Animae

Animae occupies the ground floor of the Pacific Gate tower on Pacific Highway, between the Marina district and the waterfront, and blends the spectacle of a steakhouse with the flavours of the Asian American experience — the restaurant's own framing. Its name is a double reference, to anime and to the Chinese American actress Anna May Wong. Executive chef Tara Monsod, who is Filipino American and a three-time James Beard Award semifinalist, cooks over a coal-fired oven and a Japanese robata grill.

The Spirit Free section is four deep and unusually varied for a fine-dining list. Spirited Away, at eleven dollars, is the most cocktail-like: Pentire Adrift, the Cornish botanical non-alcoholic spirit, with elderflower, honey, Thai basil and black peppercorn — floral at the front and peppery at the finish. The Malarkey, also eleven, skips the spirit alternative entirely and builds on a Thai chilli and tamarind syrup with pineapple and lime, which makes it the better choice for anyone avoiding spirit analogues; tamarind supplies the sourness and the chilli the length.

The other two are tea rather than cocktail. The melon milk tea at thirteen dollars runs honeydew and jasmine tea with oat milk and boba, and there is a cold-brewed single-source iced tea at nine. On a menu where the alcoholic cocktails run to nineteen dollars, having a nine-dollar option that is not a soda is the sort of detail a non-drinker notices.

A practical note on the room: this is a destination restaurant with a tasting-menu sensibility and a dining room designed for occasions, so it is expensive and reservations matter. Service runs from five every night, to nine early in the week and half past nine on Friday and Saturday. The spirit-free section is printed on the same card as the cocktails and changes with the seasonal menu, so confirm the four when you arrive. Alcohol is served throughout; this is not an alcohol-free space.

The room is designed to be looked at. Animae sits beneath the Pacific Gate tower and takes its cue from the building above it, with a futurist reading of Art Deco glamour — lush, cinematic, built for celebration in the restaurant's own description. It belongs to the Puffer Malarkey Collective, whose other rooms include Le Coq, and Monsod runs the kitchens at both. Practically, this is a restaurant to book rather than walk into, the tasting-menu pacing suits a long evening, and the waterfront location means parking is easiest in one of the nearby structures rather than on the street.