Annalien Vietnamese in Napa--Review
A friend of mine who lives in the town of Napa recently mentioned to me that one of her current favorite restaurants in Annalien "Contemporary Vietnamese" restaurant at 1124 Main Street in downtown Napa. I haven't found a lot of "ethnic" options in Napa Valley, and was hopeful that it would turn out to be a good option.
My SO and I arrived at Annalien at about 7:45 pm. It has by far been the hottest day in a string of hot days in Napa, so we weren't too surprised that there were only three other tables seated when we arrived. We chose a table near the front, right next to the oscillating fan, as one of the first things we noted was how relatively warm it was in the restaurant. However, service was prompt and we got our order in right away.
Within a few minutes of getting our order in, there were about 30 walk-in customers, and all but one table was filled, which made it very warm in the restaurant. We also notice how loud it got--with tile floors and nothing dressing the walls, we had to almost yell to hear one another.
Wanting to try lots of things, we started with the Vietnamese potstickers, "onion cake" bread, crispy spring roll (all SO's choices). These all proved to be disappointing choices. The potstickers were steamed dumplings filled with minced pork and vegetables. The texture and flavor of the filling was nice, but the dumplings were swimming in a "house sauce" that tasted mainly of mayonaise. The onion cake was very greasy, and the coconut curry dipping sauce served on the side had broken, so it looked curdled. The crispy spring rolls were flavorless, except for being "fishy." I did see the fresh spring rolls served at another table, and they looked much better.
For the entree my SO got the "1124 Curry," yellow curry with chicken, carrots, potatoes and coconut milk. It was the same broken curry sauce served with the onion cake--extremely disappointing. I opted for the green papaya salad, which was the best dish we had all evening--green papaya, mango, jicama, carrots, mint, and crushed peanuts lightly dressed. It was just what I wanted on such a warm evening.
But by the time our entrees arrived, sweat was pouring down my poor SO's forehead and neck! It really was ridiculously hot, and with every table filled, one of the servers placed the "closed" sign in the window just after 8:30pm.
I will probably go back again to give them a second chance (after it cools down quite a bit!)and will go when my friend who loves it can go with me.
Non Cognomina
Jul 23, 2006 06:12AM
Sigh. Thanks for taking one for the team. Hopefully a return visit will be more satisfying. If you're still craving some Vietnamese, a couple years ago I had some very good fresh spring rolls with a peanut dipping sauce at a reception at the Napa General Store. Perfect hot weather food.
Annalien lunch (2005) -
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/...
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Thanks for the update on Annalien and sorry it was disappointing, not to mention sweltering. We ate there a few months after it opened, had a reasonably enjoyable meal, but haven't been back. We do go to the General Store occasionally, and the Vietnamese food is the best stuff on the menu. Unfortunately, that menu also includes a random mish-mash of dishes including sandwiches and pizza. I've heard the deck is closed or partially closed for the river revamp.
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Here's a link for the General Store -
http://www.napageneralstore.com/
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Thanks, Junie D and Melanie Wong. I checked out the link to Napa General Store and am pleased to see they have regular live Bluegrass music. Planning to surprise my SO (who LOVES bluegrass, as well as good food)with a Sunday afternoon trip down that way next month!
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Cool, and please let us know if they still have a Guss' pickle barrel.
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/...
When I was there for said reception, I recall a baked brie that was soggy mess. As Junie D says, the food is somewhat inconsistent and random.
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No need to start a new thread for this, I'll just echo the lukewarm reaction to Annalien. I had a business lunch there on Friday. I didn't find the room noisy, and it was a lovely setting for our situation. We shared an order of the vegetarian fresh rolls with peanut sauce (or however they're named on the menu). These were wrapped rather loosely and the veggies were too damp inside. The peanut sauce was abnormally salty with salt dominating every other component. I had the grilled tiger prawns, which was basically bun vermicelli with some shredded leaf lettuce topped with slivered carrots and about a half-dozen overcooked grilled shrimp. Don't know about you, but when I see the words "tiger prawns", I'm expecting the big prawns like you'd be served in Southeast Asia and not run of the mill shrimp. The nuoc cham's (vinaigrette) main selling point was that it wasn't candy sweet like too many versions. But again, it was extremely salty even though it didn't have a strong fish sauce taste. It could have used a lot more lime juice to perk up this lackluster dish, especially since it was served with seafood. And, the lettuce again was not drained and diluted the nuoc cham that I added to the bowl. Charging $15 for this dish, I was expecting superior ingredients and execution than can be found at a Tenderloin/Little Saigon restaurant, but that's not the case here. The menu prices are for the privilege of sitting in this dining room, I guess.
The highlight of this meal was the $10 glass of 2005 Etude Pinot Gris that we shared. It didn't go particularly well with either item, but was a nice sipping wine with melon tones, sur lie fatness and good balance.
The tab for two of us - one appetizer, two mains, one glass of wine - came to $61 with tax and tip. We could have had a better lunch for the same price at Pilar.
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