I write this review feeling futile as I expound upon a subject that requires no elaboration. Atomix is the restaurant that tops the first-ever North America's 50 Best list, arguably the most accurate restaurant rank-list selected by chefs.
The excellence at Atomix speaks for itself as the experience is enchanting from the moment you step down those stairs. It all starts with a stop before you sit where they present you with a "before" platter of your food in its freshest form. The clams are closed, the fish look almost alive, and the crab and lobster still move their claws.
Shift your gaze to this beautiful plate of produce
as you study your Sikhye, a milky, malty rice drink that sips like summer grass.
They seat strategically, at a staggered pace so there is no squeezing, and just as everyone starts to settle, a sushi-like Scallop shows. Little squares of seaweed and dabs of mustard kimchi stretch out the sweetness of these tender little tidbits.
This tiny tartlet is the most tantalizing taste tonight. Slips of sea-sweetness are surrounded by an herbaceous slurry like petals around a peridot. I ask them to serve just this the rest of the night, and I am told no, but also that I am not the first to ask.
Pause to choose your chopsticks - it's the only decision you get to make.
The Threeline Grunt is so good I forget to take a photo, so interesting are the velvety cubes of this lesser-known fish.
Striped Jack with silver skin sits upon some sugar snaps, a supple, springy strip with a clean-green concoction for contrast.
A dreamy-creamy Kohlrabi covers drops of king crab and cradles Kristal caviar.Nuruk is the highlight of this dish, a fermentation starter most often used for alcohol which adds nutty, aromatic rice-like notes to the sauce.
I have never hated anything as much as I hate this Abalone. The best ingredients in the industry are combined into a skillful sauce…with the flavor of that sickening syrup into which puffs of deep fried pork from a cheap Chinese restaurant are dipped. It’s an homage to Americanized sweet and sour sauce, an abomination that deserves no honor. A layer of batter already obliterates the fragile flavors of the abalone, and this horrible sauce suffocates what little is left.
The little side of pickled shallot does not save the dish, but at least it strips the nasty flavor from your tongue.
Sea Bass is subbed for something seasonal so feast your eyes on this ruby, goldeneye snapper skin. The fish is smooth and supplemented with salt from littleneck clams and shrimp in silky sujebi, a gorgeous green garlic broth.
They cleverly incorporate banchan to be taken as a bite between each bite. Here the sharp, tart finish of endive salad with pulp of pomelo resets the palate and adds fresh perspective to every bite that follows.
Lovely Lobster is impossibly tender, wading in white asparagus, treading a creamy white foam.
The accompanying rice bowl is topped with jeotgal infused with lobster stock for a flavor so sublime it could have been served as a standalone.
The complex bitter-fruit of the goji berry complements and contrasts the Lamb. It highlights the other three dots; offsetting an earthy eggplant and highlighting nutty almond notes.
The Gochujang Lamb Noodle has more sauce than it really needs, and the noodle could be more firm, but the playfulness of this finish can be appreciated by all.
I am obsessed with flavored jellies, and tea jelly might be the best thing to happen to tea. They add a playful texture to the perky Passion Fruit-flavored ice and lighten the thick tapioca.
Burdock root ice cream is divine, this indescribable flavor is a floating but grounded, earthy but elegant, every bit elevated, will-never-eat-another-ice-cream-again phenomenon that perfectly complements the cake. The dark chocolate is deep and nutty, buttery, not-so-sugary, melt-in-your-mouth but stay-in-your-senses ball of utter bliss.
This is where it ends, the entire evening spanning three hours, floating by like a dream. The service is seamless, so subtle you might miss something if you blink. The servers speak at a volume that is easy to hear but soft enough to never startle. They put you immediately at ease, shifting from genuine enthusiasm to quiet respect to whatever emotion fits the occasion. They chat as much as you wish, engage as much as you desire, yet they never interrupt your conversation and sense your needs before you need them. The devil’s in the details, and nothing here is overlooked.
What I love most about the menu is the incorporation of Korean influences without literal interpretation. There is no bulgogi, no gimbap, but the food leaves indelible impressions clearly rooted in deep tradition, and they infuse fine dining with all the cultural nuance to make each broth, every sauce, and the very air of foam an unforgettable.
