Annalien Review
Upscale Vietnamese cuisine comes to the city of Napa. Worth going to if you want a break from typical Napa Valley restaurants although die-hard Asian eaters might grouse.
Napa, CA 94559
(707) 224-8319
Hours:
Lunch Tue -Sun: 11:30 am -2:30 pm
Dinner: Tue-Sat: dinner 5-9 pm
Annalien food
If you've never had Vietnamese food before, you should give it a shot. It's usually lighter than the other main Asian styles, very fragrant at times, and sometimes has some French influences.
Appetizers
We started off with some green onion "flatbreads" that had a yellow curry dipping sauce. I've heard some folks complain that they are on the greasy side, but green onion cakes like these are generally a little greasy period. You'll see this in Chinese restaurants as well. One thing that makes Annalien's a bit different is how flaky and light they are. The curry sauce was pretty good and very smooth and an interesting addition. But although I forget the exact price, it seemed a bit overpriced given that this was just really one scallion cake.
We've had some fresh spring rolls, and they were a better deal than the scallion cakes. Good fresh spring rolls bring out a lot of the more fragrant, lighter aspects of Vietnamese cooking, and I like these better than the fried spring rolls.
Entrees
I had the sea bass wrapped in a banana leaf with some rice noodles, shiitake mushroom, and a tomato. This is probably one of their best dishes if you like sea bass. It smells wonderful between the banana leaf and the shiitake mushroom. Sea bass is a fatty fish and comes out very tender and juicy. The rice noodles underneath were on the greasy side, but I can't tell if that was from the sea bass or some sort of pre-cooking on the noodle side. A bit pricey at $22, but it's a really nice dish that I don't think you'll get elsewhere in the area.
When a lot of people think about Vietnamese restaurants, they think about pho, and Annalien has a pretty nice one. What makes or break a pho is its broth which for the better pho takes forever to prepare, and Annalien's is clean, fragrant, not overly greasy or heavy, etc. Ie, you don't feel guilty drinking it. It's a great fall / winter noodle soup dish.
One knock that you'll see on Annalien is the price of the food, particularly among those who are used to going to other mom-and-pop Vietnamese or Asian shops for a lot less. Obviously, the Napa Valley luxury food premium is there. If Annalien was opening in a different area, I don't think they would get away with the pricing. I think the $10 pho is fine (do I really care if it's overpriced by $3?). For those more experienced with Asian cooking, some of the other beef and pork entrees start to go beyond this comfort zone though without delivering the goods like the sea bass does.
But here's the deal. As much fun as it is to eat in Napa Valley, the variety of ethnic food is downright poor when compared to say San Francisco or Oakland. So, have we been to better Vietnamese places with better prices? Yes. But Annalien does bring a welcome change to the restaurant landscape in the area, and I hope it spurs more higher-end ethnic restaurants to give it a go. It's a nice place to go particularly during the fall or winter because the cooking lends itself to thinking about spring.
Desserts
Last time we went, the desserts were a little on the weak side. They did have this mango sorbet type dish that came spread out in half of a mango. Over the years, I've bumped into a number of French-style bakeries that were run by Vietnamese owners, and I sort of attributed it to the French influence during the occupation, and so I was hoping to find something similar at Annalien, but nope.
Annalien setting and service
Annalien is a fairly small to medium sized restaurant (~40 people) where a decent chunk of the interior space goes to the bar. Inside, it goes more for that clean, modern type of look which some had described as having some sort of colonialism feel, but I didn't get that. Annalien service is overall fine. I think some of the wait staff is dressed a bit more casually in a really young way than you'd expect. I don't expect my wait staff to be totally dressed up, but I never thought it was a good idea if you couldn't tell right away who actually worked there.
Annalien does have a certain fan base around her. Seems like the folks with the more extensive Asian culinary background grouse more about the food and the pricing, But for a lot of folks, Annalien does offer something that isn't seen often in the city of Napa, and the flavors are still pretty clean too. It also helps that Annalien, the owner, is also an...ah...enthusiastic...schmoozer.
Annalien is located next to Ubuntu and Cole's Chop House.
Price of our meal
1 appetizer, 2 entrees, 2 teas w/tax & tip: $60
1 appetizer, 2 entrees, 2 glasses of wine w/tax & tip: $80
