El Galleon, Avalon CA

Author: Jonathan Gray
More info: Catalina Hotspots

Visited Catalina Island with my girlfriend a couple years ago, and stopped by El Galleon for dinner by recommendation of our cabbie. Locals know best, right?

Hah... So my lady and I made reservations for the Valentine's Day night, and waltzed in just on time. Dropped our name confident that wouldn't have to wait in the cold with the rest of the riff raff that just walked in.. but what do you know, the young buck that we spoke to earlier that day didn't put down my name on the reservations list! We even spelled out our name to the 'tard! Whipped out our phone and showed the hostess their phone number on our contact list to show that we called earlier that day.

So what do they do? Drop us in a crowded shoulder to shoulder seating; they have Viking-style long tables where they pack total strangers right next to each other (see image below). There goes any note of privacy or romanticism that we could possibly hope for from the place. What's worse? I saw an open booth directly next to us that looked like it should have been reserved for a party of 6-10, but they seated a couple there just a few moments after they seated us. What. The. Bleep.

Don't get me started on hygiene... oh what the hell; your eating utensils are sorted in these cups, eating-end face-up, so the dirty people before you get their grubby sticky fingers all over it. These are the tools you'll be using to pick/chop up your food and put it in your mouth. Blech! If you're OCD about cleanliness, El Galleon is not for you.

So at this point, if you start at a baseline of 3/5 and move up or down from there, like I do, then El Galleon is well below a negative. Then their service just goes further South as I hear a waiter talk to the group next to us telling them to either buy more food or move to the bar. I've never seen/heard anyone get rushed out of their dinner. Unacceptable..

So how about the food, the entire reason you go to restaurants, right? Well, they redeem themselves a bit here. I had the Catalina Swordfish which came with some veggies and mashed potato pancakes and my lady had cioppino, a seafood tomato based stew. Her plate was verrrrrrry delicious, kept eating off her plate. My swordfish was alright, not entirely flavorful but it was juicy. Relied somewhat on the tartar sauce for satisfaction. Their long island iced tea was potent, so another thumbs up for them.

So granted their hygiene, piss awful service, and pretty yummy food/drinks, El Galleon scores:

VERDICT
Food 4/5
Service 1/5
Décor 3.5/5
Overall 2/5