Atlas Steak + Fish — Restaurant in Burnaby

In late 2017, Atlas Steak + Fish took over the former location of EBO in the Grand Villa Casino to bring us an upscale steak and seafood house centred around their specially designed, mesquite-fueled, Josper grill.

Arriving early on the weekend for their dinner service, we got a very nice table which faced out towards the piano and bar area. We were pleasantly surprised to have a pianist playing a mix of pop hits while we dined and we had a fun time trying to guess the names of the various songs he was interpreting with his own style.

After reviewing their tablet which contained their drink menu, we opted for the Imperial Pear ($8 for a single) and Zen Cucumber ($8 for a single), both of which were quite refreshing. Our friendly server also brought us out some pan bread with blue cheese butter. Let me tell you, this bread was really good! I didn’t want to get too full on the bread but it was served warm in the cast iron pan and had a nice, light crispness to the exterior while the insides were fluffy and perfect with the creamy blue cheese butter.

While you can get your Caesar Salad ($14) prepared tableside if you have at least 2 orders, we didn’t really want 2 salads so we just opted for 1 salad (which isn’t prepared tableside). This was a fairly traditional Caesar salad with heart of romaine, parmegiano-reggiano cheese, and a light Caesar dressing.

The West Coast Bouillabaisse ($30) was simply amazing! The seafood here (including black tiger prawns, mussels, clams, salmon, and rock fish) all tasted so fresh and I loved how big and plump the mussels were. But the real winner here was the rich and creamy San Marzano tomato and lobster broth.

For our side dish, we picked the Josper Roasted Vegetables ($8) which had a nice mix of asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, beets, and Brussels sprouts.

This is what I came for… the 16oz Chili Rubbed Cowboy Rib Steak ($65) from 40-day aged certified angus beef. The meat was so tender, juicy, and flavourful… damn!

They’re known for their baked Alaska but we needed something a bit lighter so we went with the Frozen Trio ($10) which turned out to be Early Grey Ice Cream, Peach Sorbet, and Dulce Gelato with strawberries and pineapple.

Overall, dinner here was really good and the atmosphere was great for a date night.

We came back to try their lunch service in mid-December and managed to sit in the same lounge area. We were lucky that the same piano player was there so we enjoyed our meal with some live music. First off… drinks! We liked the Zen Cucumber last time so we ordered it again and paired it with an El Diablo with Sauza Silver Tequila, blackberry carbonated ginger ale.

As it was close to Christmas-time, they had a winter set menu available ($35 for 3 course meal) which included this Butternut Squash Salad as well as a main course of turkey breast with mashed potatoes and Brussels sprouts and dessert. The squash was quite tender but made for a filling appy.

I decided to order from their regular lunch menu because I wanted to try the Lobster Bisque ($10) served with seared scallop and roe. To be honest, I think this soup lacked the rich lobstery punch that I’m used to and the flavour was too muted.

The Turkey Breast turned out pretty good and I’ve always got a soft spot for Brussels sprouts. Odd since I never enjoyed them as a kid.

For my main, I opted with the Mussels and Frites ($19) OMG, these frites were amazing! They had a nice crispness to the exterior and they were sprinkled with a cheesy mayo-type dressing.

The mussels were served in a cast iron skillet and accompanied with chorizo in a tomatoey broth.

For the dessert in the 3-course meal, they brought out Crème Brûlée with Chocolate-Dipped Biscotti.

Overall, I’ve been quite pleased by the meals that I’ve had at Atlas. Personally, I prefer the dinner menu offering and enjoy the live entertainment that they have...

Was here to celebrate a birthday dinner. The place has a lot of parking and is easy to find as it is right across the casino on the second floor.

The interior decoration was a little weird though. As the carpet doesn't really match up to the lights, booths and wine racks. Kind of feel they just used the existing carpet from the casino side.

But I dont think you are here to hear me talk about the interior design and the history of this place right? Most likely you want to know if the food and service is good.

So I can tell you that service here is awesome we had an amazing time with our waitress. She was really knowledge in the product they serve and was extremely friendly. Explains why I ended up giving a 20% tip.

So here is the breakdown of the food that was ordered:

Complementary Appetiser - Cherry Tomato with goat cheese, dressed in light vinaigrette. Kinda felt I having a one bite Italian salad in my honest opinion. The cheese was really rich and creamy, but apart from that it taste exactly of how it looked.

Complementary bread w/ Butter & Blue Cheese - I was actually shocked this place gave free blue cheese like that. Regardless the bread was really good, it was lightly topped with hand ground salt. The texture was warm and soft on the inside. And crispy exterior (It isnt hard crispy, but rather burger bun on a grill crispy is the best way for me to explain it)

$13x2 Tableside Caesar Salad - This was prepared fresh right in front of you. They used two different types of garlic in their mixed of both grilled and raw garlic bringing a real tasty flavor in their Cesar dressing. The lettuce was really crispy and their crouton were really crunchy and nice, not overly hard and paired great with salad. I highly recommend this

$42 14oz New york Striploin (medium well) - The steak was cooked perfectly, the only issue was the ageing of the cut isnt aged long enough and was extremely bloody to the cut. The seasoning on the outside gives it an unique flavor like no other steak houses. The meat was really tender and moist on the inside and was full of flavor.

$75 Seafood Mixed Grill for Two - This is probably the highlight of the things I've ordered. This included a lobster tail, grilled calamari with salsa?, tempura soft shell crab, Alaskan king crab leg, and jumbo prawns. Let me just say everything in this was awesome. I liked the jumbo prawns and soft shell crab the most. Why? Because the prawns were seasoned perfectly and was extremely fresh (when it crunches when you bite into it and full of juice) It kind of made feel like i was eating lobster to be honest. The Tempura soft shell crab, that was very unique too, not many places can cook this properly, however, this place made it. The crab was cooked to the point where it dissolves in your mouth (will feel like you are eating cod), they drained the oil as well so it isn't greasy. MUST ORDER DISH HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Complementary Birthday cake (I didn't expect this) - This was Vanilla Cheesecake and what i think is Raspberry Cheesecake? It was really rich and has a zesty taste to it. The shortbread at the bottom held well and was full of the taste of brown sugar.

TLDR; All their food was awesome and tasty, great place to be for special occasion, Perfect...

Weighing down the food…

I came here a couple of times when it was first opened and one time at the Langley location. It has been so long I can’t even remember how everything was.

This place is located inside the hotel and right beside the casino on the 2nd floor. There are plentiful of free parkings across the street in its parkade, or if you are lazy and want to save a few walking steps there are pay street parkings.

Upon entering the restaurant, it has that hotel restaurant atmosphere and vibe; bar with piano and live music up front, dining area to the back with an open kitchen beside it, washrooms are located between the casino and restaurant.

Here were the food I ordered;

Dinner buns. Nice hot little buns made in house (complimentary) Lobster bisque. It came hot, a seared scallop with caviar in the middle, the bisque itself was rich and flavourful. Pretty good. Spanish stuffed calamari. In my mind I pictured it as a nice tender juicy pan seared squid but in reality it was like eating one of those shredded dried squid you buy at an Asian market, failed! Salt Spring Island mussels and clams. The sauce was tasty, rich and went well with the bread but lack of sauce therefore all the mussels and clams on top were dried like raisins. (Not just this place but a lot of restaurants should stop doing this shallow sauce thingy). King crab legs. Okay whoever the chef was in preparing this, please understand cooking seafood 101! DO NOT grill already cooked or frozen crab or crab legs, you will DRY them into tree branches!!! For the love of God, what waste of $65 for this, it was literally like trying to chew on thorny tree branches especially when the crab legs weren’t even pre-cut. I took it home and dumped it, this was one ultimate failed of a dish! (Not being dramatic, can zoom into the pictures for reference). Seafood mixed grill. First choice was the seafood tower which I should’ve ordered, instead ordered this dish. It was nothing more than butter dried up seafood and the soft shell crab turned into a hard shell crab with mayo. (Why mayo?!??). Truffle tenderloin. The kitchen kind of screwed up and brought it out during the same course as the seafood so had to try to manage to eat here and there. The sauce was a bit too salty and overpowered the steak. Plus it would’ve been nice if the truffles were shaved instead of like shredded cheese.

I got a tiny table by the lounge area instead of the dining area because I didn’t make a reservation. I supposed not too bad listening to some live piano musics up front.

The service by the bartender was amazing with his service. I tipped the 30% mainly for the wonderful service the bartender/server provided throughout the duration of the meal.

As for the food, definitely needed some major changes and adjustments because I would be pretty embarrassed to serve some of them regardless of the higher price or not. Way below any standards, weighing down on the food, I would say overall it’s a failed!

P.S. nevertheless, credit is where credit is due. Thank you for taking the calamari off the bill for the steak mixup. But I did put the amount back on top of the...