Not so Wild, about Garlic

Every Thursday, my good friend and I go out eating. It's a night out and away from the child for me and a set date, so my dear friend and I can see one another on a regular basis. Last week, we went to Wild Garlic for dinner. We had attempted to go years ago, but were discouraged by the prices. Now, we have a higher price threshold and of course, our trusty Entertainment coupons.

It was yet another gloomy, wet, and I mean torrential, night in Vancouver. I had a bit of chill by the time we made it in the restaurant. The place was not especially warm. The lighting was particularly dim, too dim in fact. You could hide a lot of imperfections with such lighting and I believe they did.

The menu was limited, but there were adequate choices for us. We opted to share an appy -- roasted garlic (natch), eggplant and artichoke dip. Sounded better than it tasted. The overwhelming taste to my palate was cumin. Now, I grew up eating and enjoying cumin, but this was over the top. I really couldn't distinguish any other ingredients. We both ordered the seven-spiced steak which came with green beans and garlic mashed potatoes. The food was flavourful, if perhaps a little too piled up. The steak was a bit too fatty for my liking, but cooked as requested, medium for my friend, and medium well for me. Now I only wished that I had asked what those seven spices were...

We opted to go elsewhere for dessert and coffee as the night was still young. Just as well as management imposed a mandatory 15 per cent pre-coupon gratuity on us just because we used a promotional coupon. Didn't you read the fine print on the menu lady? Well, he didn't say that, but might as well have. This was quite an affront to my sense of fairness. Most E coupon users know that it is customary to leave such a gratuity based on the pre-coupon amount. Moreover, my girlfriend and I are generally inclined to leave a larger tip, because we are good souls who have taken to just tripling the GST!!! I guess that I am still pissed about it especially because of what happened later...

Back to the seven spices...don't know which one it was, or if it was something in the reduction, or the funky-tasting dip, but less than two hours later, my stomach started cramping and growling and worse (use your imagination if you must). I generally refer to this as cilantro (for which I seem to have an intolerance) belly. But, this was way worse than that or anything else I have ever experienced food wise. Someone suggested that there must have been something bad in the food to have elicited such a strong response. Even my pal with her cast-iron insides had the growlies the next day. I suffered (and I am not exaggerating here) for more than 24 hours. My stomach was cramping so badly, that my back began to spasm. Oy veh! I will never eat there again and discourage others from going there as well. I suppose I should complain to somebody about this. Not sure who. It was a terrible experience.

By the way, save for one tiny bulb of roasted garlic, there was nary a hint of garlic to be tasted.