Animal Restaurant

I've officially fallen in love. Its been a few years since I've said that about anyone or anything, but I am head over heels for Animal. Owned by Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo, formerly of "2 Dudes Catering" on the Food Network, Animal is a funky little restaurant on Fairfax & Rosewood, near Canter's. The space is small -- 45 seats -- with warm wood accents and simple cream walls. The focus is definitely on the food, and with good reason. Animal, as the name implies, is not meant for dainty eating. Although there were some seafood options (we tried the halibut crudo) the action really lies with the inventive (and often pork-centric) meat dishes. Definitely a splurge meal, at least in terms of calories, but worth it. The menu is divided into small plates (18 choices the night we went), large plates (7 items), and dessert (2 options). My friend and I decided to make a meal out of the small plates, and everything we had was absolutely delicious.

We started with the six hour bolognese served over warm parmesan polenta. The picture doesn't really do it justice. This elicited excited "wows" from my dining companion, who was worried that rest of the meal would not live up to this dish. Fortunately (although perhaps unfortunately for my tummy, since I stuffed myself) it did.

Next we had the crostini with burrata, olive oil and sea salt. Mmmmmmm burrata.

The baby halibut crudo, with radish, pickled beets, tangerine and tarragon followed as a "palate cleanser." The tarragon was subtle, and the tangerine and pickled beets were a really great combo. A little out of place with the rest of our heavy food, but we were the ones who chose to order only meat, cheese and carbs.

This brings me to the Poutine. Poutine is a Quebecian/Candian comfort food, consisting of french fries topped with cheese curds and brown gravy. Canadians are often subject to mockery for being peaceful, having funny accents, etc. but they are onto something with Poutine. More refined than chili cheese fries, yet still plenty low brow, Poutine is my new favorite nosh. The version at Animal had oxtail gravy and vermont cheddar, and it did not disappoint.

At this point we probably should have stopped eating, but we chose to charge bravely ahead into two final dishes: smoked pork belly with lentil and butterbean salad and a banyuls vinaigrette, and the foie gras "biscuit and gravy."

The pork belly was literally melt in your mouth. There was another version of pork belly on the menu, with kimchi, peanuts and chili soy, that I definitely want to try when on my next visit to Animal. The foie gras, with a biscuit and maple sausage gravy, was completely over the top. Each component on its own would have been decadent, but the combination of the two was just outrageous. It took all of our combined eating power to finish off the foie gras decadence, but we rose to the challenge. Needless to say, we did not have room for dessert

Not to worry though. In the immortal words of our Governator, I'll be back.