Gaido's — Restaurant in Galveston

My wife and I stopped in for dinner as we missed trying dinner here our last trip to Galveston. We were not disappointed at all.

Short version...food and service both incredible don't hesitate to go if you get the chance. If you want more details please keep reading for the rest of the story... :)

I want to start by first recognizing our amazing server Tahlia...

she made this dinner and visit something special. My wife and I have tried all over the United States and to other countries, we have eaten at road side food stands, hole in the wall joints up to Michelin Star places so when I tell you Tahlia was amazing we truly mean it.

We sat down not knowing what to expect she greeted us quickly with her super friendly yet professional demeanor. She then took us on a journey of the history of Gaidos and how it has been around over 100 years. She even shared the original location and how it came to its current location after a major hurricane and has the largest kitchen in the state for restaurants. Just really neat history of the business and I am a geek for that stuff.

She went on to explain the specials and all of questions about the menu items even my extra questions she was not sure about but got the answer for us which was awesome. Instead of just telling us an unsure answer she made sure to get us the correct one.

Throughout the meal she was the perfect amount of follow up and making sure we had everything we needed. Even during the dinner we engaged in really fun social conversations and joked around which just made it feel like we were dining at a friends house not a strange restaurant away from home.

All of the food we had was incredible from the crab cake and calamari appetizer and warm fresh home made bread to the main course.

The crab cake appetizer was very tasty. The crab is usually local sourced but this time of the year you can't harvest carb local so they bring it in from other U.S. states where they can harvest fresh carb. I like they are using U.S. caught and not importing frozen from overseas and that she even knew that.

The calamari was perfectly cooked and they did something I have never had before. They put it on a bed of edible greens and dressed the greens with the same vinaigrette as my wifes salad. The menu says lemon garlic but it tasted more like honey pecan vinaigrette that was on her salad and was AMAZING. The honey pecan vinaigrette added just a little something extra that made the calamari pop compared to anyone elses we have eaten.

I got the special for the day which was a fresh fish filet and my wife had the grilled salmon which were both amazing.

The family sides of the crab mac and cheese was super tasty, very cheesy, and we had crab in every bite. The au gratin potatoes were very tasty as well. Now the mac and cheese was a much larger portion than the au gratin potatoes just fyi. Still good portions though.

The desert I tried the crème brulee which was tasty but I was disappointed with the sugar crust. I typically like a thicker crust that's harder so you can tap it with your spoon and hear that its solid and it breaks apar where this was one was softer with some caramelized parts. Still good flavor though.

Then to top off the experience they bring you these little bowls of warm water with lemons in it. DO NOT DRINK it lol...this is for cleansing your fingers and hands after dinner. My wife seemed to think I was going to try and drink it lol.

Overall an amazing experience and we will certainly be back and recommend you give them a try. If you get the chance say hi to Tahlia for us I am sure she will make your dining...

I have never cried in my car after “eating” at a restaurant before, but there I was in the Gaido’s parking lot at 10:15pm after not even being able to eat my meal.

My boyfriend and I made a reservation through OpenTable for 8:15 PM during our Anniversary trip to Galveston for the weekend. We were seated promptly, and everything went downhill quickly. We waited 15 minutes after being seated, until I found the manager and asked why not a single person had came to our table to greet us or even fill up our water cups. He apologized, asked where we were seated and came over to give us water and explain the menu. We told him we had never been to this restaurant before, and we were celebrating our anniversary. He talked up the food, said dessert of our choice would be on the house. 10 minutes later, he returns and takes our food order. So by now we had already been seated for 45 minutes. Our “server” comes over and apologizes about the delay in her taking care of us, but assured us that our entrées would be out shortly. I ordered the $48 Wahoo Fish Special, my boyfriend the fried catfish. Food came out and it looked great. Unfortunately, the rice on my dish was completely undercooked to the point of it being crunchy and inedible. Server is MIA again, we are sitting in a completely empty room with bussers clearing tables and other oblivious servers resetting tables. So once again, I have to get up from my table to find the manager or server to address yet another major issue. 10 minutes later we finally get someone to come to our table, ask what I would like to be done. I ask for the whole dish to be remade, and they say that’s not possible because it’ll be the same batch of rice. So apparently I am the only person who noticed the undercooked rice and everyone else must have said “Why this rice has such a good crunchy texture! Fantastic”

So they bring me out a new plate, 15-20 later. My boyfriend has already finished his dinner. At this point I was so upset about this experience I had completely lost my appetite and just wanted to leave. We go find the manager again, because not a single person in this restaurant seems to give a damn about our experience. I find him and the server speaking together in a corner and explain that I am severely disappointed, and we are going to leave so if we could just get the check.

He pleaded to us to take the “on the house” dessert, like that was going to fix a single issue that arose during this visit. The audacity to still try and charge us for the food was beyond me, so I left to go sit in the car while my boyfriend paid.

Of course they don’t give unsatisfied customers the “comment cards”, so I wasn’t even able to address the issue directly to someone above the manager who was on duty tonight (9/15/2023)

The cherry on top was checking my email when I left the restaurant to see they cancelled my OpenTable reservation an hour and a half after we had already been seated so I am unable to leave feedback on that platform. We eventually left around 10:15PM, and by that time the only other food options were fast food. So I get to go to bed hungry, on a special day.

Completely, and utterly disgusting service. I have never had such a horrid experience at a restaurant in...

My family and I go to Galveston often, as this is a place I've been visiting since I was a child. Last Saturday we decided to dine at Gaido's. I recently found out my father worked there as a teenager. I wish I could say that we had a pleasant experience. But unfortunately we did not! Our waiter seemed puzzled that we asked about non-alcoholic beverage options (we do not drink). However, initially we just thought he was surprised by the question, because it was spring break and many other people drink alcohol. My wife ordered a half dozen oysters and our niece and I ordered the calamari and spinach dip for starters, and I ordered a house salad. The waiter brought us 12 oysters, and my wife explained she ordered 6 (half dozen). He tried to convince her to just accept the 12. She didn't want 12 oysters. Reluctantly, he took them away and eventually brought a plate of 6. We were only offered a refill on our drinks once, the entire time, and we were there for 2 hours. One soda, two waters, and two glasses of apple juice. Our main dishes were dropped off, and I asked the waiter for cracked pepper for my pasta, and for our left over spinach dip to be boxed.......he did not come back to our table until we were done eating. I ordered the seafood pasta. It was luke warm and the cream sauce and angel hair pasta was one big ball, virtually inseparable. At this point we were feeling very disappointed. My wife went to speak with a tall, blonde, woman carrying a tablet who appeared to be in a supervisory role, and a shorter man standing with her. My wife explained some of our concerns. Instead of trying to understand our concerns, the supervisor insisted that our waiter was not "usually" neglectful of his tables. She also continued to say "we hope you give us another try". Eventually, she offered us a slice of cheesecake. This didn't seem appropriate considering the many things that had gone wrong, but we were ready to leave. Then we got the check, and on the check we see that there's a charge for 12 oysters! Again, my wife approached the woman and showed her the mistake. By the way, all of this takes an additional 30-45 minutes, just to get the check, food boxes, and pay the check. Finally, they bring us the corrected check, and we give them our credit card. They come back and tell me the card declined twice....embarrassing, but not a big deal... I gave them another credit card. This time our waiter brings the receipt for me to sign, standing with him is a young woman...both standing over my shoulder, watching me. I was so incredibly uncomfortable, and I asked if he could give me some space! Our waiter walked away, and the young lady stayed, standing behind me!! It felt like they were suspicious of us!! I signed the check, handed it to the young lady, and left. The waiter did not ask us anything about our experience, or apologize for the negative experience....but he made sure to get the check signed! By the time it was all said and done, we were left feeling insulted by the cheesecake offering, and like we had just paid $230 to be mistreated and humiliated. Mistakes happen sometimes, but this was a train wreck of an experience. We will never dine...