Atoboy New York - Buy Reservations

My partner surprised me by taking me here for my birthday last month and I was blown away! Atoboy offers a prix fixe menu that is more affordable than their sister restaurant, Atomix, and comes with a pretty filling 5 course meal. For our meal, we got the:1st course- Donut (5/5): I had no idea what I was putting in my mouth but man, this was quite a tasty bite. 2nd course- Yellowtail (5/5): My partner chose this one and it was yummy! Very fresh, with some tasty little shoestring fries on top. - Wagyu tartar (5/5)**: At first, all I saw were mushrooms and thought, what the heck. But let me say, this was the most tender, flavorful tartar I've had. It's mixed with yuzu and paired well with the mushrooms. 3rd course- Beet (5/5): I love beets so maybe I'm biased but what a delicious take on a beet dish. - Octopus (5/5)***: My favorite dish - the octopus was SO juicy and came in fat chunks tossed in some sweet potato and cabbage spirals. Must order. 4th course- Cod (3/5): Nothing too special about this, just tasted like...fried cod. Not bad just wasn't anything out of the ordinary. - Pork belly (5/5)**: The better option from the 4th course, hands down. With this, you get juicy, tender pork belly with a sweet/salty glaze that lies under a bed of greens. This course is presented like a traditional Korean meal, with rice and banchan. The banchan (side dishes) were delicious, especially the soybean paste kimchi.5th course- Sujeonggwa granita (3/5): This is like a Korean shaved ice infused with sujeonggwa, which is a traditional cinnamon punch, on top of some lychee yogurt and burrata. I don't really like sujeonggwa to begin with so this was not my favorite. It was also weird to eat this with burrata but my partner liked the flavors. - Smoked cheesecake (4/5): My partner had this and said it was good (I don't like cheesecake so I didn't try it). All in all, the must haves are: wagyu tartar, octopus, and pork belly. We were told by our waiter that their menu changes every season so these may not be on the menu anymore. But if they are, try them out!! Definitely worth the $$ - food and service were wonderful.

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Summary: $75/person tip-included looks like a great deal on paper for a 5-6 course meal, but I felt that the flavor was still lacking and I would have preferred less quantity for more quality. Each plate was beautifully plated but flavor-wise lacked the kind of scrumptiousness that made you wish you had a larger portion. The entire meal was bailed out by just one dish - their amazing fried chicken, which was a $27 supplement. You must order this if you come here. We also really liked the pork belly.The menu is apparently seasonal and the only two items that are permanent are the 'egg' and the fried chicken.Review of the items we ordered:The 'donut' amuse-bouche (3/5): the donut component here was sterile and didn't synergize with the other components.Wagyu tartare (3/5): it looks beautiful, appearance-wise it's a work of art, but the wagyu tartare 'noodles' lacked flavor.Yellowtail (3/5): the same yellowtail crudo you'd find at a million other upscale restaurants but with the addition of shoestring potatoes. I didn't view this as a thoughtful fusion.Octopus (3.5/5): it's basically grilled octopus (which was cooked well) in a sauce of warm orange creamsicle ice cream with sweet potato texture. You'd get what I mean if you order this. I give them points for creativity but personally wasn't a huge fan of the orange flavor.Egg (3.5/5): this is one of their two permanent menu items. It's basically a steamed egg with shreds of dried nori seaweed. It was decent and tasted good but I don't know what to say - not that interesting or scrumptious?FRIED CHICKEN (5/5): this literally redeemed the entire meal. You must order this. This dish is this restaurant's contribution to the world. The batter is more like a tempura batter than fried chicken, and the creativity and execution here is marvelous. The meat itself is very tender and juicy. These are 'boneless wings'. It comes with a peanut sauce bearing resemblance to satay sauce, and a 'gochujang' that has some resemblance to American-Chinese sweet chili sauce. We were lost in the sauce as we ate this. Cod (3/5): back to regular programming. This was a cod in green scallion cream sauce with pecorino cheese grated on top. A little unusual to have this kind of dairy in this menu. This was decent but again, recurring theme, lacked scrumptiousness.Pork belly (5/5): this is a cute 'dish' bearing resemblance to a traditional Korean supper. You get the pork belly which is glazed with this sweet teriyaki-like sauce, kimchi, this tofu and mushroom banchan, and a bowl of rice. This had the scrumptiousness we were looking for. Very satisfying and tasted great. I will say this is not miles better than the same dish you can get at a good generic Korean restaurant, but this was very well executed and a bright spot in the meal for sure. The tofu banchan was really good, as was the kimchi.Lychee burrata walnut granita (3/5): it sounds cool on paper, the tartness from lychee, fat from burrata, nuttiness from the walnuts. It didn't really work well together for meSmoked cheesecake (3.5/5): a standard cheesecake with some sweet 'jam' topping. Nothing pushing the envelope. In conclusion: I would temper your expectations overall and highly recommend you order the fried chicken and pork belly if you come.

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