La Galleria 33

10/20/09

Honest Review

by shaughn357

My mum was in town this week from Denver and her one request was to have a good Italian dinner but one that was not very expensive. My girlfriend and I typically eat at Bacco's but I knew their prices there are higher than she wanted to spend. We read numerous reviews for restaurants in the North End on Open Table and selected La Galleria 33. We were not disappointed in the least. The waiter was attentive and seated us promptly. The bus boy was a bit obnoxious constantly stopping by to fill our waters. We ordered the seafood stuffed mushrooms which was good but not excellent. The bread served with olive oil and olives was very good to start the meal. The dressing for the house salad was not well balanced, the vinegar overpowered the dressing. We ordered veal paradiso; lasagna and veal saltimbocca and all were excellent choices. The homemade pasta was excellent; the veal paradiso is one of the best veal dishes I have ever tasted. The vodka cream sauce itself was to die for, ok maybe a bit extreme, but it is second-to-none. The lasagna was not heavy or overpowered with too much cheese, perfect blend of ingredients. We skipped on dessert as we typically go to Cafe Vittoria whenever we are in the North End. We will definitely return to La Galleria 33 the next time we dine in the North End. As it turned out we ended up paying for the meal anyway!

• Pros: Ambiance, Service, Decor and excellent Italian food
• Cons: Overattentive service, house salad dressing

01/06/09

Excellent Italian fare

by CelticCail

After arriving in Boston our first night and wandering through seemingly endless Italian bistros, we finally settled on La Galleria 33 because of the sweet Italian woman welcoming us at the door and promising amazing homemade pasta and the reasonable prices. We got bread with the best olive oil I have ever tasted, including olives. We shared a fresh, balsamic bruschetta appetizer, which was delicious. I chose the homemade gnocchi; the marinara was slightly spicy and overall excellent. There was so much of it too! My husband chose the eggplant rollatini, which was the second best we have ever tried. We were absolutely thrilled with this place and will probably go back before our stay ends.

• Pros: food, service
• Cons: small place

11/03/08

Ok food.. really bad service.

by mlpetrelli

We visited Saturday evening 11/1/08. From the moment we sat down we felt rushed & unattended. At first greeting our waitress was interrupted by the hostess because a party of 9 was "getting worse" & she needed to "get them seated now". Our waitress told her to take the wine glasses off/away from the table behind us. The hostess said she couldn't do that (uneasy/surprised tone) & our waitress again directed her to take them, she was forcing that table to finish and leave!! We ordered an appetizer & wine. The $16.95 antipasti was skimpy & not worth the price.

When our waitress returned we ordered & since the menu says that they will try to accommodate anything we asked if manicotti was an option. She was curt stating we don't have it and told us to have cannelloni. It wasn't a recommendation; it was a snarly comment. Rather than ask anything else he just ordered a chicken dish & I ordered the veal parm. I did ask what the pasta choices were & was told that it's whatever the chef had ready. I asked what his choices were because I don't care for Rigatoni. She of course said linguini or rigatoni & left the table, we were stunned. The table next to us received their food & had gotten linguini so I was hopeful. Of course when our meals arrived.. I got Rigatoni. The veal & chicken were ok but I did not have any of the pasta. The worst part was that while we were enduring bad service the really upset party of 9 that came in after us was being catered to. We heard our waitress very politely telling them about specials & laughing... we had no idea there were specials at all!

Antoher table asked about Coffee to find out that on Sat nights they do not serve coffee or desserts. She offered no explanation & left that table sitting confused.

It was not a good experience. We are very disappointed with La Galleria. This was suppose to be a special night and dinner set a mediocre tone for the evening that was hard to shake.

I DO NOT recommend this restaurant.

• Pros: Ambience, entree prices
• Cons: Service