Annisa

I recommend Annisa, Anita Lo's place. It's well within your price range, and the food is fantastic. I celebrated a wedding anniversary there recently, and it was likely one of THE BEST meals I have ever had in NYC (including my meal at wd-50).

Our limit was similar to yours ($300), and we ended up spending $310 for 2 cocktails, a bottle of Riesling, 2 apps each, 1 entree, and 1 dessert each --...+READ I recommend Annisa, Anita Lo's place. It's well within your price range, and the food is fantastic. I celebrated a wedding anniversary there recently, and it was likely one of THE BEST meals I have ever had in NYC (including my meal at wd-50).

Our limit was similar to yours ($300), and we ended up spending $310 for 2 cocktails, a bottle of Riesling, 2 apps each, 1 entree, and 1 dessert each -- including tip.

I cannot emphasize how incredibly delicious the food is. The chicken dish (yes, the *chicken* dish) might be one of the best chicken preps I have tasted in my entire life.

Pardon the hyperbole, but it was *that* good. And you may still be able to snag a rez there....-COLLAPSE / REPLY (21 Replies) (by linguafood, created December 23, 2011)

»Annisa: A-dissa-pointing, somewhat.

So I paid my first visit to post-fire Annisa last night, and I'm sorry to say I was a little unthrilled. I'm a bit torn. While everything on our plates was very good, and prepared perfectly, for the most part they just didn't quite measure up to the prices on the menu.

I guess, living around the corner from WD-50, I'm a little spoiled for for what we might call "Wow Factor" - and granted,...+READ So I paid my first visit to post-fire Annisa last night, and I'm sorry to say I was a little unthrilled. I'm a bit torn. While everything on our plates was very good, and prepared perfectly, for the most part they just didn't quite measure up to the prices on the menu.

I guess, living around the corner from WD-50, I'm a little spoiled for for what we might call "Wow Factor" - and granted, everyone's "Wow" level is different. But once one crosses the $30 entree barrier, I expect things to not just be "very good" but to reach some higher level.

The main, most obvious problem was portion size. It was, in some cases, precious. The "Duo of Lobster and Corn" at $18 for an appetizer was a bit wanting. In terms of what was there, it was tasty - a mini lobster-claw sandwich and bowl of delicious, cold corn chowder / pudding. But they were as close to amuses as one could get, and two amuses don't make an appetizer. The sandwich didn't have much lobster in it - maybe 1/4 of a (small) claw - and while it was succulent, it was all I could do not to eat it in two bites. It was perhaps, viewed from above, the area of two postage stamps. Were there two of those little sandwiches on the plate - or maybe a bit of tail meat in another preparation - I wouldn't have had much issue. If there was any lobster in the chowder - which was slightly larger than an espresso cup - I certainly couldn't taste it.

It brings up an odd issue, though - there were no other dishes on the menu that used lobster. So where did this bit of claw meat come from? I can't imagine they're just harvesting claws and throwing the rest of the beast out in the kitchen. Are they using canned claw meat? I certainly hope not.

Our other app was a bit better, a barbecued squid with thai basil and "fresh peanuts" - which I'm guessing were unroasted peanuts, as they had a more bean-like texture. The portion was little nicer, ten little rounds of perfectly charred squid over a lovely salad of aforementioned peanuts and edamame. There was one great piece of fried legs that, sadly, left us wanting more of it. I'm thinking were the plate divided evenly between charred and fried it might have worked better, rather than the fried legs being little more than a garnish. A minor quibble, though.

Anyway, it was good - the sauce had a nice kick to it without being overwhelming, with a hint of fish sauce bringing umami to the game.

For entrees, again it was a 50/50 result. The duck with papaya and cashews (a new dish, which has replaced the squab on the outdated menu on their website) was delicious - a nice play on a few different things. A crispy duck breast, a pâté, and a bowl of wonderful duck soup.

Unfortunately, this is where another problem came in - now, normally, I don't care if the waitstaff is talky or not, and the servers at Annisa were just fine. I did find it a bit odd, though, that they didn't say anything about the dishes when they were brought to the table. Now, granted, this isn't WD-50 - you don't need someone to explain that the sheet of paper is made of heirloom tomatoes and the lightbulbs are freeze-dried tilefish powder - but sometimes, a few words would be nice. In this case, we had no idea what the pâté was. My best guess was perhaps a rillette of (nearly emulsified) thigh meat with a bit of liver, but I really couldn't tell you. I can say it went wonderfully with the shredded papaya atop it, whatever it was. Worth every penny.

I can't say the same about our other entree, the "Veal Tenderloin and Sweetbread with Artichokes, Oyster and Black Truffle Sauces" - Good? Yes. Although again, there was no explanation. A white foam didn't really taste like much of anything (perhaps a touch of oyster brine?) but the pan sauce on the bottom tasted like, well, oyster sauce and veal demi-glace. Not a bad thing, mind you, quite good in fact. But any black truffle in there was hard to detect. There were some sauteed greens in there as well, but no one bothered to mention what they were.

The other downside was that while the tenderloin and sweetbreads were perfectly prepared (and much love to the artichokes as well) there just wasn't much of 'em. The entire dish was maybe slightly larger than just the duck breast portion of our other entree. This was not, by any stretch of the imagination, a $36 entree. This was a $25 entree, pure and simple. Once we're in the high 30s, one expects something more than just good ingredients prepared well. Perhaps had the truffles and oyster been amped up, they could have gotten away with the relatively small portion. To be honest though, it needed both to warrant its price tag.

Maybe they could fit some of the rest of that poor lobster in there, somehow.

We split one dessert - Pecan beignets with bourbon ice milk and butterscotch - that was delicious. No complaints there.

But we left not quite fully satiated. For those of us who don't have unlimited money to spend, for whom a meal out like this is maybe a once or twice a month occurance - and who aren't eating on the company dime, like a critic - cost is a factor in judging any meal. And at $180 for two (one glass of wine each) while we don't expect to be in food comas, we also didn't both expect to be craving a bowl of fried calamari when we left.-COLLAPSE / REPLY (by sgordon, created August 7, 2010)

We were there last night and the new menu is fabulous. There were only 3 dishes from the previous menu, her signature dishes, and the rest were all new. Thanks for the recs on the squid and the veal. Both were superb, and the lobster was also great, as was the strawberry millefeuille. REPLY (9 Replies) (by rrems, created June 17, 2010)

I was very happy with my experience at Annisa. The amuse was escargot and parmesan wrapped in phyllo. I ordered the foie gras dumplings, the veal and sweetbreads, and the chocolate tasting. My husband ordered the barbecued squid, the miso sable, and the pink grapefruit dessert. Everything was very well done, but I thought the standouts were the veal and the sable. REPLY (9 Replies) (by ManhattanLawyer, created May 17, 2010)

(by sgordon, created July 7, 2011)