1 review

1. Fiona Ellery  

   on June 10, 2015
   

   Two of my best friends and I LOVE to eat. So whenever we get together for dinner, we try to find a new/different venue that would pique our interest.  We braved the suffocating heat tonight to try Atoboy and it was absolutely amazing. First of all, I loved the decor, it was minimalistic and streamlined.  At first glance, it appears to be a casual eatery, but the food is anything but casual.  The menu is divided into three sections and each person can pick any three dishes from any of the sections.  If you want to order additional dishes, you would pay extra depending on the section (I think they are between $9 to $15). Each meal comes with free white rice, they also have a special rice offering (shiitake mushroom rice today) for an extra $2. We picked nine different dishes so that we can get a good sense of what the place has to offer. If I have to describe the food in just one word, it would be WOW!

   Tartare – my absolute favorite dish of the night. The tuna was cut into strips instead of the usual chopped style as with tartare. The sauce on this dish was just spectacular.  I am so in love with this dish and it is honestly one of the best tartare dishes I've ever had.

   Little Neck Clams – another dish that knocked it out of the park. There were five clams on the dish atop an avocado sauce that was light and creamy at the same time (who knew that was possible??!). The rice cracker provided a nice crunchy texture to the dish.

   Asparagus – our only vegetable dish of the night.  The asparagus was cooked perfectly with nice grill marks and perfect amount of crunchiness. I couldn't really taste the spicy cod roe, but that didn't matter as the egg yolk sauce paired with shallots were heavenly.  I never thought I would rave about asparagus, but this is definitely worth the accolade.  

   Squid – I was expecting a simple grilled squid as I didn't really read the descriptions. As such I was pleasantly surprised when I saw it was actually stuffed squid with pork and shrimp fillings. It was perfectly seasoned and again, the sauce was incredible. I wish they bottle the sauces made by the kitchen, I would totally buy cases of them!

   Mackerel – one of my least favorite dishes as it was so bland. Mackerel is usually one of my favorite fish, but I thought it was overcooked here.

   Chicken – I probably won't have ordered this dish based on the description, chicken in spicy peanut butter sauce, ehhh.  However, I am so glad my friend waned to try it, as this dish was sooo good. The chicken was lightly fried and seasoned perfectly. The peanut sauce was just the right amount of creaminess and was the perfect complement to the fried chicken. We fought to scoop up the sauce and cleaned the plate.

   Pork Jowl – another great dish. I am tired of saying the same thing, but it was really well seasoned. The accompanied romaine salad with barley was also a nice plus. The only downside being that one of the pieces was pure fat, but we were already pretty full by then, so not a big deal.

   NY Strip – cooked perfectly to medium rare and the tofu skin & celery salad was super refreshing.

   Brisket – we all agreed that it was the least successful dish of the night. The meat was super bland and I couldn't really taste the foie gras.  This was the only dish that we didn't finish.

   Tofu – this was a complimentary dish, and it was another success.  The tofu and oyster mushroom provided a nice complementary texture. Loved it, would definitely order it next time.

   The service was impeccable.  Even though they left two bottles of water at our table, the server never let our water glasses fall below the halfway point. I thought the service was attentive without being intrusive.  Throughout the meal, we couldn't stop talking about how great the dishes were. Even though they looked small in size, they were really filling.  Bottom line is, this place is fantastic, highly highly recommend!!

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