San Francisco, CA: Stinking Rose - One of the most aromatic and delicious spices/herbs is the garlic, technically part of the onion family though. The more the better is my philosophy.

We heard about this restaurant who is known for using an enormous amount of garlic in their food. That's all I needed to hear for me to be convinced. I shouldn't have created such high expectations for garlic. The food was okay, but not really the caliber that I thought it was going to be. Apparently I like the taste of garlic more than others because it just wasn't enough.

We started with the Garlic Soaking in the Hot Tub, which is roasted cloves in olive oil. Looking at it, I wanted to dive in immediately and spread it all over the toast that accompanied it. Oh, looks are deceiving. it was rather disappointing. The garlic was stripped of all its flavor.

Moving onto the entree, I had the Neon Ravioli. It's ravioli filled with potato & cheese garlic basil in alfredo sauce. It was prepared well, soft and the pasta made well. The sauce had a fairly plateau flavor, meaning it was flat, not complex, or layered. it was just okay. Not surprised to say, it needed more garlic.

During the meal, I tried their garlic wine. Now we're talking. You can smell it and it has a nice garlic after taste. This is the type of garlic impact I was expecting. If you're there, you should definitely try it.

We finished with the garlic ice cream. At least the meal finishes with expectations met. First the wine, now the ice cream. It's garlic ice cream with a caramel mole sauce. It was very good. It had a wonderful garlic flavor and the caramel sauce complimented it well.

When you go, just go and get the wine and ice cream. Skip the rest, unless you ask for extra garlic.

Enjoy!