A First Visit to Anise Tapas & Grill

by Drew Kaplan · Published February 5, 2016 · Updated February 5, 2016

The interior of Anise Tapas and Grill is lovely

Last month, my wife and I tried out one of the newest kosher-certified restaurants in Las Vegas. A new addition to the kosher-certified restaurant scene last year (since I last wrote about the kosher-certified restaurants in Las Vegas), Anise Tapas & Grill is a meat restaurant that opened in April 2015 near Sababa Grille & Restaurant, with a lovely interior. Having been interested in tasting multiple options, both my wife and I ordered multiple appetizers, opting not to order any entrees.

Shakshuka Poco

I started off with the Shakshuka Poco, which came in a cute little skillet and was certainly appetizer-size. Topped with an egg, I found it to be a solid shakshuka – nothing special, but nothing wrong with it either, it was tasty and good. It had a nice amount of vegetables and spices that went into it and it was good.

Hummus Con Carne

Next up, I had the Hummus Con Carne, a hummus with shawarma consisting of dark meat chicken and a touch of lamb with a blend of seasonings. The hummus, as well as the meats, were yummy on the pita bread supplied with the dish. It was all quite tasty.

I also had ordered the Cigarro Marroqui, but they were out of it, so I got the Great Ball of Fire instead. A deep-fried, panko-crusted matzo ball, served with spicy Sriracha sauce, it was my first-ever deep-fried matzah ball! The matzah ball, itself, was not particularly special, but I greatly enjoyed the delicious sauce, which was a sriracha sauce mixed with other, tasty sauces. It was also delectable owing to the nice little matting of cabbage on the plate beneath the deep-fried matzah ball.

Great Ball of Fire

I also tasted the chicken wings my wife got, which I found to be nicely flavored. My wife thought they were great, crispy, good crunch, not greasy, nicely fried, sauce on them was sweet and sticky in a good way, with a kick, not overly sweet.

She said her salad was totally unexciting, she could’ve made it in 20 Seconds. It had lettuce, some avocado, cucumber, some chicken. Dressing should not have been called a dressing, since it was too thick to pour on and it didn’t have much flavor to it all. Neither the chicken nor the salad dressing had much flavor to it. She said she would not get it again.

My wife observed that the service was not so frequent, which is unfortunate, since there were only a few other tables occupied by customers. We went a long time without water and the water glasses were small. The water glasses are cute, but they should be conscious of their small size and refill them frequently. I did note that the waitress was still fairly new to the restaurant, so maybe she was still learning how to waitress.

chicken wings

There were also a couple of unfortunate occurrences during our time there. While there is no full wall separating the kitchen from the patrons, it is neat to see through the serving counters into the kitchen, which presents a nice visual aesthetic. However, an argument broke out between the waitress and the kitchen staff, resulting in the entire restaurant hearing it, which was extremely unprofessional and awkward for the patrons. That was strange. But stranger still was the people at the table behind ours finding a rubber band in one of their dishes (the waitress calmly advised, “Do not eat that”).

Aside from those occurrences, the food was tasty and decent and it’s always great to see new kosher-certified restaurants with new dishes. Anise Tapas & Grill is located at 3100 South Durango Street and is under the kosher certification of Chabad of Southern Nevada.

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