La Galleria — Restaurant in Palermo

We had such high hopes for this place but it disappointed us not once, but twice!

We visited Palermo to go to Villa Igiea and Verdura, having been to Taormina many times over the last ten plus years, flying into Palermo often, but never spending any time here. We booked an airbnb for one night in town before heading to Villa Igiea, and it was a Monday, so this restaurant wasn't open and we didn't even know it existed, until departing for Villa Igiea and when we walked downstairs, we saw the adorable tables (we had seen the other decor when closed, but had no idea it was a restaurant), as our Airbnb was directly above and across the street.

After staying at both hotels, a box we had my realtor mail to Verdura a full month ago had STILL not arrived, so we came back to Palermo to wait for it (thinking it would be just a couple more days), which has now been a full week, but given us the opportunity to try La Galleria.

We first went by for drinks, when they first opened, as we were nearby. They told us they needed the table at 8 (about 35 minutes later) for a booking and we said ok. The server we had was great (granted we just had 2 drinks, a spritz and a Cuba libre, so not much work needed, and my straw did have a hole in it, so my boyfriend went inside to fetch another, and also a straw for his Cuba libre). As we were preparing to depart, my boyfriend had gone inside to pay and make a dinner booking for the following night and just returned (so literally gathering our things), a very rude server came to bark (basically yell, out of no where) at us that we need to leave, they told us that they needed the table. Bear in mind the place was not busy (still quite early), we literally had just gone inside to pay and were physically leaving, so the hostility was quite unnecessary.

When we returned the following night to give it another shot, showing up at 9:30 for our dinner booking, we were told that we had cancelled it. Huh??! how would we have done that when we literally made the booking in person just over 24 hours earlier?! We said no, we did not.

The bartender said he would get us 2 glasses of wine, basically to smooth things over and as an apology, while we waited for a table, which we said was so kind and that it was no big deal, happy to wait. They offered us an indoors table first and we said we'd rather wait for an outdoors table (which is what we had booked in the first place).

When the table comes available we go outside to sit and when they bring the remainder of the bottle of wine in an ice bucket to our table (mind you we do NOT like sicilian wine, granted it is pretty much all you can get here, but certainly would not have picked that bottle ourselves, but thinking it was free, which we were not seeking out, were thankful and of course did not send it back), I told my boyfriend, I think perhaps this is not free, as we now have the remainder of the bottle. He said well maybe they're giving us the entire bottle....I suspected not (and no, they did not, we were charged for the bottle).

We ordered the tuna tartare and the grilled swordfish as appetisers, I ordered the tuna entree and my boyfriend ordered a recommended local dish with meatballs that turned out to be fried (which he does not eat), and "dry as a bone." They said they did not have sauce, so brought him oil. The tuna tartare was not bad, but the entree and the swordfish were both the sort you'd get in our primary home city of London (not great for seafood), the 1/4" thin type filet, not of a high quality, likely frozen previously (I asked for it to be as rare as possible , as always, google translated "alive would be great" and she laughed and told me that it must be cooked well - note we had the rude barker as our server, of course).

Consequently, it was obviously not the quality or fish for which I'd hoped (we love salmon and tuna at literally any cafe or hole in the wall in Paris, as well as in our one home city of nyc, and countless places all over the world such as greece, Rio de Janeiro, seattle, sf, etc, so not...

Leaving another review as my initial review on my own account was already at the maximum character limit, so modifying it to respond to the ignorant owners response to mine is impossible. I guess they can thank themselves for their completely false and ignorant response for another negative review, to join the many others, which already leave them at a 4.5 average, pretty horrifying.

Please note that the ignorant owner did not respond to any of the actual content of my review with regards to the poor quality of their food, poor customer service, or the fact that we did not even receive an offer to taste the crappy wine which they forced on us, under the assumption that it was being gifted to us. He says that my boyfriend is so rude, but he did walk inside and ask him about the wine as he had led us to believe that it was free (not because we wanted free wine, but he said he was giving us two glasses; my boyfriend does not even drink white wine, so along with the wine being horrible and not something we would have chosen, even with me drinking white wine, clearly it was not beneficial forcing a bad bottle of white wine when my boyfriend would have ordered red, and does every day, including right now sitting across from me), when it was on the bill, he said no, we didn’t complain or want to cause a scene, so literally everything he says is just proving our points further!

We would never have ordered a bottle of crappy Sicilian wine without having any kind of option to choose our own!

Please note that I have asked them for any video footage to back up their false claims, as an attorney, and I’ve yet to receive any.

We overheard several tables, including those covered in tattoos behind us, referencing the poor service, so it seems we were not alone (as reviews evidence). Perhaps they should actually review their video footage.

No, being dressed well (thanks for the compliment! I didn’t even have any of my Chanel, Dior, etc bags but basic balenciaga) or coming from somewhere expensive has no relevance - also mind you my review stated that we did not come from the hotel, but from an Airbnb nearby as we ended up staying an extra week in Sicily waiting for a package sent over a month ago, which makes his response even more ignorant and completely lacking comprehension of anything stated.

Yes, the other patrons are covered in tattoos and backpacker types, but I did not address their patrons, so addressing what we look like only illustrates his discrimination against us and refusal to address the issues at hand with regards to lack of quality control.

Its laughable that of they are trying to insult us not fitting in, when that has nothing to do with the shortcomings of the establishment, or why they have so many poor reviews so the average is a 4.5 (laughable).

Waiting for send them to send any of these videos, but strangely they have not reached out to me to do so, as they know that the claims are 100% false like everything else in their response.

I worked as a manager in both retail and restaurants after finishing university early before I started my juris doctorate, and I cannot imagine responding in such a way in the service industry, but again, explains their poor rating (still no explanation about the crappy food or forcing a bottle of crappy Sicilian wine we would never choose to drink on us).

You could not pay us to come back to eat your low quality overcooked fish, and oil drowned fried meatballs, or your crappy wine.

Perhaps you should read your other recent one star reviews, including the one that said they were waiting to come to your restaurant for ages and left you an actual one star when I was kind enough to leave you three.

This review is one and I will be modifying my three.

As a final note, I will say that I’ve only ever heard negatives about Palermo, even friends in London had to be airlifted out after being beaten up by locals, why we’ve never spent time here, so I guess that this should come as no surprise, and we were lucky that we have not had a similarly negative experience...

UPDATE:

They have responded to my review with complete lies (I won’t read all as the little I saw was all complete lies). The other poor reviews exemplify that this place has a history of poor service. I will say, the fact that he told us he wanted to give us two glasses of wine as an apology for the night prior and without telling us, charged us hence forced us purchase the entire bottle was the weirdest thing ever.

My girlfriend smiled and thanked him, even WAVED leaving the bar to our table and she said she regretted that considering the fact that it was not even a wine that she wanted (drinking white wine which I don’t) and charged us for the entire bottle. Additionally, yet again, this is not the main reason for our complaints, just one portion of the bad experience.

There were other patrons audibly complaining both in front of and behind us throughout the night, as well as people standing in line complaining about the service and how rude the staff was. It seems they should spend more time addressing their actual issues than responding to harass people that leave Reviews. —— Such a sad experience given our expectations for such a cute place. We had visited for drinks and had a really bad experience with one of the servers who was extremely rude.

We returned the following night for dinner as planned (prior to the bad experience for drinks) and the person who I assume to be the manager or owner offered us a free round of drinks given the situation the previous bought. He asked us what type of wine we wanted yet he gave us something different, which is completely fine since he said he was giving it to us and obviously would never complain if giving to us.

However, he ended up putting the entire bottle on our table and then charging us for that bottle which we never would have ordered in the first place. So, no round on the house like he mentioned, and forcing us to purchase an expensive bottle of wine (only expensive compared to other options) and we were not able to enjoy the ones that we actually wanted to order (Sauvignon blanc and a red).

The food that I got was quite greasy and fried. It was extremely hard and felt like it had been deep-fried for far too long, I never would have ordered it had I known it was deep fried but I suppose that could be my fault for not asking. Though, I would not expect a restaurant like that to have such deep-fried items as an entrée. The tartare of tuna was good quality, the swordfish was fine, the tuna filet was...