Anthology – Live Music and Dinner Venue

If you’re looking for a live music and fine dining venue look no further than Anthology located in Little Italy. Framed quotes and paintings of famous artists who’ve inspired many decorate the venue. The inviting atmosphere makes this a great spot for a date, business meeting, or night out with friends.

The layout allows the acoustics to be equally desirable regardless of where you sit, making it a great place to view your favorite artist and also discover new talent. There’s nothing more inspirational than a good live show, the atmosphere, audio, and lighting are integral parts of that experience and Anthology does a good job of bringing these elements together. The entertainers also appear on a screen behind them displaying different viewing angles so you don’t miss a thing.

If you’re not interested in watching a show but want to try the food you can still experience their relaxed ambiance during happy hour Tuesday through Friday from 5-7pm. The appetizer and course selections we had were all flavorful, making it well worth an after work dinner location.

We each started with cocktails, Anthology’s Secret Sangria and Flaming Nectarita. Our appetizers included the Lobster Roll with Shrimp & Scallop Mousseline, Baby Fennel, Saffron Aioli, and Brioche Toast. The Lobster Roll was  mouth-watering. The buttered brioche toast that came with it gave it that rich and crunchy texture. We also enjoyed a Local Melon and Baby Spinach Salad. We try to avoid salads in some places because they tend to be overpriced heads of lettuce with sprinkles of cheese. This salad was an ample serving of baby spinach with a variety of locally grown melon (as the name suggests), with a delectable pistachio crusted montracht goat cheese balancing the sweetness of the fruit and a citrus basil vinaigrette creating a refreshing taste in each bite.

We then ordered a small bite plate and one main course consisting of Jumbo Chicken Wings in a Sweet Chili & Mustard Glaze with Toasted Sesame seeds and Togarashi-Crusted Ahi Tuna with Red Cargo Rice, Baby Bok Choi, Shiitake-Miso Jus, with Yuzu Foam. This place has, by far, one of the best chicken wings we’ve tasted in San Diego. There was a little bit of sweetness and just a touch of chili. The skin was crispy and the inside was juicy. The somewhat formal seating made it a little awkward to roll up our sleeves and eat the wings with our hands, but once you taste the first one, you’ll have no problem digging in like we did. We made a mental note to order this dish again next time.

The Togarashi-Crusted Ahi Tuna will easily become one of your favorites. The waitress warned us that it’s a little spicy but we decided to try it anyway. It was delicious, and mixing each little bite with the red cargo rice helped mute the spice enough to taste it. It’s not a spicy that burns your tongue; it brings out the flavor of the Ahi Tuna, which was perfectly seared outside.

For dessert, we ordered the Decadent Chocolate Trio, a Cheesecake, Devil’s Food Cake, and Caramel Ice-Cream with Raspberry Dust. At this point our expectations were high. We tried the Cheesecake first and it was sinfully delicious. Next the Devil’s Food and the Caramel Ice-Cream. Our taste buds were a tad confused to the bland taste of the Devil’s Food Cake and the weird after-taste of the Caramel Ice-Cream. We can’t tell you to skip dessert as we haven’t tried all of them but the Decadent Chocolate Trio didn’t live up to its name. Bon appetite!

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