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Last Update: Sep 2nd, 2016
Galleria dining1

Galleria Mall Food Court Now Open

2414 E Sunrise Blvd
Fort Lauderdale FL, 33304
(954) 564-1015
Overall Rating
2.0
Food
Service
Ambiance
Last Review
01/14/2016

Details

Hours: Open til 9pm
Attire: Casual
Parking: Mall Parking, Valet
CC: Yes
Alcohol: Wine and Beer
Prices: Moderate
Outside Dining: No
Delivery: No

Pros

Very Nice Dining Area

Cons

Only 2 Restaurants
Mall Chain Food

Critic's Review

The Galleria Food Court failed to open in time for the Christmas season, but they've finally opened now. Only 2 venues have signed up for the new space, which is likely a function of how much rent Simon Properties wants than demand for the space. What we have is 2 venues where you'd only order from if you were in a mall and had no other choices.

Tobu Asian / Hibachi Grill

Tobu is owned by a place named Food Systems Unlimited, so you know they're laser focused on culinary innovation. There are Tobu counters in malls across the country; some of them have sushi, some have Cajun food. This one has Chinese food on one side and a "Hibachi Grill" on the other.

Tobu in Galleria Mall

There are 2 separate lines with similar Combo offers for each. The HIbachi is pretty lame; shrimp, chicken or beef with rice. The chinese food was standard Mall fare; yellow, overcooked broccoli; food that looked 2-3 hours old.

I planned on eating at Tobu today, but decided against it after seeing what what available. I don't need to eat mall Asian food to know what it is.

Charley's Philly Steaks

Charley's Subs in Galleria Mall

Charlies is also open; I ate at Charley's in the Broward Mall a while back, so I don't expect anything different here. They are a mall chain; the subs are made to order so they are hot. Certainly a better idea than Tobu.

The dining room is nice; clearly they were expecting a better food court than they got. Eating Mall Asian food in a nice dining room is kind of strange.

Galleria dining2

Conclusion

The old Galleria Food Court was one of the nicer food courts in any mall; mainly because they didn't have a bunch of Mall chain restaurants. They had a nice salad place, an interesting grill, and pizza that you could order freshly made. It appears that they decided they wanted to get bigger rents from the national chain restaurants, but nobody was interested in the deal. Signing up 2 chain restaurants in a year is pretty bad.

I suspect that they'll get some more bites as next Christmas season approaches. It's possible that Simon couldn't promise they'd be open by Thanksgiving so many vendors passed on opening this year. In the meantime, your best option is still Sbarro, unless you're in the mood for a Mall Cheesesteak Sandwich.

Review 6/11/12

Galleria foodcourt

So what is a mall food court doing in a restaurant review section? Well let me tell you, this is the nicest food court I've ever encountered in a full public mall. Even the bathrooms are clean and beautiful. This food court is really quite good. You can get a gourmet sandwich, a personal pan pizza, a salad, gelato, fresh fruit, carving board meats or just relax at the coffee bar and watch one of the big screen TVs with an espresso or a glass of wine. Of course you have Sbarros and fast chinese food, but the rest is pretty extraordinary, at least for a mall.

I was checking out Red Mango but I needed some regular food first. They have a bunch of stations, but I think that the whole place is run by the same people. They call it Pizza Di Giorgio, which is a pretty nice name for a food court. They have a fancy salads section, a soups and sandwiches area, Chinese, sushi (think supermarket sushi), Mexican, Pizza and a Turkey station that they call Let's Talk Turkey.

None of it looked very good to me, so I figured I'd try a Turkey meatloaf sandwich. The guy that they had working this station was wholly incompetent, and I say that with complete authority. The sign says that it comes with lettuce and tomato on country rye bread with a pasta side salad. He asked someone who didn't seem to speak much english who was apparently more experienced than him, since he seemed to have no idea how to make the sandwich, nor did he have any interest in reading the sign. He wasn't even sure what Rye bread was, since he showed me the loaf and asked if it looked right. Then he lopped off a thick slice and put it on a single slice of bread and asked what side I wanted. Ok, I didn't want pasta salad, so I'll take the mac and cheese. He tried to give me it without a second slice; hey buddy, it doesn't say open sandwich, a sandwich has 2 slices of bread. He grudgingly gave me the second slice of bread.

You pay here at the cashier, not at the counter, so if they give you the wrong thing, they're going to ring you up wrong. It was supposed to be $6.95, but they rang it up as $7.95. Since I got a load of Mac and cheese I didn't think it was worth complaining about.

Galleria meatloaf

I grabbed some mayo and ketchup and found an uncomfortable chair. The mac and cheese was edible if not woefully overdone. The meatloaf was just junk; mostly filler, not a lot of taste, and bad, cheap seedless rye bread.

About what I would expect from a Food Court. Even a really nice food court.

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