Porch Cafe
| Address: | 1625 E Beach Dr, Galveston, TX 77550, USA |
| Phone: | +1 409-762-0808 |
| Site: | porchcafe.com |
| Rating: | 4.3 |
| Working: | Closed Closed Closed 5–10PM 11:30AM–3PM 9AM–2PM 9AM–2PM |
Location
Photos 100
Reviews 6
KU
Kurt
My rating system: 1*=worst. 3*=average. 5*=best. Environment: 4*. It was one of the nicer looking cafe style restaurants on the island. Maybe even the nicest. Solid silverware. Heavy white chairs. Nice "porch" for outside dining too. Good location. Wasnt too loud or too quite. Staff: 4*. Very friendly. No complaints here. I didnt really "test" their knowledge of anything, so I cant comment about that. The sweet potato chips our waiter recommended were good. Food: 4*. The food itself was good. Ingredients appeared fresh and the presentation was great. I got the burger with blue cheese and sweet potato chips. Burger was a tad dry, but overall better than average. The chips were made in house and were very good. We also got the coconut shrimp, which were also above average. Value: 1*. This was the huge drawback for the Porch Cafe. The coconut ship was $10 and it only came with 3 shrimp. No small sides or anything were included. It was smaller than most appetizers at other restaurants. The burger was $18. As stated above, it was a good burger. However, I was expecting more for $18. They could have gotten a star back from me in this column, if they had complementary bread prior to the entree. Just something extra to offset the small entree portions. Overall: 3*. I wont be going back here because of the poor value. I usually dont mind paying more for quality food, but $10 for 3 fried shrimp (without including tax and tip) is just silly. I normally give 2* and below for places I dont plan on revisiting. This is an exception because I think they did everything aside from value so well. It is a shame. We ended up having to go to a fast food joint after because we were still hungry. We are by no means heavy eaters too.
TS
tstine90
This place gave me a dinner and a night I will remember for a very long time. They created a custom 4 course dinner for my girlfriend and I due to dietary restrictions. It was above and beyond. The food was incredible and so was the wine pairing. The redfish with Pontchartrain sauce and grits and asparagus is one of the best things I have ever eaten. The sous chef even came out and spoke with us and asked how we were enjoying dinner. We are both in our mid-twenties and we arent famous/important or anything like that, he just seemed genuinely interested about how we liked everything. The meal was prepaid so I bought a beer on top of dinner to have a check so I could leave a tip since I didnt have any cash. I wanted to leave our waiter a good tip because the service was excellent. The waiter actually comped my beer so I didnt have a check! So I bought the kitchen a round of post shift beers, something I have never done before (tip from cook friend to do if you want to show some love to the kitchen staff) and left a tip on that check. We walked out of that place feeling great and couldnt shut up about how amazing our dinner was. The atmosphere is also great. It feels like you are eating at someones home at the beach but it is also clean and elegant. I cant recommend this place enough. It was nearly perfect end to end. I have already sent a few friends there and they were also very impressed. Give it a shot.
BR
Brian Fox
I was in last night, bar tender/ waiter was good. Restaurant switched over to a lighter seasonal menu, fine with me. The bad part was the manager / greeter, I was sitting at the bar and he didnt seem very friendly. I had a beer and an appetizer, not trying to rush a nice quiet dinner after being in Houston for the week. I used the restroom and returned to my beer gone and my eating area cleared out...I was extremely confused, considering I hadnt paid and I had put in my entree order already. He apologized and poured me another beer that was half full and said "that is about the same, right?" If you make a mistake and dump a beer, get the customer a full beer, not another half beer. That is CHEAP and poor customer service and not representative of a classy high-end place. I ordered the Crab cake sandwich without tomato, that came out wrong, with the tomato. The sweet potato chips were soggy also. With this overall experience, I cannot honestly recommend this place to anyone. This place will fail due to inattention to the customers and a manager with a bad attitude. No Thank you when I left, or anything. Southern Hospitality is non-existent here... Design of the place is poor also, the bar should be on the other side of the building, so it has a view of the ocean, not of the parking lot. I know, space design & planning is my job.
AN
Andre Dube
Made a reservation online for brunch the next day. Our group of five showed up 15 minutes before our reserved time. We were told, by a very snooty hostess, that the manager was out of town so our reservation was never booked by the manager. The hostess then told us the wait would be 45 minutes for the next table. It was a beautiful day and the food looked good so we decided to wait and walked around for a while. When our 45 minutes of waiting was up, we approached the hostess who proceeded to tell us that "things [were] just too crazy" and they had no available tables for brunch that day, but we could come back for dinner if we wanted. The unprofessional manner in which our situation was handled was appalling, especially for how nice the place looked from the outside. I will never be going to restaurant again. Edit: I have to add that the restaurant did not look busy whatsoever, and there was no one else waiting to be seated. Poorly managed.
MA
magic ralph
We went in the afternoon last Sunday for a late lunch. Place was a major disappointment. The food was ill prepared and service was insolent at best. I ordered what was purported to be ceviche, but instead was served what was obviously over steamed shrimp and scallops in what tasted like a thinned jarred tomato sauce. Two of our party ordered the salads. The "wedge" salad with added chicken was not a wedge, but in fact a handful of leaf lettuce leaves, the dressing was broken (not in a good way) and tasteless, a real feat when you start with blue cheese. The accompanying "grilled" chicken was obviously steamed and reheated and smothered in stale black pepper. The view here is nice, but there many better views and much superior restaurants along the beach in Galveston, dont waste your time and money here.
LA
Laura Woods
Was a little strange, we called in the morning to ask if we could get a late lunch reservation and were told no, it was too busy. Our friends arrived in Galveston earlier than us, went to restaurant and were seated immediately. There were many empty tables on the porch and all tables inside were empty. We had a great waiter, Jackson. We ordered appetizers and entree salads. They were good but those that got the wedge were disappointed. Items mentioned on the menu, pickled okra, blue cheese were not on the plate. Menu stated it came with fried crawfish and there were 4 miniscule ones. The heirloom tomatoes were regular cherry tomatoes. Slightly disappointed in our meal but we have heard such great things about the food. I guess we just ordered badly and should try again at dinner sometime.
