The Galley Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in St. Michaels

UPDATE: the owner reached out to me within 8 hours of my posted review to make the situation right with a full refund and an offer to return on her. She was extremely sorry for our experience and explained our complaint was not the only one and justified. The owner went above and beyond and we look forward to trying The Galley again to provide an updated review.

I surprised my fiancé with a date night in St. Michaels and made a reservation for The Galley's fireside and live music patio last night. We were looking forward to our first night out in months and were sorely disappointed with our experience, particularly the service. We enjoyed the outdoor atmosphere and live music as we waited 10 mins after we were seated for a waitress to finally walk by. I asked if she was our waitress and she said "I guess I can be," so we placed our entire order then: 2 waters, a glass of wine, a margarita, sushi and Oysters Rockefeller (on special) specifically stated as apps and the ribs (side salad included) and banzai shrimp for entrees. Another 10 mins go by and my wine comes out after the waitress tried to deliver it to 3 other tables. I reminded her about the waters. Another few minutes and the margarita arrives, which is 95% marg mix. No waters. I finally go into the bar and get two waters. Then our entrees showed up by a different waiter so I told him we had 2 apps. He takes the food back inside. Then our sushi arrived by another different server, so I asked about the oysters and she said they'd be right out. We enjoyed the sushi - honestly it was prob. the highlight of the whole experience, though basics like napkins were forgotten. Shortly after we finished the sushi, our entrees arrived again. We kept them this time. My fiancé's mashed potatoes were literally just that - mashed potatoes. Zero flavor or seasoning. And his side salad never arrived. My banzai shrimp had good flavor though it was lacking a few items from the description (sesame seeds). About 3/4 of the way through our entrees I wanted to cancel our oysters (we were full and Oysters Rockefeller are not something you can take to go), but no waiter could be flagged down, so I went inside and found our server. I told her I didn't want the oysters anymore, she looked at me and then turned around and screamed into the kitchen "she doesn't want the Oysters Rockefeller anymore!" After returning to our table and finishing our entrees, the chef or perhaps the owner (I'm not sure who she was) came out and told us the oysters were ready and we could have them if we wanted them. She was apologetic and implied we wouldn't be paying $18 for an appetizer that arrived 45 minutes after we placed the order, or at the time dessert would be served during our meal. So another 10 minutes later, the oysters arrived, we ate them - they were tasty - and then waited another 10 mins before our server walked by and I had to ask for our check. I also reminded her the side salad never arrived and we'd like that taken off the bill. Now, at this point if you're still reading, you prob. know this portion of the evening did not go as expected. The oysters were still on our bill and the ribs were full price ($24), so together we go inside to dispute the charges. They ultimately removed the oysters, nothing off the ribs, but we gave up at that point, paid and left. I rarely write reviews, but for a $100 night out with lackluster service and mediocre food, I felt inclined to let others know The Galley may be voted best in two counties for breakfast and lunch, but I do not recommend...

Pros: Charming house setting for the restaraunt with nice outdoor seating on main street of St. Michael’s. The beers available were good choices. The prices of the alcohol was a bit steep. Bathroom was clean and well kept.

Cons: We were not in a rush but the service was very slow.

The food is very very overpriced for very mediocre to poor rated food. Ordered the cream of crab soup for an appetizer. Priced at $18. Was expecting a large bowl of crab soup with plentiful amounts of lump crab meat. What I received was a small cup (probably smaller then a panera take 2 soup) of watery, flavorless and CRABLESS soup. I did not find a single piece of crab meat in the cream of crab soup. I sent it back.

Wife had salmon lox bagel. She said it was pretty good and the portion of lox seemed good. The tater tots served with it could have been from a value grocery store freezer bag.

Other family member ordered the market price crab cakes. $32 dollars, two decent sized crab cakes. The flavor was good, it was mostly shredded crab meat, would have preferred lump crab meat but you did get two medium sized cakes. Not the best , not the worst crab cakes.

I ordered the banzai shrimp but asked to substitute the spicy chicken breast for the shrimp. Kitchen accommodated but I’ve never received such a small portion of chicken on a main entree before. Think 1 single chicken strip from chick fil a cut up into about 4 pieces. Very overly breaded and overly deep fried to a hard crisp. No seasoning or sauce was on the chicken strip. Served with a large potion of sticky rice that was covered in a wasabi sauce. The rice was ok, but it cost 27 dollars for basically a plate of rice.

Disappointing experience on first time here. Had high hopes on one of our first and few trips to St Michael’s. Was hoping for a delicious lunch but left unsatisfied with a much lighter wallet. This food quality would not survive outside of the tourist trappy section of St Michael’s.

The scenery and town is very nice to look at , but most of the businesses we visited today seemed like nothing more then a way to over charge a more wealthy clientele base and not back it up with...

I can’t make my mind up about this place. My wife and I recently ate here and we had opposite experiences. Her food was excellent. My own food was so badly prepared that I sent it back (even though I really hate to do that).

By way of description, I ordered the Galley Burger. It comes with a beef patty, cheese, avocado, bacon, lettuce, and special sauce on a brioche bun. It was strongly recommended to me. It arrived with about a quarter sized spot of special sauce (not exaggerating), two nickel sized chunks of avocado (seriously), about two inches of lettuce stacked on top (again, not joking), and about half the bacon hanging off the side of the burger. I asked the server for more sauce, disassembled the burger, mashed the avocado and spread it around, coated the top bun in special sauce, broke off the hanging bacon and placed it on top of the burger and removed most of the lettuce. Fixed! Then I bit in…. I had ordered it medium. It was well done and not a little… a lot. Dang it!

Now, my wonderful server, Leah, who had been sharing in the comedy of the affair up till now, took one look at the burger’s temperature and said, “Omg, I’m so sorry.” She then took the burger from me and removed it from the check, no questions asked. That’s all she could do and she nailed it. I heard her explaining it to her manager, who seemed surprised, which is either a really good sign or a really bad one. Haha.

So, I was flirting with a three star review, but the server was really competent and kind she did promptly remove my meal, once it became clear it wasn’t salvageable. And, my wife absolutely loved her veggie wrap. So, I’ve settled on a four star review. It feels fair.

So, I won’t recommend this restaurant, but hear me out, I also won’t dissuade anyone from trying it. My experience might have been truly unique. The other reviews here suggest that is...