Atlas Steak + Fish — Restaurant in West Jasper Place

The restaurant has a lovely ambiance, with tasteful lighting and pleasant live piano music that created a nice atmosphere for our evening. Unfortunately, that’s where the highlights mostly ended.

Our group of eight experienced several service-related issues throughout the evening, starting with the drink service. Despite the restaurant being mostly empty, only about three other tables were occupied, our initial round of drinks took quite a while to arrive. The drinks themselves were well-made, though slightly overpriced for what they were.

Ordering went smoothly enough, and our food came out in a reasonable amount of time, about 20 minutes after ordering. However, the delivery of food was chaotic and disappointing. Servers speaking across the table who ordered what, rather than following a seat-numbered system. This level of disorganization felt out of place in a venue presenting itself as upscale. To add to the confusion, side dishes we ordered were missing and took another 10 to 15 minutes to be delivered. Meanwhile, we also received additional sides that no one at the table ordered.

The food overall was fine, not exceptional, not terrible. One of our guests received a severely undercooked steak, far rarer than the requested medium rare. For a restaurant that positions itself as a steakhouse, that kind of error is hard to overlook. Considering the high prices, especially since sides are not included and must be ordered separately, the experience didn’t feel worth the cost. While the sides were portioned generously enough to share, serving from shared plates at a formal dinner isn’t exactly refined.

A birthday celebration was part of our night, and the restaurant brought out a complimentary cheesecake. While the gesture was appreciated, it missed the mark, the birthday guest doesn’t eat cheesecake. It would have been more thoughtful for the staff to ask beforehand rather than assume.

The billing process was the final frustration in a night full of them. As we were settling up, another round of steaks arrived at our table, clearly meant for another table. The server seemed irritated when we explained they had the wrong table. On top of that, the bill was full of errors: we were charged for the unsolicited cheesecake (which we had to dispute), one drink we did order was missing, and a random drink was added. Perhaps the most frustrating issue was that they do not split bills, something that was never mentioned during the booking process. For a group with varying order sizes (ranging from $40 to $150+), this was a major inconvenience, and the server expected us to sort it out ourselves.

Overall, the experience was underwhelming. The food was decent, but nothing to write home about. The service felt untrained and disorganized, and for a restaurant that tries to come off as upscale, there are serious gaps in professionalism and execution. I might recommend it for a couple or a small family where one person is paying the bill. For larger groups or anyone expecting smooth service and clear communication, I’d suggest...

We dined at Atlas last night, and we were so excited to try it out for the first time. We often dine out at steakhouses, but I am so sad to say that last night was such a huge disappointment. The food was absolutely horrible, I was left wondering if they even had a BOH management on or if we were left to the line cooks. I rarely leave a review , but this food experience was so disappointing I feel like people should know before spending their $$$ here.

Food: we started with bruschetta and the stuffed calamari. We were disappointed in both. The calamari was so bad we took one bite and immediately sent it back. It arrived to the table cold and the actual flavours of the dish were not good. The bruschetta was edible but not great. It was clear it had been prepped quite a while ago as the tomatoes were spongey and soggy, not even the skin had texture. Not enough acid or basil to be a good bruschetta.

For mains we splurged on a tomahawk, as well as asparagus in bernaise, fois gras, truffle fries, and the whipped Brie mashed potatoes. We were disappointed in almost everything that arrived at the table. We watched the cooks take our steak out of the oven(?) engulfed in fire, and we could definitely taste the over charred burnt outside of the steak. Usually a little char on a steak is great but the outsides of our steak were burnt and very clearly well done. The tomahawk arrived to the table nice and hot, but every potato on the plate underneath it was cold. Furthermore there wasn’t an once of seasoning (salt) on the steak, the flavour was completely bland and it was hard to eat the steak without asking our sever to bring salt to our table. We had to sale almost the entire main course. The truffle fries were really large and thankfully there was nothing blatantly wrong with them, they were ok. The asparagus was sooooo disappointing. It came with like 2 spoonfuls of bernaise, not even enough to really enjoy with the asparagus. It was also clear that this was NOT a bernaise made in house, definitely something ordered in or even powdered. The tarragon was clearly dried and not fresh. The mash potatoes were also so devoid of salt, they were so bland.

There honestly wasn’t one good piece of food that we enjoyed that evening. I wanted to send a lot back but the front of house staff were so nice and lovely that I didn’t want to complain a second time after sending an appetizer back.

Pros: the front of house staff were lovely and so kind. You can tell they were putting in a lot of effort to try and wow their customers, unfortunately they were let down by the execution of the food. The room itself is quite lovely. Drinks were good, we had beer and a cocktail.

Our bill was close to $300 for 3 people and honestly, there wasn’t one piece of food that came to the table that was truly enjoyable.

Unfortunately I don’t think we will be giving atlas...

I have always had a hard time finding a place that can offer a fine steak that can hold up to it's menu price tag. ATLAS sure did it... it's pricing is on the higher side, but it DOES hold up and you will not regret your choice. This is now my go-to for all out of country guests who wants to try some good alberta beef. Besides the steak, their other menu items are also fantastic, specially the seafood on seafood night. I think if this restaurant existed longer, that "so called" fancy one in downtown would have been put out of business by now.

Staff here are also very friendly, dinner environment is also very well done. One thing i can nitpick on if I really had to is service time can take long (busy or not). So bring a fine date and make use of that time before dinner for a nice drinks and chat.

It is above the casino so no minors (which I LOVE).. no noisy kids running around spoiling the dinner *thumbs up

Update 2023-05-26

After Covid, many restaurants has really gone down in quality, food portion, and service. After being closed for pretty much two years; I have to give Atlas a try again, since they are one of my top favorite restaurants of this type in Canada.

We had a dozen of fresh oysters than their 48oz Tomahawk. The oysters was great, presentation was classy with small touches (like having the lemon wrapped in mesh to avoid lemon seeds from dropping into your food), does show the restaurant actually spends effort to ensure the best dining experience.

The Tomahawk steak was HUGE, and very well prepared. Medium Rare is not easy to prepare, and it was on-point. The outside of the steak was nicely grilled to a nice layer of crisp and flavor, while not a bit of burnt taste. The center was pink and juicy yet at a good warm temperature. The table side prepared pepper corn sauce was also fantastic.

The only complain I have was that the A/C was set way too high, causing the marble table top to be ice cold to touch.. all our dishes was served at a good hot temperature, but since the dining room was so cold, everything got cold within mins of arrival which was a disappointing. The A/C issued was addressed to management and we were told it will be addressed.

All and all, the first visit after they re-open was a very pleasant dining experience. Specially our server Corey, he is probably one of the best servers I've encountered in North America (including fine dines from NY).

Atlas Steak and Fish remains as my top 5 favorite restaurants of this...