ANIXI (VEGAN)
Friend back in town picked this for dinner, and we do what we need to do for our friends.
The menu doesn’t read vegan, with tuna, yellowtail, beef, lamb, ricotta, and more used freely throughout. We spent a bunch of time asking what all those things actually were, and then ordered mostly vegetables and no fake protein substitutes (except for the fake egg on the khachapuri, which the visiting friend was very interested in trying).
Drinks were tasty. Breads were delicious. I asked for hot sauce, which resulted in 3 different kinds of harissa of varying textures and heat levels, all delicious.
The dips were mediocre (and came in tiny portions), which was surprising given that Muhammara and Ful Medames are naturally vegan and usually delicious. The third one we got was whipped “ricotta” made from cashews, which was oddly sweet.
Hot mezze were a mixed bag. Crispy Cauliflower was mostly batter and barely tasted of cauliflower, also doused in a heavy sauce. We all love cauliflower, but it was mostly undetectable. Scorched Broccolini was the best of everything other than the bread, though not “scorched”.
The khachapuri was better than I expected, despite the fake egg (which was actually quite eggy – kala namak / Indian black salt with besan / gram flour for the yolk). The negative there was the fake mozarella, which had an unpleasant oily flavor).
Perhaps the most disappointing thing on the table was the side of Mujadara, which was just blah. Also a naturally vegan dish, so no reason for it not to shine. Barely any onions, and none of them caramelized.
We ended with a medjool date cake which was pretty dry for a date cake, but doused with plenty of chocolate sauce to remedy that. The vanilla “ice cream” on the side was more of a sorbet.
Service was simultaneously too much and terrible. Our server and the person he was training were very nice, but we didn’t need water refilled by someone leaning over and across the table to interrupt conversation every time someone took a sip. The second half of our food didn’t show up for 45 mins despite asking about it several times, after which the server informed us that the kitchen had lost the ticket. No remedy for that ridiculousness, though he was “definitely going to take care” of us (I figured that meant a comped dessert, but no).
The restaurant was completely full, however, so someone must like it.
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