Galvez Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Galveston

Came here today for Valentine's Day brunch. While I'm not excited about driving 1.5 hours to go have brunch, I am beyond elated that I made the decision to head there.

Reservations are required, and as they get closer to the summer it will be busier and busier. Per Nicky, the waiter we had today who was a gem.

I eat pretty clean and well during the month but not this day. Spending 80 bucks a person, I am eating my weight in carbs, and fat. And they have plenty of each. And lots of desserts to top it off.

You walk into a beautiful old hotel right across from the beach. Great entrance, friendly people. Inside we were seated in a circle booth then the debauchery began. Crab legs, shrimp, and oysters are what greet you under a ice sculpture.

A funny table with some green stuff on it that I paid zero attention to. A bread station. Then on the left you had eggs, bacon, sausage, and a eggs Benedict. Mashed potatoes, jerk chicken , biscuits and gravy I'm sure I missed something but it's all in the photos.

On the right there is a omelet bar, a pasta bar, and a waffle bar. And I'm not exactly what crack they put in that batter but I had two waffles. Two. Melted butter on top and syrup was great. They have fried chicken there as well, tried it. Not my favorite.

The pork tenderloin bar and the prime rib bars were awesome. But the dessert?

The dessert hall was great. Stuffed cupcakes, cream puffs, whoopee pies. Just look at the photos. They will say more than I can.

Wait staff. Now I have read some reviews that they were attentive or cleaned up plates very often but this wasn't my experience. Felt they did an exceptional job at making sure the table was cleared and cleaned.

Will I come back? A question I always try to answer at the end of my reviews; and a resounding yes. Expensive. Sure. Good ROI for the food options there? Absolutely. It's a treat and you should...

The Hotel Galvez restaurant is very beautiful and located in a very convenient place. Many more compliments are very difficult to come to mind after my poor experience here for lunch on a Saturday.

I took my mother-in-law here for her birthday to try some place new with my father-in-law and wife. What this place makes up for opulence and class, their food conversely flops. The only thing my family was happy with at our table was their cornbread muffins with butter and a spectacular jalapeno jelly. Every dish that we ordered preceding this was awful to some degree. Mind you, this is while paying $15-$25 a plate, for lunch.

My wife's fish tacos were described to me as visually stunning and had a wonderful dipping sauce but completely lacking in the flavor department with it's fish. My father-in-law's club sandwich was even a let down apparently. Its slabs of ham and turkey half an inch thick was described to me as "meh". My own fish and chips was devoid of flavor. I couldn't even finish one portion of the fish, it tasted boiled and had zero salt in the breading or flavor of any kind. The shoestring fries were good however. Lastly, my mother-in-law ordered the shrimp and polenta. Easily the most expensive entree on our bill. They couldn't get that right however because the colossal shrimp was overcooked and rubbery! The polenta was phenomenal though, which wasn't much of a saving grace.

What this restaurant did do correct was looking pretty with an attentive wait staff. We were fighting off a disgusting amount of fruit flies the moment our entrees were placed in front of us.

In summation, unless this beautiful and historic Hotel Galvez makes some changes in their restaurant, I will not be going back for another poor experience. There are just too many places on the island that do it right for me to waste my time, calories,...

We were really excited for our trip based on online photos and reviews, but our excitement quickly faded upon arrival.

The valet removed our bags from our vehicle and loaded a cart for us. We asked if we could take the bags to our room, they said a concierge would have too. 45 minutes later we still had no bags so we called down to the lobby and were told they would bring them up. Another 10 minutes passed before we received our bags to get our swimsuits.

Our "city view" room had the view of an exterior wall with wires and cords with no view of anything.

The pool bar had terrible staffing and service whom were slow and they closed at 6pm every day. Considering how hot texas is and the hotel did not have a gift shop it was pretty lame not being able to enjoy the pool after 6pm. The pool was very dirty and in need of alot of work due to broken tiles and chipped plaster.

The interior bar looked nice but also closed early at 11pm.

We requested room service and fresh towels on the third night and instead they placed a bag of towel outside our door never going in the room the entire stay.

The restaurant had typical high priced hotel food but it was good. They had minimal staffing and long waits to be seated and to get your food/bill. I recommend The sunflower bakery instead just 3 minutes away.

Pros: currently under renovation so maybe even though the above items wont get fixed by it they will make other things better.

Robert the concierge and the Valet were the ONLY staff members we dealt with that lived up to a rating of a 5 star hotel and service.

The gym was nice and well equipped.

Overall, I wouldnt recommend nor stay at this...