Theater district eatery presents uncommon cuisine - and service
Type: Italian
Prices: Appetizers $5.50-$15; pasta entrees $18.50-$24; entrees, $24-$29; desserts $7. Three-course meal, with moderately priced wine, taxes and tip, between $60 and $65 per person.
Good choices: Appetizers: extraordinary breads; fish and potato cake with red pepper aioli; Caesar salad served in a basket formed of baked parmesan. Pastas: gnocchi with bolognese sauce. Entrees: steamed salmon filet with radicchio; pan-seared tenderloin of beef with yellow turnip. Desserts: Sicilian cassata of frozen sweetened strawberries, chocolate semifreddo, and pista chio gelato.
Hours: Breakfast and lunch, Mon.-Fri., 7 a.m.-3 p.m. Dinner, Tues-Thurs., 5:30-10 p.m., Fri. and Sat., 5-11 p.m. Closed for dinner on Monday.
Credit cards: All major credit cards.
Access: Fully accessible.
GALLERIA ITALIANA
177 Tremont St., Boston
(617) 423-2092
Restaurant reviewed 1/30/98 by Walter V. Robinson
To say that the knowledge, thoughtfulness, and attentiveness of the waitress, in this case Susannah Galdston, was the highlight of dinner at Galleria Italiana might be taken as a hint that there is not much to be said for the food.
Which is not the case. The service is very efficient, as it better be for a Tremont street restaurant that caters to a large pre-theater crowd. But the food, like the combination of ingredients inspired by the Abruzzi region of Italy where owners Marisa Iocco and Rita D'Angelo have deep roots, is a more complex issue.
Veal marsala will not be found on this menu. Cream sauces and butter are seldom used. High quality extra virgin olive oil plays a role, but mainly as dip for the fabulous, home-baked breads and for drizzling on salads. In the kitchen, chef Ron Suhanosky prefers grape seed oil to olive oil for his cooking because it better preserves the flavor of the food.
For diners accustomed to ordering off Italian menus that so mimic one another that non-Italian speaking Bostonians often rattle off their choices in Italian, the menu at Galleria Italiana will make you pause. It includes items like codfish and potato cake with red pepper aioli, rack of wild boar with a black olive crust, and duck coated in pine nuts and cooked in caramelized onion and braised apples.
The results can be very satisfying, sometimes even extraordinary. But some of the dishes were disappointing, though that may say as much about the unfamiliarity of Abruzzi fare to the American palate as about the kitchen's expertise. Wild boar? Too gamey, I thought at first, although tasted in combination with the black olive crust it was flavorful. Fritto misto fried chicken livers? Wrinkled my nose, and grabbed a San Pellegrino water chaser. An appetizer of Gorgonzola sandwich with pine nut pesto over mache, the in greens for 1998? Intriguing, but too rich in advance of the pasta entree that followed.
But even if you don't want to challenge your palate, the restaurant's menu offers ample opportunity for a dining experience that is almost a match for the service: Wonderful, fresh-baked bread that includes focaccia and cose fritta, a very doughy, croissant-like bread. Separate meat and fish antipastos that are excellent. A Caesar salad that, by itself, is excellent. As a bonus, the salad is served in a delicious basket made from parmesan cheese - finely grated, formed into a crust, baked, and draped over a bowl to attain its shape.
A watercress salad with pear and Romano cheese, dressed with lemon juice and olive oil, was quite good, though a little less lemon juice would have brought the pear and Romano flavors more to the fore.
A steamed salmon wrapped in radicchio was excellent, as was a pan-seared beef tenderloin served with mashed turnip, fava beans, and cardoons (a cross between celery and artichokes that comes from the Apulian region of Italy).
There are two common features to some of the dishes: portions too large, ingredients too many. The lamb chops were quite good, tender and cooked to perfection. But the centerpiece was overwhelmed by the accompanying ingredients - including candied cherries, white beans, and a goat cheese crust. The veal, rolled with mortadella (an Italian bologna) and broccoli rabe and baked in a veal reduction sauce and olive oil, was excellent. But with its pistachio potato mash, it could have fed two.
And some entrees were disappointing: The whole-wheat fettuccelle sounded good, with sweet and spicy red peppers, rock shrimp, broccoli rabe, and roasted garlic. But the spicy pepper overwhelmed the other flavors. The vegetable ravioli was ordinary. A pasta special with mushrooms and truffles, at $24, was remarkable only for its price.
Many of the desserts were excellent. The bread pudding with marsala-marinated strawberries was quite good, as was a chocolate souffle with coconut gelato. But the piece de resistance was a cassata (Italian for marriage) made up of layers of chocolate semifreddo (a mousse-like concoction with an egg white base), pistachio gelato, and frozen sweetened strawberries.
Our second dinner, overall, was more memorable. That's partly because the first visit included an unfortunate moment: As five of us finished dessert and coffee, a patron near the front of the restaurant fired up a cigar, filling the room with an aroma that no restaurateur should allow, just as the kitchen staff decided to apply bleach to the kitchen floor. The combined fumes were intolerable. One of the owners, Iocco, said neither the smoker nor the kitchen staff should have done what they did.
What was most remarkable, however, was the intelligent service Galleria Italiana offers. For example, Galdston, who happened to wait on us during two visits, displayed an uncommon knowledge of the many ingredients in the dishes, of Galleria Italiana's extensive Italian wine list, and of her diners' needs.
As soon as a bottle of Brunello was opened, she moved without asking to decant it. Diners who stepped away for a moment returned to find napkins refolded. As soon as one guest mentioned his severe allergy to seafood and celery, she made an inquiry and found out that there was celery in the stock of the pasta sauce he was about to order. She found a pleasant marinara substitute that went well with the very good gnocchi. Bad service can ruin the best of meals. At Galleria Italiana, excellent service can more than offset an occasional dish that falls short of expectations.
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