Gabagool — Restaurant in Columbus

I was eager to dine at Gabagool, the new and much-discussed Italian restaurant in Columbus, particularly given its affiliation with The Animal Farm. Upon arrival, the atmosphere proved to be warm and inviting, and the staff were consistently courteous and attentive. However, it is worth noting that the interior was quite chilly; I would recommend that guests—especially women—consider bringing an extra layer. Additionally, the ambient noise level was noticeably high, which may detract from the overall dining experience for some patrons.

Unfortunately, the beef Bolognese was markedly underwhelming. The dish lacked any discernible flavor, and I would not recommend it. I’d liken it to my grandmothers unseasoned pasta dishes I had growing up. For a more satisfying alternative, I suggest visiting The Animal Farm for their braised beef pasta, which is only slightly more expensive ($2) yet offers a far superior depth of flavor and execution.

On a more positive note, my fiancé thoroughly enjoyed the chicken Parmesan. While he found the pasta served beneath it somewhat uninspired, he stated that he would order the dish again and even described it as the best chicken Parmesan he has had in Columbus. It is clear that Gabagool excels in certain entrees.

Despite the attentive service and a few high points, the overall experience did not meet my expectations. I’d opt for other options in the Columbus area.

Edit: to the owner’s prompt response. I had 2 opportunities to tell the waiter something regarding the food and was hesitant as it’s uncomfortable to bring up that an issue, especially with food quality/flavor, exists and is a decision I don’t take lightly.

I would’ve been more than willing to foot the cost of the bill, though it was thoughtful for you all to remove the cost of the dish. I never asked for the cost of the dish to be taken off the bill and was fully prepared to pay for what I had ordered. To go a step further, holding that over my head in regards to my perceived lower review seems of poor taste and stating “that’s no fun,” at the end of your response is quite demeaning. I didn’t find the entire experience including your response to be “fun” and highlighted that perhaps that dish is an outlier.

It’s quite intimidating as a female to bring up to a male waiter and male manager that I’m displeased.

As for not leaving a review within the first two weeks of opening, I see no complaint from your management or you regarding the other reviews that were promptly posted. That doesn’t seem quite fair to me but rather targeted as no one else has left a “lackluster review.” I understand that it can take time to iron out perceived shortcomings with new restaurants and just was giving my personal review to allow others to make of it what they may. Cheers.

Edit #2: since posting this, THE OWNER, Hudson Terrell, left his own 5 star review after my review. That’s a huge conflict of interest. Taking criticism and stride and making change is one thing but bashing people who leave reviews that aren’t to his satisfaction and reviewing his own restaurant hours later with a 5/5 isn’t a good look and is just cover up for “bad PR” aka honest reviews from patrons....

We had a reservation a couple weeks ago. We showed a up a few minutes early and since they were not open a couple guys had a couple can beverages while they waited. Once the restaurant opened I walked in and talked to hostess and asked if they could bring the cans in and then order at the table. Hostess said that was fine so they came in and we were sat.

The server came out got our appetizer and cocktail order and never said anything. Then I assume the manager stormed out of the kitchen loudly and aggressively announced the cans were not allowed they could either go outside and finish them or they can hand them over. This could have been mentioned in a regular conversation tone and manner. There was no issue with surrendering the cans. The only interaction was aggressive.

The beers came out quickly then we got our appetizers and then finally once we completed our appetizers, then the other half of the part cocktails finally came. We did not order second round of cocktails because of how slow they were we just enjoyed water with our meals.

The food was OK, at best. I had very high hopes since we love animal farm so much. We got mozzarella sticks and pizza puffs which left much to be desired, there was a chili honey on it but it just taste like sugar on top of the mozzarella sticks. The pizza puffs say Mozzarella, marinara and Capicola, we did not notice any marinara and maybe 2 chunks of meat in each of the 3 puffs we got.

2 out of 7 of us actually enjoyed their dinner. 4 of us ordered chicken parmesan (which all 4 of us have agreed that animal farm had the best chicken parmesan , the creamy sauce, the burrata cheese, the thin fried chicken covered in cheese and sliced to perfection, I AM VERY SAD to learn that animal farm no longer has this dish) The chicken parmesan here is a large thick chicken breast on big radiatore pasta that had sucked up the sauce and was in general a dry lackluster meal compared to what we had expected from previous meals. The other meal The Crab Bucatini, mentions lump crab meat and a nduja cream sauce. There was no lumps of crab meat and nduja is the sausage that I assume gave the "sauce" any flavor. This pasta was so thick that picking up one fork full picked up the entire clump of dry pasta, this could have benefited from a little pasta water to make an actual creamy sauce. The enjoyed meal was actually the creamy mussels (appetizer) if this sauce was on the bucatini she would have enjoyed the pasta. He ordered some more garlic bread that took a long time to come out so then when it was one piece of sourdough that had been garlic toasted and cut in half was lackluster.

Overall we had high hope this place would be so good but we were let down by slow cocktails...

For weeks I have been fantasizing about visiting Gabagool restaurant. I love Italian food, and I’m a foodie of course. I get so excited whenever a new restaurant opens in town. So last night was the night. My schedule was clear and I was able to dine at Gabagool. Our reservations was for 9 PM. It was a packed house. Lot’s of people there. One of the first things I noticed when I walked in was that there was little to no diversity in the restaurant. I also noticed that from online pictures as well. Initially when we walked in, I felt like the greeter was acting funny a little bit. Definitely wasn’t the warmest of welcome-ins that I’ve ever received. But when she realized that we did in fact, have a reservation, it got a little better. And by the time we left, she was all smiles saying have a great night. The red seats were so small and uncomfortable to sit in. If I ever go back to the restaurant, I definitely would want a booth. The espresso martini was not great. I’ve had better at the Millhouse restaurant. Millhouse espresso martini is a 10/10. I ordered a heirloom tomato, cucumber, and Burrata cheese salad that was horrible. I didn’t eat much of it at all. How does one get tomatoes and cheese wrong? When they brought it out, my date and I had the same reaction, which was, what is this. It looked like someone had vomited on top of the tomatoes. Whatever the sauce was on top of the tomatoes, it wasn’t good and it had no seasoning. The tomatoes were so mushy and the cheese was watery. The shoestring french fries were good. Our entrée was good and the portion size was huge. We had the vodka sauce pasta with the chicken Parmesan. Our waiter was OK. Overall, I wasn’t impressed and I left a little bit...