This review is of my dining experience at Animal on September 5th actually. This is delayed quite a bit, but that’s because it was Animal that inspired me to create this blog. Prior to eating at Animal, I had no ambitions of creating a blog. I do enjoy writing, and eating, and I definitely enjoy writing about what I’ve eaten. Unfortunately, I’m not published often enough to share my feelings about what I’ve eaten with those willing to read it. With my amazement over Animal’s greatness, I have decided I need to share my experience — those publications which I can pitch have either already written about Animal, or because so many other Los Angeles publications have written about Animal, those I can pitch to won’t publish a simple review.
It came as a very welcomed surprise to me that the ex-Food Network duo, owned restaurant, Animal, is innovative and delicious. Unfortunately, the dishes I’m going to explain probably won’t be on the menu any time soon. I’m not sure how often dishes are recycled, but the menu changes every two days apparently — I haven’t put this to the test yet. To me though, that’s very fortunate for those lucky enough to eat at Animal every two days, as the menu will never be stagnant.
There were four of us eating in all, and with limited stomach room we weren’t able to order everything on the menu each, so we shared a few dishes. For starters, we shared amberjack cubes with citrus juices and sliced white nectarines. The fish has a great texture. It’s the first time I’ve had amberjack so I’m not sure if the citrus helped to firm up the texture or if the texture it held was not impacted by the citrus, but it has the perfect texture to be served semi-raw. It didn’t quite seem like the citrus had made a profound effect on the fish’s raw state, but it seemed like it made a bit, so I’ll call it not quite ceviche and not quite crudo (sashimi).
At the same time that the amberjack arrived, the Basque (goat cheese) and sliced chorizo, baked together, also arrived. The aroma of the Basque filled the entire restaurant so well it was almost palpable. The dish was served with garlic baguette toast. The chorizo flavor was lost inside the flavor of the Basque, but it was not to the detriment of the appetizer. The baked Basque has a similar flavor to asiago cheese, but not enough for this to be an accurate description. The texture was similar to a thick Alfredo sauce.
The entrées arrived moments after we finished our appetizers. I ordered the flat iron steak with red wine veal reduction and braised oxtails. The server asked me, “How would you like it cooked?” and of course I told him that I’d like it cooked to the chef’s desire. To my satisfaction the steak had a crunchy exterior and perfectly buttery medium-rare interior. Not to the disgrace of the other entrees by any means, but it was the highlight of the entrees.
To cut through the beef dishes, a lemon pollock was the perfect accompaniment shared at the table. The dish was delicious, and the fish was cooked perfectly; not overcooked and not undercooked.
It’s odd to have so many impeccable dishes at one restaurant, but the beef ribs at Animal are some of the best I’ve ever had. The ribs were also cooked perfectly, showcasing Vinny Dotolo’s technical skills, and the flavor showcased his palate.
Of course someone unbearably ordered a salad as an entree, but unlike most times when this is a highly unacceptable faux pas at a table where foodies are experiencing a new restaurant for the first time; this salad was quite exquisite and complex. One friend joked that the salad must contain some form of seaweed that only grows at a one mile depth in the ocean in order for it to be on the menu. It was funny at the time, and after we tasted the salad we realized it wasn’t a necessary attribute for the salad to be on the menu, or more importantly, at our table.
The night was finished off with an extremely rich bacon chocolate dessert. It’s quite difficult to explain, but the rich chocolate and salty bacon bits were very good with each other. The chocolate was shaped in the form of a bacon strip for added aesthetics.
Animal will be revisited soon, and hopefully it’ll continue to offer up the same excellence as my first experience.
