Galliano - Maple Lawn — Restaurant in Maryland

Email was sent to mgmt. as well

Good Evening, My name is Kia and I am writing to express my concerns with the customer service I received at your establishment (Maple Lawn).  My husband, daughter and I had a reservation for 615pm, however; we arrived at 551pm and we were immediately seated without delay.  There was another table that was seated shortly after us as well.  That table was immediately greeted by their waiter and waters were brought to the table.  Meanwhile, my table continued to sit without anyone coming to greet us to the point it was uncomfortable.  Even the waiter asked Claudio if he was responsible for our table, which he was not.  After we continued to wait I asked the manager, Claudio, who our waiter was as no one had greeted us?  Before I could finish my sentence Claudio's response was " I know ma'am, someone is coming!"  I proceeded to complete my sentence as I was rudely interrupted and again, he stated "I know ma'am...I said someone's coming!".  At this point I was appalled by the complete disrespect. Finally, our waitress came over and immediately apologized for the long wait ( which was appreciated).  We placed our order ( 16 in. Grandma pizza add pepperoni) and it was submitted at 617pm  as we asked the waitress what time the order was submitted to the kitchen.    Our order was not brought out until 704pm.  Please remember we had already sat for at least 10 minutes before we were acknowledged.  Claudio apologized  and began to explain that he only had one person making pizzas.  My husband proceeded to respond after Claudio finished talking to advise of his concerns with the length of time we waited for our pizza.  Claudio proceeded to cut him off and say "I know, that is why I am apologizing."  Once again, he interjected as a customer was speaking and he did not allow him to complete his sentence.  My husband proceeded to share his disdain with the experience and Claudio proceeded to walk away and my husband had to ask him to come back so he could finish speaking.  At the end of the conversation, he did advise we would be compensated for the wait.  It should be noted that my husband did request compensation because he was so rude to us. My family dines out often and today we chose Galliano, but to be honest we never return.  What I am hoping to convey is that we understand the pandemic has caused major changes in the restaurant industry ( short staffed, quality of employees, supply chain issues ....etc), however, being disrespected by a manager and Claudio being dismissive of your customers is 100% unacceptable.  The level of disrespect we felt was unimaginable and it appeared that he did not feel he did anything wrong. Unfortunately, it was not just at our table there were others who shared their concerns amongst each other or with your other staff regarding his dismissive behavior and in their words " he is a bad manager".  I am pleading with you to speak with your staff or check in with them as they definitely have feelings, but they are fearful that they may get fired.  I understand that Claudio has not been there that long, but I promise he is damaging your brand.  You don't want someone representing your brand  that does  not value your customers.  I read that you have many years of experience in business and have been very successful over the past 15 years, please don't let one person ruin it. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me at **.    I hope the owners actually receive this message, if not I will find another option as I am very serious about the experience I received today.

Very...

Had the worst experience at Gallianos in maple lawn about a week ago - I was shocked and appalled by the manager's (“Carol”) behavior at Gallianos. Their lack of professionalism and disregard for customer satisfaction is deeply concerning. It is disheartening to witness such behavior from someone in a position of authority within a restaurant.

The lack of communication within the restaurant as well as the low level of respect their employees had for said manager Carol spoke louder than words ever could. The manager, Carol, did not communicate with her staff that they were not doing dinner this evening, so the bartender, unknowingly, gave us menus when we arrived at 9:05 pm. The closing time is listed as 10 pm everywhere.

After the bartender already checking our ID’s (mind you we are both 22), and we were half way done our drinks, Carol asked to recheck our ids. We gladly gave them to her and because both our ID’s were out of state she proceeded to ask us if we were “Military Children” in a sarcastic tone… I was completely appalled anyone would say this in general, yet alone to customers.

Carol comes back around after 5 minutes and tells us the kitchen is closed and our drinks were “on her” as I am packing up my stuff. When we asked her why they were closing early she said that she “Did not want to pay her staff another hour if only we were here”. She then comes back out another 10 mins later and says they’re actually not closed. Starving & tired, we sat back down and waited. Mistake on our part.

As she gives us our food (9:30 pm) she tells us to hurry up and eat because they’re closing soon. I ask for the check immediately and the two drinks she quote on quote said were “on her” and when she fixed the check and I was leaving she screamed and I kid you not said “HOPE TO NEVER SEE YOU AGAIN!”

As someone who was probably about 40 years younger than her, it is not my job to teach her manners or tell her how to do her job. I used to love coming here with my family, I do enjoy the food. But I needed to share my experience so no one had to go through Carol’s verbal abuse ever again. The simple solution would’ve been to just lock the front doors or say you’re closed if you didn’t want to serve anyone. Be kind always, Carol if you’re reading this, I hope the kindness I showed you, when you were rude to me, rubbed off on you!

• note - tried calling restaurant multiple times to get in touch with owner to discuss privately. The managers decided not to relay the messages so I am...

In general, the main issue with Galliano stems from the food itself. I could write about how the service felt rushed (at no point did it feel like the servers wanted us to be there, and we were out in 1 hour FLAT), or how the food was over-priced (if you wanted a GOOD meal with some unique flavors, you could do better price-wise over at somewhere like the Food Market), but just in general Galliano suffers from the "American Italian food" syndrome.

First off, their bread and oil mix. The bread comes out buttery -- not a bad touch -- BUT all you are given is basically a vat of oil with some flakes of basil. Their "special meatball" has a decent sauce on the side, but you can tell none of the flavor has permeated the meatball itself. You could have fooled me saying it was a slab of hamburger that was thrown in some jar pasta sauce. And finally, my gnocchi entre. We return to the land of oil, because even though I ordered the Truffle Gnocchi I would be surprised if there was any truffle in that dish COVERED in more oil. Honestly, the amount of oil that I had at this meal started to make me a bit sick to my stomach. We decided to leave without dessert, as the rest of the meal left a sour taste in our mouth.

This isn't to say Galliano can do better. Most of the pieces are there, but first and foremost you MUST serve good food, which I can not honestly say you currently do. Especially given the premium price point Galliano is trying to sell here, I would personally give this restaurant some time to mature, and see if management decides to change direction.

PS: Wanted to make special mention of the manager on duty for this particular meal. During our meal I was keen to watch as she never once smiled the entire time we were there. Instead, she seemed more focused on hounding her employees behind the bar for some reason, then disappearing into the back before returning. While not necessarily a problem, nothing from this manager made our meal with Galliano any more special...