New York City: Annisa (January 2017)

My spouse and I visited Annisa for dinner on a Sunday evening in mid-January 2017. Annisa is open for dinner daily. You can reserve a table 60 days in advance using the online Open Table reservation system. Annisa holds one Michelin star and three stars from the New York Times. 

Located in Greenwich Village on Barrow Street, Annisa (which means "women" in Arabic) opened in 2000 (with renovations nine years later due to a fire). Chef Anita Lo attended cooking school at the Ecole Ritz-Escoffier in Paris, and she has worked for Guy Savoy, Michel Rostang, David Bouley, and David Waltuck. Food & Wine magazine named her one of ten “Best New Chefs in America” in 2001, and the Village Voice called her “Best New Restaurant Chef”. She has appeared on Iron Chef and Top Chef Masters, and is the co-author of the cookbook “Cooking Without Borders”. She once operated Rickshaw Dumpling Bar and Bar Q (both of which are now closed). 

The main dining space seats about 50 people. The front of the restaurant offers a small stylish bar with lounge seating against the front window. The main dining area, which is located on a platform a few steps above the bar area, features a pale yellow color palette with accents of rust.. The restaurant designer followed the principles of Feng Shui, including thirteen tables, a strategically placed mirror, and displays of vases and other objects.

Annisa features contemporary cuisine with Asian and French influences. The bar offers many wines by women vintners, in addition to beer and cocktails. Chef Lo’s menu offers both a la carte dining and two multi-course tasting menus (5 courses for $115 or 7 courses for $155). Prices include gratuities/service, so no tipping is necessary. We ordered the more extensive tasting menu, and the chef served us the following dishes:

·         Amuse of potato crust filled with salmon mousse and topped with tiny slices of cornichons

·         Rolls and butter

1.       Fried oyster atop cucumber

2.       Signature soup dumpling (with molten foie gras mousse in a ginger broth with seared foie on top)

3.       Black sea bass sashimi (trout roe, yuzu pearls, shiso) and steamed bass on spinach atop parsnip puree

4.       Spanish mackerel (with garlic fried milk, Japanese sweet potato, Korean chili)

5.       Miso-marinated sable

6.       cheese tasting

7.       Dessert:
poppy seed bread and butter pudding (with Meyer lemon curd)
chocolate/malted tasting (with chocolate-almond pudding, crumbly malted-milk cake, and a frothy malt shake)

·         Mignardises (candied ginger strips, mint chocolates, and mini passion fruit Popsicles)

We enjoyed our dinner at Annisa, a restaurant where we have wanted to dine for years.