Galley Beach remains one of Nantucket’s top restaurants in service, atmosphere, and especially in food. Under creative chef W. Scott Ossif, the food is not only gorgeous to the eye, but it tastes that good, too. You just about can’t go wrong here: the food is that marvelous.
The restaurant is perched right along the beach, with the outer dining room covered, but with side curtains open to the air if it is warm. The windows face the sunset and you can watch that lovely sunset almost any night.
Starting with the Oyster Stew offered last night (shown above), the dish is simply a dazzling presentation, not some dull gray bowl of seafood and cream. And incidentally, it had 6 creamy, tender, whole oysters in it, not just a few pieces chopped up. And notice the thin sliced radishes, parsley and bits of red onion on top along with droplets of flavored oil! This is certainly best oyster stew we’ve ever had!
Meanwhile, our other appetizer was an elegant Caesar salad with fresh little white anchovies topping the toasted crouton bread. It was an outstanding presentation.
One of our entrees was also a menu addition, a medium rare tuna steak on wild mushrooms and little ends of summer squash and served with a sweetish peanutty sauce. It was both moist and tender throughout and perfectly prepared.
Finally, our other entrée was Filet Mignon with tomatoes, cipollini onion. fingerling potatoes. And tomato vinaigrette. It was as you can see a beautiful creation, and the meat was moist and tender.
For dessert, we shared a warm brownie topped with vanilla ice cream and surrounded with salted caramel sauce and topped with a thin cookie. A perfect end to a fantastic meal.
Galley Beach is one of the islands most outstanding restaurants, and we can’t recommend it highly enough. Note that there is a $15 valet parking fee you pay in advance when you hand over your car.
Food Science Institute 