Annie’s

I immediately warmed to Annie’s décor. It has a nice charm to it being a cosy shabby chic pub restaurant, with its floral boudoir décor like the chandeliers, floral sofas, cushions, crimson walls and fancy lampshades on the table. It seems to be a very children friendly place highlighted by a wall dedicated to children’s drawings near the toilets.
Service was very friendly and relaxed and food arrived after a reasonable time of waiting.
Asparagus Royale
Quite steeply priced at £8.95 for just one. But the quality of the ingredients shone out here. The smoked salmon was silky and rich in flavour. Poached eggs were buttery and characteristically flavourful and nicely paired with sweet tender seasonal asparagus. Finished off nicely with a creamy zesty hollandaise sauce and balsamic vinegar to lift the flavours
Grilled sardines were lovely and fresh.
The meat was sweet and carried lots of flavour, grilled perfectly to crisp the skin for that lovely contrast in texture against the fleshy meat. Paired nicely on top of fresh rocket in a lightly seasoned olive oil dressing
Grilled whole plaice with jersey royals and green beans.
Very shocked at how they served us a fish that tasted like the bile had burst. There was a horrible bitter taste around the whole belly and head area which ruined almost half the fish with it’s foul taste, It was a shame as the fish itself was grilled perfectly creating a really nice crispy golden brown skin. The fillet side was lovely and flakey, just coming off the bone. The green beans were nice and crunchy, maintaining its sweetness. Jersey Royal could have been seasoned to give more flavour as on their own they were a bit tepid. Just shame that half the fish was bitter.
Slow cooked marinated pork belly.
It was a fine dish and no faults in the cooking process. The pork was beautifully moist and tender, cracking was crisp and mash creamy and generous. Sadly it all lacked depth and seasoning. The pork could have done with some herbs to bring out its sweetness and mash could have done with some salt. Altogether it was quite bland. But luckily the gravy more flavoursome and helped it with some of the missing flavours. The high quality ingredients helped as well. Side of green beans were nice and fresh and helped lighten the heaviness of the dish. Could have been so much better and a wasted potential
Side of sweet potatoes fries
These were nicely baked till crisp on the outside and incredibly buttery sweet and fleshy in the inside. Very moreish and great without any condiments
Annie’s seems to be a restaurant that cares about the quality of ingredients as each dish tasted fresh and delivered well on it’s natural flavours. However it comes down to the kitchen to make these ingredients shine and they failed at that. Most dishes lacked depth and seasoning making them somewhat boring to eat after a while and the high prices charged does not justify that. Might just make this place just for drinks or as a breakfast/​brunch if I ever return, as breakfast dishes do not need as much investment on and the outside back garden area seems great for drinks.

To put it simply, after dinner tea was the highlight of our meal. I started with the grilled halloumi salad, which was gritty, underdressed and lacking in flavour, followed by the greasy, charred flat iron chicken which came with undercooked chips, but had a nice paprika aioli. We were put off dessert, so we finished our meal with Jing mint tea which is always lovely. Service was a bit of a shame as well. Completely apathetic. Would highly recommend heading to Chiswick for a much better Annie’s experience.

This review is for their Scotch steak burger. I had asked for it to be cooked medium rare, but was told that due to a new regulation, it had to be cooked at least medium, which I said was ok. What I received was a really rare, practically raw hamburger that had just been seared or chargrilled out the outside. It was quite inedible. I took most of it home and re-​cooked it. Even in its original state, it was not juicy. It was overpriced for the quality. The chips were very good, but they barely give you any in a tiny cup. The restaurant itself is very cute.

To call Annie’s quaint is quite fair. It is a fairly sized restaurant that gives you the feeling of warmth and coziness without feeling cramped.
Our waiter was fantastic. He was courteous, affable, appropriately familiar and very knowledgable about the food on the menu.
The two culinary highlights of the meal were the Main and The dessert. I remember the starter also being good but my memory has been somewhat overtaken by a longing to revisit that main dish that I can’t quite remember what it was.
For my main I had the CHAR-​GRILLED LAMB BURGER WITH GOAT’S CHEESE, CARAMELISED SHALLOTS, FRIES & SALAD for 11.95. The waiter asked how i would like the lamb prepared and as is often the case I deferred to the chef’s judgement.
The original plan was to split this burger with my wife and I would have a portion of whatever it was she ordered. That did not happen. I gave her a bite and I sampled her entrée, again no recollection of what it was, and I decided that I’d rather have my main than share at all. I have a very understanding wife and she knows I am not easily impressed by food. She was enjoying her meal so I was lucky to have it all to myself.
The lamb was perfectly crafted, tender, juicy, and flavorful. The goat’s cheese and shallots served as a perfect accompaniment and in no way overwhelmed the meat. The bun was soft and just the right amount of bread.
Living in Los Angeles we take great pride in our Hamburgers. While I appreciate that the substance of this sandwich is not beef I must say that this is one of the best burgers I have ever sampled.
This meal was followed by a very delicious and memorable Sticky Toffee Pudding. STP is my wife’s favorite dessert and she has a very high standard for this dish. She and I both found Annie’s version to be top notch and well worth ordering.
My only negative mark on this place is that we live an ocean away from it and cannot frequent it as much as we would like to.