ATOMIX — Restaurant in New York

I'll start my review by prefacing that I am a certified sommelier and have worked in hospitality for over 10 years from small mom & pops to Michelin starred restaurants in management and on the beverage team.

I sat at the R&D counter and have been excited to try Atomix for the last 5 years before I managed to snag a reservation that aligned with me visiting New York (I'm from Toronto). The first few courses seemed uninspired and boring from both a culinary and beverage side. They couldn't stand up on their own and required the pairing to make them both make sense. One of the worst dishes was a hamachi crudo with a raw radish flower with a red pepper sauce akin to Arby's sauce. The best, lobster with dashi broth and foie gras, one giant umami bomb. Cocktail pairings had superfluous ingredients that were presented in such a tone intended to perhaps inspire awe or excitement but came across as incredibly pretentious. The final savoury course was a shiso rice with jamon paired with a shiso cocktail. Shiso is such a pungent flavour that requires something to contrast or compliment that flavour, not smack you over the head with it. I get it, shiso is God's gift to the tasting menu world, but perhaps show some delicacy with your flavour profiles. Oh wait, we did that for the first two courses that fell flat. It seems to be one or the other here, entirely lacking balance and cohesiveness from individual plates but also along the journey of the menu.

I get that this is art and your expression on a plate. Yes chef. I get it Chef. Thank you, Chef.

I have spent far too much than I'd care to admit on dining in Michelin restaurants. I can get past over the top plating and confused pairings but the biggest kicker of the night is their damn ego.

I understand the integrity of a dish is and will no longer be in tact if you ask to take the rest of it to go, and would never judge a restaurant on how the leftovers presented at a later time. This would be an insane thing to do. However, I was unable to finish my final savoury course and asked for it to be packed up for me. I asked the server and made this very specific point. The server said they don't normally do that but would check. In response, the manager who I've had no interaction with or even saw for the entire night approached me with kid gloves to reaffirm that this wasn't okay and I would not be allowed to take it with me, and then cleared my dish without asking if I wanted to take my time with the dish or revisit it before it would be scraped into the trash. It was only then while she had the plate already in her hand and seeing the expression on my face change drastically, asked if I wanted to finish it. No, it's already in your hand and I see where I stand now in this interaction and this establishment.

The response given to me that this was chefs choice. I'm to be penalized and given less food that I paid the exact same amount as the person beside me that is twice my size and can eat more? I paid for my food and should be able to take it with me if I wanted to. Furthermore, this lacks any and all sense of what hospitality is. I expressed I wouldn't judge the plate based on how it presented later, so the only reason to not allow me to take it is because either your ego is so inflated that you think I'm going to try to recreate this dish at a later time because it was so delicious or because you just want to say no for the sake of saying no.

I waited 5 years to dine at a place that had no problem telling me that I'm not good enough to be there. Some of the best restaurants in the world have been so very much OK with me boxing my food to eat later from a tasting menu format. Eleven Madison Park, atera, The Modern, Family Meal at Blue Hill, One White Street to name a few.

I'm so incredibly over Michelin restaurants that have lost their sense of hospitality, compassion, and empathy for their guests.

Apologies as I cannot comment on any of the sweet courses as I took that opportunity to walk out on the remainder of my tasting...

Note, I wrote this review because this experience was extremely underwhelming. Food is subjective to everyone (had some good dishes and some mediocre), and so the primary focus of this review is on the experience.

This is a Two star Michelin. We tried very hard to enjoy this place because of all the hype and the long wait; we were even celebrating a special moment; however, everything fell below our expectations.

Our experience consisted of a tasting for two, wine pairing, non alcoholic pairing, the truffle additions, extra gratuity (total ~$1700).

First, let's start with enjoyed: the hostess who greeted us was extremely enthusiastic and welcoming, a great start to our experience. Some of the waitstaff seemed inexperienced and young, but nonetheless were very passionate about their work. The ingredient cards were a nice touch as it helps you with understanding of the background of the dish and the aromas from the tastings. We even got to choose our own chopsticks (I'll get to that later). Certain non alcoholic beverages were very unique (roasted red pepper juice and celery juice). Each of the dishes were unique and demonstrate an asian flare for fine dining.

That concludes with everything that we've enjoyed. There were many things we noticed that seemed off and lackluster:

we got the option to choose chopsticks, but it seems like most of the dishes were mainly spoon/fork/knife heavy. Only used it once just to eat the rice. for certain dishes, the wine pairing and the non alcoholic pairing seemed to have different purposes for each dish. E.g. for a dish, a sour non alcoholic drink is provided yet, a sweet wine as well? In addition, there was one dish that had a "non alcoholic" beverage for the wine tasting (nothing wrong with that) yet, for some reason, the official non alcoholic pairing for the dish had a different drink? What was the rationale behind that? Why would a certain dish have two completely different non alcoholic pairings? Where's the consistentency and integrity? The wine poured for the tastings we got were less than some other parties by a significant amount (small nit, but nevertheless shouldn't happen at a two star) A5 is supposed to be super soft, tender, and melts in your mouth. The A5 shortrib dish was extremely chewy, hard to pull apart, completely different than other A5s we've had from other places. This could be because of the choice of shortrib, but what was the rationale behind it? We catered to the White truffle upsell, but only two dishes had the truffle (granted it was 6g). The truffles were shaved in the back (which gives me the suspicion that the full white truffle was shown for customers and a less aromatic one was used for the dishes). We could barely taste the truffle and it did not pair well. Truffles were paired for the sake of a truffle pairing. They can do better. At the end when we paid the bill, they offered to sell us the Cook's recipe book (signed). We kindly refused and tipped an extra $100 - we noticed despite the mediocre tasting, the workers truly tried their best effort to show us a good experience and bond with the customers. At the end of the meal, we asked if we could keep the pen (a souvenir for all the nicer restaurants we go to for a memorable experience); the pen was sold separately.

At the end, we were guided through a narrow staircase in the back, a complete contrast from the grand staircase when entering. This described both me and my significant's other's feelings towards this place - a shallow and overhyped cash grab that is disrespectful to the Michelin rating system; spend your money somewhere else such as Aska/Sushi Nakazawa. Two star dissapointment ~written...

Atomix is truly a marvelous culinary experience. It is clear that JP and Ellia, the duo at the helm, care deeply about Korean culinary tradition. Their attention to every detail is literally palpable--you can choose the pair chopsticks that you eat with from a beautiful, curated collection. The layout of the restaurant, the aesthetics, the information card that comes with every dish, the uniforms, and every other little thing all bring the dining experience closer to their goal of a "new tomorrow."

Prior to being seated, you are brought to a dimly lit lounge that might as well be from the movie set of the next big budget sci-fi movie. A few snacks are served and then diners are brought to the intimate bar. The waitstaff are dressed in flowing understated t-shirts that make stiff suits feel outdated. The stage is set and it is all very exciting to take in.

Of course, the food is the most important thing, and they have overwhelmingly succeeded in that regard. A $175 entry fee gets you 10 courses. Given the limited seating and generous portions of uni, caviar, wagyu, and such, the price feels more than fair. Other ingredients include soy sauces sourced from Korea and house milled rice.

These ingredients are cleverly assembled with sound technique. A stand out dish presented eel with eggplant bound together by an intensely savory cream sauce. The flavor is heavy, and the soft eggplant almost seems to become the eel--it tastes amazing. It is a complex dish with lots of prep that I would have not known about if not for the information card that accompanies each dish.

The information cards might seem as overly didactic and perhaps some diners feel that food should speak for itself, but I wholeheartedly appreciated knowing the background of each dish and the full list of ingredients. The waitstaff is knowledgeable and eager to explain any of the more obscure ingredients or techniques. I hope that this becomes more common amongst fine dining establishments. As fine dining is privy to hard to source ingredients and inaccessible techniques, it is important to be transparent about how such things affect a dish. The rarity of an ingredient and the difficulty of a preparation are not themselves praiseworthy. They are laudable only if they benefit the dish in a sensible way.

Returning to the food, there was a dish or two that contained ingredient combinations that I felt were confusing, such as the bingsu that contained creme fraiche, coriander seed, pepper, and strawberries, but the majority of dishes are superlative, not to mention the banchan and rice pairings.

I left Atomix in awe and inspired to cook with intention and meticulousness. At least for me, they have achieved their goal of a "new tomorrow." The highest praise I can give to a restaurant is that they are pushing the boundaries of what food and dining can be, and Atomix...