Johnny Garlic's: Kinda Meh

Urbanspoon failed me yet again (why do I even keep that app?) and by ACCIDENT we happened upon nor cal TV personality Guy Fieri's restaurant, Johnny Garlic's, in Santa Rosa, CA. (We had gotten a hotel nearby.)

Fairly nondescript exterior. Plenty of parking though!

And a rockstar interior! (no overpowering garlicky smell, unfort.)

We were pretty hungry for lunch but the interesting rotating wild game of the day was just bison (boring) -- and when you are tantalized with the possibility of rattlesnake or wild boar, not sure how you could settle for bison, which you can get just fine at Ted Turner's restaurants all over DC. Not wanting to totally ruin our palates before drinking copious amounts of wine, we opted for the lunch menu.

G got:

Tequila Lime Chicken Sandwich ($9.50) and garlic fries (+$1)

I got:

Bourbon Buffalo Meatloaf Sandwich ($11.50) and garlic fries (+$1)

Sandwiches were pretty good, ciabatta was soft and chewy, and who doesn't like fried onion things? Mine was nice and barbecue-y. The only thing that was disappointing was the garlic fries. Like, aren't those supposed to be a signature item at Johnny GARLIC's? They were drowning in olive oil which mixed with the powdered parmesan to form an unpleasant paste and made the fries soggy. Where were my little pieces of diced fresh garlic and parsley mixed in with extra crispy fries? The kind of garlic fries at Pluto's were the kind I grew up eating -- those are true nor cal garlic fries!

Overall, it was a decent meal, just kind of mass processed (kind of a bad thing) and full of Guy Fieri memorabilia (not a bad thing). There are just so many places to get amazing garlic fries (including the ones we got at AT&T Park in San Francisco for the Giants-Cubs game) in Nor Cal that it makes me sad that these particular ones are the ones representing us to the world on national television.

Guy, I love you and your nor cal pride, but you gotta step these things up a little!