James N.
Google
⸻
I took my family to Gallagher’s tonight to celebrate my son’s birthday. We had a 6:30 PM reservation for four, made earlier the same day.
The restaurant was extremely busy, and we were seated outside. Thankfully the weather was nice, so that wasn’t an issue.
Our server, Anthony, was genuinely pleasant and clearly very professional. Unfortunately, the service itself was unacceptable—and through no fault of his own.
After being seated, it took about five minutes to be greeted, another five minutes to receive water, another five minutes for bread, and nearly 15 more minutes before Anthony returned to take our order. At that point, it was obvious he knew we were frustrated. I simply asked if he was “in the weeds,” which in restaurant terms means understaffed and overwhelmed.
It quickly became apparent that the entire outdoor section was being handled by just two servers—no bussers, no runners. They were clearly stretched far too thin.
To be clear: the food was excellent. Every dish was cooked perfectly. Anthony worked incredibly hard and did everything he could under the circumstances.
The problem was the service—and it was bad.
Our meal took just over two hours, and we didn’t order appetizers or dessert. We waited nearly 30 minutes for the check. Despite all of this, I tipped Anthony 40%, because the experience was not his fault.
When I spoke to the manager, I was told they weren’t short-staffed—just that sometimes all the tables arrive at once. That explanation makes no sense. This is a reservation-based restaurant with a known maximum capacity. Staffing appropriately for that is literally management’s job.
I didn’t ask for a discount, a comp, or dessert—that was never the point. What I do know is that I won’t be back.
Living in a town with at least eight excellent steakhouses—four within two minutes, including Abe & Louie’s, New York Prime, Capital Grille, and Morton’s—there’s simply no reason to return.
This Gallagher’s is a far cry from the Gallagher’s I’ve dined at in Manhattan.
Extremely disappointing
PS
During the entire evening, I did notice that the manager was just walking around, not greeting any tables and that Manager easily could’ve been helping out his staff and that could’ve been anything even filling water glasses like any responsible manager would do or taking a drink order or asking or just anything managers are supposed to support their servers