Tuesday, May 03, 2011

The Atlantic, Crown Entetainment Centre 05/11

Possibly this is the best fish restaurant iin Melbourne. Certainly it is the most expensive. There is a sumptuous bar beneath the restaurant suited to any form of rendezvous or pre or post dinner cocktails. The ground floor restaurant has views of the open kitchen or the Yarra river and the lights of the city traffic at night. It's a minimally decorated contemporary venue. Bare wooden tables, fine crockery, glassware and cutlery and reasoably comfortable seating set the rest of the scene.
Well dressed waiters, one hand behind their back, float around ignoring patrons until they can give them their full attention. Explanations of the food and cooking are thorough but they are reasonably simple dishes.
Oysters, $4 or $4.5, are served with choice of condiments, red wine vinegar and shallots, native limes or soy, ginger shallot but the menu notes that supplies are limited due to recent flooding and they are only coming into their best.
Two caviar's, with notes like wine tasting notes to help patrons who have spent $170 an ounce to know what they are eating really tastes like, are available, served with blini. Cold, or hot, starters range from $18 to $36. the menu concentrates on sea food but Chicken and steak are available and there is a crispy skin pork belly among the starters.
We had the citrus marinated ocean trout confit with navel oranges, green asparagus, pea shoots and a tiny bit of oscetra caviar. The fish had rested in olive oil for 12 minutes and the dish was absolutely fantastic.

A wonderful creation, almost too good because nothing to follow could compare.
There is a good variety of fish both off the bone or whole and range from $38 to $48 except for the crayfish.. Whole they can be wood fired, roasted or steamed and served with beurre blanc, lemon and olive oil, salsa verde or antiboise. Antiboise is a spicy French sauce often served with fish made with shallots, garlic, wine balsamic and tarragon vinegar, tomatoes, olive oil and tomato juice. It should have stayed with the tried and true beurre blanc with my wood roasted whole rock flathead. It looked lonely on the plate

but wood fired grilled zucchini with goats curd, pine nuts and garlic ($12)
and mashed Binje potatoes ($10) made it a decent meal.
The fish was just a tad over cooked and not as succulent as I would have hoped and there were a fair share of bones to be avoided. Not worth the $39.
Desserts were delicious.
The panacotta outstanding


A bottle of Mornington Peninsula Principia Altior was marked up just under 100% and drank extremely well with the fish.
Note The Atlantic sources it's sea food from quota driven areas, as set by the authorities.
Score 15/20

3 comments:

Justin Rainbird said...

A rubbish overpriced restaurant.
Our Oysters were bordering on frozen, the wagyu beef cheek was so fatty as to be inedible, the thrice cooked potatoes tasted like dirt and the kingfish was bland. The restaurant itself is cafe style noisy, the decor non existent (minimalist or cheap?) and the staff disinterested.
For the price we paid for 2 (close enough to $300) there are much more reliable options close by within the Casino. 2 out of 5.

Elliot and Sandra said...

Sure it's overpriced in my terms too and you had a very disappointing meal but that is not everyones experience. At that price you are not likely to ever have another meal there - unless your an invited guest of course!

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