Garlic Jo’s

Sept 22, 2015. They are closed for remodeling even though Unilocal days they are open. It ruined our whole anniversary dinner. Our wedding post party was there.

I’m torn between 3 – 4 stars, so I will give it a 3.5!
Walked into Garlic Jo’s and waited about 4 – 5 mins to get any sort of attention. Once we were recognized, we were seated at a nice, dimly lit table.
However, shortly after reviewing the menu… a band started playing right behind us. The band consisted of a lady and man… and um… it was pretty unbearable to listen to their cheesy renditions of songs. It was so hard to hear my husband across the table, we asked to move.
Being that it was our first time here, we ordered what seemed to be everyone’s favorite or classics.
Original Garlic bread:
Nice flaky crust with garlic concoction in the middle. Tasty, but very garlic-​ky. Wish it had some sweet element to it.
Shrimp & mayo pizza:
Flatbread pizza with one piece of shrimp each bite. came with 3 dipping sauces on the side. It was pretty good. nice & warm! The presentation could use a little help… putting one piece of shrimp on each bite seems cheap and looks cheap.
Shrimp & mushroom garlic cream pasta:
Delicious! The cream was not too heavy and the mushroom & shrimp were a great combination! I really enjoyed the cream being a bit lighter than usual. I usually get so sick of cream pastas after 3 – 4 bites, but we definitely killed this one.
Garlic Rib eye steak:
With the original garlic sauce (not smothered). It came out on a hot stone plate. presentation was great… until I saw steamed broccoli and carrots… um really? Couldn’t think of better sides/​garnishes? Plain mashed potatoes… um. Yeah… no.
Steak itself was ok. didn’t feel like quality rib eye. I was looking forward to this dish the most and found myself quite dissapointed with every aspect of it.
The food alone was 3stars. ½ star for an OK service… but the live band really has to go. The whole time I had a headache listening to them sing cheesy. corny songs. I was glad to get out of there once dinner was demolished.
The place itself needs a makeover. It was nice to visit, but I don’t find it memorable, especially with all the new modern décor restaurants around. The menu was also very confusing… lots of Asian inspired dishes, but the ambiance feels like all American steakhouse. Don’t think I will be back anytime soon.

I loveeeee garlic! The smell and taste of garlic absolutely makes everything Yummyyy!!! If you are a garlic lover… you should definitely stop by GARLIC JO’S!!!
(Don’t forget to bring breath mint!!!)
Located on PCH in Newport Beach. Garlic Jo’s offers variety of unique and delicious dishes. including their dessert selection! Nice and relaxing ambiance. They have live music on the weekend. The building is old but the restaurant itself is still in good shape. Dim lights set the mood for romantic dining. Service is excellent!!! Wait staffs are very attentive and friendly.
*Albacore carpaccio — fresh thinly sliced albacore! Very refreshing and nicely present. The garlic chips sure make it taste that much more enjoyable!
*Vampire dip– roasted garlic in olive oil with anchovy & Parmesan cheese. served with slices of baguette.
*Calamari– lightly battered and very juicy
*Beef fried rice– delicious! just right!
*Garlic ribeye steak– served with mashed potato and vegetables. Very juicy, tender and perfectly seasoned!
Have you ever tried garlic ice cream??? Yup! You heard me right! «Garlic ice cream»!!! The taste of garlic is pretty subtle. so it doesn’t taste weird at all: P
Cream brûlée is to die for! So creamy and scrumptious!!!
Highly recommend this restaurant!

Ok. Wow. This place is like a cancer ward. It’s empty except for two super old people, everyone seems depressed, and it’s unnervingly quiet except for the sound of the bad elevator music and the Mexican music coming from the kitchen. The happy hour is super limited to whatever crummy well drinks they want to serve you, and they’re not made well. There’s «champagne» listed for $ 3.50. Lol. It’s sparkling white wine that is inferior to Two Buck Chuck.
We ordered their «famous» dish, the Vampire Killer. It’s a tiny dish with oil-​soaked garlic cloves, and I think they just showed it a picture of Parmesan cheese– there was hardly none on this dish. It didn’t matter because the baguette was evidently made of clay pigeons. We laughed after one bite, paid our check, and left.

Great service and delicious food!!! I came here with my fiancé and friend on a sunday night. We ordered the tom yum soup, the special for 2, and ahi tuna! Everything was so good & garlic-​y! Their special order for two of the steak was so good & very fulfilling! All their portions were huge! I highly recommend checking this place out! They even had a live kareoke night!

It was our first time here and we loved it. The host was nice and friendly. The server Sam served with a smile and gave good recommendations. We started off with garlic bread. It was good. My daughter has the fetucini Alfredo with added chicken and she loved it. My husband and I had the dinner for two which included two appetizers: garlic pizza and albacore carpaccio. They both came with three types of sauces/​condiments mild, medium, hot. I personally really liked the carpaccio with the garlic chips. We also ordered the creamy wonton soup. My husband and I both loved it. Dinner also included the beef fried rice and rib eye steak. Both were good. We were too full for dessert. We loved the Hawaiian music played by the band. We would love to come back and try different items on the menu.

Wow Garlic Jo’s was not at all what I expected. It’s logo and restaurant name make it seem like a to-​go teriyaki restaurant. But really, it’s a pretty nice, dine-​in restaurant.
My favorite dish here I think would be the albacore carpaccio. Combining raw albacore and garlic chips was surprisingly really tasty!
I also got the Kobe burger. My friend got the miso salmon. And my other friend got the shrimp dish. I think out of everything, the miso salmon was the only dish that was just ok. Everything else tasted delicious.
Overall, this place really does pound on the garlic. But it’s still really good. Nice atmosphere too!

I actually was debating about giving this place a two or three stars. I only bump it up to a three stars cause I thought the services was really great here.
I was really excited to come here cause I know my cousin loves garlic. I decided to take her here for her bday cause everyone been raving about it and saying it’s comparable to stinking rose. When we first arrived on a Saturday night, this whole place was almost empty.
For starters, we decided to try their garlic bread and garlic cheese bread. Both was just okay. We were thinking bread basket at other locations taste so much better. This place you have to pay 2 pieces for 4 – 5 bucks.
I ended up getting the baked miso salmon. It was salmon with creamy garlic miso sauce served with steamed vegetables and rice. I ended up changing my rice to garlic mashed potatoes. I enjoyed the garlic mashed potatoes. The miso sauce wasn’t like a sauce. It tasted more like a spread of mayo on top of my fish. The salmon was cooked nicely.
We ended up having seven people and not one person really thought the food was that good. I guess driving about one hour to get to this place was not worth it to us.
This will be one place i’m glad i got to check off my bookmark list but will never return. Luckily, my little brother paid for the whole meal, so it made this meal a little bit more enjoyable.

My boyfriend had been raving about Garlic Jos for months so he took me here for my birthday yesterday. We came in fairly late so the restaurant was mostly empty. Immediately my attention went straight to the stage where there was a live performance. I was quite entertained by this.
We decided to order the coconut shrimp, seafood salad and the filet mignon cooked in whole garlic cloves with a side of veggies and garlic mashed potatoes.
The coconut shrimp was delicious. It was lightly battered with breading and coconut and came with a sweet, sour and spicy sauce that was amazing. Next came our main dishes and I have to say the filet mignon was even more amazing that the appetizer; it was juicy, tender and cooked in tons of garlic. They did not skimp on the garlic because it was everywhere. Unfortunately it could not be said the same for the salad. I, for one, never return my food. I will eat it or take it home, even if it is mediocre. But this salad was just awful. The lettuce was drenched in a creamy mayo kind of sauce dressing with no flavor and the seafood was extremely fishy tasting. So after a couple minutes of my boyfriend asking how the salad was, I finally told him there was no way I could eat it. I had maybe 2 bites. So he went ahead and told the waiter we did not want the salad anymore. The waiter was friendly and asked whether we wanted another salad to which I said no as I just couldn’t stomach another salad like that. He then asked something odd. He asked whether we would want our seafood salad boxed. Why would I want food I couldn’t even eat? That was weird. But we let it go and continued to eat our food. At the end, I was feeling something sweet and ordered the banana ice cream over brownies. The vanilla garlic ice cream was good but did not taste like garlic. I think that was probably a good thing.
As we were finishing up our dessert, we asked the waiter for our bill. He came back and let us know the manager took care of the dish and comped our dessert. Really? That’s awesome. We didn’t have to even say anything. When I checked the bill, I saw they comped the dessert but still charged us for the salad. Why would they do that? We thought maybe there was a mistake so we asked the waiter again and this time he told us that the manager gave us the dessert for free in place of the salad. The dessert was $ 7.50 and the salad was $ 13.50. My boyfriend told them to take off the salad as we did not even eat it and charge us for the dessert since we did not ask for that to be comped.
I feel like they tried to pull as fast one on us by giving us the cheaper dish for free. My birthday dinner went for great to extremely disappointing. Not once did the manager come out to correct the issue and kept sending us the waiter. The waiter clearly told us our salad was taken care of but then turned around and told us something different later on. It’s so unfortunate there was a situation as their other dishes was delicious. We would’ve definitely come back but now I have an awful taste in my mouth and they have lost customers over 6 dollars and bad customer service

Five stars with an identity crisis
This is not Asian Fusion — it’s Asian Confusion
I will first say the food is awesome!!!
But:
American sounding name
Serves burgers — pastas — steaks and more garlic than food will ever need (but delish)
Garlic adorned windows, garlic draped on the walls, garlic pictures on walls and garlic here and there.
Menus have name of Japanese garic «Ninniku» with
chop sticks at table but nothing on the menu that needs them.
Reggae music music playing
And Chinese to go boxes
I’m so confused.

Good food at an affordable price! Came here on a Saturday at around 6 o’clock and there was no wait! If you love garlic, you’ll really like Garlic Jo’s!
There was a great deal for two for about $ 60, but we didn’t want one of the courses on there so we ordered the Filet Mignon with their Original Garlic Sauce, Beef Ninniku Yakimeshi (Fried Rice), and their Albacore Carpaccio appetizer.
Filet Mignon: It was served with some mashed potatoes and some steamed vegetables. We ordered the filet mignon with their original garlic sauce and it was really good. They bring it to you on some sort of skillet and you can cook it to the level you want by leaving the meat on the skillet (med rare, med, well done).
Beef Ninniku Yakimeshi: We weren’t sure if we wanted to get fried rice or pasta, but we decided to order fried rice, because it would go better with the filet mignon. It was really delicious. Definitely recommend the fried rice here.
Albacore Carpaccio: This is an appetizer we ordered and it came out very quickly. It was sliced in a very interesting way, but it was thin so I liked it alot. It is raw, so if you don’t like raw fish I don’t think you’ll like it very much. But for sashimi lovers, you won’t regret it!
One negative thing I have to say about the restaurant is that they asked if we wanted some bread, and we said yes because I saw a picture on Unilocal of their complimentary bread, but they brought us their Garlic bread ($ 4) and charged us for it. I didn’t mind them charging us, because it was delicious, but I feel like they should have told us about the charge if they offered bread to us.
Other than that I really enjoyed the food! Definitely recommend the Garlic bread! It may seem pricey, but it is pretty big!

Great Deal! Good food at great price. If you love garlic you will feel at home. The building is old, but in good repair. Great for couples. Service is good and friendly.
If I’m back in the area I will visit again.

They were not kidding about the garlic. It’s more than just the name.
Sat at the bar and arrived for happy hour. 3 dollar bottles of beer. No draft here unfortunately.
I had the kobe burger. The burger comes smothered in garlic, and the fries are also covered in garlic. It’s just a little over the top.

If you really really like garlic, you would love Garlic Jo’s! It’s like a garlic heaven, everything is in garlic. *burp*
–Garlic bread is soft with creamy garlic paste, yum
–Albacore carpaccio: sashimi with crispy garlic chips (who would thought sashimi with garlic can be so tasty?)
— Garlic Rib Eye Steak with lots of garlic on it. The steak itself had a spatula under it so that the sizzling platter wouldn’t overcook the steak.
Overall, if you love garlic like I do and not afraid of the garlic breath, this place is def worth to try.

Came here late on a Saturday night about 9:45pm. The restaurant is on the smaller side but has a Home-​y and intimate feel. We sat at the bar and ordered drinks and a few appetizers. The bartender was very knowledgeable, friendly, and extremely attentive. He often came from behind the bar to personally drop off drinks and check up on those in the bar area.
This particular night there was live music playing and it was amazing. Went really well with the atmosphere and crowd of the restaurant. Lulu sang everything from current songs playing on the radio to oldies from the 90s and 80s. Her and her brother’s voices were so soulful I would come all the way back just to hear them perform again. The food that we had was pretty darn tasty. I would recommend the garlic fries, nice portion for the price and tons of flavor. Jalapeño flatbread pizza came with three dipping sauces and was simple yet packed a great kick in taste. Drink were strong and decently priced. If you’re in the area give it a try. Happy eating

I lufffff garlic so naturally I love Garlic Jo’s!
Better than most restaurants located on PCH. They don’t make you valet like Joes Crab Shack or Royal Thai! I like sitting by the window and watching all the bentleys drive by: P
I would recommend the set meal that comes with albacore carpaccio, beef fried rice, garlic pizza (more like a flatbread), and an entrée! ($ 60) Its a perfect for 2 – 3 people!
The garlic bread is the best appetizer and comes out hot! The albacore carpaccio is always fresh.
The ribeye was a little fatty and comes on a hot plate so you can choose how rare you want it. The mushroom and shrimp pasta comes in a light garlic-​y Alfredo sauce. The beef fried rice taste as good as it gets. I love all three of these entrees best!
Top it all of with a pitcher for white sangria and you have yourself a meal.

«You can never have enough garlic. With enough garlic, you can eat The New York Times.» –Morley Safer
Food: Savory and delicious.
Service: Friendly without being invasive.
Value: Prices a little high, but understandable for their location on PCH.
Atmosphere: Relaxing and unrushed.
I have visited a few times now, and the food and service have always been consistently good. My only wish was that they had a more extensive menu.
Their Appetizers /​soups /​salads:
Their Entrée’s:
Their dining room never seems busy. There have never been more than three to four other groups of diners there every time I have come. I certainly hope that they are doing well enough to stay, as the next closest Garlic specializing restaurant is The Stinking Rose all the way up in Beverly Hills!
Some of my favorites:
The Vampire Killer. $ 6.95. Roasted garlic swimming in olive oil, anchovy, and parmesan cheese. Served with sliced toasted baguette. Freakin’ amazing.
Ninniku Yakimeshi. $ 10.95. Beef fried rice (Note, we subbed in chicken). Was very good! My hubby liked this more than I did, but definitely still great if you’re in the mood for a winner-​winner-​chicken dinner.
Triple Garlic Kobe Burger. $ 15.50. ½ pound patty, garlic sauce, cheddar cheese, lettuce tomato, crispy onions, roasted garlic, and aioli sauce. Very good, juicy and flavorful!
Baked Miso Salmon. $ 16.95. Expertly cooked and served over a bed of steamed rice and vegetables. The creamy Miso glaze was heavenly! This is my favorite dish here.
Their desserts are fantastic as well. They were not part of the regular menu, so sadly, I can’t report back with prices. They were, however, delicious and absolutely worth whatever the price was.
Apple Pie a la (Garlic ice cream) mode:
Warm Banana Brownie a la (Garlic ice cream) mode:
So definitely worth a stop. I’m pretty sure you won’t ever have to wait to get seated. And make sure your date eats something garlicy too… then it won’t matter who the offending party is! Unless your date is like me, and I never find Garlic in bad taste. It’s the sexiest food that exists!
Please note, they’re usually only open for dinner on weeknights. Lunch is served on Friday — Sunday.
Tues-​Thu: 5pm — 10pm
Fri-​Sat: 11am — 2am
Sun: 11am — 11pm

Got a beautiful seat by the window– definitely did feel like I was transported out of Orange County to somewhere more exotic.
Garlic is the name of the game, and if you don’t like garlic, you probably shouldn’t be here. I’ll keep this one short and sweet:
Apps:
Vampire Dip — disappointing, I wish there was more flavor in this… felt quite underwhelmed
Garlic Albacore sashimi — light, refreshing, and the garlic chips with the sauce goes together like peas and carrots
Entrée:
Ribeye steak with mashed potatoes and vegetables — how could the steak be underseasoned– it was cooked perfectly, it actually cooks on a skillet brought out to you and it’s up to you how soon after you want to move your steak away from the heat source. The mashed potatoes were creamy, but that’s all that I remember from it. The vegetables didn’t seem that special– it kind of made the dish look cheap. While the steak was tender, and there was plenty of garlic… the flavor was missing– and mind you, this is covered in all things garlic. I think it was too late to season it.
Dessert:
Chocolate cake — I think it’s called a lava cake (the one that oozes chocolate when you break into it) — I’ve had better
Garlic ice cream — the taste of garlic in this is very very subtle, but it does go great wit the chocolate cake
Service was probably a 4 out 5. Paired the meal with their Salmon Creek pinot noir. Decent.
I wouldn’t mind coming back but I think I could be satisfied with a cheaper steak at a 24 hour diner that is local, just sayin’

Disclaimer: If you are a vampire then you why did you even look up this business listing? I mean I dont blame you for wishing you werent one of the undead because the pictures alone of all the garlic infused dishes can really make the drool drip from your fangs. Anyways, me and you are in the same boat because whenever I eat anything garlic, my wife tends to stay away from me that same night and into the next day for the smell of garlic tends to eminate from the pores of your skin especially if you ate a lot of cloves. But you know what? I LOVE GARLIC AND THE CONSEQUENCES ARE SO WORTH IT!
Ok, now that I got that off my chest, garlic actually has a lot of health benefits. Only problem is that you have to eat it raw, which I have before. But when you mix it with other ingredients, that potency is virtually cut down to almost nothing, hence me eating a lot of it. Of course the two main reasons why I love garlic is because of the aroma it produces when it is cooked in however fashion. The other main reason of course is the taste.
With that said, the wifey and I went with the dinner for two option. You get Albacore Carpaccio, Garlic Flatbread Pizza, Garlic Fried Rice, and a Ribeye smothered in your choice minced or whole garlic cloves. Since we have been here before, I also wanted to get the Vampire Killer. Make sure to refer to my pics for a visual explanation.
The Vampire Killer: No, its not a sharp wooden stake. Its a number of garlic cloves put together with small pieces of anchovy swimming in olive oil topped off with parmesan cheese then baked at a high temperature until the cloves are just soft enough to chew and swallow perfectly. Comes with little slices of bread that you can eat it with. Absolute perfection.
The Albacore Carpaccio. Brought out on a plate with the fish kind of swimming in garlic infused olive oil. Each fish portion has a crispy garlic chip sticking out of it. On the outer edges of the plate there are little mounds of pesto, spicy garlic sauce, and pickled ginger for you to accompany the fish to your mouth.
Garlic Flatbread Pizza. Exactly as described. They have some kind of white sauce, topped with cheese and slivers of garlic. The flatbread itself almost had some kind of tortilla feel and texture about it.
Garlic Fried Rice. Has everything like bits of beef, fried egg, garlic, and lettuce.
Ribeye Steak. Yes, I saved the best for last. Out comes a nice sized medium rare steak that is sizzling on basically a fajita platter with garlic mashed potatoes, broccoli, and baby carrots. The steak itself had a spatula under it so that the sizzling platter wont cook it past medium rare. I chose to have it smothered in sauteed garlic cloves all over it. Man that meat was good. They definitely put some kind of garlic pepper rub on it right before it hit the grill. Please refer to my mouth watering pics of the steak plate.
Service was ok. Water refills were constant and plates were put away accordingly.
Overall, this is a place to go to every so often if you love garlic. On certain nights they have a live band play for your entertainment while eating. Last couple times I went it was Hula Girl night and Jazz night. Only negative I thought was that some of the items were a bit over priced like the vampire killer. Several years ago, I dont remember it being that much which was around 11 bucks and some change. From the pic you can see that it shoudnt be that much for a small appetizer like that. I love garlic but I shouldnt have to go broke to enjoy my garlic cravings.
Unilocal 2014 365 Review Challenge #95

This restaurant lives up to it’s name. If you feel like fending off vampires or perhaps your bf/​gf for the night then take them to Garlic Jo’s! Actually… you’ll be smelling like garlic for days (no joke).
The restaurant is conveniently located on PCH near the newport beach, parking is a bit hard to find. We came here as a group for my friend’s bday and it was a great venue for it! Would recommend this place for date night/​celebrations. Dark and dim interior yet classy. You would think the garlic decorations hanging off the wall would be weird, but surprisingly it wasn’t. Service was on top of it for our big party of 16.
Appetizers:
Original Garlic Bread — You get 2 pieces for $ 4. MUST ORDER! the french baguette was crunchy, but didn’t cut the roof of my mouth like a Lee’s Sandwich baguette lol. Again, lots of buttery garlic melty goodness. Wish I had spaghetti to eat this with, now THAT’D be bomb
Crispy Cheese Wonton — It’s served w/​a sweet chili sauce, pretty much the same sauce you get at thai restaurants when you order the fried wontons. The mango sauce and fried jalapeño garlic cream cheese in the wontons were delish! Not oily at all
Entrees:
Sizzling hot stone chicken breast in garlic smothered sauce — Good size portion of chicken breast and there were tons of sauteed garlic cloves covering it. Unfortunately, it wasn’t served on a hot stone, but rather a plate. However, it still was sizzling when it came out and remained hot throughout the meal. The aroma and taste of butter + garlic was heavenly! Chicken was cooked perfectly and not dry at all, garlic wasn’t overpowering and flavors were great. Also loved the steamed veggies that comes w/​the plate
Triple Garlic Kobe Burger — huge burger, everything was fresh and the garlic french fries paired well w/​this ½lb burger. Patty was cooked medium rare and was juicy
Original Garlic Filet Mignon — OM NOM totally worth the price. Filet was cooked medium rare and served on a sizzling hot stone. I think the filet mignon absorbed the flavors better than the chicken breast
Dessert:
Garlic ice cream — At first I thought this would taste wierd as it didn’t sound appetizing, BUT the waiter highly recommended it. The ice cream tasted just like plain vanilla, but was creamy and rich. Either we had so much garlic throughout the meal, we couldn’t taste it in the ice cream or they put subtle garlic in here haha. It was a great way to end the meal and the portion size was good enough to share
Restrooms were clean and nice, wished they offered mouthwash haha. Overall great fun place to dine at. Just remember though that you WILL smell like garlic for at least 2 days, you’ve been warned! But don’t let that stop you from eating here :)