This past Thursday night I was fortunate enough to get to eat dinner (second dinner actually) at Animal. As I posted before, I was going to be in Los Angeles for a few days for work, and I basically only had one night to go out and do anything. My original plan was to play cards with a friend, but they fell through, so I went to plan B. When in doubt, I ask my buddy Jamie where to eat. He’s been a chef at a number of great restaurants, but most recently Toro and Coppa in Boston.
I texted Jamie in the afternoon and the conversation looked something like this:
I knew that if I were going to eat somewhere that I would remember, I had to listen to Jamie’s advice. I found Animal’s website and seemed to recall reading about the place before, but not remembering any of the details. I realized there was no shot at getting a table, but figured it would be worth it to try and get a seat at the bar. I gave a call over just to make sure there was a chance, and the hostess made it seem like there would be people leaving the bar as we were arriving. My co-worker Maria decided to join me, so we hopped in a cab from Downtown over to West Hollywood and away we were.
Animal opened up in 2008, and has been getting a lot of attention from the press for the two chefs, Vinny Dotolo and Jon Shook. Both of them went to the culinary school in Fort Lauderdale where Jamie also went. Somebody better figure out what they are teaching down there, because it seems more great chefs are coming from there than they are the CIA.
As you can see from the text conversation, while in the cab to Animal, Jamie recommended a dish that would be our first of the evening. When we arrived the hostess told me just what she had said on the phone, the party on the left should be finishing any minute, and there was no waiting list, so our names went right to the top. She offered us some drinks while we waited in the patio area. Animal only serves beer and wine, and since I was trying to stay at least remotely paleo, I opted out and we split a bottle of Pellegrino.
I don’t recall exactly how long we had to wait, but we didn’t finish the bottle of water, so it couldn’t have been that long. We got good seats at the left end of the bar, and began contemplating the menu. I figured I had to get the Pig ear, after all it was both recommended and also paleo. I was also intrigued by the rabbit legs and the poutine, even though the latter is not remotely paleo, it just seemed like one of those menu items that you can only get at one place, so you take advantage of the opportunity. Maria was most interested in the raviolis and the foie gras. Both of us shared in interested in the grilled octopus and chorizo. 
After discussing our selections with the bartender, we made a few revisions based on her suggestions and explanations of the size of certain dishes. Since we were going to do some sharing, and a few of the dishes we wanted were on the larger size, we decided to opt for some smaller ones to balance things out.
The final order was: Pig ear, grilled octopus with chorizo, foie gras with maple sausage gravy, ricotta raviolis, and crispy rabbit legs. As much as I wanted the oxtail poutine, it just seemed to be too much food for the two of us.
The pace of the meal was perfect. The food arrived in a 2-1-2 fashion. Click on the links or mouseover the cameras to see pictures of all of the dishes. Our first two dishes were the pig ear and the octopus.
The fried egg was probably the most perfect friend egg I had ever seen. And with no fear, I gently split the yoke, and dove in with a fork full of egg and ear. It was just like the breakfasts you dream about with perfect crispy bacon and eggs. Only this bacon didn’t come from the pig’s belly, it came from it’s ear.
The grilled octopus was also really well done and the pairing with the chorizo worked perfectly. There was just the right blend of sweet and spicy between the sausage and the chowchow.
Next up came the foie gras, and this is also where my paleo diet took a detour from it’s happy path it had been on, towards a darker, sweeter place. Not the foie gras isn’t paleo, but the maple sausage gravy and biscuit were just too sweet to be kosher. I tried to avoid the biscuit, but in the end I enjoyed the dish completely all ingredients included.
The last round of (scheduled) food was the rabbit legs and raviolis. Now I could have dug in and demolished these raviolis, but I knew I would regret it in the morning. So instead I respectfully ate one very delicious ravioli, and relished in how good the brown butter sauce and the ricotta tasted, and then moved on to enjoy the rabbit. The bartender said the breading on the rabbit was panko, but it was different than I had in the past. It was similar, but something about it was even lighter and crispier than I was expecting. The flavor on the rabbit was really lovely. I enjoyed bites both with and without the aioli. The heirloom tomatoes were obviously fresh and very flavorful.
It was at this point in the meal that I made one of the best or worst decisions of the meal, depending on what stand point you are coming from. I decided to order dessert. Now as you can see in the menu, there were four options to choose from, but the pie of the day was sold out. It was a white nectarine pie that the bartender said is one of the chef’s favorites and one of their local farms just happened to have a few nectarines so they made a single pie. Without a doubt the most unique choice would have been the bacon chocolate crunch bar, but for some reason I didn’t choose it. I could have even probably made a very poor argument that it was the closest paleo dessert. But I decided to get the tres leches because of the bartender’s recommendation. Once I got past the consequences this choice had on my diet/life, I decided to just enjoy it.
I can easily say this was one of the most surprising desserts I have ever eaten. I was amazed at how good it tasted in my mouth. The consistency was soft, spongy and everything you want in a cake. The icing/frosting/white stuff on top, was the perfect amount of sweet, and the dulce at the bottom was sweet enough to take you over the edge if you wanted it. Technically Maria and I shared this dessert, but I probably ate over 90% of it. I just couldn’t get over how great it tasted, and despite having just had a large dinner, I wasn’t feeling overly full, so I crushed it.
If I lived in L.A., I would probably try and eat at Animal on the regular. Especially since they change up their menu daily, I’d love to see the variety that comes out of this kitchen. The meal wasn’t too pricey. The bill for the two of us came to $120, but remember we didn’t have anything to drink besides a bottle of Pellegrino. Keep that in mind, if you are dining there and planning on ordering beer or wine. I didn’t even take a look at the wine list so I can’t give any insights on it, but I’d probably wager they have a good mix of affordable and expensive bottles that pair well with their food.
So that’s it. 4 stars, 5 out of 5, whatever grading scale you want to use, this place is awesome. If you want to see all of the photos, I created a Flickr set here http://www.flickr.com/photos/perfectmike/sets/72157625225373746/
