Nanciful’s Blog

After hearing about the bacon chocolate dessert at Animal Restaurant, I was intrigued. Bacon+ chocolate is the hottest couple right now so I had to get the inside scoop myself. Animal Restaurant takes reservations over the phone starting at 2pm everyday. I was feeling hopeful and called on Good Friday to see if I can get a same day reservation. I did. I proclaimed my love for the lady over the phone and hung up giddy.

The restaurant is literally doors down from Canter’s in Hollywood. There is no sign outside the restaurant though. We were greeted by the lovely hostess (I think she’s the one that got some Nanciful lovin’ over the phone earlier.) The restaurant only seats around 40 with a small bar in the back. They serve the full menu at the bar as well. I love the lofty feeling of the space and eclectic choice of music from 70’s/80’s/90’s

Our very nice waiter handed us our menus on parchment type paper. The menu changes daily and everything is bought local. They have a extensive list of starters. Hubs and I made a pact to have a dinner of appetizers on our next visit. We end up choosing the pork belly with kimchi, peanuts, chili soy and scallions and the melted petit basque with chorizo and garlic bread.

I’ve had pork belly from various higher end restaurants and Animal has THE best pork belly hands down. The dish was a good crossover between American pork belly and Asian flavoring with the kimchi and scallions.

The melted basque was a good glop of gooey goodness. The garlic bread is made how garlic bread should be made.with chunks of garlic embedded in the bread.

Next are the entrees. Hubs ordered the pork chops and I order the Mexican shrimp.

After a bite of the pork chop, Hubs gasped and claimed: “THIS IS PORK??!”

“Of course this is pork! You ordered pork chops!”

Hubs takes another bite. “IS THIS BEEF?!”

“Let me try! MMM..let me try one more bite to make sure.”

After much discussion, we came to the conclusion that the chefs at the Animal Restaurant are geniuses! And yes it IS pork. Hubs continues to be incredulous at the juicy texture of his entree and proclaims that these are the BEST pork chops ever.

grilled pork chop, farro, apple, cipollini, grainy mustard

Does that look like pork to you?

I’m a seafood fiend. So I had to order the Mexican shrimp with beans. It was a generous dish with a very zangy broth.

By this time, Hubs and I were STUFFED but glowing and happy. We were full. However, we will fight on and do what we came here for originally, the bacon chocolate crunch bar. I had to take a shot with flash since I wanted the bacon to show up in the picture. Isn’t she a beauty? The chocolate bar even looks like a slab of bacon. Love it! I usually do not order anything chocolate as my dessert because chocolate can get too sweet. But the salty bacon counterbalanced the sweetness of the chocolate filing. I wish Animal Restaurant would package it like Snickers.

Hubs chose Joe’s Caramel Donuts. Look, you get 4 donuts! They were lightly coated with caramel sauce and the texture was amazing. Slightly crunchy outside and semi spongy, semi banana bread texture inside.

There are always hits and misses with trying a new restaurant. However, everything at the Animal was a HIT. The bill only came out to $140 including 2 glasses of wine, tax and tip. It is a steal for the quality and quantity of food and service you get.

Next time we plan to come with a big group so we can try more starters. Animal has officially made it to my top five.