Gallagher's Steakhouse

I have always enjoyed Gallagher's until recently. The last three visits were awful. The drinks at the bar are outrageously expensive. So I won't have any drinks there. That's easy. But the steaks were not cooked the way we asked and it took over ten minutes to get the atttention of the waiter to let him know. We had to wait close to twenty minutes before we could ask for a check and another fifteen minutes before he returned with a bill that wasn't even close to what we ordered. Something is wrong and it's a shame. I have been going to Gallagher's for thirty years with clients of mine. It looks like I am going to find another steakhouse.

I was there today with family celebrating a special occasion. We'd heard of Gallagher's reputation and all about celebrities going there all the time and figured we couldn't lose picking this midtown classic. My cousin asked for a prime rib medium well done and got it rare. My other cousin ordered a steak medium rare and got it well done. My uncle asked for porter house well done and got it charred on the outside and practically raw on the inside. My salmon filet was so burnt that only half of it was edible. To be fair, the wait staff was very apologetic & polite and even discounted the bill some, but considering the average price was $60 per person; it was still overpriced. Won't return.

When we first arrived, the hosts just looked at us and did not even greet us. We had no reservations, but the place was empty, so it did not seem like a big deal. Then we got to our table and our waiter gave us the bare minimum of service. The three of us that went are all professionals in our mid-twenties and look fairly young. I'm pretty sure they took note of this because they treated us as though we were a group of teenagers in a place where we didn't belong. The atmosphere was bad lighting and red and white checkered table cloths. The food was only mediocre and overpriced.

In a nutshell, the service was so bad and the food so mediocre, I would not recommend this place. Our appetizer arrived before our drinks, our waiter was extremely unattentive, my husband and I both ordered the filet cooked medium rare--his was wonderful, mine was over-cooked and dry. Yuck. Another waiter dropped off the desert menu, but it took our waiter so long to come by to see if we wanted anything we decided to skip dessert and go for the check instead. Very disappointing, will not be back.

This place is just too expensive for the regular New Yorker. What are they thinking with those prices? It's only Steak and side dishes.

I went with a friend for lunch, and the $20.04 lunch was a great deal. I would go again just to have the tenderloin and asparagus salad! Mmm. (Though I must say, I'd skip the caesar salad -- the onion soup looked much tastier.) The decor was very traditional, with a lot of dark wood, and the service was attentive without being stifling. All in all, very nice.

I went to Gallagher's with business associates on my first trip to NYC. For the price on the menu, I expected more from the porterhouse than what came. The outside was charred, which took away from the flavor of the rare center. The meat was a little tougher than other steaks I later had in the city the next night for a cheaper price.