Anise ^{Newly Opened}

Nov 06, 2008

is 'nice' enough?

written sometime in sept., updated early november -

A couple of weeks ago, i invited a business associate out to a working lunch at anise. it was to be my first visit after it had opened, and knowing taj, and it's standards, i was confident everything would be perfectly in place.

ambience - anise is bright and sunny, but lacks the warmth matchpoint - which it purports to replace- had. am i biased? as an old faithful matchpoint frequenter, maybe i am, and that's why the decor doesn't do much for me! it is rather swish though. wide sheets of glass look out onto flowering trees, or an ugly cement structure, depending on where you happen to be sitting. if cold marble and straight clean lines are simply not your thing, ask for a table, fight for it actually, they are in great demand, by the windows.

food - the buffet has unusual foods, with interesting combinations of tastes. the match point had what i always thought was the best buffet in the city; at anise the ordinary and the exotic are al lined up together, and ordinary becomes quite extraordinary in its taste and presentation.

there's a wide variety of salads - who ever said salads were dieters food should take a trip there- and foods from all over the world. their bread basket alone is a culinary wonder!

if you do decide to stop by at the dessert counter, first loosen the buttons on your trousers.

*****

Been to anise twice since it opened. there's some good, there's some very ordinary, but there's nothing to draw me back there in a hurry. if it were matchpoint, i'm sure the number of visits would have been at least double.

enough said!

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