Hello! First time posting here, I wanted to share since I have been obsessively lurking the past year or so on my new-ish fine dining journey 🙂
Atomix chef’s counter has been a bucket list res of mine and was glad to be able to book one this month for no special occasion in particular after failing to get a birthday res last year.
Overall, it was a really nice evening – the service was great and there were some very tasty courses. I was there for about 2.5 hours and I definitely could have stayed to savor dessert a little longer but I had to catch a train home.
Here are quick thoughts about each course, but it’ll be a highly subjective review. My adjective bank is also apparently very limited to “nice” “good” and “yummy”. The things I enjoyed less are 110% a personal preference thing, which I hope will be clear haha
Pumpkin & Cinnamon sikhye – this was a nice start to the dining experience, a small sip before getting seated. Seeing “sikhye” and “cinnamon”, I was expecting traditional sikhye or even sujeonggwa flavors, but it was actually very pumpkin forward.
Scallop – very yummy, meant to be eaten in one bite. Kim bugak was crispy. I think I would have preferred a little less rice inside proportionally to the rest of the bite.
Littleneck clam – also a yummy one-biter. I don’t remember much except thinking it was really yummy. And wondering what the shell was made of.
Half beak fish (replaced with sardines) – the fish was replaced with sardines, because new season new fish or something like that. I really enjoyed the sauce; it included basil seeds soaked in tomato water which added to the brightness(?). Sardines were the expected amount of fishiness imo, but I am not a sardine expert
Monkfish liver – I cannot give an objective review. This is maybe the 5th time I gave ankimo another chance, and I still don’t enjoy it. The guests next to me loved it though if that means anything.
Kohlrabi – I really enjoyed this. I thought it felt very balanced between the earthy/sweetness of the kohlrabi, oceanness of the caviar and crab, and creaminess of the… cream.
Abalone – another course I enjoyed! This was a spin on korean “tangsuyuk”, but with abalone and a pomegranate sauce. The abalone was very tender, and I normally don’t love tangsuyuk sauce but it was cool to see how well a pomegranate base worked for it. The banchan was a pickled pearl onion which provided extra acidity, but it had a chili oil on it which felt like clashing flavors. I love anything pickled though so I wasn’t complaining.
Golden eye snapper – this was okay, nothing particularly memorable for me although I could try to elaborate if anyone is curious.
Lobster – I liked this but I remember wishing they gave a knife for this course. The pieces were a little big for me to go in with one bite, but not so easy to cut with a spoon. However, I LOVED the lobster jeotgal rice that came with this dish. A stronger flavor and surprisingly spicy (for some reason I wouldn’t expect fine dining courses to be actually spicy) but that made it all the better for me. It worked well to go back and forth between the rice and the main.
Lamb – extremely unfortunate but I also cannot give an objective review on this. It was cooked very nicely but the gaminess of lamb always makes it hit-or-miss for me. The noodles were yummy though, and I didn’t mind the gamey notes as much there.
Passionfruit – good palate cleanser dessert. sour passionfruit granita balanced the creamy coconut tapioca pudding. I wish the gelatinized tea blocks tasted more like tea, but maybe my taste buds are just too dull.
Burdock – it was a shame that I was literally STUFFED at this point. Milky ice cream + chocolate cake, you literally can’t go wrong. This is also my second time having a truffle + ice cream combo and I love it. The wine pairing was this extremely thick raisiny molassesy wine which was v special, but again I was too full to enjoy it properly 🙁
In summary – favorites were the amuse-bouche, kohlrabi, lobster (specifically the jeotgal rice), burdock dessert. I’m hesitant to recommend atomix to anyone who would expect every course to be exceptional, but personally if I have the money I’d be willing to come back (in reasonably spaced intervals) until I’ve dined with every pair of their chopstick offerings.
by Tasty_Clementine
2 Comments
I don’t know what it is with Atomix insisting that the last main course not be some kind of seafood when the rest of the courses up to it are.
Really just comes out of left field and doesn’t make sense with the rest of the dinner.
How was their wine list? Is what they have on their website accurate? Their red selection seems a little underwhelming