Animal

Won't be returning

by chachartis at Citysearch

I'm a food server. Having said that...

It's good food, for sure. Fattening, laden with butter, richer-than-Trump rich. Okay. But if I'm going to be served the main course at 10:55 pm on a Sunday evening, 5 minutes before they close the kitchen, I ought to be able to have a glass of wine with said course. Willing to pay the $14 for an average glass of wine, I was denied. Huh??

"We already called 'last call,'" I was told, without so much as an apology or even consideration. Yeah, last call for food, I'd been told. I can't have a glass of wine with it? It's not like it's 2AM and the drinks legally have got to be picked up, right? An unfathomable and rookie service mistake. And a deal breaker at these prices. If you can put the food down minutes before closing, you can put a glass of wine down with it.

Animal, you're crazy popular--now. Don't believe your own hype and start forgoing proper service. There are too many great restaurants in this town for get-em-out crap like that.

Adios.

• Pros: Fine food
• Cons: Overpriced; Average service

weird but good

by buckside at Citysearch

weird but i liked it

maybe im weird?

• Pros: weird
• Cons: weird

Great, Adventurous Dining

by MeginLA at Citysearch

This stark restaurant on Fairfax is easy to miss. However once you're inside you'll be bowled over by the menu. I tend to be a slightly reserved eater but took the advice of the excellent waiter and ordered the pig ear. All I can say is: yum. Serious, serious yum. Each dish we had was flavorful and incredibly well prepared. Paired with the house red wine and followed by the amazing strawberry covered pound cake, this was a dining experience to remember.

• Pros: Diverse menu, excellent wait staff
• Cons: only one valet can mean long wait time

I want to f@ck you like an Animal

by gastronomnom at Citysearch

When the Nine Inch Nails wrote, "I want to f@ck you like an Animal", they must have been thinking of this place.

Notice they didn't say "make love to", "go to bed with", or even "have sex with".

No. They were specific.

Because Animal delivers the kind of visceral experience you can otherwise only get with a dirty, sweaty, no holds barred f@ck. That feeling of being deeply satiated, exhausted and with meaty juices still coating your fingers and face.

Foreplay consisted of the house smoked pork belly with lentil and butterbean salad. A thick cut of fatty pork belly, marinated in a sweet barbecue sauce, perfectly grilled and caramelized. Deliciously sweet and sitting on top of a "salad" of lentils and butterbeans in a tart vinaigrette. The single slice of pork belly was at least 10" long. Apparently a very satisfying size.

The main course for me was quail fry, grits, maple jus, long cooked chard, and more slab bacon. Imagine if the Colonel of KFC fame had an idiot savant younger brother who displayed sparks of culinary genius and enjoyed deep frying small birds coated in a crispy batter until golden brown, then serving them with momma's family recipe of grits and greens and four generous slices of fatty slab bacon. This was seriously finger lickin' good. And as a bonus, those small quail bones make great toothpicks.

Main course for her was the flat iron steak, PBR fondue, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, and crispy leek. Befitting the theme, this dish was meaty and raw. It was sauced with a gamey, earthy sauce and topped with a PBR "fondue". After I had desecrated the bones of four small birds, I finished off the remainder of her steak.

Dessert was left for home. I believe it involved a creampie of some description.

As for decor, the interior was all sturdy wooden tables, benches and chairs, concrete floors and exposed bulbs. No soft furnishings to pick up any telltale stains. And just like a good brothel, there is no sign on the outside of the restaurant. Just a discrete 435 to entice you in.

Animal may just be the best rebuttal for vegetarianism I've encountered.

After all, the Nine Inch Nails didn't write, "I want to f@ck you like a vegetable."

Although that could be fun.

So I've been told.

• Pros: foie gras, pork belly

is it just me or is animal over rated?

by weho333 at Citysearch

ok so I liked my meal here but think all the hype may be not justified. Just saying!

• Pros: love the foie gras dishes
• Cons: expensive menu