Trish W.
Yelp
Stay away from this hell-hole
Our last two meals at Gallo have been awful. Cold food, frantic service, a painfully loud room. It used to be fairly good (for Ridgefield) but everything appears to have declined.
My heart sank as we were led to the "solarium." Even though I'd requested the other (quieter) room and it was only 6:30, just like last time, we were led to this acoustical inferno. It should really be saved for parties of 8 or more.
But the food. We'd brought friends (we were hoping our last meal was an anomaly) and touted the crisp pizzas. Instead we were served a cold, soggy mess. Like a decayed ruin of a building where you can't see where the foundation once stood, we couldn't tell where the crust once was.
My friend's caesar salad looked okay, but the croutons were commercially made. There's no excuse for that in a "Classic Caesar salad."
My husband and I ordered the "Brick-pressed organic half-chicken with white onions, rosemary, red and yellow peppers, white wine sauce." I like brick pressed chicken because it's crispy. This decidedly was not. Like the pizza, the skin was actually soggy. It takes a kitchen with a special touch to make everything soggy. The chicken was also lukewarm and dried out. It was barely seasoned and I didn't taste any rosemary. The vegetables, on the other hand, were seasoned. They were very salty. The mashed potatoes tasted like those instant flakes out of the box.
Service was frantic and not very thoughtful. Rush, rush, rush. Just like last time. The owner stepped in to deliver our entrees and practically shoved them at us. He handed us our plates like we were at a cafeteria, not a restaurant with $30 entrees.
And the noise. The room was filled with large parties and I couldn't even hear my friend next to me. We had to shout, as did everyone else in the room. It was exhausting. The shrieking, cackling hausfraus at the large table or 8 or 10 didn't help. The noise was so unpleasant none of us wanted to stay for coffee or dessert. What a way to run a business.
The capper to this abysmal experience was being sick for two days afterwards. Nausea, headache, fever, extreme fatigue. Both for my husband and I. Did I mention we both had the chicken? In fact, I still can't think of the chicken without feeling queasy. I spoke to Leslie at the restaurant, who reassured me everything is cooked to order and that it must be something else. Ha. That chicken did not have the taste or consistency of something was just pulled out of a hot oven. I WANT MY TWO DAYS BACK.