Many of us decide to try a restaurant for various reasons. Some include a convenient location (or in some cases a lengthy distance from the kitchen at home), the recommendation of friends (or a "friendly" dining-out columnist), or a catchy and enticing name or logo. One dish might even be of special interest.
We were prompted to visit the Garlic Press Restaurant and Deli for these same reasons. The name attracted my children due to the unusual habit my son had as a toddler of exchanging his thumb sucking with a dripping garlic press, replacing a Freudian fixation, at least momentarily, with a gastronomic one. We also have a close friend whose Italian name (Frascatti) and credentials (her family ran restaurants in Denver) qualify her to make restaurant recommendations.I had also heard that the Garlic Press's house dressing was just about like the Cinegrill's, a local longtime favorite on the dining-out scene, which lamentably closed several years ago. And, we were in the neighborhood.
The Garlic Press adds to its already clever name by adding some pink flamingoes in the foyer, postured to resemble the "g" and "p" from its logo. The same motif with pink and black colors is reflected throughout the interior, which is subtly lit by overhead metal lamps. Large windows look out over the relatively new suburban office-center locale. An open kitchen fills one corner, as well as adding to the redolent garlic aroma inside.
The dinner menu we ordered from features appetizers, special fruit drinks, pizza (the house specialty), and two columns of entrees. One column offers full-size dinners that come with salad and garlic roll. These range in price from $7.95 for the spaghetti with marinara sauce to a family style dinner ($10.95 per person) with salad, lasagna, spaghetti, garlic roll and pizza with a choice of three toppings.
Other items include scallops baked with lemon and garlic butter ($11.55), shrimp in butter and cream sauce with linguine ($10.95), ravioli ($10.25), chicken parmesan ($11.55) and New York steak ($11.95).
The other mainstay of the dinner menu is a column labeled "pressed for time-smaller dinner entrees." For some sensible diners, as well as those with another destination, or late night noshing, the Garlic Press makes available items that include a corned beef sandwich with choice of pasta, garlic burger, veal parmesan, linguine primavera, scampi, crab salad, or cold cut plate, each around $6.
We were not in a particular hurry nor were we sensible, so we sampled three of the dinners as well as a small pizza. The pizza was good; not so much for the rather ordinary crust, but because of the delicious marinara sauce ladled on the crispy crust. This same sauce redeemed the side orders of spaghetti, which came with the other entrees as well as the combo platter of breaded and fried mozzarella sticks, mushrooms and zucchini sticks ($5.85). It could not save some of the disappointing entrees we sampled.
The lasagna dinner ($9.75) was sparse with its promised fillings of beef, sausage, ham and cheese; it was more like layers of lasagna noodles topped with marinara sauce. It was also barely warm. The veal Ricardo ($11.55) was served hot; however the slices of veal were thick and chewy and the lemon butter sauce lost its flavor confounded by the cheese melted over the veal. The broiled halibut ($9.95) was topped with the promised capers, but was dried out.
The Cinegrill style salad, visually a resemblance because of the toasted garlic roll on the side and topped with slices of cheese and pepperoni, was adequate, though I felt it was overly seasoned with the dry mustard that gave the Cinegrill's its wonderful bite. One of the four salads we ordered came to the table without any dressing, save for the residue from the mixing bowl. Another regretful oversight from the kitchen.
Unfortunately, our heightened expectations for a more memorable experience at the Garlic Press were not realized. While the recommendations of friends and some restaurant nostalgia may have added to our disappointment, some of the basics were not in place during our visit, the real standards by which all restaurants should be judged.
Rating: **
++
The Garlic Press Restaurant and Deli, 3981 S. 700 East, 261-0404. Lunch served Monday through Friday, 11:30 a.m. till 4:30 p.m. Dinner served Monday through Thursday, 5 to 10 p.m.; until 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Check with guarantee card and major credit cards accepted. Sauce and dressing available for take out along with other menu items. Senior citizen discount.