Want somewhere to eat this weekend? We’re recommending Annie’s in Barnes…
Until my visit to Annie’s I hadn’t had much of a reason to visit the Barnes area. I’m an East girl you see and as most East based people will know, we tend to be quite anti South. However when a friend recommended Annie’s restaurant I put my reservations to one side and went down to check it out.
With two restaurants in Barnes and Chiswick Annie’s restaurant has been running a successful business for the past ten years and from the minute my dining partner and I stepped through the front door it wasn’t hard to see why.
The restaurant itself is the perfect mix of chabby chic, all chandeliers, dark wooden tables, fresh flowers, brightly coloured cushions and deep coloured wallpaper. At the back of the restaurant is their garden eating area where a multicoloured chandelier takes centre place among walls of flowers and blankets laid neatly on the back of chairs should it get a bit chilly.
Open for brunch, lunch and dinner seven days a week Annie’s also hosts a regular cocktail hour and is the type of place that is just as likely to attract friends popping in for one of their clever cocktails as it is couples wanting a full blown dining experience.
When we visit it’s an early Saturday evening and Annie’s is already fairly busy (a good sign by our books), we’re greeted by an extremely friendly member of staff who regularly pops over to our table, and fellow diners tables, throughout our stay having friendly banter and ensuring we’re enjoying our meal.
The menu is extensive and after much deliberating we decided on starters of crispy calamari with wasabi aioli and friend prawns with green chili mayo. The first thing that was instantly notable was the presentation of the dishes, carefully put together and colourful. The second was the taste, my experience with crispy calamari and fried fish can be that it is too dry due to too much batter but both dishes were light and absolutely delicious.
Meanwhile for our mains I opted for chargrilled tuna with asparagus, avocado, olive, cherry tomato and green bean salad with basil aioli and my partner chose a rib-eye steak with fries and peppercorn sauce. Again the dishes were well balanced particularly the salade which left me felling full rather than wanting for more.
Despite our protests at feeling a little too full for desert we were persuaded by the former mentioned friendly waiter to at least try their legendary sticky toffee pudding which was absolutely the best advise either of us had been given in quite a while.
If you’re local to either of the areas make sure you make a date to pop into Annie’s immediately and if you’re not from the same neck of the woods it’s well and truly worth a visit and you might even find, as I did, that South London is a rather lovely place to spend some time.
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