Johhny Garlic's is situated near the Eastern end of the Freeway section of highway 12, a short walk from Hotel California de Scott. It won best new restaurant in Santa Rosa 1997 and 1998.
The cuisine is not garlic-obsessed, as it is at The Stinking Rose in SF. In fact, the food is excitingly spiced, well prepared, typically generous in quantity, and complimented with a decent wine list. It is also very reasonably priced. Given the huge serves, a bill of $20/head including a beer or glass of wine will satisfy most diners. Our table had a variety of dishes, including a pesto halibut, citrus-chill chicken, pepper tritip, and a pasta dish with hot cream sauce, just to give a hint at the main courses. Bruschetta with roast bulb of garlic was shared as a starter.
A semi-outside eating area (verandah?) is available. We ate indoors, through availability of table. The outdoors was, if anything, overheated, and it is covered, and might be the spot of choice when the sun is up, even on a Winter's day. There is also a bar, which is especially handy if you have to wait, and affords a good view of the kitchen goings-on. The kitchen is fascinatingly busy. A sous-chef works with a mound of dough for crusty casings and pizzas there, others dash to the counter with the brightly-coloured meals and call for the waitresses to ferry the plates out to the eating audience. This is not the same as Linda's Backstage in Newtown, where the creative thought of the cook is shown off like watching Thomas Hardy writing The Return of The Native, as it were, but more of a glimpse of a beehive. The waitresses are young, the whole place seemed young.
The main detractor from this restaurant is that it is organised in the way of a "family" restaurant: they do not take bookings after 5PM, it is just turn up and queue; the main eating area is rather echoic; the chairs are a tad austere. All this probably makes good business sense, and it keeps the price favourable, but salubrious is not the adjective. My comment on the feedback card that appeared when I told the waiter that I thought the chef skillful, was to the effect that the quality of the food was way above the quality of the environment.
I thought, as we sat down to order, that this would not be a restaurant to which I would return soon. I revised that opinion as I ate, and as I write this I expect we will avail ourselves of Johhny Garlic's again quite soon. Also it becomes easy to see why it won awards: its sole shortcoming is sophistocation, not a substance found in abundance in America, and something I am less likely to seek in a restaurant as Meri gets older and becomes more of a nuisance.