Galley the At Westport Marina

Pretty good food but they won't let you sit by the Lake!

Below is a letter I wrote to the owners this morning after my experience on Sunday afternoon...

I have to write today to tell you of the bad experience our family of 4 had yesterday at your nearly empty restaurant. We arrived by boat and followed your ridiculous rule of walking around the outside seating and through an air conditioned restaurant with a dog only to sit outside. Had to wait inside over 10 minutes completely ignored to get someone to seat us. My husband asked to sit at one of the empty Lakeside umbrella tables that had sun exposure as we were wet from swimming and were told we could not sit there as they were saved for tables of 6. We were forced to sit under the awning looking at the wall of the building surrounded by flies as your Lakeside sun exposure tables sat empty the entire time we ate our lunch. I sat absolutely miserable and cold from being wet and would have ordered much more, but I ordered a bowl of soup as I was freezing and completely aggravated by your policy. Now I could understand if you had a busy restaurant, this was around 3 pm and there were two other tables outside with one family finished. Again, no one sitting  at those tables until one of the waitress's family of 4 came in, who were allowed to sit at one of the precious saved tables. So why would anyone come back to your restaurant when you are not allowed to sit Lakeside? At the end of this misery of a meal and after I witnessed the waitress family sitting at the lakeside table, I went inside to your completely empty inside seating area  to complain to your manager and she said they have to save the tables as they get "slammed" on Sunday afternoons. And not exactly a pleasant conversation, obviously she has her rules and she is not changing them!

I have to say, most people go to a restaurant for the entire experience, and while your food was good, if you are not allowed to sit and look at the lake, why would we come back?  If I were you, I would seriously think about whoever is making these rules, before you lose anymore customers!

Dining at the Marina is a perplexing experience.

On the one hand, the outside seating allows for a gorgeous view of Lake Champlain and the surrounding mountains. Sailboats quietly pass by and warm breezes ruffle your hair.

On the other hand, the service is so slow and unprofessional one can only laugh. The food takes a very, very, long time to come out - and if they are out of some listed ingredient, well, that will just be a surprise you discover when you finally receive your food! I hope you didn't have your heart set on the mushrooms because there aren't any! Surprise!

I suppose by making you wait so long, they ensure nothing will be sent back to the kitchen since you are likely starving at that point and would eat your napkin if you had to wait any longer. The food itself isn't that bad, but they are not trying very hard. The prices are reasonable but the portions aren't tremendous - the clams are particularly skimpy.

Friendly service.  They are a bit slow to serve to allow time.  The food was good.