NYC: Review Roundup

Today's review roundup includes: Schiller's Liquor Bar, Say Cheese, 325 Spring Street, Annisa

Citysearch reviews Schiller's Liquor Bar (131 Rivington St):

At dinner, a nicely gamey chopped liver mousse, watercress salad with blue cheese and walnuts, and meatloaf with mashed potatoes (Tuesday's special) standout among the better-than-average bistro fare. But it's brunch and breakfast that showcase the kitchen's best work: From the eggs Hussard--poached atop a brilliant ham, tomato and mushroom mix doused with Bordelaise and Hollandaise--to the simple fines herb omelette and homemade donuts, everything is done well. For dessert, the dense, sticky caramel cake with vanilla ice cream is just about perfect.

Citysearch reviews Say Cheese (649 9th Ave):

This cherry sliver of a spot, bright with yellow porthole lights and bouncy pop music, attracts after-school teens, lunching theater folks, and weekenders on their way out of town--all of them happily indulging their inner child with gooey-good grilled cheese sandwiches. Take a seat at a wood table along the exposed brick walls--it's just as swift as takeaway.

NYMetro reviews 325 Spring Street (325 Spring Street):

Truffles are all over the menu at 325 Spring Street, and if you can’t actually bear to order them, you can peruse a little showcase in the foyer that is full of expensive truffle products (truffle oils, truffle pastes, truffle jellies) to buy. The restaurant is located on the far-western edge of Soho, in the old (truffle-colored) UPS Building.

. . . I counted eight truffle items on the appetizer-and-salad section of the menu alone, and if these don’t fulfill your truffle longings, you can order a ten-gram “supplement” of black truffles, to eat as a side dish, like potato chips.

. . . These creations are the conceptual work of Clément Bruno, a noted truffle hound from the south of France. Chef Bruno isn’t actually in the kitchen, however (he oversees the New York menu while operating a well-known truffle boutique in a town called Lorgues), and in his absence the proceedings can get a little rocky. Our table enjoyed most of the other truffle items, particularly a giant, crusty wheel of bread ($20) piled with shavings of white summer truffle (it costs $32 if you pile on black truffles, too) and four kinds of melted cheese. However, the chilled pea soup was gelatinous and not very fresh, and the wan, watery crab consommé tasted like something from the kitchen of an ambitious, up-market old persons’ home. The lobster minestrone was marginally better than that, although it was served flattened out in the bowl, so the ingredients looked disparate and a little lonely, like they’d washed up from the sea. And my order of vegetable ravioli was so overwhelmed with sage that my extremely herb-conscious colleague thought the kitchen had made some kind of tragic mistake.

NYNewsday reviews Annisa (13 Barrow St):

Anita Lo, the mega-talented chef at Annisa, will surprise you, but all the surprises will be pleasant ones. When was the last time you ate grilled squid with watermelon and fresh pandanus leaf, an intense green seasoning with a floral flavor? Never, I'll bet. What's more, at most restaurants, you would be skeptical about trying such a dish. At Annisa, a calm space tucked away on a Greenwich Village side street, you need not fear.

As with, seemingly, all that Lo touches, the dish was exquisite. Silken fluke sashimi with plums and pickled red onions was startling in its clarity. Zucchini blossom pancake and delicate globe squash with brilliantly applied "Korean spices" will perk up jaded taste buds that have suffered through one too many contrived dishes around town.

There is nothing boring here.