How Has This Place Not Been Shut Down? Deplorable quality of Food. Send in food inspectors — nothing fresh here . Over cooked, over processed, frozen at best — very poor quality. Astonishing given the hype. We went here twice figuring perhaps the first time was an off night. Ordered Chicken Parm and a veal special. Both Horrible! How do you ruin classic chicken parm? By using old or frozen rubbery poor quality chicken breasts, canned, low quality sauce, smothered in cheap low quality cheese. Yuck on every level. Second time got a seafood pasta dish — equally horrible. Also got mussels in a foul tasting sauce with — foul mushy mussels. One bite and couldn’t eat the rest. Oblivious server didn’t even ask why wilted old salad and mussels weren’t touched. Disgraceful. Now - the place. It must be the eclectic atmosphere and bar which at first glance is appealing —- that draws people in — but if you are sober, you will immediately notice the absolute filth everywhere, including the bathrooms. Yes, bugs…. Yes, Mold….. Yes, the poorest maintenance of a restaurant. ZERO stars! Avoid. Anyone accustomed to fresh, quality food when dining out — stay away.
Bill K
This restaurant was highly recommended and we enjoyed it immensely! All four us had the Shrimp and Scallop Scampi which was absolutely delicious. Portions are very large and two dinners fed four people. Our waiter was attentive and very friendly. Ambience is amazing and prices very reasonable. We highly recommend this restaurant!
Peter S
Had an Italian seafood dish and Caesar salad. Perfect! And the bring bread and roasted garlic liberally. Delicious. Server was perfect. Will be back. Be advised that Christmas decor was way over the top! As if Santa threw up! 🤣 but we really enjoyed it!
Angelo G
Used to be a good restaurant apparently Dylan is the drug dealer of the town now took my beer after I told him it was skanky slammed it down his throat and walked away, but you can get a good ounce of cocaine now his mom Bertie would be so proud
Michael L
It is not generally good here my wife has Caesar salad where the lettuce was limp and soggy the dressing was not very good. I've been here 5 or 6 times and tried different things almost every time and most of it is pretty poor. On top of that you're paying a very high price for what you're getting compared to a nice fillet mignon or fresh fish somewhere else. The food is better at Olive garden, which says a lot. The atmosphere is great though and the live music is nice sometimes.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 1
Service: 4
Steve Wilson
Excellent date night at The Garlic. I thought it was an amazing place. Everything start to finish. Prices were not outrageous- it’s good food at a decent price. Food was excellent. I love the decor and ambiance. Will visit again (and again).
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Sarah Conklin
Visited NSB for a few days and made sure to stop at The Garlic. We are so glad we did! Fantastic atmosphere. Fun and funky design inside and out. They had a talented musician playing. We really enjoyed that. Our server Bobby was wonderful. He knew his stuff and even gave us a list of must try restaurants in the area. Now about their food. The food was top notch! They start you off with amazing bread and a whole head of garlic with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. We started with a Cesar Salad and it was delicious. My husband got the Bocce Ball meatball and he raved about it. It was very flavorful and gigantic! I had the Ravioli Bolognese. The raviolis were delicious and the sauce was SO good! Great flavor. Slightly sweet with a little bit of spice. We ended our meal with Espresso Martinis. They were A+. Also the whole meal was very affordable. We were shocked at how inexpensive it was. So don’t miss this spot!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Taino871
Truly 5 out of 5. It’s my 60th birthday and my brother in law knows I am a “ Foodie” we drove 1 -1/2 hours to get to the restaurant…. well I would have driven 5 hours. Service, food! Ambiance, truly a beautiful place. We are from Northern New Jersey and we have had our fair share of good meals…. I ended up having one of the best meals in a long time in Sunny Florida ( Well it wasn’t sunny) But you wouldn’t know it with the way the staff was. Megan was our server, Happy, bubbly and right on point with service and our meals. Just looking at how the place was set up alone was very nice and lots of fun. Thank you everyone for an excellent meal and a really nice time. See ya in 6 months with our daughters and our son in laws. Blessings everyone!
PRepCemi79
Another restaurant that I've been wanting to try for years. After tonight's visit, I'm really disappointed in myself for not going sooner! We had a fantastic time celebrating my mother's birthday at this New Smyrna gem. The Garlic does not take reservations, which can be good and bad at the same time. Luckily, we were seated immediately at a great table that's called "the Celebration table." (Couldn't have been more perfect for us). Our waiter, Jimmy, was fantastic. He did a great job making our first visit memorable. He started us off with warm bread and a large oven-roasted garlic which he made in front of us by smashing the garlic and mixing it with crushed black pepper, virgin olive oil and 12 year aged balsamic vinaigrette. The white sangria was very watered down due to tons of ice, not enough fruit, and tasted virgin. Would definitely not order again. However, all of our entrees were amazing. They each came with a houses salad, so Jimmy brought it out family style in one large bowl to share. The salad was fresh and went well with the olive oil and vinaigrette. I ordered the "Seafood Cannelloni" which contained an array of scallops, shrimp, and mahi mahi wrapped in fresh pasta baked with a newburg sauce. It was absolutely amazing! My mother ordered the "Pollo Marsala" which was sautéed chicken with shallots and mushrooms in a classic marsala wine sauce served with garlic mashed potatoes. She enjoyed it but it wasn't as amazing as my dish. My wife ordered the "Shrimp And Scallop Scampi" which obviously cones with sea scallops and shrimp sauteed in a light white wine and garlic herb butter sauce served over linguini. She said it was really good. We capped off our amazing dinner with the chocolate chip cannoli's. The Garlic is a really cool spot that has unique ambiance, non-traditional Italian dinning, with amazing food and service. It's easily become one of my favorite restaurants in Florida!
Donna D
So Delicious! From apps to dinner! Large wine menu too. The best restaurant in town! Ahmazing food! Great ambience and fantastic service!! We will be back!!
My favorite go to place in NSB!. We went for my BD dinner and as usual we were so happy with the atmosphere, food and service. The Oso boco is to die for and would feed a small family! Mark was our amazing waiter and made sure we were taken care of. The price....well it is The Garlic. Love this place.
Kent D
When really good friends want to treat you by taking you to their favorite place you go. We were seated at a booth, not usually an issue except the table was snug against my chest. They moved us to a table, which helped. My wife complained about the heat first, but we all agreed. After 2 appetizers and wine, we were sweating. A while after ordering the entrees our FABULOUS waiter told us they were shutting down the rear section because the A/C had broken. It was done, but with NO apologies from management, or anything taken off the $ 500 bill it left a bad taste driving 2 hours back to the hotel
34edithw
Well, I will start with the fact that they won’t seat you until everyone In your party is here. We were a party of four, ready to have a couple of Sri la before dinner and our 4th person showed up 40 min late. We could have had at least 2 drinks and ordering appetizers but the two young girls at the front refuse to seat us. Terrible management rule.
dgray7772k
Chip at the blue bar was our server. What a great waiter. The food was definitely amazing but the whole experience was enhanced by Chips amazing service at the blue bar. We will definitely return during cooler months.
174daniellaa
1/10 - HORRIBLE. A LARGE piece of plastic was found in the lasagna. The waiter would not even compensate the rest of our bill as they should. To make matters worse, when you find plastic in your food cooked in like that, you know that there must be cross-contamination in the kitchen.. makes sense because when waiting for the bathroom, they have a lineup of premade salads to give you stocked on top of each other. I can’t even describe how unsanitary this is not to mention watching the waitresses stick their hands inside the salad without having gloves on to be put on the trays to be served. I had to take my drink back (simple aperol spritz, it was made so wrong, and there was no bubbles which indicates they did not even put Prosecco inside the drink. The way that the waiter handle the situation was absolutely ridiculous. “Oh sorry, I’ll tell the chef” . And for the amount of people that go here and talk this place up… a complete lie. Will never dine here again, and we will never recommend it.
How Has This Place Not Been Shut Down? Deplorable quality of Food. Send in food inspectors — nothing fresh here . Over cooked, over processed, frozen at best — very poor quality. Astonishing given the hype. We went here twice figuring perhaps the first time was an off night. Ordered Chicken Parm and a veal special. Both Horrible! How do you ruin classic chicken parm? By using old or frozen rubbery poor quality chicken breasts, canned, low quality sauce, smothered in cheap low quality cheese. Yuck on every level. Second time got a seafood pasta dish — equally horrible. Also got mussels in a foul tasting sauce with — foul mushy mussels. One bite and couldn’t eat the rest. Oblivious server didn’t even ask why wilted old salad and mussels weren’t touched. Disgraceful. Now - the place. It must be the eclectic atmosphere and bar which at first glance is appealing —- that draws people in — but if you are sober, you will immediately notice the absolute filth everywhere, including the bathrooms. Yes, bugs…. Yes, Mold….. Yes, the poorest maintenance of a restaurant. ZERO stars! Avoid. Anyone accustomed to fresh, quality food when dining out — stay away.
This restaurant was highly recommended and we enjoyed it immensely! All four us had the Shrimp and Scallop Scampi which was absolutely delicious. Portions are very large and two dinners fed four people. Our waiter was attentive and very friendly. Ambience is amazing and prices very reasonable. We highly recommend this restaurant!
Had an Italian seafood dish and Caesar salad. Perfect! And the bring bread and roasted garlic liberally. Delicious. Server was perfect. Will be back. Be advised that Christmas decor was way over the top! As if Santa threw up! 🤣 but we really enjoyed it!
Used to be a good restaurant apparently Dylan is the drug dealer of the town now took my beer after I told him it was skanky slammed it down his throat and walked away, but you can get a good ounce of cocaine now his mom Bertie would be so proud
It is not generally good here my wife has Caesar salad where the lettuce was limp and soggy the dressing was not very good. I've been here 5 or 6 times and tried different things almost every time and most of it is pretty poor. On top of that you're paying a very high price for what you're getting compared to a nice fillet mignon or fresh fish somewhere else. The food is better at Olive garden, which says a lot. The atmosphere is great though and the live music is nice sometimes.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 1
Service: 4
Excellent date night at The Garlic. I thought it was an amazing place. Everything start to finish. Prices were not outrageous- it’s good food at a decent price. Food was excellent. I love the decor and ambiance. Will visit again (and again).
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Visited NSB for a few days and made sure to stop at The Garlic. We are so glad we did! Fantastic atmosphere. Fun and funky design inside and out. They had a talented musician playing. We really enjoyed that. Our server Bobby was wonderful. He knew his stuff and even gave us a list of must try restaurants in the area. Now about their food. The food was top notch! They start you off with amazing bread and a whole head of garlic with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. We started with a Cesar Salad and it was delicious. My husband got the Bocce Ball meatball and he raved about it. It was very flavorful and gigantic! I had the Ravioli Bolognese. The raviolis were delicious and the sauce was SO good! Great flavor. Slightly sweet with a little bit of spice. We ended our meal with Espresso Martinis. They were A+. Also the whole meal was very affordable. We were shocked at how inexpensive it was. So don’t miss this spot!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Truly 5 out of 5. It’s my 60th birthday and my brother in law knows I am a “ Foodie” we drove 1 -1/2 hours to get to the restaurant…. well I would have driven 5 hours. Service, food! Ambiance, truly a beautiful place. We are from Northern New Jersey and we have had our fair share of good meals…. I ended up having one of the best meals in a long time in Sunny Florida ( Well it wasn’t sunny) But you wouldn’t know it with the way the staff was. Megan was our server, Happy, bubbly and right on point with service and our meals. Just looking at how the place was set up alone was very nice and lots of fun. Thank you everyone for an excellent meal and a really nice time. See ya in 6 months with our daughters and our son in laws. Blessings everyone!
Another restaurant that I've been wanting to try for years. After tonight's visit, I'm really disappointed in myself for not going sooner! We had a fantastic time celebrating my mother's birthday at this New Smyrna gem. The Garlic does not take reservations, which can be good and bad at the same time. Luckily, we were seated immediately at a great table that's called "the Celebration table." (Couldn't have been more perfect for us). Our waiter, Jimmy, was fantastic. He did a great job making our first visit memorable. He started us off with warm bread and a large oven-roasted garlic which he made in front of us by smashing the garlic and mixing it with crushed black pepper, virgin olive oil and 12 year aged balsamic vinaigrette. The white sangria was very watered down due to tons of ice, not enough fruit, and tasted virgin. Would definitely not order again. However, all of our entrees were amazing. They each came with a houses salad, so Jimmy brought it out family style in one large bowl to share. The salad was fresh and went well with the olive oil and vinaigrette. I ordered the "Seafood Cannelloni" which contained an array of scallops, shrimp, and mahi mahi wrapped in fresh pasta baked with a newburg sauce. It was absolutely amazing! My mother ordered the "Pollo Marsala" which was sautéed chicken with shallots and mushrooms in a classic marsala wine sauce served with garlic mashed potatoes. She enjoyed it but it wasn't as amazing as my dish. My wife ordered the "Shrimp And Scallop Scampi" which obviously cones with sea scallops and shrimp sauteed in a light white wine and garlic herb butter sauce served over linguini. She said it was really good. We capped off our amazing dinner with the chocolate chip cannoli's. The Garlic is a really cool spot that has unique ambiance, non-traditional Italian dinning, with amazing food and service. It's easily become one of my favorite restaurants in Florida!
So Delicious! From apps to dinner! Large wine menu too. The best restaurant in town! Ahmazing food! Great ambience and fantastic service!! We will be back!!
Restaurantji Recommends
My favorite go to place in NSB!. We went for my BD dinner and as usual we were so happy with the atmosphere, food and service. The Oso boco is to die for and would feed a small family! Mark was our amazing waiter and made sure we were taken care of. The price....well it is The Garlic. Love this place.
When really good friends want to treat you by taking you to their favorite place you go. We were seated at a booth, not usually an issue except the table was snug against my chest. They moved us to a table, which helped. My wife complained about the heat first, but we all agreed. After 2 appetizers and wine, we were sweating. A while after ordering the entrees our FABULOUS waiter told us they were shutting down the rear section because the A/C had broken. It was done, but with NO apologies from management, or anything taken off the $ 500 bill it left a bad taste driving 2 hours back to the hotel
Well, I will start with the fact that they won’t seat you until everyone In your party is here. We were a party of four, ready to have a couple of Sri la before dinner and our 4th person showed up 40 min late. We could have had at least 2 drinks and ordering appetizers but the two young girls at the front refuse to seat us. Terrible management rule.
Chip at the blue bar was our server. What a great waiter. The food was definitely amazing but the whole experience was enhanced by Chips amazing service at the blue bar. We will definitely return during cooler months.
1/10 - HORRIBLE. A LARGE piece of plastic was found in the lasagna. The waiter would not even compensate the rest of our bill as they should. To make matters worse, when you find plastic in your food cooked in like that, you know that there must be cross-contamination in the kitchen.. makes sense because when waiting for the bathroom, they have a lineup of premade salads to give you stocked on top of each other. I can’t even describe how unsanitary this is not to mention watching the waitresses stick their hands inside the salad without having gloves on to be put on the trays to be served. I had to take my drink back (simple aperol spritz, it was made so wrong, and there was no bubbles which indicates they did not even put Prosecco inside the drink. The way that the waiter handle the situation was absolutely ridiculous. “Oh sorry, I’ll tell the chef” . And for the amount of people that go here and talk this place up… a complete lie. Will never dine here again, and we will never recommend it.
Loading...