Le Gallo Rosso

My husband and I went to Le Gallo Rosso for dinner last night and it was absolutely fantastic! I've never even heard of it until I read Robin's review, and he was right on about it. The service was outstanding as well as the food! Extremely large portions...we had the lasagna and stuffed meatballs with spaghetti. Priced very appropriately considering the amount of food that you are served. We brought in a bottle of our own wine and happily shared it with another guest. Will definitely be back in the future!!!

The girlfriend and I are on our way out the door. Will post about the experience later.

It really is a special little place and Annette, the Chef/Owner is Wonderful and her Mom Ginger is just Fabulous! I have been a fan since the day they opened and hope they last a long long time!

[Robin Garr]

It really is a special little place and Annette, the Chef/Owner is Wonderful and her Mom Ginger is just Fabulous! I have been a fan since the day they opened and hope they last a long long time!

We've been very happy with several meals there too, Caroline. It's just a cozy, comfy little place with really good Italian dishes. It's funny how in some ways it reminds me of Melillo's, yet it's very different. Sort of like Primo and Volare at the more upscale end, I love 'em both and would hate to have to choose between them.

I still wish somebody would explain why they use "Le" rather than "Il" with "Gallo Rosso," though.

Robin, next time I visit, I will ask Annette...

[Robin Garr]

We brought in a bottle of our own wine and happily shared it with another guest. Will definitely be back in the future!!!

Thanks for the report, Jennifer. Glad you enjoyed it.

One question ... were you charged a "corkage" fee for wine service? We've never been charged, and I haven't heard of anyone who has, but a reader wrote in to report being assessed $5. Corkage is legitimate, of course, but I'm puzzled because I haven't heard of anyone else being charged at Gallo Rosso.

We were not charged a corkage fee, and the server happily told us about the liquor store across the street.

[Robin Garr]

We were not charged a corkage fee, and the server happily told us about the liquor store across the street.

That's handy, but if you want to go beyond something very basic, it's well worth the extra steps to go about four blocks south to Old Town or two blocks north to The Wine Market. I'm just sayin' ...

We brought a nice bottle of Italian wine (a Masi 2003 Valpolicella Ripasso) from home, which is really the way to go if you have wine at home.

I took my mom and step-father out to lunch yesterday at Le Gallo Rosso. I really expected to be wowed because of all the rave reviews here on HotBytes. Maybe it was just an off day, or maybe lunch is their strong point. I don't know. But I was disappointed, and I felt bad for taking my parents there. I like to appear somewhat knowledgeable to them about where to go, and where they will be treated well.

I am a person who errs on the side of trying to be understanding of all waitstaff issues. I always try to give the benefit of the doubt, because I've been in their position. But I was a little annoyed with the service. When we walked in, my step-father asked if they were serving outside. The guy (later also our server) said, yeah, but it's way too hot to eat out there. Well, my parents like dining outdoors, so we walked out there. We weren't really sure where to sit, which tables wre part of the restaurant and which weren't, etc... The guy came back out and told us that a certain table (nearest the door) was the only table he could serve us at, which was totally fine with us, but he seemed again, angry. If it were just me, I would have just sat inside to make the guy happy, and I understand waitstaff not wanting to walk outside in sweltering weather, but it upsets me when, as a customer, it is made very clear to me they aren't happy with our choice. I almost wanted to say to the guy, would you prefer it if we just left? We ordered a salad and two orders of spaghetti and stuffed meatballs. As time went by, the server warmed up to us, and by the end of the meal, was almost actually polite. Now, I'm not saying he was explicitly rude to us. I just expected at a place like that to have a friendly server; someone happy to see us there. The food was decent. I really liked the fig vinaigrette served with the pear and gorgonzola salad. The spaghetti and meatballs were fine. A huge portion for the price, but not really seasoned enough for my taste.

Now, my instinct was to want to really like the place. I've heard such great things about how charming it is. But it certainly fell short of expectations. However, I will plan to return, for dinner, and hopefully will have a much better experience.

sorry to hear that-they all are usually very friendly. Hope next time you have better service...

My husband and I went with a couple of friends and had an okay experience. We went around 8 on a Saturday. Service was friendly, but very very slow - there were only two servers for the whole restaurant. It was close to an hour before we got our salads and about five minutes later received our dinners. Two of us had the spaghetti and meatballs. The salads were good and the presentation with the cucumber slice as the "cup" was neat. I did wonder why it took so long, since the salads seemed like something that would have been made ahead of time. I thought the marinara and meatballs were on the bland side and the pasta was over cooked.
There wasn't anything written on the tab regarding a corkage fee. However, we did notice an extra charge of 2.50 on each couples check. It may have been for the bottle of wine we shared. Honestly, we didn't ask because after close to two hours we were ready to get out of there.
I expected and wanted to like it a lot more than I did.