I have been to Ansill several times, but not for the last 6 months prior to last night, 3/14/08. We arrived 10 minutes before our reservation. The bar was full, the tables empty, but we were told to go to the bar.
When we pointed out the situation, we were seated at our table with attitude.
Unlike prior visits, we were not served a small dish of lovely olives or bread with butter with pink sea salt.Instead, we were served a rather tasteless flatbread and a hummusy type spread.
Bread, if you want it, is on the menu for $5 or so. You are also charged $1, $3 or $5 for olives.
As for the menu, it and the service seemed tired. No longer were you served the white anchovies on small crositini. Instead they were laid out on the plate with balsamic. You couldn’t sop up the good stuff if you hadn’t ordered bread. Same with the Pigs’ Trotters…a rather tasteless dish. The bone also used to be served on little crostini. There would be 3 or 4 of them to share. Now it’s dropped on one slice of bread and it has to be divided up if you are sharing.
The baby roasted artichokes had tough outer leaves which had to be discarded. The osso buco sandwich was open faced with no garnish. The fingerling potatoes were oily.
People at the next table ordered the mussels and also didn’t receive bread with their dish for the broth.
I could go on and on. I don’t think i enjoyed one item.
In addition, the owner chef seemed to be spending all of his time in the bar drinking wine and making snarky remarks in our direction.
As for the service…it was slow. Our table was so close to the next table that we were rubbed up by the waitress’s butt everytime she came over there.
This is a major shame. I had loved this restaurant and will now never return.