While the weather the day I dined was unbelievable, the casual food at Galinette is believably French and intentionally simple. It won’t knock your socks off, but it might turn you into a regular. A slice of sweet chicken liver mousse ($13) was perked up with pickled onions and seedy, nose-clearing mustard. Steak with a bordelaise sauce ($25) was cooked perfectly to a pink medium-rare and served with a pile of no-nonsense frites. The hefty bowl of bourride, the restaurant’s signature rustic, lightly saffron-infused seafood stew ($35), was topped with a thick filet of rock cod (known in French as Galinette), plus mussels, tiny squid, clams, chunky fennel and crostini smeared with rouille, a bread-thickened aioli. From my point of view, it could have used a little more punch, but then again, it hasn’t been called bouillabaisse’s “troubled half-sister” for nothing.
