Animal

I was hesitant to try such an exploration into unfamiliar animal parts but wow was I blown away. The wine list is delish too. Don’t die before eating here. ;)

Make reservations, as the restaurant is small and often packed!
Your best bet is parking along the street outside and across the street from the restaurant. I do believe I saw a valet stand outside the restaurant, although no one appeared to be working it upon our arrival.
Animal suggests that you enjoy their dishes family style, so everyone can get a taste of each and every dish. They also recommend you order everything at once, and do charge $.25 per cup of water ordered. It is recommended that you order 2 – 3 dishes per person.
For two people, we ordered 5 dishes, but canceled one halfway through our meal because we were getting really full. To start, we had the hamachi tostada. Once you find the hamachi pieces at the bottom of the plate, this dish is amazing. I absolutely loved the fresh green and seasoning used and would definitely order this dish again. The fish tasted very fresh and was complimented very well by the other ingredients.
Secondly, we received the bone marrow dish. To be honest, the add ons of chimichurri and caramelized onions over powered the true taste of bone marrow, and I did not enjoy this dish as much as I have at other places. The toast was also pretty burnt and hard to enjoy. I would pass on this dish next time.
Next, we received the poutine with oxtail gravy and cheddar. This dish was extremely filling and probably what filed the majority of our stomachs. There was no shortage of sauce, although it was a bit salty. I’d consider ordering this again, depending on how filing of a meal I want.
Lastly, we got the balsamic pork ribs. Initially the ribs appeared to be very burnt, but turns out that is just the sauce. The ribs were amazing. They literally slide off the bone and melt in your mouth. The portion itself is pretty decent, compared to the other dishes, although I wouldn’t have minded eating the entire dish myself. I will be getting this again.
Overall, our experience at Animal was pretty delicious. The service was pretty slow, so definitely leave enough time for a prolonged experience. I can’t wait to come back, as well as try some of it’s sister restaurants!

3 stars for the quality of the food, but considering the hefty price tag, it knocks it down to 2.5
Animal has been high on my «to eat in LA» list. As my time in LA is coming to an end, I made a reservation to make sure we eat here.
By far, I think this was our most disappointing meal in LA (and that includes that one time I went to Veggie Grill). I’ve seen some of the mixed reviews that stated that Animal was much better 2 – 3 years ago and has decreased in quality since then. After our very mediocre meal last night, I have to believe that. I should also mention that we’ve been to Son of a Gun, also by the same owners, and it is one of my favorite restaurants in LA. I’d recommend anybody considering going to Animal to go there for a much better meal at a much lower price point… or even go to Ink for a spectacular meal for the same price.
Between four of us, we shared the hamachi tostada, BBQ pork belly sandwiches, poutine, bone marrow, pig ear, yellowtail collar, fried rabbit legs, smoked turkey leg, foie gras loco moco. We tried a wide variety of their dishes and felt that most of the dishes were «just okay,» which is disappointing considering they range from $ 14 to $ 36. My favorites were the poutine and the refreshing hamachi tostada.
However, I found the most offensive dish was the yellowtail collar. This is a dish we frequently order in other restaurants, but the first bites my husband and I took were literally mouthfuls of SCALES. I took a second bite, thinking it could just be a fluke or accidental scales left on, but when it wasn’t, we let the waitress know, who took the dish and my dish (with scales all along the edges) to show the chef. The waitress brought the dish back and stated that the chef said that because the fish had the skin on, scales were to be expected. UMMM… excuse me?! In what kind of cuisine or any type of cooking do you ever leave huge scales on, and then say «it’s part of the skin»?! Not only that, but the sauce was overly sweet, syrupy, and citrusy; completely wrong for the yellowtail. I don’t think I have ever sent a dish back before, but this was completely inedible in my opinion. We sent the dish back and ordered the turkey leg instead.
Sorry, it was a terrible experience. For $ 70/​person and to have such a mediocre (bordering bad) meal, I can’t recommend coming here based on the experience we had. Take your hard-​earned money and enjoy a better meal at Ink or Son of a Gun.

If you have food allergies DO NOT COME HERE! They say on their menu that they politely decline to modify food… They wouldn’t even remove bread crumbs from their salad so that I could eat it. I wasn’t asking for a whole lot… Won’t be going there again considering I could eat only 4 things, one of which was a steak that cost $ 3 an ounce with a minimum order of 40 ounces.
I was extremely disappointed but the bone marrow was yummy.

We just dined at Vaca in Costa Mesa the day prior and I must say Animal was better in pretty much every way except for ambiance. The décor here is so sparse– nothing on the walls. They are clearly trying to make this «all about the food» which is fine– as long as the lighting is dim I’m pretty ok with any décor.
Chicken liver toast– so creamy, buttery, melty in your mouthy. Two pieces served on toast — someone already put a picture of it in their review so you can see it’s a reasonable portion if you look at the Unilocal photos. I liked this better than the proper foie gras. ⁵⁄₅
Foie gras with maple sausage gravy — it was very… foie gras. This mixed well with the flavors that were added salty and sweet– and it may just be my unrefined and non-​carnivorous tongue that felt this wasn’t the best dish of all time. But either way I could tell it was high quality and since it’s not my area I will refrain from scoring.
Rabbit lard — looked and tasted like pork cracklings. Not my favorite because it is so heavy with grease flavor and dry. Many people might like this but just know what you’re getting in to. for me it is just a ³⁄₅
Yellowtail collar — this was spectacular. Nicely prepared the fish was not so overcooked that is flaky in dry fashion it was rich and moist and fall of the bone — just tasted really scrumptious. Also — huge portion it is a giant big collar of the fish with good accompaniments. ⁵⁄₅
Cauliflower — very good. Also better than the dish at Vaca (which was very heavy with the cumin). This was well cooked — not mushy or too crunchy. One of my favorites ⁵⁄₅.
Uni– this was the only dish that was really sub par. The uni flavor was completely overpowered by pickles («heirloom cucumbers») and onions. It was bizarre– the uni itself was good quality too. What a waste. Also had fried cheese cubes– which was ok but it just didn’t go well with the dish. At all. ²⁄₅
Hamachi tostada — the dish of the night. Everything about it was perfect. High quality fish, nice crunchy tostada below, the salad was also a very nice accompaniment. ⁵⁄₅
Bone marrow burger– as creamy and overwhelmingly tasty as it sounds. (Per friends report– this was their favorite dish). I had a little of the bun with the toppings and without the meat and it was bomb. It was a special so I dunno if it will always be offered. ⁵⁄₅
Pork sliders– also a favorite among the carnivores. Well done animal. ⁵⁄₅
Tres Leches– this was my favorite tres leches I have had that isn’t home made. ⁵⁄₅
Bacon chocolate crunch bar — I only had the salty sweet ice cream that came alongside and that was spectacular. The fudge was reportedly good as well. ⁵⁄₅
Overall we were very impressed. Well played animal. We left with full bellies too — this wasn’t a night of small plates where we had to hit up a fast food restaurant on the way home. Drinks are EXPENSIVE though — we had pregamed across the street so only ordered beer with dinner (they have a good selection) but I would recommend having a few drinks before arriving to save monies.

Animal was used to be one of my favorite restaurants. I haven’t been back to Animal for almost 4 years and I was extremely disappointed this time around. We had a reservation for 2 people at 7pm and there were 4 open tables (two 2 seats table and two 4 seats table) at the time we walked into the restaurant at 7pm. We were told to wait at the bar but we saw people that came in after us were able to get seated at those open tables. We complained to the hostess and we were finally got seated at the last open table.
The food is another huge disappointment, none of the dishes we ordered were finely made. Some of the ingredients just did not match with each other. We also ordered a bottle of red and it came out way above the serving temperature. It was Warm!!! That was the most shocking dinning experience I ever had in the past few years! Simply horrible. It took me almost a week to try to erase this from my memory… The price is on the high side too… crazy Animal!

When visionary chefs smoke weed, surf and open up shop in the Beverely Grove District on Fairfax, great things seem to happen.
Animal enjoys a reputation as one of the most creative and defiant havens of gastronomy in America’s second largest city and that is for a good reason; Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo are regularly making dishes that others just dream of creating. The concept is simple: Everything is centered around meat, a whole lot of rustic, hearty, meaty, dishes made from all types and parts of animals — ribs, legs, wings, belly, tail, head, tongue, ears, liver, marrow, brains… essentially any part of the animal. This sounds like heaven to me.
Vegetarians and substitutions are not welcome, so leave your granola eating buddy at home and have Quinoa and Flax another day. Looking to shed pounds for summer? Go elsewhere. Not a single damn is given to keep calories in check. You are going to have to leave your fate in the hands of the kitchen. The way it should be.
I came for Brunch and highly suggest you do the same as you get to see a wonderfully diverse menu along with great local craft beers and as we all as an interesting Bloody Mary featuring Sake in place of Vodka.
Start with the Foie Gras Biscuit with Maple Sausage Gravy. Why? Because it is undeniably the richest Foie I have had to date. The dish brilliantly combines my favorite maple syrup flavors from breakfast and then adds a creamy/​salty/​savory experience that completely blew my mind. Perfectly cooked Foie with lavish buttery notes and a nice sear on top plus a tender, fluffy biscuit floating in flavorful sausage gravy. Truly a master stroke.
How do you follow that up? With the «Truck Stop“naturally. The best sunny side up fried Eggs I have ever tasted were flanked by perfectly cooked balls of Sausage, crispy and delicious Bacon, and smushed Potatoes with sea salt. Hell, even the Texas style toast was perfectly prepared. It is amazing that very simple ingredients can create the best breakfast I have ever eaten when cooked by Ninja-​grade chefs.
I am sure the calorie count for my meal was in the ten’s of thousands and that is perfectly acceptable to me as I cannot think of a better way to spend a morning than at Animal for brunch. The hype is very real and my return is guaranteed.

I can’t think of a restaurant that had been on my bucket list longer than Animal.
I remember being reading about Animal on various food-​related blogs, which praised the carnivorous creations of Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, I could never score a reservation at a workable time, and I eventually gave up trying.
Flash-​forward to 2016. Animal is no longer the new kid on this particular block of Fairfax, and the Shook/​Detolo team operates a half-​dozen restaurants across LA. It seemed like a good time to give Animal another shot.
My guest and I strolled into Animal at ~6pm on a Saturday night without reservations. Even though it was busy (as expected), there were still plenty of seats available at the sleek, understated bar. The impossibly good-​looking bartender was quick to pour a round of wine (Riesling for me, Cabernet for my guest).
Animal serves all of its dishes tapas-​style, and no distinctions are made among appetizers and entrees. Five dishes ended up being perfect for two hungry people. The kitchen did the heavy lifting of coursing out the plates in the way that made the most sense. Here’s the rundown:
1) Hamachi tostada, fish sauce vinaigrette, peanut, avocado
2) Cauliflower, tahini, Egyptian spice, white anchovy, puffed rice
3) Poutine, oxtail gravy, cheddar
4) Bone marrow patty melt burger on marble rye (special of the night)
5) Cheesecake pudding, strawberry, passion fruit, graham crackers
Every dish was outstanding, and picking out a favorite is impossible since they were all so different. I loved the fresh and tangy hamachi tostada, and it contrasted well with warm and savory cauliflower. The poutine and bone marrow burger were the perfect mains — rich and decadent but not oppressively so.
Special props go to the cheesecake pudding dessert, which was not only delicious, but also beautiful to look at. That plate was practically licked clean.
There’s no doubt in my mind that Animal is a 5-​star place for a swanky dinner. Animal may no longer be new, but I suspect it’ll age nicely, like a fine wine.

I love Animal for what it is and what it’s not. I’ve been here before, before the «hipster hype» after the Food Network promo… and you know what, nothing’s changed.
The food is amazing, the servers (especially tonight with Kenney) incredibly welcoming.
We had: sirloin carpaccio, chicken liver toast, bone marrow, sweet breads, veal brain, and the marrow burger — ALL FANTASTIC AND HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
I love the food here, and you really can’t go wrong with any of the selections– but keep in mind that the restaurant is called ANIMAL, not VEGETABLE so don’t expect salads. The sirloin carpaccio is unlike any carpaccio you’ve ever had. It’s an Asian spin on a known European classic. The marrow burger, which is not on the menu, is a mixture of non-​GMO beef and bone marrow grilled rare and is beautifully seasoned. It’s incredibly juicy and just oh-​so-​delectable — also, nice touch with the rye bread! That was by far the highlight of the night.
If you’ve never been, it’s a bit of an adventure to find, but worth it. It’s an unmarked space right next to Canter’s Deli and Supreme, etc. Try to find public parking off Rosewood (it’s free). I promise, even though it’s a bit of a drive the intimate space and dim lighting will draw you in and keep you wanting more. Definitely not that expensive considering the variety — forget the negativity… come in with an open mind and palette.

The cow goes «Mooooooo!»
The pig goes «Oink, oink!»
The duck goes «Quack, quack!»
The hamachi goes «Blub, blub?»
The rabbit goes… I got nothing.
Protein focused, super casual, informative and succinct service. Not a full bar, but with the food as delicious as it is, a cocktail would likely put it over the edge.
I’ve been here at least half a dozen times and the menu stays pretty stationary, save for a few dishes that come and go; it still amazes each time.
The ribeye is all-​time.
Pro tip: Make a reservation or come early/​late as it’s always poppin’.

First time here and everything was amazing! All the dishes we ordered were very flavorful. The portion of the dishes were small but the flavors were so amazing we can’t complain! We ordered total of 6 dishes and by the end of the 5^th dish we were very full.
What we ordered: I’m going to rate this from 1 being the best.
1. Foie Gras on biscuit (amazing)
2. Chicken liver toast
3. Marrow bone
4. Bone marrow burger
5. Pork ribs
6. Japanese uni
Service was also great! We are definitely coming back soon!

I’ve had Animal bookmarked for years and I finally decided to try it a few weeks ago on my last trip to LA. Reservations were easy to make, I made them online and got a call and text message confirmation. Parking in the area seems a bit hard to find, but we just went around a few times since we were early and was able to find some street parking a block away. The area is very hipster/​hype beast.
The restaurant itself is on the smaller side. It’s sort of dim inside and the walls are bare, so it’s definitely nothing fancy. The place feels casual-​business casual. I saw a few people super dressed up, but that could be because they were going out after. But, you could totally get away with wearing jeans and a t-​shirt here.
Service was mediocre here. Our server was okay, he was courteous but didn’t exceed my expectations of being friendly or special.
We ordered a few things that stood out to us from the menu and shared each dish between two people. Portions were average that you’d expect from a place like this, but we lef unsatisfied. We tried the hamachi tostada, bone marrow, oxtail poutine and the foie gras loco moco. The hamachi tostada was a few pieces of hamachi on one tostada with a bunch of lettuce and mint leaves. It tasted very Vietnamese influenced. It wasn’t bad but not worth ordering in my opinion. The bone marrow was alright, can’t really go wrong with it. The poutine was good, can’t beat gravy, fries and meat. They used cheddar and you can really taste it in the dish. Our main course, the foie gras loco moco was not as good as I expected. There is so little rice that was drenched in gravy and not edible, so I just pushed it off to the side. The foie gras was cooked perfectly though. I felt like I just paid for hamburger, spam and the foie of course. This dish is pricey! and I think you could go without it.
Overall, the food was nothing to write back home about. It was nice to try, but I most likely would not go back. I’d rather spend the $ 100 elsewhere.

This was one of the best (and fanciest) meals I’ve had in LA so far. Wish I knew the name of our waiter — he was super knowledgeable and helpful! He did a great job explaining the menu and made sure we ordered an appropriate number of small plates for our group of 5. One of the girls in our group has a gluten intolerance, and he knew every single ingredient used in each dish, which was very impressive. Most of their dishes are at least garnished with gluten though, so I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone with strict gluten restrictions.
I highly recommend the uni, foie gras biscuit and gravy, sweetbreads, and hamachi! The uni was so good that we ordered another one halfway through our meal. I think the foie gras was the most expensive thing we ordered ($ 35), but every bite literally melted in your mouth. I had never tried sweetbreads before, but the peanuty sauce it came with made them absolutely delicious. The hamachi tostada was very light, fresh, and one of the larger portioned dishes that we ordered. Definitely a little pricey, but worth the occasional splurge!

This place was not memorable. There’s a revolving menu with some unique ingredients. uni, pigs head, veal tongue and brain, foie gras included. But none are executed with any distinction. The plates are tapa size and meant for sharing. You can get better food of the same caliber elsewhere. The hype is not worth the wait.

Was deciding on a place to do a brunch for my birthday. My cousin chose this place cause she had heard amazing things about the dinner menu here and my other cousin heard they had the best burger in LA.
Located on Fairfax right next to Supreme. Parking was hard to come by since the swap meet was happening at the high school closeby and a lot of big name streetwear stores are on Fairfax. The place was somewhat small, maybe 15 tables.
The food: The «boner burger» was juicy and delicious with a hint of spice. The «truck stop» breakfast platter was huge. Big thick cuts of bacon, 2 size able sausage patties, 2 eggs, buttery toast and tater tots. Overall, I was definitely impressed with the food and ambiance.
If you don’t mind braving the search for a parking spot, then definitely come check out Animal for brunch.

NOW SERVING BRUNCH! I’ve been meaning to go to Animal for what feels like forever now and I finally got the chance to see what everyone’s been raving about. This place is legit.
Came here on a Saturday afternoon — I recommend making reservations. I was told this restaurant serves tapas like portion for dinner, but not for brunch. The brunch portions are the perfect size for one person to be satisfied.
Everything looked delicious on the menu so that made it hard to choose. However, I got the truck stop and my boyfriend got the Reuben Benedict.
The truck stop was the perfect breakfast. 2 fried eggs, 2 pieces of delicious crispy bacon, 2 homemade sausage patties and plethora of gold and purple bakes little potatoes. Filling for sure.
The Reuben Benedict — woah!!! So rich and oh so delicious. Seriously, you cannot go wrong with this if you’re a true foodie.
Oh and before I forget, they serve stumptown cold brew coffee. This place was perfection!

So was out in LA for a few days during the Thanksgiving timeframe and wanted to cross off animal as it had been on my bucket list for over a year now but had not been prioritized for a visit. We finally made our way over here on a Saturday before flying back out for work on Sunday. The restaurant has plenty of street parking around it which is priced at a $ 1 per hour for meter. As there is only street parking, I can see how valet parking may be convenient and probably still be decently priced. The restaurant itself has a grey façade with no markings showing the name of the restaurant on the outside. The interior of the restaurant is simplistic with simple color tones and keeping it clean. The room is long as opposed to wide with the two person tables against the edge and the 4 person tables in the middle of the room.
We were promptly greeted for our 6 PM reservation and immediately provided menus for our perusal. This joint is a «tapas» style with 5 –6 plates being the normal for two people based on their thoughts as well as my experience. There were so many options to choose from but after a bit of reading, we decided to go with the Carpaccio, chicken liver toast, bbq pork belly sliders, Pig ear, loco mocco, and the bacon chocolate crunch bar. The food was paced well with the dishes coming out with good spacing. All of the dishes had a Asian fusion flavoring to it which was surprising. The Carpaccio was delicious and had sesame oil flavoring to it. Loved the way it was light on the palette and still crisp on all the flavoring. The liver toast was solid and was simple. The flavor was complimented well. The pig ear was something we were happy to have tried. There is plenty of flavoring on this with great texture behind the crispiness of the meat. The pork belly sliders were the perfect tang and nice balance. The pork belly was of high quality just like everything else and absolutely delicious. The foie gras loco moco was a spin on a classic hawaiin dish. The dish is of course rich in flavor with twists on all the traditional ingredients. The spam, and siracha, and all flavors were well complimented. The overall dish was a bit rich but still a solid dish to share with multiple people. The final dessert dish was solid with multiple flavors working all together. The S&P ice cream was surprisingly very good with the layers of the dessert complimenting the dessert. Even loved the way the dessert was shaped in the layers of bacon.
All in all, a very good visit and I am excited to try out the other dishes this place has to offer. Yes this joint is awesome for carnivores so not sure if it will be my standard joint but cant wait for the next visit

Overhyped.
I’ve had far superior iterations of similar dishes found at Animal without all the pretentiousness and crummy service.
Our waiter Kenney suggested that we still order 4 – 5 dishes, and when I mentioned that we had eaten a bit beforehand (given our 9:00PM reservation), he was not pleased. He rushed over the menu and brought back the wrong beer for my husband. By the way, 3 – 4 dishes would be plenty for a party of two. When I asked which dessert he preferred, he said matter-​of-​factly that the cheesecake was lighter and the chocolate bar more savory over his shoulder as he had already started walking away from our table. We were expected to know what to order though it was our first visit. We’ve had far more personable service from Panera to Le Bernardin.
The menu wasn’t particularly appealing — if you’ve had ethnic food ever, then you’ll know the menu isn’t particularly inventive either. The pig ears dish was underwhelming and pretty basic — it was just chicharones (in the form of ear) with Thai chili sauce (can be found at any phở restaurant) and an egg. The off menu boner burger was better but certainly not the best. It was rich and tasty, but a tad salty. We’ve had better at The Lexington House (Los Gatos) or 4505 Meats (SF). I wanted to round off our quick meal with dessert and opted for the cheesecake pudding which was a gooey mess. Also, only beer and wine, no cocktails.
The ambiance, or lack thereof, was bland. By 9:30PM the restaurant was not even half full; while on the other side of DTLA, Bestia was brimming with people when we left. Hardly the best of what LA has to offer. Hard pass.

I’ve heard a lot of people say this is the place to go for exotic and yummy meats. However, coming here my impression is meh. We ordered a lot off the menu as well.
First we ordered the chicken liver toast. it was a small piece of toast and barely any liver on it. I love liver and the taste of it but I could barely taste any of it.
Mongolian sweetbreads was our next dish. I think this one was my favorite. The waiter recommended us to mix up all the sauce with the fried pieces. But it ended up being overly sauced and took over the flavor of the sweetbreads.
Veal tongue is my least favorite. I guess I can’t get over the texture of the tongue even so the flavors all together wasn’t my cup of tea.
The poutine oxtail gravy was actually pretty good. Had great balance of sweet, salty, and fries. But then again how can you not have good poutine.
The bone marrow that was not on the menu and was recommended by the waiter was not that good either… I have had better at Swine in Miami. The marrow was mostly fatty and did not have the deep complex flavor marrow has.
The heirloom tomato was very good but it also had a lot of dressing on it so… took away from natural flavors of the tomatoes.
Yellowtail collar was mostly the flavor of what was on top of it. The taste of the collar wasn’t prominent but the fish was very fresh and did not taste fishy at all.
Lastly, we got the fried rabbit leg. Which tasted a lot like chicken. But there was a butt load of sour cream gravy on top that over powered the rabbit.
Overall my impression is that they overly sauce and flavor their meats and so you can’t really taste the exotic flavor of having liver, marrow, or other animal parts that Americans are not used to eating. Also portions are pretty small so this place is rather expensive and not worth it in my eyes.

Date of service: Mar 17, 2015
Meal: Dinner, Eat in
All Ratings out of 10:
Quality of food: 8
Food to Spend Value: 6
Quality of Service: 8
Overall Rating: 7
Animal is famous, or perhaps infamous, for having a menu that allows to eat lots of different types and parts of animals that you don’t typically find other places. I had always wanted to go, but I ended up going to Son of a Gun first (started by same folks), which has much more of a seafood focus. I ended up being pretty nonplussed by SoaG (you can read my review here on Unilocal), which bucked the review trends, so I had some trepidation going to Animal. I was still intrigued and had so many positive personal recommendations that I just had to go, so on this night I was off for dinner.
The restaurant was super crowded, so we were quite happy to have a reservation. The menu itself was a bit daunting given the number of available items, their diversity, and the sheer number of things I had never tried before. After much deliberation we decided on the following dishes: chicken liver toast, veal brains, marrow bone, grilled quail, foie gras, and fried rabbit legs.
The chicken liver toast was the first to come out. It came out as a chicken liver spread over a toast cracker. It was simple yet tasty but was also a very small portion. Next up was the veal brains. Under normal circumstances I wouldn’t even be tempted to try brains, but I figured I may not get the opportunity anywhere else so decided it was worth a shot. They were served with vadouvan, apricot purée, and a carrot. Upon arrival there was no mistaking the look of the brains, and I felt a bit like a walker from The Walking Dead consuming them. Admittedly I felt like they were mostly mush with no flavor whatsoever, and if wasn’t for the nice blend of flavors from the accompaniments it would have felt like a wasted course. Though I am glad I tried them, I won’t order them again.
The Marrow Bone literally came out as marrow served on a large bone, accompanied with chimichurri sauce and caramelized onions with crackers to spread it on. I had doubts about how much I would enjoy this dish only to really enjoy both the flavor and texture. The only thing I didn’t enjoy was the size of the portion, which was starting to become a trend.
Next came the grilled quail, with plum char-​siu, yogurt, pomegranate, and apple. Holy shnikes did this taste amazing. I have had quail before, but not this tender, and the pairings of flavors made for a truly breathtaking dish. It was easily one of my favorites of the night. Again there wasn’t a ton to eat, but boy did I enjoy what I did eat.
Evidently foie gras had not been allowed in California for a little while but has recently been allowed again, so I knew I had to try it. It came served on a biscuit with maple sausage gravy so had the appearance of a fancy biscuits and gravy. It was absolutely scrumptious, with the tender richness of the foie gras complementing the sweet and savory flavor of the maple sausage gravy and the thicker consistency of the biscuit. Definitely a unique take but oh so good.
Animal is particularly known for the fried rabbit legs, so I was highly anticipating this dish. Boy did it deliver! It was actually a full portion, as in someone could order it only and probably have a reasonable dinner entrée, which makes it different from most of the dishes. It is served with Charleston gold rice, lemon pepper, and sour cream gravy, and this flavor combination, along with the perfectly fried tender moist rabbit legs, made my taste buds do some dirty dancing. Not only is this a seriously fantastic dish, but it is one of the tastiest things I have ever eaten. I would come back to Animal just for this dish. Unfortunately it is also the most expensive item on the menu, but I guess that shouldn’t come as a surprise.
The service was extremely attentive and informative when asking questions about the menu. The ambiance was pretty cool, though definitely leaning toward trendy, and reservations are highly recommended. The food is expensive, especially when considering the size of the portions. The 6 items we ordered were over $ 120 pre tax or tip, without any drinks or dessert factored in, and with exception of the rabbit all portions were quite small. This was one of my complaints about Son of a Gun as well, but unlike SoaG, I thought every dish was well done at Animal. It definitely isn’t an everyday spot, but it would make a fun special occasion or unique spot to try. If anything, go and try the fried rabbit legs, as they alone are worth the trip.