Stinking Rose

Stacey had never tried the Stinking Rose, and had been curious, so I made reservations for a few of us to go. Last time we had been there, it was for my 23rd (?? something like that, the years start melding together) birthday, so it had been a few years since we had been here last. We were all willing to go again, so I made some reservations and we headed over after work, which is a hop skip and a jump from where we work on Miracle Mile.

Stinking Rose has a bunch of memorabilia on the walls, a la Buca di Beppo style (although I think Buca di Beppo ripped this place off). We were lead to our booth, in the middle of a faux patio area, and settled in.

They delivered a set of bread rolls to our table, which we dug into. I remember last time I was here, they had a separate container with this garlic parsley mix which we could spoon over our bread, but this time, they had baked it right onto the bread. I actually preferred the other version, where I could spoon my own amount on top of the bread (because I would have smothered it with garlic, hah!) but the baking of the garlic mellowed it out a bit, so I wasn't horribly upset.

Owen and I ordered the Bagna Calda for the table. "garlic cloves, oven-roasted in extra virgin olive oil and butter with a hint of anchovy. "...This is a pretty neat dish... you take one of these cloves, mash it with some bread, and you've got an amazing flavor/texture combo going on. I think I ate a bunch of these on their own too...I love garlic.

Now, the main courses...Owen got the Garlic Braised Boneless Short Rib, which comes with, of course, garlic mashed potatoes. I tried a bite of this, and agreed with him - it tasted like my version of pot roast that I'd make sometimes, and that's not a bad thing. The meat was soft, easily cut with a fork, and the gravy was spot on, not too salty.

I chose the Forty Clove Garlic Chicken - roasted chicken, with a ton of garlic cloves (were there really 40 of them? I didn't count), and those garlic mashed potatoes. This was pretty decent, the white meat was still moist and not overcooked like I sadly get most of the time whenever I order chicken from a restaurant. The skin was a good golden color, and the mashed potatoes were great. I enjoyed this dish for what it was, a good roasted chicken dish.

Stacey got the Italian Garlic Meat Loaf, the other dish was mulling over to get. What a HUGE chunk of meatloaf - this was the size of half a brick, literally. I tried a taste of it, and it was pretty good, very garlic infused. More of those garlic mashed potatoes again...and...spinach? What is that? I actually don't know what that green mass is on the plate...

Bryan got the salmon and veggies as a side - so healthy! I didn't try any but he finished it all so I'm assuming it was decent.

I've had it before, but everyone has to try the Gilroy's Famous Garlic Ice Cream with caramel mole sauce. If you notice, the dish itself is frozen as well - I guess they pre-scoop these, and freeze everything, dish and all. The ice cream was EXTREMELY hard, very difficult to even try to liberate a small bite out of the garlic ice cream scoop. We had to let it thaw out a bit. It was actually very good, more of a sweet creamy mellow garlic flavor and not at all gross like most people would think garlic ice cream tastes. The caramel sauce also elevated the ice cream's flavor.

The Stinking Rose was pretty good, especially for a chain and a hyped special occasion dinner place on Restaurant Row. I admit though, my stomach hurt a bit afterwards..was it all the garlic? Maybe we're not meant to eat that many garlic cloves...but it was worth it either way.

The Stinking Rose
55 N. La Cienega Blvd.
Beverly Hills, CA