La Gallina Restaurant and Bar opened this evening in the former CPK space at Market Street Lynnfield. They offer a variety of Mediterranean style dishes including appetizers, salads, soup, sandwiches, burgers, pastas, brick oven pizza, tapas, seafood, chicken, skewered meat entrees, and dessert. The atmosphere here is modern casual with an open dining room has booths, tables, high top tables and seating up at the bar with two flatscreen TVs, full drinks list including 10 draft beers. Upbeat background music was playing over the speakers and the crowd noise echos throughout the place. The food prep area including pizza oven is in the open.
There is also a covered open air seating seating section and outside patio table seating in front of the restaurant too. The prices here are high moderate.
I stopped by La Gallina for dinner on opening night when the doors opened at 5pm. I was given a menu and I headed to the bar with marble countertop and plenty of open seating. The bartender brought out a glass of ice water as I was deciding on what to eat. I placed my food order with the bartender.
I started with Today's Ragu + Soft Mascarpone Polenta ($15 plus tax) which was served table side out of 2 pots (polenta and meat Ragu) on a long wooden tray with a grated parmesan cheese cup. However, the portion served to me wasn't that much (a lot of empty tray) and I finished it in a few bites.
The other tapas on the menu were also modest portions as I saw other customers with the meatballs and calamari. The hummus dips and spreads with pita chips looked like right size portions. The pepperoni flatbread pizza ordered by the customer next to me looked like a good size, a thick airy doughy crust topped with plenty of sauce, pepperoni, and melted browned cheese.
I also noticed other customers had homemade bread and dipping oil & parmesan cheese, Bar Bread Service (add $4 plus tax) which I decided to get. The 4 chewy slices of ciabatta bread was good, dipping into olive oil and parmesan cheese.
Next, the Our House Beef Burger, Blend of 3 Cuts of Beef* ($19 plus tax) 2 very soft moist smashed patties, thick soft cheese, red onion, fresh iceberg lettuce, tomato slice, dill pickles, orange tangy house sauce with Parmesan fries on the side. The burger and fries along with the bread & oil was very filling and satisfying.
After I was done, I ordered dessert which has a few housemade selections including gelato and dessert drinks. I chose the Orange Pistachio Cake + Sweetened Greek Yoghurt ($10 plus tax), which was a good size slice, soft and a dry texture with whipped yogurt and pistachios and burnt orange sauce on the plate.
The place was very busy and it took a while for the bartender to give me the check. The owner was also walking around checking on customers and staff. The check with tax before tip was $52.80 which also had a 3 percent Kitchen Appreciation Fee, which is a first and I think they deserve appropriate compensation from the restaurant. I've seen resort fees (restaurants in Vegas casinos), COVID surcharges, economy adjustments, ingredient upcharges, optional musician fees, and automatic large party gratuities added to meal checks. The service here was delayed due to the place being very busy on the first official night in business. read more