Atlas Cafe — Restaurant in Courtenay

EDIT: we initially rated Atlas 1 star due to the below experience, but I would like to note a change to 3 stars. The co-owner, Sandra, has really impressed us with her swift and genuine response to our experience. We are going to make one more trip to give Atlas a try, and Sandra has been very kind, understanding, and communicative. This kind of response is unusual to us, in the best way. Despite our initial experiences, Atlas is clearly well managed and under excellent ownership who do care about their patrons.

Original review:

My husband and I have been to Atlas twice; the first two experiences were pretty un-memorable; to be frank, I can’t even recall what I tried. Not bad experiences, but not particularly good either.

However…over the holidays, we received a gift card to Atlas as a thank you for looking after our friend’s cats. We have now tried twice to use the gift card and had poor experiences both times

We were a half hour drive away in Oyster River, but on Tuesday the 4th, we got in the truck and plunged into the snow to have a nice night out together that we both badly needed after a difficult holiday season. When we arrived, the restaurant was closed, despite us showing up during their advertised open hours. This was frustrating but of course we understand between weather and staffing crises in the area, it happens. At least the staff left a note on the door for those who were showing up.

Fast forward to Thursday the 6th at about 1pm, we decide to try again after I finished work at 3pm. My husband called around 1:15pm to confirm the restaurant was open, and he was told it would be until 6pm, so we confirmed we’d go later. I finished work, we got ready, did the 30 min drive again, arrived around 4pm…on arrival, doors were all locked, lights off, restaurant empty, but no note on the doors…we hovered around a moment, very confused as we had been told it would be open only a few hours before we arrived. Someone finally came out and told us they had arbitrarily closed. No signs on any of the 3 doors. We had told the person on the phone that we were coming and that this was our second try, so someone knew…no f*cks given apparently. So we’ve now wasted 2 hours of our lives and 2 hours worth of gas on 2 unnecessary trips back and forth for nothing.

Honestly, this restaurant seems highly unreliable. We have a very generous, untapped gift card to use and now we don’t even want to use that thoughtful gift from our friend because we don’t want to return to Atlas again.

We wanted to be sure to share our honest experience so nobody else wastes their time...

We had a great experience at Atlas Café, an institution in Courtenay for nearly 30 years. Our experience was marred only via a rather rude and perplexing seating experience. Despite emphatically telling us that they do not take reservations for parties less than 6 people, the owner Trent acted like seating us at 5PM was an issue, telling us we needed to clear our table by 6:30 for “a reservation”, despite being in a nearly empty restaurant.

Trent’s perplexing lack of hospitality aside, our server Erin was a gem, and took great care of us. My rating for service reflects Trent, not our lovely server Erin. Our cocktails were delicious, and began the meal on a good note. For an appetizer, we shared the focaccia with garlic and cheese. While it wasn’t bad, it was a little plain with the bread lacking herbs and texture. Broiling the cheese would have dramatically improved the dish, though the bread itself was the main issue.

For our mains, we ordered the falafel bowl with prawns and feta, and the carbonara with chicken. Both entrées were flavorful, well prepared, and good value for money.

For dessert, I had the chocolate mousse while my wife had the carrot cake. Both were very delicious, though my wife remarked that the icing of the carrot cake was a little too sweet for her taste. This didn’t stop her from eating the cake on its own.

At several points during our meal, Trent, who had greeted us so poorly, walked past our table like he was keeping an eye on our progress against the ticking clock. Overall, this was a really great experience, though we felt rushed and unwelcome the entire time due to Trent’s behavior. This is probably the first time in recent memory that we have had someone at a restaurant make us feel so unwelcome, so I am sad to turn what would be a glowing five star review into a barely passing four. I hope the owner treats you better than he did...

It’s probably one of the worst restaurants I’ve ever been…

The drink, Asian Pear, was a light cocktail without any depth, it’s like anyone could make it.

The appetizers:

Chicken Yakitori, was the only highlight of the night. The sauce was excellent and the chicken hearts were cooked perfectly.

Pork Tenderloin, the meat was dry and the vegetable slaw was too sour that took away the brown butter.

Seafood chowder, it’s like a seafood medley with clams salmon cod etc. the flavour was decent, not the best neither was the worst I’ve had, nothing special about it.

Entrée:

Buddha Bowl, where do I even start… The presentation was really bad because they took out the pulled pork which was supposed to be on the side, the sushi rice was not sticky, the sauce was simply miso concentrate, the pickled ginger was so overwhelming. The House Special pulled pork was EXTREMELY salty even with rice and the prawns were lack of flavour. I would’ve given minus scores for this dish if I could. $19+$6+$8.5 for this bowl was just not worth it.

The dessert: Crème brûlée, the layer of the sugar was so think which made it difficult to consume.

The customer service was not great either. Our waitress forgot to provide us with the cutlery and started taking our empty dishes while I was still eating. She even accidentally took the plate away when there’s still food in it.

All in all, I’ll never recommend this place to anyone who is...