Nectarine posset with elderflower and shiso

Annisa reopened a little over a year ago after a fire destroyed the original 10-year old restaurant.  Normally, if you want a Saturday night reservation you have to give a few weeks notice but after I told then I was with DessertBuzz they opened up there entire schedule for us (actually they probably never heard of dessertbuzz, but they did have a cancellation!)

There’s no pastry chef at Annisa “We do it all” says Anita Lo, chef and owner.  It’s unusual, but not unheard of, for a restaurant of Annisa’s caliber to have their Executive Chef double as their Pastry Chef.   Their desserts showed no signs of this configuration.  They were not only superb, but interesting and thoughtful as well, just like Annisa’s savory dishes.

The nectarine posset with elderflower and shiso was as delicious as it was unique.  What’s a posset?  Good question.  It reminded me a of a delicate panna cotta with no gelatin.  The pudding-like component was combined with  a smooth, velvety nectarine puree with a hint of shiso (like mint).  This was the very first night this dessert was added to the menu (maybe they did know about DessertBuzz?)

Annisa - Valrhona chocolate cake with malt

The next plate, a “tasting of chocolate and malted desserts” was really up my alley.  Four chocolate-based desserts, each with a fun twist.  The plate contained  a Valrhona chocolate cake with malt, milk chocolate malted mousse, malted milk shake with  chocolate balls (like bubble tea) and a brownie-like cake square with malted milk balls on top.  Except for the Valrhona cake all these were on the sweet side of the chocolate spectrum as opposed to the dark and bitter side.   The shake with the bubble tea chocolate balls was fun to eat and the mousse had a perfect texture.

After dinner chocolates

Though we didn’t order any, our waiter told us that the beignets are the most popular dessert and Yelp seems to agree.

Milk chocolate malted mousse

Cake with malted milk balls

I usually don’t write too much about the  savory side on DessertBuzz but it would be a crime not to mention how good our mains were.  Duck three ways is a 3-Star dish and my trout was fantastic as well.  All around, it was a great dining experience.  I can’t wait to go back and have more desserts at the bar.

Annisa is on 13 Barrow Street.  Their website is here.  Their dessert Menu is here.

Recently, I received a gift-card that I could use either at Artisanal or Picholine.  That’s a tough choice.   Artisanal is really fun and a night of stinky cheeses on the house sounded really good.  On the other hand, I had heard Picholine is a stuffy, old-school, Michelin 2-star restaurant and I aspire to be stuffy and old school.  Plus, how often do I get the chance to visit these types of establishments?  In the end, the deciding factor was that as good as Artisanal is, unless you love cheesecake, their desserts are decidedly “just ok”.  I wanted to taste a Michelin rated dessert.

Before we talk desserts I just have to mention how superb the service and our savory dishes were.   Definitely worthy of both the hype and the 2-stars.

Our pre-dessert was apple cider with crumble.  We were told to pour the contents of the cone (the crumble) into our mouths and then wash it down with the apple cider.  We did as directed.  The crumble was like  the powder from a fancy pixie stick, flavored with real apples instead of the artificial kind like in Apple Jacks.  The Cider had all kinds of spices and did its job of telling the brain to shift gears into “sweet” mode.

Next up was the main feature, the liquid chocolate tart.  The dessert consisted of a small open bowl made with a cookie-like hardness.  Inside was a somewhat runny, liquid dark chocolate ganache.  A super-thin disc of dark chocolate covered the bowl and sealed in the ganache.  On top of the disc was a scoop of chocolate mousse, a drop of confiture de lait sorbet (like dulche de leche) and a pearl of meringue.

Every component of this dessert was perfect individually, especially the mousse and meringue.  However, the one thing I didn’t like was that when you cracked the side of the tart all the ganache ran out all over the place making it hard to eat the rest of the components together.  That said, the ganche wasn’t some cheap, bland syrup.  It was rich,  dark and  flavorful.  If  I ordered this again I would only crack the top of the disc and not the side of the tart.

Everyone knows the best thing about these high-end places is how many “extra” desserts you get.  At Picholine you get a plate of petit fours and a dish of chocolates. The macarons were decent but the chocolates were excellent.  Much better than I expected with rich flavors  like the ganache we had earlier.   Our neighbors didn’t touch their chocolates or their macarons and let me tell you I was this close to swiping them off their plates.  Seriously, who comes to a place like Picholine and leaves petit fours on the table?  If you’re too full, just stick them in your pocket!  Some people.  Special shout-out to team Oswald for make this happen- Thanks!

Picholine is located at 35 West 64th Street.  Their dessert menu is here.