Galli Restaurant LES

Previous review was removed; guess I was too honest. They’re closed as you can see. Shady, shady business; closed without warning, poor staff. Visited once for subpar/​tourist atmosphere. I don’t just review food — business practice is more important and I’m an advocate for people in the industry who are treated poorly. This is fair and just — not libelous.
— L.O.

Just finished brunch at this restaurant. Walked in off the street at 12:08 on valentines Sunday.
Initially we were offered a lunch menu without comment (although everyone in the restaurant was actively eating eggs and waffles.) When we inquired about brunch, we were told that they had completely run out of brunch items. Except they could, as a courtesy, do eggs, or omelettes, or steak.
We sat for a moment, and ordered what turned out to be, perhaps the worst cappuccino I’ve had in NY. I’ve had worse, but only out of the machines in the office. (N.B. This is a putatively Italian restaurant and they don’t serve drip coffee, so espresso items are their stock in trade.)
Moments later the manager came to the table and apologized for offering only lunch… Saying that they would be able to offer brunch after all. Sadly, at this point we decided to stay.
What followed was a travesty of the art of brunch.
My side of bacon arrived in a miniature gravy boat stewing in ¾ of an inch of its own grease. I ask you, does bacon come in a gravy boat? Is this a new trend? I hope not.
Other breakfast items: an impressively thick piece of brioche French toast. Lovely on the edge, soggy in the middle. I congratulate the bakery that makes the bread, too bad the chef drowned it.
Eggs Benny, mediocre at best, with a carb conscious ephemera of English muffin, thinner than the Canadian bacon on top.
One of us ordered pasta with meatballs. What to say of this paltry offering? I would not come here for dinner.
I will say that they are trying. We sent back the coffee and complained about the bacon, and the manager kindly removed these from the bill, offering a 20% discount. We appreciated the effort.
The coup de gras! As we were signing the check (which we had waited 7 minutes to get back our credit card), the manager came to ask us to leave as they had reservations at 1pm waiting for our table.
We quickly stood up; they were more than welcome.

The food is amazing, the staff is really great, really care about the place, the whole place looks and feels great.
I had a reserved birthday party there and they treated us really well. The staff is quite attentive and makes sure everything’s right.
It’s a pretty good date spot too, and you can go drinking/​dancing to the tons of places close by afterwards.
Entrée picks: Salmon and the Branzino
Appetizer: The mad calamari, it’s actually mad good

My friends and I came here for a small celebration recently, and the experience was nothing short of perfect. We were a party of 6, and had made a reservation earlier in the week. On the day of, I received a call confirming my reservation, and when we arrived there we were seated right away.
The food was great! I don’t often eat Italian, but Galli always does the trick (big fan of their other location on Mercer too). It’s not too fussy or heavy, it’s well-​seasoned, and the portions are just right. Not to mention the location is A+ and the music was ON-​POINT. The manager was so attentive and introduced himself and the rest of the staff was equally friendly and helpful.

Finally– a great spot for the LES! This place is amazing. I stopped by with some friends in the summer for a drink and have been going back ever since. The vibe is great, the ambience is done right, the host/​waiter/​staff/​bartenders are all super attentive and friendly.
And if you haven’t had their rice balls– you’re missing out. All of the food here is delicious!
Definitely worth a visit… or two. or ten…

I don’t so much feel like getting into the entire story but to make a long one short the Event Coordinator made a mistake with my reservation (which was for a large brunch party for my girlfriend’s birthday) and the manager/​staff took care of it and were able to fix the problems.
In addition, I reached out to the EC the day after and she was very humble & continued to help us out by offering a gift card to the restaurant. The food is great, the restaurant itself is quaint and has a nice vibe to it and the weekend brunch menu (not offered at the SoHo location) is extremely well priced.
I would have given them 5 stars if not for the mishap but my friends & I will most certainly come back and I would recommend this place to anybody.

Everything here is great, especially for a gluten free person. I had octopus as an appetizer as well as fried calamari without the breadcrumbs. The octopus was cooked just right to be tender and not chewy. The calamari was wonderful in a flavorful and mildly spicy sauce. The Pink Smoke is an awesome cocktail with habanero bitters. As an entrée I had the salmon which came with broccoli rab and cannellini beans. Dessert was espresso with panna cotta. Delicious!

Love this place! When I lived in New York I walked past this place every morning and for some reason I’d never visited it. Walking past it I always thought it looked so warm and cozy, and when I finally visited this place when I was in New York again — it meet my expectations and more.
We came in pretty late and did feel for a big meal, so we ordered a few appetizers and those were delish.
The service is nice, the prices are reasonable and the atmosphere is a mix of warm, welcoming and cozy.
When i come to New York again and in the mood for Italian — Galli will be on my list visit again.

This place is good for groups. They have tables with benches so you can squeeze in quite a few friends. I was wearing a mini skirt and it was a little difficult to maneuver in and out of the table so you should consider wearing pants.
We started out the right way, with a magnum bottle of wine. It was much more economical than ordering single glasses. For appetizers, we had the rice balls (you get 3 pieces) and the «mad» calamari, aka the spicy calamari. The calamari is actually not deep fried, its served in a bowl covered with spicy marinara sauce, and its really good.
I had the chicken parm for my main course. You can have it grilled or fried. I had it grilled. You can have salad or pasta for your side, I had pasta. The chicken parm is hammered out nice and flat and covered with a lot of cheese. Did I mention, a lot of cheese? The pasta that came with it was a small portion, but it was just right.
For desert, we shared the cheesecake. Its a small round cake, but its pretty good.
I would recommend coming here with a group of friends!

I’ve been wanting to try Galli for quite some time now and finally had the chance to last week. I went on a Wednesday night with a girlfriend and we called ahead of time to make sure there wasn’t a wait. When we arrived we were told that a table wouldn’t be ready for 10 minutes. We took a seat at the bar and decided to order drinks before we sat down. Right after the drinks arrived we were seated.
After sitting down my friend and I decided that we wanted to share two dishes. We ordered the chicken parmigiana and the penne alla vodka no prosciutto. The chicken dish came with either a salad or pasta, but since we were already having a pasta dish we asked if we could do Caesar salad instead. He said that it would be a small charge and we said that was ok. The meal arrived to the table less than 10 minutes after ordering. It was a little too quick honestly. We felt rushed. The salad that we upgraded to Caesar was so small that we each barely had two bites. Totally wasn’t worth the extra $.
While having our main dishes we weren’t eating so quickly. We were enjoying each other’s company and chatting. Someone came over to our table three separate times trying to take away the food and we weren’t finished eating. We kept telling him no and then he would come back five minutes later. It was extremely unpleasant and quite annoying. We did enjoy the food, but it was very apparent that they were rushing us through the meal. We eventually let them take the food and just left. It wasn’t the best experience dining at Galli. I was a little surprised.

Had very high hopes for this experience but the food was a little underwhelming for me, at least what I ordered. The restaurant itself is very cute — pretty trendy. We were there at 6pm on New Years Eve and there was a good crowd, fun music, etc. My boyfriend was late so I hung out at the bar for a bit and the bartender couldn’t have been nicer. As for the food, the oil and balsamic they give you with your food is delicious. The bread is just ok but the oil dip makes it. For apps we got the mad calamari and mozz chips. The calamari itself was ok — not breaded — but the sauce was great, spicy which I love. The mozz chips were essentially fried mozzarella, nothing I haven’t tasted before. For my main dish I was feeling pasta carbonara. Didn’t enjoy it. It was stuffed with onions and the pancetta was undercooked. My boyfriend got the chicken parm and it was excellent so there’s definitely hope for other dishes here. That said, I’m not totally turned off and would go back.

If you are searching for some quality Italian comfort food, this is the place to go. You won’t find anything fancy here but you will find a quality chicken parm (the sauce was the standout), some awesome mozzarella chips and a number of classic Italian pasta dishes.
It is a fun atmosphere and an easy place to hang out for an evening. If you are looking for a casual Italian spot with some casual prices, but also want a downtown feel, Galli is a good option.

Great atmosphere, cozy and good food and price point. I had the shrimp salad, which was a huge bed of mesclun under cherry tomatoes and asparagus and plenty of shrimp. He had the rabe which was hot fusilli sauteed w crumbled sausage and crunchy rabe. We topped it off with a couple rounds of the lansky — rye, aperol, ramasotti and lemon juice — I’ll be getting those ingredients to mix up at home, it was THAT good. This is easily a new favorite go-​to.

Decent spot for Italian on the LES. Great atmosphere with trendy vibes and chill tunes. The server was prompt and always available, the host on the other hand seemed annoyed and caught off guard when I asked where the bathroom was located.
With a few recent recommendations, I was expecting the food to be amazing. It was just ok to be very honest. I shared the Funghi Pasta and the Veal Saltimbocca, with both being underwhelming. The mushrooms of the funghi were delicious but the truffle oil was overpowering and the pasta was standard spaghetti. I was very turned off by the sauce covering the veal — it looked/​felt/​tasted like canned chicken gravy, for lack of another way to describe it.
All it in all it was an ok dinner. Slightly off when it comes to the food, but maybe one of the simpler dishes would be your best bet. I think my hopes were set high and I chose two dishes that would need to be pretty outstanding to impress.

I came across this little gem on my first visit to New York and was so good I ate here every day until I left !!!
Try the mad calamari, the steak and fries are awesome too .Not forgetting the veal sultimboca which was different gravy. Honestly looked after me, great service, great food, great atmosphere and music playlist to match.
Highly recommended :)))))

Just thinking about Galli gets me gagging. Galli was gross! It may sounds like hyperbole, but I honestly dont see much of a difference taste-​wise between Galli and freakin’ RED LOBSTER. And I may very well choose Red Lobster over Galli because they have that crack biscuit/​bread.
Be prepared for pasta that is very heavy and relies excessively on scientific taste bud pleasers. We all love cheese, we all love garlic. So expect your dishes to be a cheese fest, because nothing creative or nuanced is going on around here. Yes, the pasta at Red Lobster is over cooked. At least at Galli the pasta isnt a mush ball.
The dishes are MASSIVE. So… yeah, they replace taste and creativity with huge portions so you still feel you are getting your dollar’s worth. However, my goal in eating out isnt to get fat, but to enjoy amazing tastes.
Don’t expect fancy ingredients here. The meat you’re eating is pumped with antibiotics, hormones, and was carved out from a very sad, sad, sad imprisoned animal’s body. Hey, I’m all for eating meat– just if something is going to give its life up (forcibly) for you, you should at least strive to have it live a nice life)
its not so much of a date spot in my opinion. Its more of a stuff your face with cheap crap spot

If I could rate my experience with ZERO stars I would…
I’ve been to GALLI on mercer numerous times… Food was great, service was great, everything was exactly up to par; SO I assumed GALLI LES would be just as good.
Well I was dead wrong… Yesterday I experienced one of the worst meals I have had to date. To start, the baked clams weren’t fresh, they were extra chewy, and under seasoned. The chicken Francese was fine, being an Italian I can easily say my dad has made better.
The worst part was the penne vodka. I would review the taste but I didn’t eat any of it because of THE HAIR IN IT. and it wasn’t just a little hair the hair was longer than mine, it was a woman’s long black hair. I was beyond disgusted.
They also seemed to be understaffed. I only noticed one actual server, and a few back waiters. The restaurant was only ¼ full when we got there (around 7pm in a Friday which is terrible but whatever) …it took over 5 minutes for our server to greet us. Even if they are packed they should greet us 30 seconds — 2 minutes TOPS!!! Not ever 5! I always pay attention to detail, and unfortunately I seemed to be the only one doing so. Our server asked our order multiple times because he forgot it (here’s an idea: maybe you should write it down so you don’t ask me again and again). Trying to complain about my food was almost impossible because there was no one to complain to. Overall a disaster, reviewing the meal is making me relive it and I’m nauseous again.

My review is solely based from a reserved party at the Galli upstairs.
The atmosphere is nice, it’s fun to be right on the street. The window seats are very cozy and the rose didn’t stop pouring.
The flow of plates being taken away was a little too quick since I kept wanting to eat more!
Best caprese salad I have EVER had, no vinegar, just the way I like it! Mozzarella so fresh I couldn’t put the fork down… seriously. Nothing was overly seasoned, perhaps a tad bland but EXTREMELY fresh, everything. You’ll feel healthy, even while indulging.
If I had the $$ to shell out, I’d go back and try the menu!

Just placed a delivery order for some sliders and a lemonade. Thank God I opened the lemonade before I drank it. There was a used band-​aid sitting on top of the mint. I’ve never been so disgusted in my life. Obviously, didn’t eat the sliders because who knows what managed to fall into them. When I called to report they were unapologetic. They passed the blame to someone else, offered a simple refund and got off the phone with me as soon as possible.
I’ll never order from or eat there again and I strongly suggest no one else does either. This is the worst experience I’ve ever had with a NYC restaurant.

Went here with my Mom while she was in town this weekend and was really impressed with this place.
Bread — Homemade. Yummmm.
Veggie Pasta — fresh tasting and a good portion.
Minestrone — Highly recommended for these freezing winter nights.
Downside — service was kind of slow, but that is to be expected in a new trendy restaurant! Also, the waiter made up for it by pouring us both complimentary glasses of wine!