RESTAURANT REVIEW: Annam
This restaurant suffers from what we like to call the "Le Colonial problem", when a Vietnamese establishment tries to be upscale, but serves largely only traditional dishes in smaller portions with slightly higher quality ingredients... at massively inflated prices. While I applaud them for trying, you really need to innovate more if you are going to stay in business charging these prices for food you can get anywhere in Houston. Coupled with surprisingly bad service, I can't really recommend this spot.
The interior is pretty, and the hostesses wearing traditional Vietnamese dresses added to the ambiance. We were sat near the windows at the front, which had a view of Autry park passersby (primarily a constant parade of millennial women heading to Annabelle Brasserie next door). Unfortunately, this somewhat secluded table location may have contributed to the service issues.
The waiter seemed to lack a good understanding of the menu, and had a hard time recommending how many dishes to order (the menu is comprised of two dozen small plates and maybe five or six entrees). He indicated that the food came out pretty fast, so we could always order more later if needed. At first this was true, as the first three items came out in quick, well-paced succession. But then, things ground to a halt, and literally 25 minutes passed by without any food being delivered to the table, nor a single check-in by anyone. When we were just about to ask if they had forgotten about us, the last two dishes arrived simultaneously. They offered to bring some steamed rice to go with these, but this never showed up.
As for the food, none of it was bad, but with one notable exception, it wasn't anything to write home about. That exception was the pork stuffed squash blossom, which my queen Alison Cook has described as "the best bite in Houston right now". And while that may be slight hyperbole, it was indeed excellent. The lightly fried squash blossom surrounding a healthy filling of pork worked great with the nuoc cham upon which it was plated.
However, my enthusiasm soon waned as the remaining dishes were much more mediocre. The A5 Wagyu wrapped in betel leaf were fine, though quite small, and my Vietnamese dining companion (real ones know) bemoaned the lack of a traditional lettuce with which to build your own wrap. The shrimp paste with which it was served was not funky enough. The stir fried clams with basil were also decent, but unfortunately they were out of the mussels I had originally ordered, which is the inherently superior mollusk. Perusing other reviews online, the kitchen running out of certain dishes seems to be a recurrent issue.
After the aforementioned long wait, the last two dishes arrived. A morning glory garlic stir fry lacked any heat or fish sauce punch, and the $15 price tag was rather steep. The filet mignon bo luc lac (aka shaking beef) was actually quite delicious, with tender cubes of marinated meat sitting atop caramelized onions and some sliced thai chiles and assorted greens. While it doesn't sound like it here, I'm usually not one to complain about price... but $42 is ridiculous when you can get basically the exact same dish at Hughie's for less than half the price.
One other high point was the Annam Signature Cocktail, a well-balanced vodka drink with yuzu and salt. Normally that wouldn't be up my alley, but it was the signature, after all, and it worked nicely.
After the general disappointment and in an unexpected hurry to make our reservation at a bar down the street, we opted to skip dessert here (though I have to highly recommend the Texas Sheet Cake ice cream at Lick Honest Ice Creams next door).
Going into the night I would have bet a lot of money that this place would easily make my top 5 Vietnamese restaurants in Houston, but sadly that was not the case. Hopefully next weekend will be better, as that's back to back nights of disappointment.