Girasoles — Restaurant in Watkinsville

My girlfriend forced herself to vomit the other night after eating here due to fear of salmonella. We went here for my birthday and for a higher end dining experience to celebrate. What we got was a symphony of uncooked failure. We got two drinks to start which came out okay, and then ordered the hush puppies for a starter = they turned out to be logs of uncooked cornbread batter fried in oil that must have been way too hot. Some parts of them were okay so we let it go.

Next stop was dinner. My girlfriend went for the Texas Chicken Special - which turned out to be chicken drowned in hot sauce (already not great but hey maybe we misunderstood what that was supposed to be), but the worst part was that after the first bite she realized that the chicken was RAW! Not under-cooked/pink but literally she was sawing through raw tendons and showed me a piece of raw meat at the edge of the chicken breast that she was served. My steak was ordered mid-rare and came out both very rare and with about a quarter inch of char on the top of it along with about 6 giant cloves of garlic, and was served on a bed of vegetables that had maybe been next to a saute pan for about 5 seconds. I took about four bites before I could not continue. We also ordered a side of brussels sprout casserole which was also under-cooked and swimming in what appeared to be a pool of maple syrup - yuk.

After all this we just wanted to leave, and while the staff did take the chicken off of the bill, they charged us full price for the steak claiming it had been cooked properly. I responded with "well at least you cooked a steak" and left it at that. Needless to say we will not be returning after being served 4/5 (and I'm being generous with the steak since it was technically edible) under-cooked food items and paying for basically...

There are very few times in my life that I have experienced a truly perfect meal. I had that elusive perfect meal here. My honey and I walked in to a dark restaurant. A horrendous storm blew out their power. They set up candles and brought us water. There were about 12 other customers there. I grabbed my iphone and turned on the flashlight to see through the dark to the ladies room. The owner escorted me abd candles were set up for customers to see their way to the facilities. Well... lights came on and we ordered. Israel was our wonderful waiter. They brought bread with a balsamic dipping sauce--- very good. My Honey got the garlic cream soup--- yummy. I got the ribeye steak cooked medium with roasted potatoes and spinach. The steak was cooked 1042% accurately. It was a great quality steak with a perfect char and pink inside. The garlic butter sauce was rich and wonderful. Potatoes were seasoned just right. The spinach had tomatoes and a bright hint of lemon. WOW! Honey got pasta wifh seafood. He said it was wonderful, but I can't eat shellfish, so I did not try it. We tried the chocolate passion pie YOWZA!! Deeply rich chocolate filling with The combined consistency of fudge and ganache with chunks of chocolate throughout--- high quality and deeply satisfying. The pie had graham cracker crust and was served with whipped cream and blueberries. Well worth the calories. The owner spent time with us. He said anytime we wanted, we did not have to order from the menu--- just tell him what we were in the mood to eat and he would cook it. We are going back very soon. I also understand they have a Sunday brunch. These are such gracious and kind people who know food. Please go... you will not be disappointed!...

Outstanding experience! We had eaten here about 4 years ago so we knew they had excellent food but our meal, server and whole experience was outstanding from the moment we walked through the door. We had been attending a car show in nearby Athens and decided to return to Girasole’s since our previous trip had been so good. Victoria was our server this occasion and she was a very professional, friendly and helpful wait person who was willing to take special orders and ask the chef about a number of special requests ranging from, “are the salad dressings available for sale” to “where do y’all purchase these great wine glasses”! We both chose the pan seared salmon and carrots and green beans covered in a blackberry reduction sauce that was just heavenly along with cheese grits!! We not only purchased two quarts of salad dressing but also a quart of the blackberry reduction!! The Belle Glos Clark & Telephone Pinot Noir was the perfect accompaniment and the crème brûlée cheese cake with coffee completed the evening’s culinary experience! Almost forgot, a large salad was brought out compliments of the chef to start the evening’s fare and was our introduction to the wonderful citrus salad dressing that we purchased. Since we live 2 hours away, why not!! And Chef Jose was delightful when he came out with additional suggestions on how his dressings and reduction could be used in other ways. Honestly, we can’t wait to return and already talking about when to make a...