Galley Beach — Restaurant in Nantucket

I have been coming to the Galley for over 15 years. I have recommended it to many friends. But I am finally writing a review that is not intended as really negative, but will hopefully get someone’s attention. I am very, very, very sympathetic to anyone operating under Covid restrictions. But the Galley has suddenly become extremely rude and inflexible in addition. They moved to a reservation only model. I get it. Makes sense. But the menus for the slivers of time are terrible. Keep a larger menu for all the “in-between” time. It’s already frighteningly expensive. Give people more options. And why did you take away the lobster tail and truffle fries? If people have to pay over $30 for a snack, at least make it amazing. I went there at 5:00. Before the 5:30 reservations. Loads of tables. Ordered a drink with girlfriends. Sat at a table on the beach. We were lectured on how busy they were. (BTW…empty) To which we replied we totally understood and would immediately leave when asked to be respectful of the reservation load. Fast forward to the hostess showing up with 2 people (late) and announcing rudely “the reservation is here”. We said ‘no problem’ , as promised, but the people were mortified by the rudeness of the hostess and the fact that there were 6 or 7 empty (identical) tables. “Is this really necessary?” They asked. We assured them they were fine. They were seated at another table anyway. 30 minutes later, my girlfriends and I left. WITH 6 EMPTY TABLES. We bought the single table a round of drinks for their kind concern. This is one example of many this year. While I go out of my way (as someone who lives here part of the year) to support all local businesses, I am finally annoyed enough to criticize this place. Stratospheric prices, average food, and poor management (although many individual servers are lovely) Amazing location. I really hope they reevaluate. I miss the Galley of...

My daughters friend and business associate suggested we go to the Galley for beautiful sunsets. The place looked pretty empty, but they said there were reservations. We were going to sit at the bar but there was a table with a reservation for 7:30 and it was just after 6. So they said we could sit there. After we received our drinks, wine, water and finished our appetizers they cleared everything for our main course it was just before seven and they wanted us to move they said the table was reserved and the signed said 7:30. The staff left and then our food arrived. I had two bites of the green grill chicken and my daughter just started on her lobster when a man came over and started yelling at us, why are you sitting here, you see there is a reservation. I said are you the manager, he said I am a partner an owner. I said and you treat patrons this way? That’s awful. The staff permitted us to sit here. He grabbed the reservation sign from the empty chair and said the people reserving this table are here. I said yes and it is 7:00. We have started to eat our meal, are you asking us to leave? they are early, this is how you treat people when they come to your restaurant? He said they were giving him a hard time. It was awful. It sounded like one of the waiters said you should leave now. Like we were being threatened. What should have been a wonderful, memorable experience was completely awful. We have never been treated so rudely. My daughter has been around the world dining at all of the finest restaurants and was appalled by the owners behavior. I give this place zero stars. We didn’t travel here to be threatened and insulted. It was so out of line, we figured the owner, Terry must be on drugs, no other sane explanation for how badly he handled...

Awful service. Had a reservation at 4:30, showed up a little early and was sat right away on the beach. By 4:50, no one had come to ask what we wanted to eat/drink. Wasn’t even given water or introduced by a waiter. We had went inside to let them know no one had come to our table for 30 minutes. We were told someone would be right out. Waited another 15 minutes to still never have anyone come out. We go back inside, expressing our frustration again & they did not seem to care, nor were they apologetic. It is about 5:15/5:20 at this point when we finally have a waiter come to us (at a closer table on the patio they moved us to) and we try to order food from the menu, we are told the kitchen is closed because they close the kitchen from 5-5:30 to transition to their dinner menu (which we also were not offered at this point for the inconvenience)……… absolutely awful, awful service. Had we had service the time of our reservation, we could have ordered food. But because of YOUR mistake & lack of paying attention, you did not even attempt to TRY to make things right. We ended up leaving because we did not want to pay a single penny to this restaurant. Also, the kicker of this, you only have up to 48 hours to cancel your reservation. Once it’s 48 hours before your reservation, if you cannot make it you will be charged $50 PER PERSON for a no show/cancelation fee. For what?! For somewhere that presents to be upscale, you need better management and/or employees. It’s a shame because the place was beautiful. I understand things happen, but atleast try to make things right… they couldn’t have cared less. Big...