Annisa: A great space, a great meal and great desserts

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?)

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.

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

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.