinner for four.The lasagna was burnt to a crisp on the bottom, to their credit they redid that and removed it from our bill, and only burned a little bit of the second round.I ordered tortellini, it was surprisingly small and yet I still had no desire to finish past a couple bites, nor box the leftovers.We tried a gluten-free panini, of course gluten-free Italian is a challenge, but they could easily have done better than the sandy and mushy bread used.The waitress was kind but made two rounds of errors on our bill, and still ended up double billing me so now I need to call them to resolve that.The wine was fine.We may have just come on a bad day, but we won't be going back.I would recommend going for wine and maybe a dessert if you are interested in enjoying the atmosphere. Make sure to bring extra warm clothing at night, they may not have sufficient heating.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 1

Service: 2