Garfrerick's Cafe and Catering — Restaurant in Oxford

At 7:15 PM (the restaurant closes at 8 PM), we arrived for our 7:30 reservation for two. We were seated behind the wall, tucked into a corner at a small table for two. Within five minutes, we ordered the green salad, Chef salad, and pesto with tomato on bruschetta as appetizers.

In today's Covid environment, our table had not been washed, and we used an alcohol wipe to clean the table, which came away grossly filthy.

At 7:35 PM, I asked if the bread was coming. I was informed it had to be baked. It arrived five minutes later.

At 7:50 PM, I spoke with the head waitress and asked why none of our food had arrived, especially salads and appetizers. I was informed that our order had not been entered into the computer until 7:44 PM. I asked for a new waitress, and the head waitress said she would take over.

At 7:55 PM, our salads and appetizer arrived. Five minutes later, our entrès arrived as we were still just bites into salads and appetizers. There was not enough room at the table to place all of the dishes, and the staff arranged to have a second small table moved alongside ours.

My wife's green salad was nothing but various whole lettuce leaves and spinach with six pecan slices ($16). It was a challenge to eat due to lack of flavor and the size of the leaves. We do not reccomend.

My Chef's salad ($16) was again only romaine lettuce but did have an amazing italian dressing that made it very tasty. I recommend.

Both my wife and I loved the tomato and pesto on bruschetta ($9). Different colored tomatoes were used, and it looked as good at it tasted. We recommend.

The restaurant's appetizer selection left us wanting. The is very little offered other than salads - no mushrooms, calamari, ravioli, soup, etc.

For entrès, I ordered the halibut on coconut rice with grilled vegetables ($36). The halibut portion seemed small, but exhibited outstanding flavor, and I enjoyed everything on the plate. When finished, the proportion size was acceptable.

My wife ordered the rib eye steak with mushrooms, asparagus and fingerling potatoes. The steak was thick, large, and cooked to perfection. The mushroom sauce complemented the steak and provided a nice dip. Everything was superb.

For dessert, we ordered (I cannot remember the name) a chocolate pudding with a creamy whipping. It was fantastic, rich, and one portion is sufficient for two to share after such a succulent meal. I included a coffeeniti that complimented, but was a tad liquor-strong.

All-in-all the meal quality was excellent, but the service was off the mark. We were told that this was the waitresses' first day on her own. I believe more training...

Overall I can't recommend this place I tried to go several years ago but when I called about what they had posted for the menu on Facebook at that time the staff knew nothing about it which isn't a good sign. My most recent trip through the area and I decided to go on the off chance that it might be worth visiting despite the fact that there's an apparent lack of Staff training.

We went and order the harvest vegetable plate and the shrimp and grits. Two things about the grits; I would have ordered the shrimp and grits myself except I was told that the cheese was already in the grits and I'm allergic to dairy. So my first question is who cooks grits in advance?! They don't take that long to cook! So they must be prefixing grits with cheese in them and then reheating them in the microwave. In the end I was glad I didn't get it because while they do use organic grits, I looked up the mill in SC that they buy them from and they grow/mill a type of corn that is commonly used in hominy rather than just sold as any other corn product. This explains the horrible taste. For those of us who grew up here in the South and love grits if you don't like hominy you're not going to like the grits here because they taste like hominy and that's a very different taste and personally is one I absolutely abhor. The harvest vegetable plate was pretty good but not anything I would go back for. I also had ordered a side salad that the menu stated was $9, but on the bill I noticed afterwards I was charged almost $5 more than the price on the menu! So I guess they're also doing false advertising or some sort of creative up charging/price gouging. The salad was the best part of the meal, but it would not have been worth that price because it was just a tiny side salad, one you would normally pay five or six dollars for anywhere else. Do not recommend and...

I wanted to love this place. I do love a good local restaurant. The food was excellent. Every dish was phenomenal. No issues there. It was everything else that was lacking. We had a 7:30 reservation for Valentine's Day. At 7:30, there was a line of about a dozen couples waiting for a table. We sat down at 8:15. That's unacceptable for a place that takes reservations. The wait to sit would have been ok, but the wait for our food was even worse. We did not get our entree until 9:50. Each dish was a very long wait. Several other things about the place were also subpar. The first thing I notice is that the kitchen looks very dirty and dim. The ice from the bar was frosted ice, which is not recommended for making $12 cocktails. The dining room has no character and is very poorly decorated. The pictures on the wall are so bad it's distracting. The dining room we sat in was super bright, and uninviting. The main light was provided by a dorm-room style floor lamp! Tacky for a place that presents itself as elegant. As far as service, our server was trying his best. But, again, it fell short of the mark. We had to ask for bread. He never updated us or informed us about the long wait. Our drinks were constantly empty. A night to remember turned out to be just another dinner for myself and my S.O.

All in all, this place was a huge disappointment. For over $100 a plate after drinks and tax, the experience should...