14 Frith Street,
Soho,
London,
W1D 4RD
0871 971 6798
The ViewLondon Review
As the name would suggest, this is a bar and restaurant dedicated to that potent, warming, aromatic, nourishing and deeply delicious gift of God’s earth, Garlic.
All the food is garlicky and you can even order garlic beer, and a variety of garlic shots.
The upstairs is a very laid back restaurant. There are tables in the wooden indoors and more out back, under a canopy that makes you feel like you could be in a relaxed beach shack. Surf and rock tunes filter out of the sound system but not too loudly. The clientele are varied in age, ilk and appearance but seem to be of a mellow disposition.
There’s a menu with a good range of veggie options, and there is a wide selection of tapas chalked up on a board. We ate garlic calamares, garlic cornballs and garlic mushrooms. The food arrived quite fast but it’s not for the fainthearted.
They do not spare the garlic, and thus after about four mouthfuls it doesn’t really matter what you’re eating, because what you’re tasting is a pleasantly searing heat, which sinks down to your stomach and warms your gut nicely. Well, I enjoyed it…
Prices start at £4 for tapas, to about £14 for garlic lobster. One of our garlic calamares only had one calamar in it, which though tasty was not very hunger satisfying. However our waitress took it off the bill.
After dinner you might feel the urge to leave the surf shack atmosphere and decide into the pit of rock metal that is the shots bar downstairs.
Here the rock metal anthems blast out loudly, the aged death metallers bang their heads, and the range of 101 shots glints evilly down from the shelves at you.
Choose shots (£2.50 each) like the ‘All Black’, ‘Sweet Death’, ‘I Shot The Sheriff’ or a more standard vodka lime confection. Neck it, and feel the glow of garlic spread to a glow of booze.
The shots were great; the food good for garlic lovers, and the atmosphere very wicked. As Britney never said, Spit me baby one more time …