The Garlic

This place is....confusing. It claims to be a tapas and martini bar but it seemed more like a weird old school Italian place. I wouldn't call anything on the menu "tapas" per se. The place is dimly lit with braided garlic hanging from all the walls and weird wax drip sculptures here and there? They start you off with French bread with whole heads of roasted garlic. While the idea is decent, the execution could be improved. Roasted garlic served in the paper with no salt just isn't the best flavor-wise.

I tried the shrimp and scallop scampi but asked for penne instead of linguine. The first time they brought it with linguine, but pretty quickly replaced it with penne at my request. It seriously lacked salt and was overall bland. There were abut 6 medium shrimp (cooked well) and 3 bay scallops (no sear, just poached and on the small side). Other people in our group got the eggplant parm (which they reported was very good), chicken parm (reported it was decent), linguine with clam sauce (they liked it) and the kids ordered penne with butter and meatballs (but it came with linguine instead). So basically 4 out 9 orders had the wrong pasta and even when I asked the waiter to fix mine, it didn't click to him that the 3 kids didn't get the penne they ordered.

Service was good, drinks and food came out fast.

Ambience was ok, it didn't feel like a steakhouse even though the prices said otherwise.

Lastly, the food was very ok. It was not that great but the price was very high for the quality.

From the moment we walked in the door, the aroma of garlic hit my nostrils and there was only more garlic from there! And I'm not mad about it! We arrived at 5:10 on a Saturday night during ski season and holy cow this place was already super busy with a line out the door. It took them some time to get everyone seated but the process was friendly and fair. We ended up sitting in the bar area. Our server was super attentive and fast!
We got the eggplant tower (AMAZING fried eggplant with spinach leaves, tomato and balsamic glaze), escargot en croute (which were like little bombs of garlic flavor) and a chicken Marsala which came with the most perfectly garlic mashed potatoes. Oh and also the roasted garlic and baguette was a great starter. Basically it lived up to my very high garlic standards and we loved it. I'll definitely come back!

The food was great but what really stood out was their incredible display of garlic. Nice bar to get drinks at while waiting for your table. Friendly service who helped us decide on apps and understand the history of the chicken pitcher. Not really a tapas restaurant. More so appetizers and entres. Would recommend and come back! Good ambiance.

Service was ok. Ambiance, same. Food, not excellent. Wasn't a busy night or anything, the food just is more generic Italian than it is with what you'd find in New York or Boston or Chicago or other cities that have really excellent Italian restaurants. The tomato sauce was more chopped up tomatoes with a little bit of herbs and spices, but was not extremely complimentary at all to the meal. Will we be back - probably not. Maybe we're just spoiled with having eaten our whole lives in CT, NY, MA and Chicago Italian restaurants. This was like something from the west or some other area other than the traditional Italian fare.

Love "The Garlic" for its dark moody ambience. It's a great spot to relax after a day on the slopes.

We had a great dining experience on a Tuesday night - entrees such as grilled lamb, Chicken Florentine, and the Penne a la Vodka were all delicious and on-point. The special house red wine - an Italian - was outstanding! The service was a bit on the casual side, but still professional.

We decided to return the following evening for dinner, but unfortunately Garlic's encore performance didn't hit the right notes. The service was lackadaisical, and some of the food came out cold and/or undercooked.

We'll likely give The Garlic another try for our 2025 Vermont vacation.

Ambiance is immaculate, the pure aroma of the restaurant immediately lets you know whatever they're cooking is going to be good. Great variety of tapas options & best of all was our bartender David. He will clear the bar for you immediately, he is super attentive, fast and friendly. Best espresso martini I've had in a while. Great spot; I will be back!

Service was excellent and the food fantastic. We celebrated our anniversary at The Garlic with a melange of spices - well mostly garlic -while ending with a triple layer chocolate mousse cake.
Starters were a lightly breaded and tender calamari, eggplant tower and garlic soup. Entree was roasted shrimp Florentine. Tasty with plenty of shrimp.
Wonderful meal! Thanks!

The Eggplant "Tower" was the most pathetic structure I've ever seen. It had zero height and has no place being referred to as a tower, unless it is a joke. For the price, the portion was unacceptably small. That being said, what little we did get was actually quite delicious. Our main course, Chicken Parmesan, made up for the size shortfall on the appetizer - it was enough for a full meal plus a massive leftovers dinner. The pasta that came with the chicken parm was incredibly fresh and tasty and the bread that comes with dinner was also hot and fresh and delicious. Only other complaint was that our server (don't accidentally call her Emily) wasn't very nice to us and was offended by our party mentioning that the eggplant "tower" was not at all what a customer would reasonably expect from a dish called Eggplant Tower.

Food as a base is solid. You should not get a bad meal. Sometimes the entree's are great. Always enjoyable and if there's only two of us we enjoy eating at the bar. I eat at Garlic 2-3 times a year. Don't fill up on the roasted garlic and bread. I generally bring 1/2 my entree and garlic breath home.