The Atlantic

Great restaurant, excellent service, no menu concept is brilliant. Last night’s dinner was delicious and healthy with unique, fresh flavours. It seemed to turn into a private dinner party. We talked to Chef Nathan as he brought out the plates, each paired with fresh, herbed drinks. Nathan and his staff sincerely love what they do! It certainly gives one a new and positive appreciation for dining out.

Amazing food and great service that is one of a kind. Be ready for dishes that are different and great.
The owner is a chills guy who cooks you what he has in the back. No menu. We went on a Thursday night so the place wasn’t too busy.
He fit us in and accommodated us extremely well!!!
Thanks for the great experience. This place will be a regular spot for me.

This is my favourite restaurant in the city. Go in with an open mind and adventurous attitude and you will leave amazed.
The staff are extremely personable and friendly. The food was delicious, the service was friendly, experience was unforgettable .
You can tell the people at Atlantic have a true passion for food, and they do what they love. Highly recommend this restaurant.

Great food but even better experience!
There is no menu but as long as you’re adventurous eaters there should be no problem. If you’re not I’d suggest telling them in advance when you make the reservations what foods you have issues with.
We had a spicy soup with rose oil and peppers, a salad with indian spices and a popadom, fish cooked sous vide and an apple tart– the apples were cooked in a tempura batter.
The meal took almost 3 hours but if you’re with a group that shouldnt be an issue! The wine is cheap! $ ⁶⁄₇ a glass and he’ll just leave the bottle on the table– honour system!
The chef is an interesting guy, I’d suggest chatting with him!
Come with a group and consider it your whole evening booked.

Visited on Dec 6,2014. Party of 7. Reservations are a must, they only have one seating per table per night. It was a bit difficult to make reservations as they aren’t open on certain days to answer phone-​calls and didn’t promptly return messages. It’s good to make reservations at least 2 – 3 weeks in advance to ensure you can accomodate a large party on the day you want. Some of the earlier reviews are different when the resto had prices and menus. The concept of no no prices and no menu is what drew me to this place.
The place was very dark and looked closed from the outside. It felt like a private dinner for the first hour as the other seatings were there for another hour. The service was excellent. The length of dinner was something that we had to negotiate. I usually allocate 45 min to an hour for a dinner. This could have easily stretched to 2.5 to 3 hours but we wanted to check out another event afterwards. We ended up asking Mary to speed up the last 2 courses to keep dinner within 2 hours. Discuss this with the server in advance.
Even though there is no menu they do have some general guidelines. Mary the part-​time server mentioned they generally have no red meat or chicken. Most of the items are purchased from local markets like Dufferin Grove. Nathan was able to accommodate a lactose and cashew free meal. A unique beer they had was Chimay, never tried that one before. i got the Mill St organic.
First course — Squash soup, ghost peppers, persian spices, lentils. It was very creamy and slight heat with a floral taste.
Second course — Salad with cheese, cauliflower which was smoked over charcoal, poached egg. The smoked cauliflower was a highlight of the meal as most of us had never tasted this before.
Third course — Smoked trout with a jerk broth, kimchi garnish. I didn’t taste the jerk in the broth. The fish was wonderfully prepared.
Fourth Course — Jasmin honey custard, apple pecora, grains of paradise and shaved apples. Not too sweet and a fitting end to the night.
I don’t consider myself a foodie as you can tell me reviews generally do not include an essay about each dish. I think the food was one of the best I’ve had in Toronto in terms of uniqueness and taste. I felt it was worth of $ 50 -$ 75 dollar meal. I pride myself on being unique and paid $ 0 for my dinner. I opted leave me business card and barter for my dinner. I personally emailed Nathan to provide value to him other than paying for my dinner.

Looking for fast food, fast meal walk on by!
Looking for a unique, entertaining, fantastic food adventure, don’t miss out on an evening with Nathan.
His team and him did a great job! There’s something about walking into a restaurant, not getting a menu, and being serve one eclectic dish after another and letting your taste buds get a awesome workout.
Go in, settle down, chill and let your taste buds enjoy the roller coaster adventure.
If You like the décor of Ruth Chris and other upscale place, Avoid this place, but you will be doing so at the cost of missing out an unforgettable food experience at the hand of a very creative chef.
No menu, no price makes for an interesting end of dinner conversation on the dollars value you give your experience!
Enjoy!

Nathan is amazing. Food is exciting, interesting, a bit experimental and often something you have never tried before. The wines are fantastic. There is no menu, no price and the best part is that you never know what wonderful surprise you will get. Not just a restaurant, this place is where you go to have a very interesting, lovely night.
Thank you Nathan. You have no idea how much I appreciate this restaurant and all the amazing times I have had here.

The best dining experience I have had in Toronto, hands down. The emphasis is absolutely on ‘experience’ as this was a 3 hour event, where we had no idea what was coming next and even how many dishes there were going to be!
We were served by the owner who I had to refrain from hugging at the end of the meal. Service was attentive and amazing; each course was top notch (often incorporating elements from one into the next, such as this incredible thai broth that featured in multiple dishes) and our veggie friend was catered to without any problems.
Simply wonderful.

I don’t know what restaurant other reviewers have been to, but it surely wasn’t this address/​property.
There is no menu.
There is no price list.
There are no pretensions.
The _​only_​thing that has a «menu» is the alcohol list, and it has a set price of 7.00 per glass of wine. I chose the Cave Creek Riesling, as it’s a wine I know and appreciate.
The owner is the chef; he comes to the table and asks about your meal preferences, allergies, etc.
He chooses what you’ll eat.
The five courses were outstanding. The third course was smoked and grilled cricket, and I enjoyed them very much (second time I’ve had cricket).
The dessert was a true delight of bourbon-​cocoa with sliced peaches.
I’m not a vegetarian nor vegan, but they do cater quite well to that crowd. The meal was delightful, service very personable and informative, and the atmosphere perfect for the kind of foods they serve.

This was the second time I have eaten at The Atlantic — was there a while ago when they had the regular menu. I had a so-​so experience as I was not satisfied with the cost of meal and portion size — however the food quality was superb.
The major change since then is the PWYC concept as well as no fixed menu.
Nathan, head chef/​owner/​server was super focused on giving us a great dinner and we had nothing less than that. The style of dining has changed but the above average food quality has not wavered at all.
He started us off with a green soup that was flavourful, yet light.
Shortly after, he brought us a green salad with asparagus, feta, honey, and some greens — yes, a simple idea for a second course but it was incredibly flavourful, thoughtful, and delicious.
The main was trout on wild rice, perfectly cooked, with a poached egg, pickled chanterelles and fiddleheads. It was divine, filling, delicate.
Before bringing dessert, Nathan gave us the option of ‘something else’ to eat — in case we still had an appetite. Though tempted to have more of his creations, we opted for a rich dessert: crème brûlée with tobacco (mentioned in a previous post).
As per the PWYC concept, my boyfriend and I left $ 100 total for the two of us– which included 3 beers and tip.
It was a really nice change from the original dining experience that the Atlantic offered some months ago — I would highly recommend if you are adventurous, patient, and have an appreciation of fine foods.

I love the Atlantic. A lot. A lot a lot. Even though I’ve only been here twice, I leave floating on cloud nine because hot damn this is it.
In order to really appreciate the charms of The Atlantic, I feel like having a healthy sense of patience, adventure and open mindedness will put you in the proper mind space to have a good time.
I was introduced to the Atlantic by a good friend of mine about a year ago, he lives in the area and wanted to share the experience. We settled up to the bar since it was packed on this specific evening and we didn’t call ahead with reservations. We started with their throwback vintage cocktails, I don’t quite remember the names of what I was drinking… something with Zombie in the name? But it was good. Then I had something different with bourbon and orange bitters and that was super good too. Nice and strong, just the way I like it. He had something with kombucha in it. Kombucha beer? Who knows, it was superb anyway. God damn Good cocktails. And then we started feeling peckish. My friend is a ‘burner’ (he’s been to Burning Man), so the guy will try anything once, twice if he likes it, and three times if it amazing. And I like eating weird things, so we held each other’s hand and forayed together into the ~mystery tasting menu~ (not exactly much of a mystery, the plates were explained to us as we received them, but there was an air of spontaneity & teasing in not exactly knowing what you’d get right until the last moment).
And Holy cannoli that food was good.
Some of the best food I have tasted in my life. The stand outs were a nettle soup (which I had reservations about because I’m used to having that in tea, or buying it at the farmers market and then being confused about how to cook it cause it’s prickley!) But it was a beautiful blended little soup. Yum. Then some AMAZING DUCK. And then some other amazing funky dishes that I can’t quite remember because it was almost like a food dream. I had gone to heaven. I was dead. Dead in a good way.
So, very recently, I had the urge to return to the Atlantic, and I decided to drag my boyfriend, who is NOT a venturesome eater. He’s picky, and he loves chicken; chicken schnitzel, chicken cordon bleu, chicken Caesar salad, butter chicken. He also doesn’t eat vegetables, but he was a good sport and decided to buckle down and go for the tasting menu experience. Nathan (head chef, bartender, server, jack of all trades) came up to our table and explained the concept of his operation, we could go for the pwyc tasting menu, or basically let him know what we felt like eating, and he would whip something up. I also playfully explained to Nathan about my bf’s hate for veggies and Nathan said, with a totally dead pan look «Well…my food is vegetable based.» And then we all had a good laugh. He also explained that he could whip us up a nice bowl of pasta, or a curry, but my bf was like, YA KNOW WHAT, FUCK IT, LETS DO THIS TASTING MENU I’M READY. The thing about Nathan is he can be accommodating as all heck, or you can put your faith in his talent and let him call the shots with his tasting menu. And you won’t regret either choice.
We had a creamy soup with lentils, a lovely salad with cabbage and cauliflower. And then I started talking about HOW OBSESSED I AM WITH oysters with my bf, and Nathan just glided on by and said «…you guys want some oysters? I have some nice ones…» Um heck yea we do. LIKE WHO EVEN DOES THAT. That’s one of the perks of having an observant chef mill about his restaurant and interact with patrons. All the gold stars Mr. Isberg. Then on to the delectable rainbow trout on a bed of black rice risotto, fan-​fucking-​tastic gnudi, the famous crickets (loved it), and finally, the tobacco crème brule (which I had a hard time with since that spicy kick from the tobacco was too much for my little throat — the bf loved it though, SURPRISE HE’S A SMOKER.)
All in all, a wonderful night, the service slowed down towards the end as the place started to fill up, but we had basically finished our meal by then and were also too busy having a fantastic conversation about our plan for the apocalypse — Possibly involves a boat, Cuba, and farming.
Nathan also gives me Aphex twin vibes with his look, and I love Apehx Twin, so it was like Aphex Twin was serving me amazing food. Good times.

We visited The Atlantic on a Thursday evening. The room was cozy and inviting, panelled in wood and decorated sporadically and ecclectically with mementoes of a fishing industry long since forgotten.
We were greeted by the owner and head chef who started us off with a cool and crisp bottle of white wine from the north of Italy and an inviting offer that I have never heard at a Toronto restaurant: «I cook for you and you pay what you feel the experience was worth». It’s a novel idea that proved lucrative because the food was outstanding and the service, exemplary.
We started with a parsley root soup spiced with cumin and lemon as well as something I couldn’t identify to add some heat. It was delicious. The flavours of North Africa excited my Moroccan parents who agreed it tasted authentic and delicious.
We moved on to another North African inspired dish, this time a salad of shaved, pickled cabbage, pickled cauliflower, almonds and Moroccan spices. Once again, it was a huge hit.
The next dishes proved that The Atlantic is friendly to both Gluten sensitive and vegetarian diets. My mom, who is both gluten and dairy-​free, loved her oat and wild mushroom paella while the rest of us savoured a delicate and rich ash coated ricotta gnudi.
Amazing so far!
When our mains came, we were super impressed with the simplicity and beauty of the plating. Three of us received a perfect portion of hay-​smoked trout atop dandelion greens while my girlfriend, a veggie, got the tofu version. We were all impressed by the plating, which was simple and elegant, and the taste, which allowed the ingredients to shine without complication.
Dessert was two pipe-​tobacco infused crème brûlée, which we agreed gave us a reason to take up smoking.
The dinner was wonderful. We were charmed by our hosts and blown away by a meal that offered sophistication and inspiration without pretension. That’s rare in Toronto.
Well done!

Very interesting menu, good tasting food, but poor service and shabby décor.
This place is run by a chef who is focused on sustainable food choices (hence the crickets on the menu). I can see how his ingredients can turn some people off but if you have an open mind about food, I think this place can be a very enjoyable experience.
When I came here on a Wed night, we ended up just getting a fixed tasting menu for $ 70 (for 2 people plus drinks). There was enough food to feed us both but I could have probably eaten more if given the option. The portions are small so rethink this option if you are looking for a traditionally large meal.
Everything we had was good (summer gazpacho, quinoa salad, ash gnudi with beet greens, smoked trout with potatoes, and chorizo «paella» made with barley/​farro and served with 2 roasted quails). By far the gnudi was our favorite dish (see pics) — perfect texture, taste, excellent sauce). The paella was my least favorite dish because it was very, very dry and chewy and I just prefer traditional rice in this dish. The birds were good though.
The tobacco crème brulee they usually have on the menu didn’t set properly that night– the waitress apologized on behalf of the chef and offered us to taste it before committing… the taste was great so we kept it; just a very runny texture. I also didn’t taste any tobacco but maybe the whole dish was off that night.
The service was lacking because our waitress was brand new and didn’t have any help. Drinks took forever, we never got water refills, and she unfortunately had no knowledge of the menu or the chef’s concept. I give them a break on this one though because they were actually holding a private function in the back that night and weren’t going to open at all.
Décor here is nothing worth mentioning really– a dark blue, shabby room with some nautical references in need of renovation. Not a bad place for a casual night but not somewhere you want to hold a birthday/​other celebration in my opinion.
Overall, I think the food made up for the lack of attentive service. The chef’s creativity would have me coming back at least once more.

It was graduation from the U of T for our niece and her boyfriend, so we left the restaurant choice up to her… so off a group of us went (final tally was 14) to celebrate her MBA.
Several in the group had been here before and obviously loved the place… so we went with an open mind.
At our waiters recommendation, our rather large table went for the «sampler meal», which meant 14 of us would each be charged $ 35, not including alcohol.
What was surprising was at how small the portions sizes are (yes, I know this is a tapas style place, so portion sizes are supposed to be small) but when items are put down for 6 people to share and there’s only 4 or 5 of said items on the plate, we had to cut several items so that we could all sample the fare.
After 6 or 7 various items came out the waiter asked if we were full and should he stop bringing out food. My brother in law (niece’s father and a meat and potato kind of guy) said to keep the food coming, as there were several items he wouldn’t even try. We only received one additional plate of food and then out came dessert (2 trays with 6 items each… for 14 people?).
Food quality was very good, however there wasn’t enough of it make it an enjoyable meal. We stopped on the way home and had a nosh elsewhere.
Like I said earlier, people in the group rave about this place… I guess it’s just not my cup of tea. I also didn’t dig the décor…however it was much better than how it looks from the outside.
Waiter was excellent and made sure to keep the drinks a flowing…

Great food experience, but a bit pricey.
I came here with 4 friends for dinner at about 8pm. We were all incredibly hungry and sort of confused by the menu so we asked the chef to prepare a meal for us. The menu wasn’t confusing, it’s just that it included things that some of us have never heard of, and half of the people in our group had never had tapas before. I was really impressed that the menu had the day’s date on it. I guess that means that their menu changes daily. Exciting!
The dishes:
Red cabbage and… something else salad with plum umami dressing and black walnuts. This was very tasty and refreshing, with a bit of a fishy taste to it, which I liked.
Black rice risotto with chantrelles. I wasn’t a huge fan of this dish, but I was so hungry that I couldn’t care. The mushrooms were quite tasty, but I didn’t like the rice too much.
Mussels, which were cooked just right. a little rare, with a nice sauce to it. I wish I had bread for it. In fact, I wish I had bread for the whole meal. It took a while for things to come out (two hours in all), and I felt really hungry until about halfway through the meal.
Onion tarte with gruyère cheese on top (which I peeled off). This basically tasted like a French onion soup, sans soup, and it was my third favourite dish of the evening. Sooo savoury and delicious!
A plate of grilled bread, a GIGANTIC hunk of cheese (not sure what kind) and spicy olives. I kind of wish this came at the beginning of the meal. It would have been a good appetizer and would have slowed the hungriness a bit. We barely got through the cheese. On friend ended up going home with the rest of it, which was about half the size of my fist. We joked about him eating it in the car on the way home. I’m not entirely sure he didn’t.
A tarte with duck hearts, kidneys and such. I’m a big fan of this stuff, so I LOVED this. It’s my second favourite dish of the night. My friend beside me remarked that it was good, and you wouldn’t even be able to tell that it was organs. I could tell and I was in heaven.
Jerk black cod on rapini, fregola pasta, soupy sauce and an egg cooked sous-​vide. The winner of the evening. The black cod was meltingly tender with a bit of spicy bite. The egg had a very interesting texture to it. Sort of velvety and soupy. The whole dish was amazing and I wish I could have had the whole thing to myself.
This was a really great experience… fine dining in a casual atmosphere with a really great server. It was a bit pricey ($ 35 per person) but we figured that it was an experience we’d never had before and the quality was really quite good. I wish that the portions were a bit bigger. We all came out just a little less than full, which I guess is a good thing considering this was at the end of the holiday season.
They take debit, not credit cards.