| Elegant quiet seafood and steakhouse inside a casino. |
Reviewer: Jason
Total Reviews: 992
Reviewed: 7/28/2006
Rating: 8
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Doug and I headed out to Garden City Cafe and Casino for gambling lunch action. I figured we would each place 1 bet to pay for our meals. Doug steps up to the plate with his $40 and nails an Ace and 10, winner. Next up is me, I lay my $40 and dealer hands me a King and an 8. Dealer pulls 6 - Jack - 9, busts...woooohooo. Lunch is on Garden City
The cafe is off to the quite side of the casino. The restaurant reminded me of an old school italian throwback lounge. Our waitress drops off the menu and judging from the prices, $40 can land you pretty much anything off the lunch menu with the exception of adding the 8oz $42 lobster tail. If you aren't into american cuisine, I have been told you can ask for a chinese menu.
I would have went for steak but the cut selections were lacking on the lunch menu. I noticed the seafood saute and ordered it. We waited around 15 minutes and talked about how this lunch would have been a downer if we lost.
Seafood Saute - crab, 3 pieces of shrimp, 3-4 scallops in this creamy white wine sauce. Served with steamed veggies and extremely dry rice pilaf. Mixed veggies were standard with a light glaze of olive oil or butter. The creamy sauce is sure to halt traffic on your arteries. It's rich and equally pleasing to the palette. I would have hoped for big chucks of crab but it was mixed into the sauce. Shrimps were rather large and slightly overcooked. Scallops were just at the edge of being cooked, it's that fine line between raw and cooked. I'd say it was near perfect but worried I'd be hitting the porcelain hours later. Overall a repeat order. (picture #7)
I know the winnings at the blackjack table made lunch a sweeter deal. Even I didn't win, I'd still eat at Garden City Cafe. Menu items are a little pricey for lunch. Service was excellent and there's plenty of parking. I probably won't make a habit of gambling for lunch, who knows what my rating would be if I would have lost the $40 bet.
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Reviewer: Terry
Total Reviews: 724
Reviewed: 12/11/2004
Rating: 9
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I was a little nervous about going here, just for the fact that I don't like casinos. We were supposed to go to By Th Bucket again and we got there at 6pm and they lost our reservations. The line was huge and the wait would have been attrocious for a party of 10. So we called up Garden City and they had an immediate table ready for us.
We left By Th Bucket quite angry. The place was very non-helpful with our reservation situation and with the packed crowds, it was getting hot in there and just felt like an uncomfortable place.
We get to Garden City and the mood is VERY relaxed, there are a lot less people there, and the temperature is perfect. Waiters come to us asking what we needed, etc. A MUCH nicer situation. There is no view of the casino, you can't even hear anything. It was a totally separate experience from the casino, thankfully.
I went with the Alaskan Lobster dinner. As you can see, it was VERY well prepared and probably the largest and best tasting lobster tail I have ever eaten. Of course it didn't come cheap, but I guess with places this fancy and accomodating, you can't have everything.
Also this night they had live piano music in the room while you ate. You can't beat holiday music while you eat peacefully. I would not hesitate to recommend Garden City to anyone looking for a nice dining experience in the south bay.
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Reviewer: ne00
Total Reviews: 165
Reviewed: 12/17/2005
Rating: 8.5
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Its my birthday and I can write if I want to…
Sometimes its not just about the food but about the friends close to you that share the food with you. Tonight was one of those nights as I celebrated a big birthday. It wouldnt have been the same without my friends as I write not only about my experience but also from their perspective.
Theres this unspoken rule that within certain restaurants you order what they specialize in and not something thats completely out of the ball park. You wouldnt or shouldnt order spaghetti at a restaurant that specialized in pancakes, well same goes for Garden City Café. Usually restaurants within Casinos are known for their steaks and MP (Market Price) items. Anything else would be considered a crap shoot.
A rainy Saturday evening couldnt crash my party as I am the first to arrive for my own party at 5pm. I walk in through the backdoor and have to walk all the way up to the front and through all the packed Poker tables to get to the restaurant. I would imagine if I just walked through the front the restaurant would be right there. Its a separate section joined by a glass door. It would be a great ploy if they lock the back door as those entering and leaving would always consider grabbing something to eat after having just gambled.
My friends arrive one by one through the front door. We get a table for 6. I over heard the someone say that the booth tables are for people who call in for reservations, so of course we couldnt get a booth table unless we called them on our cell phone and walked in 10 minutes later. For those who want a booth, call in to make a reservation. When we got there it was not crowded at all; at most 3 booths were taken.
The menu given to us is different from the one listed on the Website. The menu we received didnt have a section for Asian Specialties. This was not a big concern since I wouldnt have considered ordering something Asian at Garden City Café. The menu is laid out efficiently with the entrees and pastas on one page and appetizers and salads on a smaller centered page and their specialties of the day on the inside front page.
All of us except for one person ordered a drink. The rest of us just drank the water. Yes, were not very adventurous but we wanted to save our appetite for the food and not be filled by drinks. We started with an order of calamari, brushetta, and chicken tenders. We were then served half a roll of sourdough to be shared among 6 of us. Of course the bread was all snatched up the first time through. The bread was warm and tasted fresh. Soft butter was served still in its own wrappings. The bread was so yummy already; I had a good feeling about our meal. We were brought more bread, this time a full roll but it was not individually sliced all the way through this time so it required some hands touching the bread to pull it apart.
We also ordered our main entrees. One of my friend who is notorious for ordering wrong dishes was first to bat. He always seems to have trouble ordering no matter where he eats. Other peoples dishes always seem more appealing and it speaks volumes when looking at his choices. He decided to go with the “Pan Asian Special” of Spicy fried fish. The other dishes consisted of Chicken Parmigiana, Linguine Frutti Di Mare, 2 orders of Prime Rib of Beef (12 ounces), and a Seafood sauté. The soup of the day was Navy Beans with Ham. The waiter had to repeat it 3 times to us as people were just not getting it or hearing it.
Our appetizers arrived all at once. The plate of calamari was stacked full with tarter sauce and cocktail sauce on the side. There were only 5 pieces of brushetta and 4 pieces of chicken tenders. I went for the calamari and the brushetta while ignoring the chicken tenders as it looked like the basic flair served up anywhere. The calamari was on par, but they served it with shredded peppers (those green peppers found in ToGos sandwiches). The brushetta was average as I didnt find the entire basil leaf sitting in between the bread and toppings appealing, but I still managed to snatch 2 pieces.
After the appetizers, we waited a bit longer for our food. We asked for some more bread as everyone was craving for more. Unfortunately that bread never showed up for the remainder of our meal. Our food finally arrived and the “Notorious Bad Food Chooser” was served a bowl of rice flipped upside down on the plate, with a hand full of scallions and what looked like to be 5 or 6 small breaded pieces of salt and peppered fish. I have to admit that this was a pretty bad choice, especially for dish that was priced at 16.95. The serving size of the fish was about ¼ the serving size of our calamari. The amount of rice on his plate equaled the amount of scallions and green onions on his plate.
Next the Pasta and Seafood sauté dishes arrived. Our prime rib dish was the last to arrive. I was impressed with the Prime Rib. I had actually considered getting the Filet Mignon but decided to save my friends 10 bucks. I could get the Filet Mignon anywhere and its pretty hard to mess up on that cut in a good steak restaurant. Its easier to mess up on the prime rib and since Jatbar.com wanted me to find a restaurant that I could rate a 9 on, I wanted to test the quality of Garden City.
The 12 ounce prime rib looked a lot bigger than I expected. This thing probably weighed more than 12 ounce before they cooked it. It was a lot bigger than the version they have at Black Angus as it was thicker. One of my work friends ordered his rare and it looked very red, as I ordered mine medium rare but it looked it was a bit more than medium rare. Everyone was impressed at our choices. I cant say much for the Seafood Sauté as it was a mix of seafood with a side of steamed vegetables and what looked to be Uncle Bens long grain rice. I surely wouldnt have paid the 19.95 sticker price for that dish. The only pasta dish that I was impressed by was their Linguine. It included Sautéed prawns, scallops, and a whole load of 8 to 10 Mediterranean mussels in the shell. The Chicken Parmigiana looked like it was smothered in marinara sauce. Towards the end of the meal the person who ordered the Chicken Parmigiana had barely any Linguine left as there was just so much sauce and so little noodles but the friend who ordered the Linguine had so much noodles left.
Now back to what I ordered. My prime rib looked a bit more medium than medium rare, but it was easy to cut and was very tender. I didnt have any problem eating this as it had a lot of flavor on its own without the Beef Au Jus. My sides included creamed spinach, which had more cream than spinach so it was a bit runny and I chose a baked potato with everything. From the picture on their Web menu, the baked potato looked gigantic. The potato was large but not gigantic, plus I gave half of it to my friend who ordered the “Pacific Rim Special.” The only thing on the baked potato was sour cream and chives. I was expecting some type of salted warm butter on my potato as well. The potato required some of the Beef Au Jus as it tasted bland without some salt. If I were to come again I would definitely stick with the prime rib or select a steak and get the mashed potatoes instead.
The service was decent as it was a cozy atmosphere with dimmed lights for those romantics sitting within the booths. During our dinner, a band stopped by to play some Holiday music on a cello and the piano with some Frank Sinatra like signing. Our waters were refilled when they ran low and drinks were quickly replenished. Our waiter stopped by several times to remove our plates for those who were finished with their meal.
After our meal is what was a little odd. The waiter asked if anyone wanted deserts and a friend said to bring the desert menu to look at. It took about 10 minutes for the waiter to bring the desert menu. Then a friend said if they did anything special for birthday boys and the waiter said the birthday boy would get a free mud pie, so that was the only desert we got. They didnt even check my ID. It took another 10 to 15 minutes for them to bring out the bud pie and the waiter had the person on the piano make an announcement to the patrons and sang a little happy birthday song to me. It was kinda weak but then again I didnt want the attention in the first place. I blew out the candle without even making a wish. (I wish for a Jatbar.com shirt).
The mud pie was a thin slice covered in melted whip cream and shared among 4 other people. Everyone thought the pie was good but to me, I wouldnt have paid the 5.95 if I had to pay. You could get a big mean piece of Mud Pie at the Elephant bar for the same price and could really be shared among friends. This was meek in comparison but it was free so cant complain much.
So final bill was 180.00 as they included a gratitude tip as we were a party of 6. Over all it seemed like everyone enjoyed their meal except for my one friend who was totally shafted with his salt and peppered fried fish.
Afterwards we went over to my house and played 10.00 buy in poker as someone suggested that they wanted to win their money back for being shafted on their dinner order. To make this short, I pulled a Joseph Hachem (the WSOP 2005 Winner) and came back from only having 18 chips to being 2-1 chip leader during the final H2H and winning it on the flop. Its a known fact Im undefeated on any bet I make on my Birthday. Not sure why my friends thought they could end my streak.
At the end of the day I kind of feel sorry for my friends. Not only did they buy me gifts and paid for an expensive meal but they also lost to me in Poker as I walk away with all the rewards. (No, I dont feel sorry).
Pluses: Not that crowded. Easy to find parking out in the front area. Great prime rib. Free desert for the Birthday boy or girl. Cozy setting. Good service. Great bread.
Minuses: Inflated pricing on non steak and MP dishes. Occasional long waits for unknown reason. Not all you can eat bread.
Overall: This fell short of a 9. I would have scored it a 9 had everything gone smoothly. The only issue I had was the price. I would expect to pay the price listed for the Steaks and MP items but the other items were not worth the cost. The 12 ounce prim rib is actually their best deal. It filled me up and would definitely fill anyone up. If you want it even bigger they have a 20 ounce one and I could only imagine the size of that whopper. The Prim rib gets a well deserved 10 but with the side dishes, it only received an 8.5. If I could only buy the Prime Rib like how you can do it at Black Angus by ordering a soup and salad up front, I would have. Yeah Im being picky, but there was some spotty area within the meal and I didnt feel the pricing was too hot for some of the items.
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