Hearsay On The Strand — Restaurant in Galveston

OK… I know that this place isn’t probably the quintessential gulf seafood joint you think about when visiting Galveston, but if you enjoy a delicious cocktail and exceptional food, you have to have at least one meal or drink here! I could go on about all the ways that I was impressed with Hearsay. It is their use of elevated ingredients and unique touches that make this place exceptional. If you appreciate bourbon cocktails, the smoked old fashion pictured here was delicious And the presentation of it being delivered in a smoked filled box was impressive. The bar manager told me that they made 692 of them just in December if that tells you how popular they are! My dad said it might be the best one he has ever had. I truly enjoyed the Manhattan sitting next to it. Their house bourbon is Woodford Reserve that they infuse with roasted almonds, chamomile, and saffron. Are you kidding me?! My mom was obsessed with her lemon drop and none of us could get over the beautiful ambience of the bar and restaurant overall. I wish the upstairs was accessible because it looks like they have a beautiful private area inside their wine cellar, a large area for private gatherings, and even a balcony to look out on historic Strand. However, I understand it’s difficult with historic properties. In addition to the amazing cocktails we had at Hearsay, let me tell you about our meal! This 12 oz ribeye with sides was the special and it was superb. The steak with herb butter was juicy and tender. However, the star of the plate was the garlic blistered green beans! They were SO good. Next up we had the chicken sandwich and I’m pretty sure it could feed a family of four. The thing was HUGE. The chicken might itself was pounded pretty thin, so it was a little lost with all of the bread and other toppings. However, these house Rosemary Parmesan fries were a pretty delicious take on a classic. The blackened redfish tacos were light, flavorful, and filling since the order came with four of them! The street corn casserole that came as a side was amazing. After passing it around the table for samples, I’m surprised I got any back. Finally… That bread pudding. I don’t know how you’re going to do it, but you should save room for it. It was dense, and that hot caramel paired perfectly with that super smooth vanilla ice cream. I missed the crunchy elements that sometimes comes with a bread pudding, but this still was a delicious endcap to a pretty outstanding meal!

The last thing that I will say is that the service was pretty great. Our server Oleh was very attentive and informative. Overall,...

Honestly, if I could give this “establishment” NO stars I would. Our commute was approximately 1hr and 45 minutes (not taking into consideration the individuals who flew into town to be here for the event). Our reservations were made a month in advance and NOONE at that place had the common courtesy to communicate:

1. there are or would be no parking spaces near the building to accommodate ADA individuals.
2. we would have to pay $26 per person to get into the strip due to it being Mardi Gras weekend.
3. the restaurant staff said a cake was allowed. However, we were informed that night that no outside food is allowed and “Hearsay don’t run this event the City does.” Everything about this night was extremely unprofessional. When my family and I attempted to call the restaurant minus their LOUD background noise, we called approximately 10 times and each time it went to their “voicemail.” When the hostess did answer the phone, she disconnected the call (“hung up”) on multiple occasions. When I called back for a 15th time, I requested immediate to speak with a “manager.” To my surprise there was no compassion to the inconvenience they provided.

When speaking with representatives at the Mardi Gras event we were informed “the restaurant should have disclosed it was Mardi Gras weekend and provided us with tickets to enter the gates “FREE of charge,” given we were there for a dinner event and not Mardi Gras.

My review will not end here, I will be calling their corporate office because the lady who answered the phone at hearsay does not have proper etiquette and should not be responsible for incoming calls. I will also like to address the inconvenience as it relates to someone who required ADA accommodations and there was none. Lastly, the staff’s lack of compassion. No efforts were made on hearsay’s part to provide adequate assistance, they simply said “no nothing we can do, but we will cancel your reservations because… you...

We ate here Saturday night as a part of a group of 16. The atmosphere is interesting, and resembles an older, kind of smoky bar. Not a lot of seating on the 1st floor but we were seated quickly with a reservation. There appears to be exterior seating and an area on the second floor as well. It was hot outside but the restaurant was cool and a bit on the dark side, which was a welcome relief. Service was great as well. With a larger group there is an automatic 20% gratuity added to the bill, and many servers who know this might not really hustle...BUT our waitress, Guinevere, really shone through. She was attentive, answered all of our questions and kept our drinks full while we waited for our meal. The actual time for our meal to arrive was on the slow side however. It was an hour and 20 minutes before the plates started arriving. Not sure why, but there might have been a shortage of kitchen staff. My wife and I both got the blackened reddish tacos. We each received 4 small tacos with maybe a teaspoon of snapper inside. While there was a lot of different "stuff" in each taco, there was not actually a large quantity of the "stuff". The tacos tasted good but they were very small and overpriced at $17 per order. Each little corn tortilla was maybe 3 inches in diameter. We ordered a side of fries and received maybe 20 fries for $6. The person sitting across the table from us received a steak that was raw in the middle, after they had ordered a well done steak. It took 30 minutes for the replacement steak to arrive....after everyone else in our group had just about finished eating. The restaurant did comp the steak, but the long wait put us late for our next stop on our night out. Our meal took 2 hours, which is a bit on the long side. Last impression is that this is a reataurant for tourists...not really a local place with great food the locals might eat. I don't think it will...