Anita's Kitchen

First off, I apologize to you, loyal readers, for neglecting my blog yesterday.  I hope you all will forgive me.  I'm back.

I actually meant to post this post yesterday but, well, life happens.  On Sunday I went to Anita's Kitchen with my mom after seeing The Artist.  Both the dinner and the movie were phenomenal.  Because this is a food blog, though, I am going to focus on the restaurant but I would highly, highly recommend you all see The Artist.

Now getting to the good stuff:  THE FOOD!  I went to Anita's Kitchen with my mom, as I mentioned.  The restaurant was very cozy--softly lit and very homey.  At the same time, though, it had an upscale/chic New York-y feel to it.  I think the bowl of lemons on the counter, the few pieces of large wall decor, the globular lightbulbs, the chalkboard of wine selections and the hipster crowd contributed to this.  

I ordered the "Falafil Platter" (baked) and ate EVERYTHING except for the rice...I already had about four pieces of pita chillin' in my stomach so I didn't really need that.  The patties looked different than any other falafel (I don't know why Anita's spells it with an "i"--I'm going to use an "e") patties I've had because they were quite flat and usually falafel patties look like large golf balls.  Oh well!  They were great--wonderful spice blend and the texture had a nice chewiness.  Because they were flat, too, and because I ordered mine baked instead of fried, I told myself that not only were they smaller than "normal" patties but healthier too and that was enough justification for myself to eat them all.  And I did.

My dish also came with rice, as I mentioned, tabbouleh (not too oily), hummus and tahini sauce.  Yum.  Yum.  Yum.  Yum.  The hummus and tahini, in particular, were just divine.  I could order a plateful of hummus and be a very happy, although perhaps sick, camper.

For dessert my mom ordered baklava and I ordered a Vegan Ginger Molasses Cookie from Pinwheel Bakery.  I would like to say I have a photo of this cookie to share with you but, alas, that cookie arrived and vanished too fast for me to even get my camera out of my purse.