My Fiancé and I LOVE Garlic city Cafe . The Owners are like family so sweet and kind and caring . We have been eating there for 5 years and I don't know why this is my first yelp for them . The Sage chicken is my favorite dinner dish . Please try their food it's delicious OMGEEEEEE almost for got the deserts ARE DELICIOUS 10 read more

See all

The best hamburger I've had in California so far. We had the Garlic Burger. It was delicious and I didn't even need to add mustard or anything it was juicy enough without. And the flavor amazing. The meat was also good exactly as asked (medium)! The cafe itself is a skinny narrow dinning area. They had the front door open to allow the cool at in. The air was filled with the smell of garlic signature to the city. The staff and even the patrons were very nice. It felt more like being in another country dining in the evening than an American restaurant. It all around was the best. read more

I have lived in Gilroy all my life......Garlic City Cafe is by far the best restaurant in town. They serve high end meals at a cafe price. The service is great. All staff are super nice and friendly. I can honestly say I have never had a bad meal. The chicken piccata is out of this world great. The pasta dishes are wonderful. All the salads are very fresh and not bagged lettuce. If you are vegetarian or vegan there are options that with a simple request can accommodate your wished. The is a top notch restaurant with great ambiance. I look forward to going here for any meal. You will not be disappointed. *The city of Gilroy is again doing construction that can interfere with a business. They are tearing up the parking lot behind all business along 5th and 6th street. Please patronize these establishments so we don't loose them. read more

The cook said he's been a chef for 25 years. If he's a chef I def need to become one because that steak had no seasoning dry as hell and was suppose to be medium well. Clearly wasn't med. and then still to decide to charge me for it with those over cooked noodles. It was all gross. Do not eat at this place. I'm going to make him go viral for this. With that over cook steak was the worst ever steak I had . And the waitress had audacity to also say my steak was med well. lol if I could give negative star I would. Straight trash and I still paid 45 dollars for this trash read more

Garlic City Cafe - Driest over cooked ever from a 25 year experience chef and over cooked noodles - American Near Me - Gilroy, California

See all

Food is always on point. They make great comfort food with generous portions served by a kind hard working family. The pickles here and the ranch are the best !! I always get the same thing the contadina salmon salad. My husband always gets a gluten free cheese and bacon burger burger . They let him bring a bun of his choice and serve his burger up in it hot and perfectly grilled. We feel lucky to have a great place like this in our community. Its always busy because its so yummy so go early for dinner read more

Garlic City Cafe - Contadina Salmon salad and bacon cheese Burger and frys . Always delicious - American Near Me - Gilroy, California

Oh my word! Amazing little place. Had a minor battle with the grandkids about where to lunch at, they wanted the usual mystery meat nuggets or similar, I wanted something unique. I asked yelp for help and my inner explorer vibe told me that since we were in Gilroy, this had to be the place for lunch. I'm so glad we were able to locate the place. Not only was the service exemplary, but the food was amazing as well. The grandkids had a request or two, even some customization of an existing dish. The need was met and both staff and our party loved everything we were served. Everybody cleaned their plates. I had the Garlic City French Dip and have to admit that it was wonderful. If we are ever back in the area, this will be the place to go for a meal. read more

HIDDEN UNDERSTATED GEM!!!!! This place should only receive 5 reviews. Family owned and operated (Father and son cook, Mother and daughter serve), friendly, caring, down-to-earth service and vibe, BUT THE FOOD IS ABSOLUTELY OUTSTANDING!!!!! Everything on the menu is excellent, if you need suggestions just ask, BUT THE QUALITY, THE TASTE, & THE DETAIL OF PLATING IS MICHELIN STAR LEVEL. Check out the photos alone of their latest addition to their menu, their Chicken Cordon Bleu - Best I've ever had. STRONGLY RECOMMEND AND WILL ABSOLUTELY RETURN. read more

See all

Love coming here! My ultimate favorite place to eat in Gilroy. Love the service and their food!!

The food was so good. I had to take it home that there was so much of it too. Will be coming back for sure

A nice little spot along the main downtown drag. My boy was craving garlic bread, so we decided on Garlic City Cafe. I got the hot pastrami, and I liked how they sliced the peperoncini into the sandwich. It is kind of annoying to take a bite and have a hidden one explode in your face and onto your shirt. My boy got their signature burger with roasted marinated garlic cloves on top of the burger. He usually doesn't like big chunks of garlic, but he loved these. They were soft enough to smush into the burger and roasted enough to knock down the spicy bitterness. The wife got the Cajun chicken but said it wasn't "cajuny" enough-- not quite what she expected. She said she wish she had tried the crab sandwich. Next time. The cream of garlic soup was good and unique. I can't decide if it was above average or just good. I can't say I've ever had anything like it, so I have no frame of reference. But if you like garlic, try a cup. Lemme know what you think. Shout out to the side orders too. The fruit was really good! I got a side of garlic fries, but I wasn't "Wow'd" by it. A lot of potential there if they could toss the fries and garlic together, maybe get the garlic to stick to the fries better, infuse that garlicy goodness, maybe drizzle some garlic oil/sauce. I'm no cook, but I think they could definitely make their garlic fries stand out more. read more

Garlic City Cafe - Hot pastrami! - American Near Me - Gilroy, California

A locally owned business with extremely hard working couple that own the restaurant. Very reasonably priced!! Great food and a lot of it ! You will definitely be happy with the large portions. read more

My bf and I were in Gilroy and decided to try some local favorites and this place popped up. We were only able to try breakfast food items since we came around 10am. We came early because we heard it gets packed (1-1.5 hour wait times). The restaurant was a lot smaller than I thought, there didn't seem to be a lot of space. Maybe it was because of how the space was designed? We ordered an omelet and the chicken fried steak, both came with a choice of pancakes or toast. The omelet was watery/saucey, different from other breakfast places. My bf thought it was just okay. The chicken fried steak was good though! The meat was soft and chewy, there were some fats which made it taste better. The gravy was also delicious! Our pancakes were slightly burnt, so a little disappointed in that. Overall, food was alright. Service was nice! We had a Mexican waiter help us and she was really nice and sweet. We wouldn't mind coming back here to give lunch items a try. read more

See all

The Garlic City Cafe has one of the best breakfasts my husband and I have ever eaten! That is why we always go back whenever we are in the area! It is family run by the nicest people you'll ever want to meet! The Castroville Omelet is one of the many delicious items on the menu! read more

This place was decent. I did live the garlic smell when walking inside though. There were many options, but I stuck to everything garlic since we were in Gilroy the garlic capital of the world!!!! Had garlic fries of course. They were good, had better at fairs though. After the meal we had to try the garlic ice cream couldn't decide between vanilla or chocolate so my fatty taste buds decided to have both. Ate so much garlic before that I actually could not taste the garlic in the ice cream so maybe next time I start with that first.... read more

Very good food you will not be disappointed the food was all delicious and we will be back for sure loved this place read more

See all

Good stop for lunch and we had looked over the menu when we were bookmarking places for our trip. My wife decided on the eggplant parmesan garlic panini, while my son and I each got the "garlic city burger", the garlic, as you can see from the photos I took, is prominent. I decided on the potato salad while my wife and son got the garlic fries....all items very garlicky....good stuff. read more

See all

There is a reason that the first word is GARLIC in their name! I am on a restrictive diet so I was looking for a friendly gluten free place to grub. The staff here were happy to accommodate my special requests. The food was delish! The hamburger my husband had was filled with huge pieces of GARLIC!! Food was good, staff was great, parking was easy, and prices are reasonable. Great place to stop off for a quick bite to eat! read more

See all

I've eaten here a few times and have never been disappointed. Highly recommend the calamari with the tomato sauce and capers. I usually order the Chicken Marsala or blackened salmon and I haven't been disappointed yet. The food is served hot and everything from the salad to the main dish is fresh. Excellent service that never make you feel rushed. This restaurant is a must stop if your in the Gilroy area. read more

Garlic City Cafe - American Near Me - Gilroy, California

If you've never been, you need to try this cute place. Yummy food coming out of the kitchen, never disappoints! My go to is Penne Pasta and Prawns Florentine! But you better be hungry! Pasta cooked perfectly al dente, creamy dreamy sauce and plump prawns, I'm gonna faint. I have no more words... read more

Do you love garlic? I grew up in Gilroy and it's in my blood! This restaurant on Monterey Rd. was excellent in their menu and food quality. I highly recommend you check it out as soon as possible! read more

amazing corn beef hash definitely will be back. Thanks for the great breakfast. Great place to ride the Harley Davison to for breakfast with the boys. read more

Garlic City Cafe - American Near Me - Gilroy, California

My first time here chicken piccata is really really good. Service was outstanding. Seating was just perfect. I recommend this place.

Food is solid, i got the garlic chicken eggplant panini which was really yummy, just the eggplant was bit too oily for me. We waited about 20or so minutes for our food (My order and a Garlic city burger with fries). The patty on the burger was on small side, kind of disappointing I hope they make it bigger next time! The food was pretty good, but i don't think it justified the wait. Everyone seemed really stressed out and service wasn't very attentive. If you don't mind waiting and service it is worth checking it out though! read more

Craved garlic bread and this place did not disappoint. My pasta dish had chicken and shrimp and was good. My lunch dish came with soup as well. read more

Garlic City Cafe - Pasta dish with chicken and shrimp, side of garlic and French dip sandwich (made with garlic bread)which was great too. - American Near Me - Gilroy, California

See all

Can't say anything about food, service or ambience, since it was closed, even though the schedule says that they are open today. Locked, lights out, no sign of humans. Suggest calling before you go to make sure they are open. read more

Have been here for breakfast and lunch many times and have never been disappointed. My Father in-law stopped in here for dinner a few weeks back and had the Seafood Pasta, he is full blooded Italian and said this was the best past he has ever had. My mom and I decided to give it a try tonight for dinner, it was all so delicious. We started with deep fried calamari for the appetizer and it was amazing, light and crispy with garlic and herbs and a delicious dipping sauce. I had the Chicken Piccata, that was tender and pounded thin and place on top of a bed of delicious roasted potatoes then covered in a delicious piccata sauce and placed alongside perfectly cook vegetables. So so good Mom had the Shrimp Scampi Mediterranean, shrimp, artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes, spinach, capers in a deist on top of a bed of fettuccine. It was delicious and so much flavor. The dinners come with delicious French bread and your choice of soup or salad, we both had salad's that were good and crisp. Don't let the looks fool you, it looks like a good place for breakfast or lunch but don't hesitate if you are wanting a delicious, flavorful, amazing dinner. Give it a try, you won't regret it. The chef has been cooking for 36 years and it shows in everything he prepares. read more

See all

This cafe is very Lowkey and nice! For it being in downtown Gilroy it was not busy. Service and food were average. Nothing too special, the setting felt outdated and nothing extravagant. Would prefer OD's or Longhouse. read more

Absolutely delicious! The place was a little quiet when we stopped by. There was some sort of festival going on with lots of vendors and food trucks. We ordered the garlic burger and the steak with crab stuffed prawns. The garlic burger had whole cloves or roasted garlic! Honestly, I wasn't sure what to expect of my steak dinner but was pleasantly surprised. It was tasty and the steak was cooked perfectly. The sauce was a little spicy, unexpected but worked out well. The service was amazing. The lady who was there was super tentative and so sweet. She was even concerned that we didn't eat much of our dinner. We did! We were only able to finish close to half. Oh, the leftover was just as good when we reheated it back at the hotel. If you are in town, stop by! We definitely will next time we visit Gilroy! read more

Looking to take pops out to lunch today, I broke out the ol Yelp app and found this place. We got there at 11:15, found a handicap parking space right across the street, and was able to get seated right away at one of the three tables outside with umbrellas. "The outside temp was a Beautiful 75° with a slight breeze just wonderful" The Waitress took our order right away I opted for the El Paso burger "med rare" that comes with cheese, bacon, Ortega chiles, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, pineapple and avocado. I added the garlic fries for an extra $1.50. Pops got the cowboy steak that comes with wedge cut fries, salsa, two slices of bread, and butter, two eggs of your choice, and pineapple. We waited almost an hour to get our food but when it arrived we were served 2 stunning dishes. (Pro tip) if you want your food fast don't come here, McDonald's is down the street. But if you want a Delicious meal then it's definitely worth the wait Burger: oh my gosh, so many subtle flavor, Tex-Mex meets Mexico meets Gilroy meets the USA. The first bite came in at so many levels. 1st the taste of The perfectly cooked medium rare burger, and a hint of salt, then the sweetness of the Ortega chili melded with the perfectly crisp bacon. Honestly there was nothing in this burger that stood out it was just so beautifully put together in its flavors. 5 stars Garlic fries: oh yah baby these are the real deal, with chunks of minced garlic the garlic flavor shined through. "Garlic lovers this is a must" 4 stars. The cowboy steak: pops liked it but for him it was a little spicy, the steak comes smothered with salsa. Bottom line: this is a book mark place for everyone to enjoy. read more

See all

Online they say they close at 3 on sundays. They claimed at the restaurant they close at 1. Drove 1.5 hours to be turned away at 1:05.

This is a family run place and it shows. The staff go out of their way to be helpful and I've enjoyed every meal I've had here. The garlic soup is pretty darn tasty and whether breakfast or lunch, it's a good place to visit. read more

Ok, my two star review is a combination of not so spectacular food mixed with severely bad customer service from our waitress. Our server just seemed to be engaging us with a royal attitude that was not warranted. She was very short with her answers, and it took a few different reminders to get silverware. I don't need to go into specifics, but suffice it to say, if we are all thinking you're acting a little huffy (undeservedly....not one "Karen" in our bunch), then you are acting way too huffy. As for the food, my sister thoroughly enjoyed her french dip, which was served on garlic bread. She enjoyed it, and that does indeed sound good. My garlic burger, on the other hand, was far from perfect. While I may be partially to blame for asking for my burger to be prepared well done, I was essentially eating a charcoal briquet "with a hint of garlic." Dry, pieces of burnt burger with each bite. The remaining diners, for the most part, were also ho hum about the experience. I don't know....sort of garlic bread, fries, and soup, short of being located in Gilroy, the menu doesn't excite me, nor does it seem deserving of the title "Garlic city." read more

Garlic City Cafe - Surprisingly... Not that good - American Near Me - Gilroy, California

I just had to try something garlicky when I'm in Gilroy, and with a name like garlic city cafe I was sold. We ordered the garlic cream prawns Florentine pasta, extra garlic bread, and garlic fries. So first, the garlic cream pasta was fine, tasted pretty good and flavorful, but I felt like for a place called garlic city cafe it could have MUCH more garlic. What confused me was the garlic bread. We saw the server carry plates of pasta with cross section cut garlic bread on the same plate as the pasta to other tables. Then we ordered extra garlic bread on the side, but none of our plates came with slices of garlic bread, we only received the side order of garlic bread itself. The bread also looked nothing like the other bread I saw. It seemed like a half loaf of French bread that was toasted with some garlic butter. It also arrived cold and pretty stale, a disappointment. The bottom of the bread was hard and difficult to chew through, the top was lacking garlic flavor. I didn't think it was possible to mess up garlic bread but I was proven wrong. The garlic fries were good and probably my favorite part of our order. The servers were nice, but it took a long time for us to order and receive the food, which is understandable as I assume they're understaffed. read more

What a disappointing experience from start to finish. I took my Dad here for Father's Day because he said he had been here before and liked the food. I was excited to try it. The menu looked good , the prices seemed reasonable , and we liked that they had a few tables set up outside. When we arrived, we specified that we would like to be seated outside and were told the wait time was 30 minutes. As we were waiting outside, one of the servers tells us that she was going to clean up a table , and we would be seated next. Another server came outside, and told the first girl that we would not be seated because she had other people waiting. She said this right in front of us- how rude We decided to dine in instead of wait around even longer. I opted for the corned beef and hash with eggs ( over-medium). My eggs were burnt! My corned beef was soggy underneath the burnt layer on top , and underseasoned throughout. My sourdough toast was not toasted at all and just served as warm bread. The country potatoes were just ok. Our food took a long time to come out considering how bad it was. When it was time pay the bill, I gave one the girls my card and had to wait 10 minutes to get it back. I will never come here again. The customer service sucks, the wait times are ridiculously slow, and the food is mediocre at best. read more

We were just passing through self proclaimed "Garlic Capital of the World", so though we'd have something garlicky... $6 Cream of Garlic Soup...because when in Gilroy, you try weird stuff like this, and if you like Garlic, it was delicious! Though my wife thought it was too pungent and intense of garlic(she's a wimp! ;) ). $12 Garlic Chicken and Eggplant Panini, plus $1.50 to upgrade the fries to garlic fries...which were just as good as any garlic fries I've had anywhere else. Otherwise the panini was tasty with chunks of roasted garlic and good amount of chicken and eggplant, yum! Service was pleasant enough, but just keep in mind this is a very basic eatery with zero atmosphere and little effort put into the interior design. Not a first date spot for that Tinder or Grindr date. read more

Nice friendly spot for a low key meal. The menu it's pretty extensive with a focus on Italian. I had the chicken parm which was good and my dad had the seafood linguine which he said was so so. The waitress was lovely. She smiled at all the bad dad jokes. Thank you! read more

I had extremely high hopes based on the pictures and many good reviews. Even had this saved to my bookmarks for quite some time now. And here I'm finally driving thru with the time to stop and grab a bite to eat. First off I was finally sat down after standing for 5 min never greeted by the staff. Once I was given a table it was almost 13 min later after asking two staff members for a drink and menu I was finally given one. Sadly to find out they have a separate lunch menu from dinner so what I had seen and anticipating to order I now couldn't. No iced tea available as was offered in their menu and damn it's hot in here.. the ac couldn't be on as the door is open and all the flys are getting in. So after being disappointed I couldn't order what I planned I settled on the crab melt and garlic fry's. I mean I'm in Gilmore gotta get garlic. And that's about all that tasted good was the garlic. The crabmelt had very little crab, was super dried out (tried adding bell peppers for moisture) missing the sauce and had no flavor at all.. I'm glad I couldn't spend more than I did. I'd be even more upset. Needless to say I left half my meal behind and took my appetite out the door with me read more

Garlic City Cafe - Crab Melt - American Near Me - Gilroy, California

Food and service was just okay sorry to say. I did have high hope too based on other reviews. Prices much higher than shown online for food we wouldn't be going back for. Feel bad but gotta be honest for others. Out of the three plain tasting dishes we ordered the house salad that came before my meal I asked for blue cheese dressing and it was white water, best way I can describe. I tried to eat it but couldn't. Blue cheese is thick with chunks of blue cheese I don't know what that was. My sons Alfredo was bland as can be. He didn't eat much. We just ended up eating elsewhere shortly thereafter. Wasted $60+ read more

Delicious food. Cute atmosphere & great music playing :) Great coffee too. I'd highly recommend this spot read more

The food was very tasty and fresh. Chicken was tender and juicy. I ordered garlic chicken sandwich and garlic chicken with eggplant panini. For the side I ordered garlic fries and potato salad. The panini was a bit heavy for me, but my friend loved the sandwich. I on the other hand enjoyed every bit of garlic chicken sandwich. The potato salad was average, however at this restaurant I had the best garlic fries ever. The service was quick & server was very friendly. There's plenty of parking spots on the side of the street. Would definitely come back to explore more of the menu. read more

See all