Leeland House Galveston — Restaurant in Galveston

First time here & quick review...has potential, mediocre food, super friendly staff, confusing procedures.

We're locals & we used to visit the previous restaurant that occupied this space (Gypsy Joint) frequently (& still do at their new location). As we walked into Leeland House, there's a host podium with no host but menus in slots facing the doors. We arrived about 1730 on a Thursday & there was a single patron at the bar.

One of the two friendly bartenders said from behind the bar to grab a menu & seat ourselves. Tables are prepared with silverware, napkins, & glasses. The decor is nice, clean, open, inviting, & friendly. The bartender served us water from a carafe which she left at the table. She advised us when we're ready to order to do so at the bar. No waiters is what we gathered.

We get up from out seats which we just chose to approach the bar to place our food & drink orders. My husband was happy with water but I ordered a Michelob Ultra. That came not from a tap but a can that was opened in front of me & poured into a chilled pint glass.

We ordered Crispy Cauliflower to start with. There was nothing crispy about it but got damn it was delicious! Highly recommend it. A very nice lady brought our food out. We would later learn she is not a waitress, but a food runner.

My husband ordered the Steak Sammy which he said "would pass". I tasted his salmon & it was over cooked, pretty dry. Serving size was perfect.

I ordered a pizza, the Rustic. While even the menu description doesn't describe anything remotely close to something being "rustic", neither did the actual pizza. The ingredients together sounded delicious. The dough was under cooked, not even the edges had any crunch. The center of the pizza was very doughy, floppy when you picked it up.

As we ate, some other folks came in & slowly filled about a third of the tables. We saw a charcuterie board come out a couple times. Looked very nice but of course can't vouch on flavor.

I had half the pizza left over & asked our food runner for a to go box of some sort & she pointed to a bakers rack along the back of the restaurant, to the right of the kitchen doors she'd been going in & out of, & told us what shelf we could find to go boxes. Along with to go boxes on this rack we're additional silverware, napkins, & glasses. I assume should you need extras of those while dining you're expected to retrieve them yourself.

The unisex restrooms were handicap accessible, clean, large, & stocked. While other patrons came in, one table with about ten folks, they each seated themselves, viewed a menu, then all stood & went to the bar to place their food orders. This created a long line behind folks sitting at the bar. If you're gonna make your visitors sit, choose, stand, move to bar to order, there should be a designated place for this to happen. Confusing for patrons & bar staff & crowded for people seated at the bar as it is.

Leeland House has potential. Needs wait staff for starters, food is close...just not quite there. Feels like there's a "oh this is just Galveston, they won't know if a pizza crust is under cooked or their salmon is over done" attitude with new places like this. In my experience as a food eater, not as a restaurant owner, places like this pour a lot of money into design & menu, open & serve mediocre food for about five years, break even monetarily, then close & call it a success.

I hope for the sake of the super friendly & knowledgeable current staff that's not what...

I am leaving this review in hopes that people will read it and rethink going to this place. First of all the food is just ok a d it's very expensive for portion size. I was a server in Galveston for 24 years and I have never been to a restaurant that does not take cash. They serve only brunch food during the day but they do not take cash so they are literally excluding lots of people, but besides that they are not good employers either. The manager is a young girl that does not understand that she cannot tell her employees that all they are to her is a Monetary investment. She does not even consider them people. My son wad employed there and he is disabled and has Autism and she told my son that she did not care about his disability because all he was to her was a Monetary investment. She threatened his employment when he called to tell her that he was not.coming to.work because there was a storm and the roads were flooded, we live about 30 minutes away and have to cross a very high bridge to get there. She did not care and told him to either come or be fired, so his grandfather had to risk his life to take him because my truck was not high enough to drive through the water. That very same night she still fired him. They apparently have a policy that if they fire you then you are not allowed on the property for 90 days, not even to pick up your last check. Well they said they would mail the check. Ok fine but then we waited for almost 6 weeks for that check. Finally the owner told my son that he would bring the check directly to him so ok that's fine, bit then he didn't and when my son texted him about it, he had nerve to be frustrated with my son for texting him about his check. He finally got his check yesterday after waiting for almost 6 weeks. My point to.tjis review is because I feel that if you are spending your hard earned money to support a business then people should know who they are supporting. These people do not care about their employees or their customers. I will be going to the equal opportunity employment line to file a complaint for discrimination and I feel people need...

We just left the restaurant. The food was really good according to my family however I couldn’t eat cause of how nauseous I was feeling. The restaurant smells like strong strong cat pee and the water was tap water probably from the sink just boiled and put in a glass container and put in the fridge so it can get cold it. it taste like salt too; pour you a cup drink it at first it taste fresh wait until it gets a little warm and it taste like salt and strong tap. The restaurant is a millennial burger place!! and even though it was really pretty inside my family and I sat down even though it was super busy. We sat ourselves because they have no order in there and my sister and her husband went up to pay and one of the staff was really rude to this one black women who was there with her family for a family reunion. They told her “we’re not giving you our employees name if you don’t like it get out before I call my manager” just rude. My sister, her husband and my niece LOVED their food but I took one bite and just couldn’t eat anymore. I got the steak omelette. There was 3 people working at the bar but only ONE of the servers was doing ALL the work. I feel bad that she has to work in a place that busy and has to do everything by herself I keep seeing when it was super busy she was by herself but when it died down everyone came back to help her and than when it got busy she was by herself again. No kids meal also and there was also one server giving everyone water and everything they needed and one server at the bar doing all the work. Also I just checked my card info 25 dollars for a omelette & potatos?! Mind you I only paided for MYSELF! Also the eggs taste like bagged eggs....