GALERIA Restaurante — Restaurant in Funchal

On September 7th 2024, while on vacation in Funchal, my girlfriend and I visited Galeria restaurant for dinner. This review is not about the place or the service which were both very nice, however I'll focus on my personal experience after eating there.

That evening, I ordered the steak tuna which is my favorite fish, and about 20-30 minutes after eating it, my face turned bright red and my head hurt like never before. My girlfriend and I left the restaurant thinking all would get better soon (even though worried because this was something I had never experienced before). Shortly after, I started shaking, got a rash on my full body, felt my palms itching, got very nauseous… all while my head felt like it was about to explode. We understood something was very wrong and rushed to the closest ER where I was told I was having some kind of anaphylactic shock related to my latest meal (even though my breathing was not impaired). The doctors gave me shots of epinephrine and adrenaline, and kept me under observation for a good part of the night. When I got back to my home country, I saw my doctor who ran all kinds of allergy tests. These tests came back negative : I am not allergic to tuna nor any other fish or food. My doctor is convinced I got food poisoned from the tuna steak I ate at Galeria restaurant. For the record, I had never experienced any kind of reaction to any kind of food before. This was completely new. Since my allergy tests came back, I tried to eat tuna again and everything went without any problem. I've e-mailed Galeria about this situation and asked them for an explanation and refund of my dinner (60 euros) as well as the refund of my ER bills in Funchal. The restaurant has replied that this never happened before (what else could they have said, right?) but did not offer any kind of reimbursement. For all these reasons, I won't come back nor recommend this restaurant to anyone as our last days in amazing Madeira were completely ruined.

To summarise : Atmosphere 4/5 Service 5/5 (the waiter was super nice) Taste of food 4/5 Overall experience...

We've not had too many bad experiences with food or service in Portugal but this place is our worst experience ever. I stupidly compromised my own usual rule of not going into a restaurant that has a tout trying to entice you in. She promised amazing food all made with fresh ingredients and so we gave it a go.

I ordered fish soup that didn't taste of fish and hardly contained any fish. It was more like a tomato soup with a few scraps of overcooked dried out fish left over from someone else's plate. My shrimp salad came with frozen shrimps and certainly not the freshly cooked food the tout promised. They also still contained the waste tract.....which is great if you like to eat the excrement of a shrimp. I don't. My wife ordered beef on a skewer. 2 pieces were edible but the rest was inedible and could not be cut or chewed because the quality of the steak was so bad. Her fries did not come with the dish despite being told they were included. The waiter then developed a bad attitude when I requested the fries. He said they would come in 2 minutes. 10-15 minutes later they arrived far too late and then we discovered they were bad quality frozen oven chips. When I expressed my disappointment the attitude of the waiter became unacceptable. He then sent a female waitress to deal with our dissatisfaction who turned out to have an even worse attitude. She tossed the card payment machine onto the table whilst I requested my wife's meal be removed from the bill. She refused this request. We then left and paid 20€ cash instead of the 50€ bill. I still think I overpaid due to poor quality overpriced food, but worse than the food was the attitude and behaviour of the staff. Will never return there and do not recommend this restaurant if you like good food and...

There are so many dining choices on the Street of the Painted Doors, but Galeria’s wine-bottles-everywhere theme caught our eyes. Drawn in by the bottles, we were impressed with the restaurant’s upscale interior: balcony dining with a curled steel railing overlooking the street-level white-table-clothed main dining room, the unusual multi-color glass pendant chandelier, and the reason for the establishment’s name — colorful paintings in every open spot where there are no wine bottles (even on the exterior walls). We would have been happy inside, but we chose a street-side table for al fresco dining and people watching, made easy by the table’s diamond orientation, so we could both face the street. The multi-language menu and excellent English-speaking server made it easy to choose from the many seafood selections (there was also plenty of landfood, but this was our first night on the island, so food from the sea seemed more appropriate ). Sarah was still a bit full from lunch so she chose the excellent fish soup (which I happily helped her finish) and the tasty ground-meat-filled samosas with almond sauce. I chose the grilled fish of the day, sea bass, which had beautiful crispy skin on the presentation side and flaky flesh underneath. All it needed was some freshly squeezed lemon juice. Vegetables and boiled potatoes rounded out the dish. Being philistines who drink red wine with everything, we accompanied our leisurely dinner with a Quinta da Bica from the Dao appellation. Very nice all around. YouTube’s...