We’ve dined at La Galleria a few times, but it’s been quite a while since our last visit, so we booked lunch following a walk around Blenheim Palace. My wife (who is Italian) and I almost never eat in Italian restaurants in the UK, certainly...never in the chains. When we lived in Poole, we were spoilt with the luxury of two fine options, the small family-run Da Vinci’s on the old quay and another modern one overlooking the Marina, both very different but both with great food and fantastic friendly service, so finding one we loved in this area was great.
The Galleria reviews range considerably, and whether good or poor, there are a couple of recurring themes – the tired décor, which definitely does need updating, and the waiter. As is always the case on our visits, the gregarious owner, Lucio always comes over for a friendly chat, and if you speak Italian, it’s like talking to an old friend. The waitress was also very nice and really friendly, but whilst the waiter was polite, as others have said about him (and I can’t say it’s the same one), he really doesn’t exude the demeanour you expect of someone dealing with customers, and especially the conviviality Italians are famed for. Of course, some customers treat people in service roles as servants, but if you treat them well, they respond in kind, so maybe he suffered some bad customers but he nevertheless needs to lighten up.
We all chose from the 3-course set Sunday lunch at £23.95. My daughter and I had the mushroom ravioli, nice and thin but still with some bite, with a lovely pecorino sardo sauce, whilst my wife had the avocado, crabmeat, smoked salmon & prawns, which looked beautiful and tasted fresh and light.
My daughter had the Parmigiana Melanzane (basically baked aubergine and courgette with tomato sauce and mozzarella) as a main and will only have it from two places, either mine (taught to me by my wife’s Napolitan father) or La Galleria. My wife’s sea bass fillets were big, which meant I had to help eat them, and cooked perfectly and the pistachio gratin crumb really added something. Regardless of what side dishes come with our meals, we always have a big portion of the zucchini fritti as an extra. It should be impossible to ruin a steak, but many places manage to find a way, but as expected, mine was tasty and tender.
To finish, they both had the creamy light and tasty tiramisu, whilst I tried the Limoncello mousse cake, a soft cheesecake-like dessert with what tasted like ginger and honey, which was sharp and refreshing.
Now we are starting to get back to some normality, it won’t be too long before we return.More
