Steven writes:
If you like your lighting dark, your music metal and your garlic
measured by the handful, rather than the clove, then this place is for
you.
Located on Frith street, just south of Soho Square, it's deceptively
large for a small front. The front restaurant seats about 30, the back
one about 40, plus there's a bar in the basement. It's usually very busy
though, so if you plan on going, make sure you have a backup plan just
in case you can't get in.
I first went to this place on my 30th birthday. I'd walked past it a few
times, even tried to get in, once or twice, and always failed. Of the 5
nights I celebrated turning 30, the one in Garlic and Shots was by far
the most memorable, for the awesome food and the free drinks the
waitress kept giving me.
I've been back a few times in the 3 years since, and the food isn't as
good as it was, but it's still good. Particularly, the steaks are now of
modest size, more a medallion than a steak. Apparently they are still
very tasty (I turned Veggie in the summer after I turned 30, so I havn't
tasted them since) but more for your gourmet, than your gourmond.
The Garlic bread deserves special mention. No little bite-sized slices
of french bread here, but about 1/3rd of a large, freshly baked
farmhouse loaf, with 2 large slits containing the garlic butter -
cutting it to make the slits into slices results in 3 1.5in-thick
doorstops of hot, freshly baked, garlicy bread goodness. At just 2.50
each, and enough for a generous amount for 3 people, it's tremendous
value for money. The rest of the tapas-style starters are good too, but
not as noteworthy.
Main course-wise, they have the afformentioned steaks, chillis (both a
normal meat one, and a bean-based vegetarian one) ribs, a load of fried
noodle dishes and others I can't remember. The Veggie bean chilli I had
last night and the noodle stir-fry I had the time before were both good.
I've never known anyone to get a 'bad' dish, although I've heard
complaints about the sizes of the steak a few times.
Be warned, there is nothing that isn't covered with huge amounts of
garlic, from the bread to the mash, to the ice-cream, to the beer, and
to the shots. In fact, some of the main courses come with an entire bulb
of garlic, roasted, as the 'side dish'.
Talking of the shots, there's a menu of 101, priced at
2 pounds.50 each. About half contain garlic or chilli or other
hot pepper (eg tobasco) as one of the ingredients. These are pre-mixed,
so you can't vary from the list, the staff can't do 'a number 71 with
cassis instead of banana', because they just have a bottle with the
number 71 on it behind the bar. This does have the advantage of meaning
quality is consistent, and service is very quick, you can order a round
of shots for the table and you'll get them about 2 minutes later.
Speaking of service, it's very good. Very fast, no mistakes (I ordered 2
'portions' of garlic bread and 2 bowls of garlic olives for the table to
nibble on while we looked at the menu. They turned up about 10 minutes
later, were put in the middle of the table, and plates handed to
everyone. No 'who ordered the bread' questions) and efficient. The staff
have a 'take no shit' attitude though, don't expect the customer to be
always right, they'll quite happily tell an asshole customer he/she is
an asshole, and give as good as they get.
Last night's meal came to 150 pounds for 6 of us, or
25 pounds per head. However almost half of the bill was for the
shots; if you were staying off those, you could eat well for
15 pounds each. But the shots are just too much damn fun to
resist.
I'll be sticking well clear of the garlic beer, though. I like both, a
lot, but the 2 together really doesn't work for me (and yes, I've tried
it).
OpenStreetMap - Bing - Streetmap
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100 yards NEbN: Pillars of Hercules |
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200 yards WSW: Hummus Bros |
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200 yards NWbW: Nellie Dean |
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200 yards WbN: The Ship |
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200 yards SWbS: Wardour Street, Soho |
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250 yards NbW: Soho Square, Soho |
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250 yards NbE: Tottenham Court Road (Central Line, Northern Line) |
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300 yards SbW: Wong Kei |
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300 yards W: Broadwick Street, Soho |
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350 yards SbW: Hung's |
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350 yards NEbN: Centre Point Sushi Cafe |
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350 yards NEbN: Earnshaw Street, Covent Garden |
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350 yards SSE: Leicester Square (Northern Line, Piccadilly Line) |
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350 yards S: Misato |
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350 yards NNW: Black Horse |
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450 yards ENE: Craft Beer Co. Covent Garden |
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500 yards SWbW: Golden Square, Soho |
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500 yards EbS: Covent Garden (Piccadilly Line) |
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0.3 miles SSW: Piccadilly Circus (Bakerloo Line, Piccadilly Line) |
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0.4 miles SEbS: Charing Cross (Bakerloo Line, British Rail, Northern Line) |
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0.4 miles NNE: British Museum |
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0.5 miles NNW: Goodge Street (Northern Line) |
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1.0 miles NbW: Euston (British Rail, Northern Line, Victoria Line) |