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

08/10/08

Awsome Italian

by joeluvsfood

It's really refreshing to know that there are still some restaurants in the North End that care about their customers. We went there on a Thursday night. Nearly dragged in by our waitress, I thought this ought to be good, and to my surprise it was fantastic.

The service was impecable and the food was fresh and delicious.

We had such a good time, we felt as if they have known us for years.

I'm truly looking forward to our next visit.

• Pros: service food
• Cons: no full liquor

06/07/08

Average food, below average service

by bdmccarthy101

Nice setting, easy to fit a large family. Food was OK to good - not very memorable. Service was below average. Mark-up on wine was a little higher than average.

There are plenty of great restaurants in the North End, eat here only as a back-up plan.

• Pros: Some dishes good, some average
• Cons: not very memorable, service was below average.

04/24/08

La Galleria = 1/2 meals for FULL price!!!!

by AbbeyP

This was by far the WORST experience at a restaurant EVER! Myself and two friends wanted to meet for dinner and we came across La Galleria 33. We put our names on the waiting list and were told it would be 30-40 minutes until a table was available. We chose to wait outside on the sidewalk rather than in the small foyer and after 25 minutes were told that our name was already called and we "missed" our chance to get a table. The very rude hostess told us that she would "see what she could do" to get us in. An hour and 15 minutes later, the three of us were sat at a table for two.

Within 30 seconds of getting our salads, 2 meals were brought out while the third person had nothing (he hadn't ordered a salad). The waiter from this point on, completely ignored our table. We had to ask the water girl to see if she could find the missing third dinner. 25 minutes later, our friend got his hot dinner, while the other two of us, got to chip away at the icicles on ours. Again, the waiter avoided our table, except to quickly tell the person that had to wait for his dinner that he would have it taken off the bill. He wasn't even at the table long enough for us to ask him to heat our dinners up.

When it was time to pay the bill, I casually asked the waiter if our dinners (the two that were delivered quickly) were supposed to come with pasta. He informed me that yes, both eggplant parm and the chicken parm were supposed to include pasta...we never got it! When I asked to speak with a manager, she was even more rude than the hostess was! The manager (who was also waiting tables in the next section) said that she didn't know why we were complaining because the late dinner was already taken off the bill. I explained to her that we had only taken 3 bites of our COLD dinners because we waited for his AND we only got half of it (no pasta)! She offered to package the pasta to go which was a joke! We should have taken the pasta and dumped it on her head!!

• Pros: Admittedly, the food was fantastic (probably outta this world if it was hot!)
• Cons: Service, attitude, management

01/31/08

I love this restaurant

by greens57

La Galleria 33 is a lovely small restaurant beautifully decorated. The pricing is good except wine is high. The food is delicious especially the pasta. Try the spinach cantollini-it is supurb!!! This is the North End's best kept secret.

• Pros: pasta is perfect
• Cons: small

12/31/07

Horrible Service

by agallagher10

I went here with my wife and 2 other couples. When we arrived a group of 6 was in a heated argument with the hostess. The group had arrived 15+ minutes late. Their argument lasted over 10 minutes while we patiently waited and the group was told there was a table of 4 that could be arranged for them. The group refused it and after a long debate was seated at a window table for 6. My group, which was 20 minutes early, was then seated at the table for four that the last group had refused. The waitresses then scowled at us all night because we had a person sitting in the aisle that blocked their path. Bottom line: this place wants money and will sell out your reservation. Make sure to show up 30 minutes early or just make a reservation somewhere else. While the food is good, it's hard to enjoy knowing that the hostess gave away your reservation while you were standing at the door.

• Pros: Food
• Cons: Service, unreilable reservations

12/10/07

Old world Italian Food -- Lasagne, Raviolis, Gnocchi, Eggplant Parmigiana!!!!

by mrsaini

This past weekend me, my husband and a couple friends were looking in the window of this cute little restaurant on Salem Street when the waitress came out and hustled us in. We filed in and got a nice table by the window. Our waitress, Patty, sang a little song and then recited all of the evening's offerings that were in addition to the menu and everything sounded wonderful. From the salads, that were so freshly made and tossed, to the entres which were served hot and abundant, we thoroughly enjoyed this meal. The aroma from the dishes was divine!!! Everything was so fresh and was cooked to order and the condiments and vegetables used were the freshest! We tried a couple of dishes that are now nearly extinct on Italian menus (Raviolis/Lasagne, etc) and a couple of meat entres (can't recall the names of the dishes, but I couldn't find not one thing wrong with this place...from the atmosphere to the attention we received, to the fabulous dinner - it was perfect. We will soon be back!!!!

• Pros: The food is simply divine!
• Cons: You risk getting a parking ticket in the North End but well worth it.

10/06/07

Quite a Dissapointing Experience/Far from Great Customer Service

by ysr

We went to La Galleria with my husband the other Thursday night. I have to say that this was probably the most disappointing experience we had in the North End. The hostess seemed to be careless and although the restaurant was empty we had to wait for a while to get some attention. The appetizers were awful, we couldn't even figure out if we got what we ordered. The entrees were good, however, and this was the most enjoyable part of the night. Another disappointment came with the check: the hostess charged my credit card 3 times the amount on the check... Moreover, they never brought us our leftovers that we asked them to wrap up.