The Galaxy

Place:  The Galaxy

Web-site: http://www.galaxyrestaurant.com/

Location:  201 Park Center Drive, Wadsworth, Ohio  Google Maps

Quick Blurb:

For the handful of ‘relaxing on a patio’ months that we have here in Northeast Ohio, you should make your way down to the Galaxy. Drink, eat, and be merry in the sun or shade – just the fact that there is large outdoor eating area should keep you coming back here. The honest sandwiches, decent draft beers and occasional live music are bonuses.

Review:

Appearance:

From the outside, it doesn’t look like much. Situated off the highway next to the Radison hotel, gives me the impression of a cheapish restaurant with its sole purpose of feeding the guests at the hotel that doesn’t have its own restaurant. The outside entrance, while kept up, looks a little dated. Inside, I got even a little more confused with the entrance looking a little hotel-esque. Once inside the main bar/dining area, my eyes took a while to adjust as it was so dark! But, given the right time of day, I think I would really enjoy an atmosphere like this – it was relaxing. But we kept pressing through to the patio area. We were a little early and it was a Monday, so the bar pavilions weren’t up and running (totally understandable) – but they looked like a lot of fun. The rock wall with a waterfall was very pleasant (see photo 1) and the various canopies (see photo 2) really made you feel like you were not in NEO. Although it is near the highway, and we were the only ones outside, the noise of the cars was minimal and not annoying at all.

I’ve noticed on their website that there are a few sections to this place – a Dining Room, a Wine Room and the Sports Bar. I would assume we walked through the sports bar towards the patio.

Here are a few photos of the patio:

Staff:

The staff was very nice. We were greeted with a smile and seated promptly. Our waitress, also friendly, did an excellent job in timing of when to come see us and when to leave us alone. What more could you really ask? If only high-end places were like this all the time...

Meal:

Appetizer:

We started off with an order of the potato skins and the spinach and artichoke dip. YUM! Now, don’t expect the potato skins to look like a perfect potato – that’s because they make these from scratch, as in they were not previously frozen. They were baked to a delicious crunch, not deep fried like you would get at some restaurants serving frozen skins.

The spinach and artichoke dip was different than what I’ve had before – a good different. It seemed to have some Boursin cheese included – most likely was some herbs they added, but it was great, unexpected and somewhat set a new level of spinach-artichoke dip! Haha! It came served in a bread bowl, which was a fun touch and included four ‘slices’ of thin, crunchy flat bread – another differentiating trait. But, this time I wasn’t as excited. It wasn’t bad, but it would break apart in the dip and just frustrate me as I try to get out the piece left behind! There came the point where we had to break apart the bowl to finish off the dip – I liked that part! The bread was very nice – a solid sourdough (one of my favourites).

Overall the appetizers were a hit.

Entrée:

I ordered the Italian Sub – I’m very much a cold-cut guy and here is the description:

Hot Italian Sub

Layers of salami, capicola and ham

topped with provolone cheese, lettuce,

tomato, shaved onions, pepperoncinis with

our Italian dressing on a

toasted hoagie.

Notice the first word? “Layers” – that just got my attention and I couldn’t get away from it. I did mistaken the combination of the words “Hot” and “Pepperoncinis” to imply it would have a good bite to it, but the pepperoncinis were actually mild and the sandwich was hot as in temperature. Not burning, but warm. I still very much enjoyed it – the meat was good quality, the cheese nicely melted and the Italian dressing wasn’t over powering the flavours of the ingredients.

My wife had the Caprese Panini – just as you could imagine, it was Mozzarella (and it was the kind that comes in a ball that they slice by hand), tomatoes, basil, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. She enjoyed it and I had a chance to have the last bite since she was full. I very much liked the ingredients, but wasn’t overly impressed with the bread – it crumbled too easily and didn’t have much flavor.

Our friend ordered the buffalo chicken wrap – and it looked just as you would think, but with a nice touch (at least I thought so). The wrap was a tomato wrap – red in colour. I think this was a nice, fun touch, and one that I have never seen before. Although offered, I didn’t take a bite so I’m going with his word that he “like it a lot”.

Desserts:

No Dessert…

Drinks:

An above average draft selection, but with above average prices. Stick to the monthly specials and you’ll be fine ($2 Coors  Draft). But when I’m sitting out on a patio in the heat of summer, any cold beer is delicious, so I’m not really bothered by this.

Prices:

Besides the beer being slightly above average, everything else was fairly normal, and when you think about the actual quality of the ham, salami and capicola that was in the sandwich I had, then I would say I came out on top.

Overall Experience:

Overall, I want to go back to the Galaxy and enjoy the outdoors. Sure, I have a patio at home, but it’s always more fun with people around and someone serving you a drink instead of having to get up and get one. Plus, I don’t have a waterfall at home. I’m also very keen on trying out their Wine Room – their website mentions that they do flights...that’s always a good time.

I recommend going to the Galaxy and just having fun outside this summer. There aren’t too many places with an outdoor area quite like this.



Oh, and follow me on Twitter:  @CJREALDEALSONMEALS