Annisa - B+

After reading about Annisa on The Amateur Gourmet and then reading up on the restaurant on every other website produced out of a quick google search, I considered myself pretty knowledgeable about, not only the supposedly awe-inspiring food, but also its chef, Anita Lo (a formidable chef who kicked Mario Batali's butt on Iron Chef), and the basis of the restaurant (the name Annisa means "women" in Arabic and the wine list "celebrates women in the wine industry"). I have to admit, I was looking forward to my dinner at Annisa the way a 10 year old looks forward to Christmas morning, and truth be told, I now realize that all the build up beforehand resulted in inevitable dissapointment (kind of similar to when I was 10 years old and received a cookbook for Christmas and my sister received a huge stuffed teddy bear...kind of ironic, huh?). This is not to say that I didn't have a great meal at Annisa, however I had placed all my hopes and dreams in this restaurant: I was expecting something magical and instead had a...well a great dinner but no fireworks.

The restaurant is small and cozy, and we were seated side-by-side, a nice gesture that was appreciated as we were able to converse more closely and "ooh" and "ahh" right in each other's ears. The waitstaff was also extremely pleasant, in fact I even commented in the middle of the meal "they're REALLY nice here" after the waitress practically bent over backwards to assure us that "there's absolutely no rush, please take your time" about a dozen times. Being an expert on all things Annisa by this time, I of course knew exactly what I was going to order before we even sat down (umm ok so I knew 48 hours before I sat down...and kind of had my choices written out on a sticky note at my desk two days prior...yep that's kind of frightening actually - oh in fact here's me, pretending like I need to look at the menu!).



I started with the foie gras dumplings, followed by the Miso Sable. The foie gras dumplings were very good but a little difficult to eat (you have to eat them over a spoon so that the soup within the dumplings spill into the spoon to be later slurped up). As my friend put it "this is the best, and most difficult thing I've ever eaten."



DISCLAIMER: All photos were taken on an iphone (no flash) hence the dark, dreary looking photos.

The Miso Sable lay atop a block of tofu, the whole thing surrounded by spicy broth. The Sable truly was melt in your mouth, however the tofu didn't do too much for me and I wish the broth had been spicier and hotter temperature-wise.



My friend's entree, a pork dish with gruyere and millet (a grain), looked delicious and tasted almost as good. The gruyere added a nice touch to the dish, who can resist melty gruyere really?, but I think I prefer the pork chops I made last night :)



See those delicious looking crusty cubes? That's the gruyere!

Now OK here's where Annisa actually did live up to all my hopes and dreams!! We ordered the goat cheese cheesecake for dessert and OH. MY. GOD. That about sums it up. I would have been fine with JUST the cheesecake, in fact I would have bartered my previous two dishes for two more cheesecakes if I had known how good it was going to be. Here's a picture of pure heaven:



BOTTOM LINE: A solid meal, especially the signature dishes (foie gras dumplings and miso sable), but wouldn't be on my top ten "last meal list" (and yes this means I have a last meal list if I should ever end up death row..knock on wood...too morbid?).

INSIDER TIP: one...wait two..three? words : goatcheese cheesecake!!!!