La Gallina — Restaurant in Lynnfield

We visited La Gallina for dinner on a Saturday night as a party of 5. Some in our group had been before and vouched for the food and service, but our shared experience fell far short.

We arrived at 8:05 pm and were seated behind a giant cabinet near the pizza oven. Despite being in plain sight, noone approached us for 15–20 minutes. I had to remind the front desk, and even after that, it took another 10 minutes before Raul, our server, greeted us still no water served by then.

Trying to stay positive, we asked for water and ordered drinks. Raul seemed promising at first, but things quickly turned south. He spilled one of our drinks on his tray near our table,no big deal, accidents happen,but then handed us the sticky glasses affected by the spill. One of them was visibly chipped. I asked for a replacement, and instead of apologizing, he just said, “Good eye!” At this point we were concerned about glass shards in all other drinks and we had to flag down other staff to replace the rest. When he returned, he brought only two drinks back,forgetting the other two we had returned,and hadn’t even taken the fifth person’s order yet.

After a lot of effort, we all finally had drinks and ordered apps. Thankfully, they arrived quickly and were good likely because someone else brought them out.

Later, we tried to order more drinks, but Raul was nowhere to be found. My wife had to wave him down. Again, he took orders from only 4 of us and walked away. I tried to tell him we were ready for mains, but he left mid-convo. When he returned with drinks, he took our dinner orders, only to tell us that a few dishes weren’t available anymore. Guessing because it was already 9:40 pm, and the service had been so slow.

Food came out quickly. Quick review: • Chicken souvlaki skewer: bland, though the rice was great. • Cauliflower steaks (we ordered two): both undercooked. Raul brought the extra aioli we asked after we finished, saying, “Too late!?” • Steak tips: burnt but flavorful. The sausage was charred. • Falafel salad: good.

Desserts were mediocre at best:tiramisu was wet and mostly mascarpone, while the orange cake was decent.

To top it off, Raul asked how our night was, after all that service. Honestly, we wanted to leave 0 stars for service but Google won’t allow it. We ended up tipping him 15% out of sheer politeness.

Also, we asked for water and while it was just tap, it shouldn’t look like this....

Went for my old man's birthday. Saturday night @6pm. Made a res through the Googles.

Arrived on time, and was immediately seated. Ordered some beers (cocktails and wine next time), as well as calamari and sourdough for the table. Calamari was hot, and clean tasting. The sauces were showstoppers and the olive oil with the bread was so bright and fruity. A great start to the night.

While waiting for our entrees, we got some time to look around and appreciate the ambience of this place. Upscale-rustic Mediterranean vibe, but totally unassuming and not overly done. Great lighting too. The kitchen was clean and focused. The front of house and back of house staff looked happy. That's pretty import if you want stellar service/food.

We ordered pork and sausage skewers, seafood paella, and salmon with cous cous. The salmon and paella both came with a side. We both opted for Parmesan fries.

The pork was tender as all heck. It was perfect, really. The paella could have easily served two (not counting the additional included side). The salmon was amazing, but the cous cous salad, that was the real hero on that plate. So bright and lemony, complimented the fish so well.

The fries. I've got strong opinions on restaurant fries. They're not homemade or anything, which honestly, I think is a good thing. So many places that try to do their own fries, either fail, or can't keep it consistent. These are good, shoestring style, coated fries. 'Nuff said. Best fries I've had in a while. Decent portion for a side as well. The prices were absolutely appropriate for the quality/presentation/portion sizes. It was one of the best meals I've had in a while. The whole menu has me excited to return.

Management and waitstaff were attentive to our table and others as well. They never seemed imposing and were friendly/fun to talk to. At this point, they'd only been open for 9 days. I'm a cranky, overly-critical restaurant industry veteran (I must be fun at parties...), and I was blown away at how they carried themselves/operated with such poise after only recently opening.

I'll definitely be back, maybe for a burger and a cocktail at the bar. Maybe for some dips and vegetables. Maybe with a date. Definitely bring a date here. Unless you're a jerk, there will probably be another date...

I NEVER have the desire to leave bad reviews but I literally couldn’t wait to write how our experience was. Absolutely the worst dining experience in a while. It was our mom’s birthday and we had a party of 15. Sounds like a large group but the place was nearly empty. We got there at 4 and didn’t leave til nearly 8. The reason why dinner was so long was because we were being ignored and the service was as slow as I’ve ever experienced. We had a guy that paid no attention to our table. When our food did come out he didn’t ask us anything that a normal waiter would say such as “how is everything “ do you need anything else. He didn’t do frequent check ins either. We had to chase him down all for him to disappear again and for us to not get what we asked for. I ordered a simple side vegetable plate to go with my meal. Never came out. I asked twice if he can please check on that. 20 mins later still nothing he didn’t even come over to check if I got it. I then asked him to just cancel that out since we were done eating food and ready for desert. Anything we asked of him was prolonged or ignored. I asked way ahead for a high chair. Do you think he got it? I can understand if he was swamped and busy/ overwhelmed but seriously there was about 3 tables in the whole restaurant including ours. We should have never come here to be honest especially us celebrating our mom’s birthday. He finally came back to us so we could order desert at this point we just knew we would be there another hour. I ordered tea and he just gave me the cream and sugar, no tea water lol I felt like I was getting pranked. For desert most of us ordered gelato figuring it’s the least complicated thing to prepare hoping we could just get out of there soon. Again 20 mins rolls around and nothing - I looked down to where the food comes out and I see all the gelatos just sitting there!! The waiter finally wakes up and gets them and of course they are melted; I bet sitting there the whole 20 mins. JUST AWFUL service - I can tell this place will not be in business for long the manager didn’t even seem to care about the functioning of the restaurant. And sorry but I want to add what restaurant seriously charges for bread at the table! Left there very disappointed and starving...