I'll roast my own garlic (like this one I did last year) instead, thankyouverymuch
When a friend asked me to try out Krazy Garlik (a new restaurant at Greenbelt 5) with him, I shrugged and said yes right away. I had no idea what they served, or what people said about it, so I came in with no expectations—only a rumbling stomach. Had I known that it would take forever to fill the said stomach (and with so-so food at that), I would’ve filled up at the Legazpi market before heading to lunch at Krazy Garlik.
Let’s cut to the chase. I was not happy with Krazy Garlik for a number of reasons: the erratic service, the mediocre food, and the prices. It basically means that there’s no reason for me to go back to the restaurant; I have reasonable standards for restaurants because there’s usually a reason or two for me to like a place, but I didn’t find a single exemplary thing in Krazy Garlik.
First off, the service was bad. I went in to find a nine-name queue on the reservation list, but we had our names listed anyway (my friend was doing a review for a publication, but didn’t want to let the management know so we wouldn’t get any special attention). The receptionists were rather out of it, because even though my friend and I opted to sit in the lobby so they wouldn’t have to call us, they still forgot and let other people behind us on the list go ahead to the tables. As we were placing our order, we got a call from the receptionist, who wanted to let us know that there was a free table.
But wait, there’s more. While we were waiting for our order (it took them 30 minutes to deliver our food), a waitress plunked down someone else’s tab on our table, looked at us expectantly, and giggled when we told them it wasn’t our bill.
I actually don’t mind putting up with so-so service as long as the food is good. I’m not saying it was downright bad, but everything we ordered just wasn’t worth the price tag—plus, the descriptions can be misleading. The Jabba Baby Wockee (P180) is described as a drink with pureed strawberries, balsamic vinegar and black pepper, but what we got was a syrupy concoction without a shred of fresh strawberry, and a random smattering of cracked black pepper on top.
For starters, we had the Baba Ghanoush (P255), a sesame paste with roasted eggplant, cumin and garlic, served with what amounted to 1.5 pieces of pita bread. The best I could say was that it was inoffensive, which is the same thing that I’d say for their pizza—we tried Forest (P495), which was topped with button and shiitake mushrooms, cream, Italian cheese (the menu didn’t specify what kind of Italian cheese) and supposedly, truffle oil. I didn’t taste even a hint of truffle oil in the pizza. The crust was crunchy and solid, though.
The Roast Duck Leg with Blackcurrant Sauce was not crisp at all; the skin was similar to that of Hainanese chicken, which in a duck dish is fatty and unappetizing. It was a ripoff at P750, because you can get a much better duck dish at Chelsea for less than P600. With it, we had the Hara-Kiri Rice (P365), a spicy blend of chili, octopus, shrimp and bacon. I’d seen more octopus in an order of takoyaki balls at Little Tokyo, but the rice was acceptable—it might be good with the house crispy pata, which we didn’t try.
For dessert, we had the Apple Tart ala Mode, made with “fresh green apples.” Well, the ice cream scoop they served us was surrounded by a frozen puddle, so I’m guessing they dished out scoops, left them out a bit, and stored them in the freezer, so I’m a little apprehensive about using “fresh” to describe a dessert that was clearly not made fresh—the apples were soggy, and so was the pastry crust.
I’m not usually so harsh about restaurants, but as we paid P2,500 for our order (of course, we didn’t finish everything; we just had to try a lot for the review), we should’ve gotten much better service and food. P2,500 can go a long way in other restaurants, and if I’m slamming Krazy Garlik, it’s because I don’t want other people to waste their money on a restaurant that clearly puts a premium on marketing, not food.
The group that owns Krazy Garlik is apparently the same group that brought Friday’s and Italianni’s, and they’re not deviating from the theme-cuisine formula that made them successful in the ’90s. My issue is that since then, tremendous improvements have been made to change the local foodscape, so why revert to that again?
You should have asked me. I disliked that resto. Went there during their opening. Try PBCo instead, if you’re into themed restos.
Really? I’d been wondering about Peanut Butter and Co. kasi, because I’d been meaning to try it but was unsure if it was going to be a sup-par ripoff of the one in NY (there’s a related post a few entries back). Thanks for the recommendation!