The Galley Diner

The Galley Diner

11 P Street

South Boston, Ma 02127

The Galley Diner doesn't have a website. It just has a damn good breakfast! It is sp good, I feel it necessary to bust out of my blogging hiatus and write about it.

I have seen The Galley Diner many times in the 6 years I have lived in Southie, and I always say I am going to go in, but to be honest I forget about it when it comes to deciding on a breakfast place, and then late one night as I turned on the food channel, there it was!

No Reservation's Anthony Bourdain was standing in The Galley Diner telling me their corned beef hash and eggs was the best in town. I had to go, but then I forgot again. What is wrong with me?

The impetus to me finally visiting the diner I can only chalk up to a 10 mile run and telepathy. Saturday afternoon I decided I was going to do what I call the Southie Challenge. Run up and down every lettered street in Southie from the harbor to 1st street, starting at P and ending at my house. When I started down P, there it was again, The Galley Diner, I made mental note one more time, I had to go there, and I continued my run. Two days later on Columbus Day Lou woke up and said, "Let's check out The Galley Diner for breakfast!" It was meant to be.

If you are from out of town and looking for a real South Boston experience, you have go to this place. The diner is aptly named as the inside is about twice the length and width of a galley kitchen. There is a counter of about 10 seats and several 4 top tables. We were greated immediately as we walked in the door by what had to be the owners, Paul Skudris and Colleen Campbell. Everything about this place is family run and operated. There are two tvs going at the end of the counter for your morning news. Memorabilia from early classics such as the Three Stooges, Shirley Temple, and The Little Rascals adorn the walls, along with old pictures of Southie and retro ads.

Paul cooks your breakfast right in front of you behind the counter, so there is no guessing at what he is doing back there. Portions are big and food is delicious. I am a two eggs, toast, hashbrowns, and bacon kind of breakfast girl. I have gotten this in literally hundreds of breakfast places. A simple breakfast that you wouldn't think could vary too much from place to place, but at The Galley Diner, it tasted just a little bit better then all those other places.

Lou's comment was, "Now I know why Terry's ( our old breakfast place in Southie) closed!"

The coffee was great. The atmosphere was Southie through and through. Regular patrons lined the stools.

The prices were ridiculous for the city. We usually can't get breakfast for less than $20 these days. At The Galley Diner our breakfast was $16 with the tip! When we left we were told to come again. We most definitely will.

Looks like Lou and I will have to Trek a little bit further when it snows to get our traditional snow storm breakfast, (see earlier post)but this place is worth it!

Did Somebody Say, "MEAT PIE???"

KO Catering and Pies

87 A Street

South Boston, Ma

kocateringandpies.com

Atmosphere: Casual, Cozy

Food: All Aussie, all the time, meat pies, Vegemite, brekky ...

Kid Friendly: What little kid doesn't love their own little meat pie?

Prices: Great place to grab lunch or a casual take out dinner. Cheap eats

I have been meaning to stop by this place for a while, and this week I realized I have incredibly bad timing. I showed up too late on Sunday, Monday they are always closed, but Tuesday.... Tuesday I struck gold and bought every meat pie on the menu.

Let me back up. KO Catering and Pies opened a few months back in the old St. Alphonso's place on A street just off West Broadway. St. Alphonso's hadn't lasted long, and either had the place before that. I was starting to think it was one of those places that goes from owner to owner until eventually they level it and turn it into a parking lot.

I think I have changed my mind though. KO doesn't have a big sign out front. They usually have a small A frame that simply says, G'Day, it's Aussie food and it beckons passersby to "come on in!"

Really simple, so you may think, "How is this affective", but who doesn't love an Aussie accent? I planned on going into this place just to listen to whoever was behind the counter. I didn't care what they were serving, but then I saw an article in The Improper Bostonian, and a picture of the Aussie meat pies. A visit to KO was a win/win situation!

I have never had the pleasure of going to Australia, but I have a cousin who spent a semester abroad there, and she was visiting me this weekend. I couldn't help but think what better time to go and try KO out? Unfortunately, as I mentioned at the beginning of this, I have bad timing. By the time my Tuesday visit to KO came around, my cousin had gone back to Virginia, and I was left having to taunt her on facebook with my plethora of meat pies.

KO has the classic meat pie (ground beef and pie), the classic with cheese. They have an Irish stew meat pie, and a curried vegetable meat pie, and on that special day they had a steak, onion and mushroom meatpie! I ended up buying every meat pie except the classic with cheese. I also grabbed a sausage roll which my husband aptly described as, "Did you see those croissants with the sausage inside?" Yes I did.

There were plenty of other things on KO's menu that I will have to go back and try like the Chicken Schnitzel Burger or fish and chips. They even have Brekky Australian style for the early morning, Aussie eaters. My visit, however, was all about the meat pies.

I bought my meat pies early in the day and I was greeted by the owner Sam. Sam has cooked all over the world from gourmet kitchens to the galleys of yachts. These days he calls Southie his home and he realized there was an enormous opportunity to bring Aussie food to Boston. Sam won't just be sharing his Aussie creations with Southie, he has also joined in on the food truck revolution and will be going mobile. Of course I loved the accent, and not only was Sam nice, so were his customers who insisted I get the meat pie of the day.

The worst part about going to KO was I went early in the day, and these pies were for dinner! They kept nicely though and I heated them up in a 400 degree oven and they were ready in about 15 minutes.

Each pie is about 5 inch in diameter. One pie is probably good for most people, but we were doing a taste test, so we each had about two pies.. Our favorite was the Irish stew, followed by the steak, onion and mushroom special. I am not a big fan of curry, but the vegetable curry pie was pretty good, and the classic, I can see why they call it the classic. I realized after I ate it I should have read the card that Sam handed me "How to eat a meat pie" because it appears most people put ketchup on the classic, but I thought it was still very delicious on it's own. Lou also was a BIG fan of the Sausage roll.

I think I should warn Sam now. He might want to get ready for the St. Paddy's Parade. If news of that Irish Stew pie gets out, he will need to recruit some more local Aussies to "meat" the demand.

Stats South Boston

Stats

77 Dorchester St.

South Boston.

Atmosphere: Casual

Food: Well done creative sports bar food

Kid Friendly: Not really

Cost: Inexpensive for the area, most dishes were between $8 and $14 dollars

Over the last month I have realized, certain things don't mix well with blogging, like Summer,especially the month of August, or working more than one job....

But the Summer is over, and Lou is making me retire from some of my part time jobs, so now I can update you all with some of the lovely places I have visited recently.

We start with J.A. Stats. This place just opened up about 1/2 a mile from our house, and we couldn't be happier. Southie is not known for it's outstanding restaurants. Sorry Amrheins and Farragut House, I do not include you in comment. When we saw another sports bar was opening, to be honest, we were a little disappointed, but then we decided to check Stats out, and we were pleasantly surprised.

The atmosphere is casual but not too casual that you couldn't hit it up for drinks after work. The space is big and TV's abound, but it isn't horribly loud in here like some sports bars can be. The windows up front also open out to the street.

The menu is what I would say upscale sports bar food. Sure you can get paninis, burgers, sandwiches and pizza's, but they aren't the typical recipes you see in every restaurant around town.

There are small plates that are great for sharing, like these goat cheese stuffed artichoke hearts.
and there are interesting sandwich choices. Lou got this Sesame encrusted tuna with ginger and a side of sweet potato fries.
The sides were one of my favorite parts of the menu. These days a lot of people like to substitute the fries with other choices. Stats gives the choice up front, a side salad, sweet potato fries or regular fries.

I got the salad with my California wrap below. The wrap was done right with just the perfect blend of meat and veggies spread evenly throughout. I don't like a wrap that isn't plentiful or is over powered by one ingredient like the wrap itself.
For drinks we tried the Seasonal Pumpkin Spice beer which was served with a nice sprinkle of cinnamon. It was that little added attention to detail which made a big difference.

Stats uses all Boar's head cold cuts for it's sandwiches. It's most expensive entree is steak tips for $14.95. Not bad at all for a place in the city.

You can tell the owners know their audience.

The only thing which may be a hindrance to Stats' success is the parking. There is none. You can park around the corner off West Broadway in a lot or take your chances on any of the side streets nearby. There is a small lot behind the bar on Dorchester St., but I am not sure it is theirs. Don't let that stop you from going there though. It is a small inconvenience for some really good, inexpensive food. Besides it's football season!

LTK A.K.A. Legal Test Kitchen

Legal Test Kitchen

225 Northern Ave

Boston, Ma (Seaport District)

Menu: Seafood, various size dishes

Atmosphere: Loud, large bar crowd, identity crisis.

Kid Friendly: Actually there were a ton of kids there the last time we went. It added to the chaos.

Price: Expensive for what it is.

If you haven't been to the Seaport area of Boston in the last few years, you are missing out. restaurants, residences and hotels have sprung up all over the place, and the area continues to grow.

The old mainstays are there like No Name Seafood, Yankee Lobster and Anthony's, but there are bunch of new places which have opened.

One of the first of the new was Legal Test Kitchen or LTK because in a world of texting you need to have an acronym. Don't worry, they aren't trying to horn in on Legal Seafoods name, they are owned by Legal Seafoods.

I went to LTK within the first couple weeks it was opened, and I have visited about once a year since. I still don't know what the concept is all about. In all honesty, I think they suffer from identity crisis.

When they first opened they were one of the only new places in town, so everyone was checking them out. I would have said back then they were a test kitchen created to try new concepts out which would potentially be used in Legal Seafoods. At least that is how I understood it. They had wireless flat screen computers they would give to kids to keep them busy at the table. They had ipod docs if you preferred listening to your own music. The menu was mostly smaller dishes almost like a tapas feel with some bigger entrees, and a create your own dish section where you could pick the fish, the sauce and the side, noodles, rice, etc...

The first few times we ate at LTK it was clearly a restaurant with a bar. There was attention to detail with the food. The food was very good, as well as the service. I would say they were going for more of an upscale ambiance. During those first days, wait times were long. They had seating outside, but they weren't very good at planning for rain. I was there once when they sat the whole patio and it was apparent the rain would start any minute. When it did start, our wait shot up an extra hour, and nobody took the time to let us know. Since that time, the outside seating was covered with a very practical year round canopy sporting sides which can be opened or put down depending on the weather. Smart move LTK.

After my first two visits to LTK I didn't go back for about a year. When I did, I noticed the menu seemed a bit less original and a little more typical. I don't remember a burger being on the menu before but not only was there a burger but a hot pastrami sandwich. The wireless computers and ipod docs were MIA, and the bar crowd seemed to have swelled to a healthy after work crowd. The food was still good, but not quite what it had been when they opened. I wondered if the management had changed? I wasn't sure I was going to come back. I thought the prices were a little steep for what was turning out to be an average meal.

About a week ago, I broke down and gave LTK one more shot. This time there was more of a bar crowd than anyone eating in the restaurant. The crowd was so large we had several people almost hovering over our table when we first sat down. Our server was nice enough, but I could get the same service at Applebee's for about half the price. We got the Calamari to start. LTK does theirs with lots of hot peppers on top of a garlic aioli. It's a little spicy but they always cook the calamari perfectly which means tender not rubbery. For dinner I got the hoisin glazed salmon on top of pad thai noodles. Lou got the lobster mac and cheese. His lobster was scarce, my salmon had too much hoisin and the thai noodles had an abundance of scallions in them. The noodles themselves were a bit hard. We only drank water.

For this meal we paid $54.41!!!! Sorry LTK but I think you have turned into a local watering hole. My suggestion is stop cooking food. Leave the testing at the corporate office and make lots of money on the bar crowd.