Garlic & Chives

Garlic and Chives has a huge, deep, picture-​filled, mouthwatering menu, and it was hard to choose with all the crazy descriptions, but we managed:
— toothpick lamb (isn’t this a Sichuan dish? also, yay lamb!)
— pomelo salad («it’s a top LA Times dish!», said the waiter)
— fried salmon belly («I read good things about it», said Steph H)
— garlic noodles
— fried tofu (both of the previous courtesy of Kevin B, who isn’t wild about seafood)
— grilled scallops with masago (this is like a menu item written specifically to my tastes)
and
— caramelized peppered pork belly in clay pot (I’m a sucker for mustard greens)
Surprisingly, we finished everything! I’ll go in order of my least favorites to my most favorites:
— garlic noodles: this isn’t fair, because of course garlic noodles aren’t going to be as good as the rest of it, no matter what
— lamb: toothsome, but unforgivably tough. I’ve found at other restaurants that the intricate design of the toothpicks is good at holding tender lamb pieces together and keeping them from sliding off. This lamb could have been served on a single skewer and would have stayed put. I had to surreptitiously spit some pieces out because I really couldn’t chew them.
— grilled scallops with masago: these really should have had more flavor than they did. They didn’t taste grilled at all — rather, just on the slightly warmed up side of raw, and the masago was watered down somehow. The dollop of red chili sauce on top dominated the flavor profile.
— fried tofu: about as good as fried tofu is going to get. Custard on the inside, crispy on the outside, though I do have to say that the breading tasted a little like mozzarella stick breading. That could have just been because someone mentioned mozzarella sticks right as I was taking a bite. Then again, why else would they have suddenly mentioned mozzarella sticks while eating this dish?
— fried salmon belly: so fatty and melty like butter with a very complementary fishy garlicky sauce. They make a dish like this at Luc Dinh Ky, except there it’s a whole filet of salmon just dumped in the deep fryer. I’d say the taste is comparable, and so is the price, except at Luc Dinh Ky you get about 400% more fish.
— pork belly clay pot: a darkly oozy pile of soft-​as-​butter pork belly pieces, complemented by a side dish of mustard greens that they keep separate so they don’t caramelize too, and remain a counterpoint. There were also quail eggs. If you’re going to get this, pair it with the…
— pomelo salad: a really well balanced dish, with shrimp and pork and pomelo and greens and herbs and onions all mixed together and soaking in a lime sauce. I could have kept eating this all night. I love dishes where you feel like you’re getting all your food groups with every spoonful. It’s like a meal substitute bar but much, much, much tastier.
Overall verdict: it’s a nice place for groups, because the small plates mean you get to try a lot at once. But if you know what kind of dish you want, you can probably get it better and cheaper at one of the other restaurants in the hood.

This busy restaurant could be a mess and not very clean but I like the food here!
Most of the dishes I’ve tried were decent. The turmeric dill fish (cha ca thang long) is a steal here although the fish could be a little dry. They’re wings are pretty legit, but would be even better with some heat! I usually don’t eat sweet potato fries but I love the ones from here, they’re so good when hot and fresh! The one dish that I did not like was the phở ap chao, I didn’t expect it to come out fried and swimming in some sauce. It was way too soaked in grease and sauce…
There are many other dishes I’d like to try here so I hope to be back!

Good Asian fusion at an affordable price. The wait can be long for dinner but we were seated right away around 130pm.
Ambience ⁵⁄₅: modern décor with a classical vibe. There’s a big chandelier in the middle and large mirrors with funky borders on the wall. Restrooms were clean.
Food ⁵⁄₅:
Bo Luc lac ⁴⁄₅: sub for garlic noodles which is delicious. The beef is missing a little butter for true viet style shaken beef but is very tender.
Salmon cheek rolls ⁵⁄₅: if you like summer rolls, get this. The salmon is crunchy, the sauce is great, and the dish is refreshing.
Sweet wings ⁵⁄₅: one of the best fried wings I have tasted. The sauce is sweet so beware but not nearly as sweet as Korean wings. It has a great crunch and the meat is moist.
Squid salad with mango ²⁄₅: I had good flavors but nothing special. Too much onions.
Service ⁵⁄₅: they have tons of servers and they are always around. They seem to be very happy and help each other out. I even saw one server open the door for customers because she was free.

We had dinner 3 time already but nothing special here.
Bo Luc Lac ²⁄₅ meat is not tender.
Chicken wing ²⁄₅ chicken is not juicy
Cha ca thang long ¹⁄₅ fish is very dry
Overall, I don’t come back, will see how long this business keep busy…

Had a late lunch today around 2pm. No wait. Service was fine. Was really excited after seeing the menu. Lots of variety and seafood. Prices are reasonable. But… the food was a let down. Would try it again and get different dishes but I was pretty disappointed with everything today.
Noodles and prawns — Prawns were nicely grilled and had good flavor. But noodles tasted like packaged chow mein noodles with no seasoning, just garlic.
Sizzling scallops — scallops themselves were good, perfectly cooked. Sauce was way too sweet.
Caramelized spare ribs — worst dish we had. Waay too sweet and the flavor was more like char siu and barely resembled any kind of thit kho.
Ong choy with snails — snails were on the chewy side but this dish had good flavor. Still on the sweet side.
Less sugar and maybe more fish/​soy sauce might help. I think there’s potential here but all dishes were overly sweet.

So this is the real deal. The chef is very focused on quality. There are some interesting non-​Asian things on the menu (corn and mozzarella) but also some very well done takes on the classics. The lamb on skewers was very good. The seasoning and balance were both excellent. The pork belly stew was great.
Service is very friendly.
Definitely one of the top restaurants in the OC.

We hit this spot after Disneyland and I have to say it was definitely worth it! Located in a strip mall off westminister the spot looked small and unassuming from the outside. Do not let that fool you! This place is like garlic heaven!!! My group was lucky we got there and did not have to wait long for a table. The entire menu looked so good that we could not decide what to get so we asked the owner to order for us. Service here was amazing! The staff is so friendly and knowledgable. They can help any diner make decisions for their taste buds.
I can’t recall all of the dishes but here are a few:
Ahi poke: fresh light and amazing. She had a special sauce she made for it that was just the right flavor to highlight the ahi.
Lamb skewers: bite size pieces of heaven that was so tender and juicy
Garlic crab: perfectly fried and had this amazing crunchy garlic flavor
Tamarind crab: this dish was so savory! I preferred it over the garlic version but both are to die for (and at a great cost!)
Lobster hot pot: the highlight of the meal! We added ramen to this and it was perfection. The broth was so good we requested more! It was served with a side dish of dipping sauce made of jalapeño and chives… So flavorful and it balanced out the seafood soaked in before mentioned broth. This is definitely a must have
We are debating on coming back there tonight because there are a few other dishes we really wanted to try but was completely stuffed.

The food here is amazing! The wait is fairly long, for a table of four, we waited for about one hour. After being seated, the waitress was pretty attentive.
We ordered the following:
Lamb skewers — Amazing! I hate lamb, but this was the best I’ve ever had.
Garlic Noodles — Good, but nothing special. We didn’t order the ones with prawns.
Lau Thai — Hits the spot! So much fresh vegetables and seafood! It comes with vermicelli and nuoc mam ot! Haha!
Fried Salmon Belly — Uh-​freaking-​mazing! This is a must!!!
Ahi Poke Salad — Wouldn’t order this again, it was ehhh. I’ve had better.
Garlic fries — Good, can’t go wrong.
Sweet rice with egg and Chinese sausage — Surprisingly good.
Everything came out less than $ 100? Not pricey for all that food we ate.

Great!
Must try!
Good food!
Great price!
Wonderful services !!
No wonder a line to get in but moves fast.
Coming back soon.

Feeling a bit overwhelmed with restaurant options? Let me help you narrow things down. If you are a fan of garlic and chives, as suggested by the business name, and also love seafood, look no further than Garlic & Chives. I do love drinking food, Vietnamese drinking food that is. The issue for me is that most above average Vietnamese drinking snacks and food in my area are only available in sketchy coffee shops, which cater to mostly male clients, more interested in short skirts than a range of mollusks and snails.
So thankful that I don’t have to be part of that demographic to enjoy what Garlic & Chives has to offer. Garlic & Chives is actually a quite family-​friendly business, we were seated next to a family with a baby in a stroller, and there seemed to be enough room for the servers to walk around without bumping into the baby. Speaking of servers, they were really nice and helpful.
My friend and I shared blood clams (chewier) in garlic and chive butter sauce, crispy salmon belly, morning glory sauteed with snails, and scallops masago. All dishes were exemplary. As mentioned in other reviews, the crispy salmon belly is indulgent, addictive, and absolutely wonderful. The morning glory with the snails was a light bite full of contrasts. The scallops masago were slightly spicy and packed quite a punch. Blood clams were also well-​seasoned, would recommend this dish unless you hate chewy things.
We were extremely pleased with our dishes, and with our overall experience at Garlic & Chives. Would say that this is a must-​try place in OC. And even if you don’t love seafood, they still have many, many other drinking type meals, such as curry goat, to choose from. Restaurants usually fail when they try to do too much. Garlic & Chives seems to excel with just about everything based on my own and others’ experiences.
Highly recommended.

The moment we came in, the staff greeted us with a very big smile and asked about our day while they seated us right away! They immediately served drinks. It took about 15 mins to wait for our orders to come. It was worth the wait! We ordered the lamb appetizer, salmon belly spring rolls, and seafood hot pot. Feel free to check out the photos I uploaded ;)
Lamb Appetizer
I was hesitant at first because I never really liked lamb. From the moment I had my first bite, I couldn’t stop eating! It was very juicy and the blend of the sweet, spicy, and salty flavors was just right. I also liked how it was served in mini bite sizes! I highly recommend this!
Salmon Belly Spring Rolls
Spring rolls are my favorite appetizers. I’ve tried so many and this by far is the best salmon spring rolls I’ve ever had. The salmon was light, smoky, and firm but very moist it almost feels like melting in your mouth. I liked how it was balanced by the crunch and freshness of the veggies. ;) The overall thickness and blend of flavors were just right you wouldn’t need to put that much sauce.
Seafood Hot Pot
It was a big serving! Don’t underestimate the photo on the menu ;) it is good to feed 4 (or 5) hungry people! The soup broth was light and not too greasy. I liked the balance of the spicy, sour, and salty flavors. Even when you become really full, your taste buds will still want more of the soup! The variety and serving of the seafood and vegetables were good! We couldn’t finish it, we were so full! Oh, I also appreciated how even when there was a line outside we were not rushed to leave. Instead when they noticed we still had veggies to cook, we were offered additional broth/​soup for our hot pot (for free)!
I can’t wait to come back and try their other specialties! =) will keep you posted and updated about my next visits ;)

My regular order:
Salmon Belly ($ 7) — lightly battered, juicy, and just slightly fatty. Goes perfect with the paired dipping sauce!
Small order of Garlic Noodles ($ 3) — I tweak it, by ordering it less sweet with extra garlic.
Personally, for me this is $ 10 well-​spent, I hate shrimp, so ordering an entrée of Garlic Noodles with Prawn is not something I would order. Also, the ratio of minimal shrimp and a large portion of noodles is too much for me. So I always get a small order of garlic noodles, it’s good enough to last me 2 meals.
So, yep, a small order of garlic noodles + salmon belly is all I need in my life… along with a toothbrush, mouthwash, and binaca!
(19÷100, 2016)

Wowsers! It’s been a while since I gave out 5 stars! You nailed it!
A-​: Chicken Wings — very crispy. Sweet with dried garlic flakes on top. I do normally love the combination of sweet and savory but I felt like I’ve had this type of chicken so often. I would say you can skip this unless you really want Asian flavored chicken wings.
A++: Garlic green beans — My favorite healthy dish in the world except it’s a little high on sodium
A+ — lamb skewers — Vietnamese normally don’t mess with lamb, probably because they don’t know what to do with it and it’s flavor is quite intense. Garlic and Chive hit the nail on it. be warn, spicy!
A: Bo Luc Lac — you can’t really go wrong with shaken beef. They used a tender cut meat so it was spot on
A: Baked Scallop — i can’t describe it, just order it.
What a fabulous meal, I cannot wait to come back! Only problem that would stop me would be the wait. I hate waiting and it’s kinda bad because i’ll start wondering into the poke place or brodard and there goes my appetite: o

If you don’t plan on any hanky panky and are not on a romantic date and plan to get laid, Garlic & Chives is a wonderful spot, not only because of food that’s a steal, but the food is amazing. I had the salmon appetizer with garlic rice and garlic noodles on the side. The packed restaurant speaks for itself. It’s a great spot in the heart of Westminster. Remember to change your clothes, brush your teeth and take a shower after, because you will smell dank.

Service is subpar but food is flavorful. We ordered the papaya salad (cabbage, mint, onions with baby clams) and we ordered green beans with lots of garlic: green beans with caramelized, crunchy and sweet garlic bits with fried whole garlic. The food is tasty but the portions are small.
Overall, good tasting food. And

I like this place, It seems very modern for a vietnamese restaurant. My bf got Bo Luc Lac, and it was very delicious. I got the super hyped Salmon Belly and I didn’t like it the way I thought I would. It tasted like so much fat it made me feel disgusting as I tried to finish the plate. I also go the cheese corn, only because it was something new I never tried. But I didn’t like that one either. It had way too much mozzarella cheese all over it and wasnt creamy whatsoever. It wasn’t anything like what I thought it was to be.
So even though I didn’t enjoy my meal, it was my fault for ordering things I didn’t know about. I got the avocado smoothie, and that was pretty good. I also enjoyed the price :) We’ll come back and I’ll try something else next time.

Am I really writing Garlic & Chives’s 500^th review? Yesiree-​Bob I am!
I finally made it to Garlic & Chives after reading positive reviews from some of my Unilocal friends and it was listed on Jonathan Gold’s top 101 restaurants in SoCal. I met Mari H. here on Saturday and put our names down for a table. The wait wasn’t too bad; we went over to 85C Bakery to grab a sea salt caramel coffee drink in between. It took us about 30 minutes to be seated. I really dig the modern décor.
We pored over the menu and asked about the green papaya salad. We asked if they could make it vegetarian because Mari doesn’t eat red meat and it had beef jerky in it per the menu. They said that they could alter one of the other salads on the menu for us which had papaya and mango in it. We were just charged for the vegetarian salad ($ 7) which was awesome. The salad came out with papaya, mango, tomatoes, fresh herbs, and fried tofu. It was tossed in a sweet, sour, salty dressing which complimented it well. We also dumped the chopped Thai chilis on it so that we’d get a kick of spice from bites of salad.
We also ordered the chili lemongrass salmon in the clay pot with crispy rice ($ 8) and the tiger prawns with garlic noodles ($ 12). We figured that it was enough for the two of us and indeed it was. The prawns came out butterflied with skin on. It was crispy in texture and went well with the noodles. I could taste the garlic but I thought it needed more spice so I added chili paste to it. My favorite was the lemongrass chili salmon with the crispy rice. The rice was perfectly crispy without being burnt. The salmon was buttery, delicious, and went superbly with the dipping sauce. This place is a fantastic change from all the generic Vietnamese restaurants nearby. It was so good! I can’t wait to come back and try some other things.

I heard great things about Garlic & Chives so I was excited to finally come here.
Garlic Noodles with Shrimp: Good! But is it as good as Kicking Crab’s garlic noodles? Idk.
Wings: I enjoyed this! The outside was crunchy and sweet and the chicken was good. I liked this the most out of the three things we ordered.
Fries: We ordered garlic fries… but I think we got cajun fries. Still good though.
Overall, I wouldn’t rush back, but it is a good place to try at least once!

I came with 3 other friends and had a wonderful unique feast devouring shrimp corn, grilled scallops, lamb screwers, fried salmon belly, shrimp with garlic noodles, hamashi salad, and spring rolls.
We only scratched the surface of the menu and look forward to coming back to try other stuff because everything we had was well flavored and not common in any other Vietnamese restaurant that I have been to. I figure this type of cuisine is unique to a reason in Vietnam, but I couldn’t figure out where.
Reasonably priced. Small, and worth the wait.
TIP: park in the back. this place is a parking nightmare with 85 degree and brodard’s in the same fricken plaza.

Finally got the chance to try G&C just before the rush at about 5pm. First impression of the menu was awe and amazement at how low everything was priced. When the food came out, some of the portions seemed to be on the small side, but turned out to be just right for two people. We even had some leftovers that were great the next day. A feast of five dishes set me back about $ 35, so, pretty inexpensive in my book. Everything on the menu is enticing, but we managed to narrow it down to some winners. The dishes all had tons of garlicky essence and were full of bright, aromatic flavors and great textures.
Garlic salmon belly — delicate fried batter, cooked beautifully, buttery and very melt-​in-​your-​mouth texture to the fish. Addictive and served with a light, sweet and tangy dipping sauce.
Ong choy with spicy dipping sauce — Delicious, garlicky, green… and the spicy fish sauce is magical.
Clay pot pork belly — the balance of sweet and salty definitely leaned sweet and got a little too syrupy and cloying for me after a few bites, even with the side of crispy rice and pickled greens. The meat was braised and super tender, all cut up into to little bite sized pieces which is my favorite. The little quail eggs were delish.
Turmeric fish — Huge chunks with light, crispy outer on the flaky, flavorful fish. This one had sort of confusing flavors. The turmeric was faint and I’m not sure the fresh dill worked as well as I wanted it to, but the more I ate it, especially with all the greens and dipping sauce, the more I loved it. I would order this again.
Small side of garlic noodles — a must.
Truly delightful food — there are so many things I want to go back and try!