THE ATLANTIC

8 Whiteman St, Southbank - ph: (03) 9698 8888

I've just recently discovered The Atlantic and absolutely love it!

This restaurant offers the full package of carefully sources ingredients turned into excellent food + great attentive, yet unobtrusive service + perfect ambiance dimmed lights, low noise and with lots of private dining rooms. It would be my place of choice for a dinner party.

The Atlantic , as the name indicates, is all about seafood. Their oyster bar offers a seasonal selection of Australian sourced oysters.

The Atlantic takes responsibility for the part we play to protect our world's ocean. We source sea food from quota driven areas as set by the authorities.

Bruny Island and Cloudy Bay natural Tasmanian oysters ($4 each)

What can I say - very fresh melt-in-your-mouth oysters. Beautiful.

I followed the waiter's recommendation and ordered the olive oil confit salmon for main.

Olive oil confil king salmon with tempura zucchini flower, confit tomato, black olive and basil jus ($40)

The salmon was only just lightly cooked and impeccably tender. The flesh literary melted in the mouth. I also loved the combination of flavours - tangy tomatoes, salty olives and fresh basil. It all went perfectly well together.

The zucchini flower was also beautiful and crispy. My only complaint is that I would have liked to see more of it on the dish. A single flower was just not enough to accompany the large piece of salmon on the plate.

Hubby is not a huge fan of seafood and ordered the grilled calamari (offered on the menu as an entrée) for his main course.

Wood fire grilled calamari with garlic, chilli and fennel ($40 for main size)

Again, perfectly cooked calamari served with lots of fresh fennel and a subtle chilli and garlic finish.

We couldn't resist the thrice cooked potatoes, which were deliciously evil. Very crispy and surprisingly not too oily.

Thrice cooked potatoes with rosemary, garlic and sea salt ($11)

True, food doesn't come cheap, but I thought The Atlantic was very reasonably priced for the quality of food that you get. Highly recommended for seafood lovers.