Mahi-mahi entree special at Atlantic Bar & Grill
This past Friday was my mother’s birthday, which provided the perfect excuse to eat dinner at Atlantic Bar & Grill (a restaurant whose prices are jacked-up like the midriff-baring weightlifters at the local gym). The expensive menu is the one obstacle which hinders my family from attaining the status of “regulars” at this restaurant. If not for these wallet-emptying prices, we’d eat here all the time – the food is superb and easily the best available this side of the Jersey Shore.
Although the prices suggest small, pretentious portions and the need to don your Sunday best to fit in with the crowd, the restaurant is actually quite airy and casual. It’s located directly on the Seaside Park beach, with large glass windows that provide excellent views of the dunes and the ocean. (Lucky for us, the owners did not choose Seaside Heights for the restaurant’s whereabouts. If they had, the dining room would look out at tattoo-covered, Corona-chugging Tonys and Joeys instead of tranquil waves.) Light yellows and woods predominate in the dining room, which reflect the informal and beachy scenery. Atlantic Bar & Grill shares its location with a hotel, which makes the entry a tad confusing if you are like my hasty family and fail to see the fish-shaped arrows that direct you into the restaurant. (We accidentally stumbled into the hotel, which took us longer to realize than it should have. You’d think the carpeted corridor of numbered doors would have immediately screamed “hotel!” and not “food here!”)
The menu offers a number of seafood and meat entrees, as well as salads and other fishy appetizers (like mussels, tuna spring rolls, and crab bisque). We ordered the salad special to share, which was enormous and excellent. The mixed spring greens were lightly coated, not drenched, with a tangy balsamic vinegar dressing. Pieces of pita, pine nuts, red onion, and diced tomatoes and cucumbers complimented the fresh crunch of the greens, and creamy pillows of mashed goat cheese augmented the sour, salty taste of the dressing. The ingredients and dressing did not weigh down the salad, but instead worked together to create a fresh and light combination.
Salad special
I ordered pan-seared sea scallops for my main dish. Atlantic Bar & Grill does not skimp – six plump scallops surrounded a bed of spinach-topped saffron rice. The scallops were cooked perfectly – the tops were browned and crisp and covered with a medley of mushrooms and diced pancetta, and the centers were anything but rubbery. The meal, with the exception of the weighty, bland spinach, was robust in flavor and seasoning.
Pan-seared sea scallop entree
Aside from the spinach, which was just a minor disappointment in comparison to the rest of the dish, my only gripe is the mixed drink I ordered. First of all, since I have never enjoyed the liberty of legally ordering a drink in the US, this was an exciting experience for me. I turned 21 in Spain, a country whose infants are nursed on red wine and cigarette smoke. I’m sure the Spanish bartenders applauded my drinking, underaged or legal, so I never was asked to prove my adulthood. As lame as it sounds, I was actually looking forward to being carded in the U.S.! I ordered a lemon drop martini and the waitress asked for my ID, chuckled, and exclaimed “Wow!” post-inspection. (She later told me that she thought I was 18). The drink, however, was less amusing than the satisfaction I experienced from being old enough to order it. It was colorless and tasted sweet and bitter instead of tart and lemony. And at $10.50, it was definitely a rip-off.
Atlantic Bar & Grill
24th & Central Ave.
South Seaside Park, NJ 08752
732.854.1588
Price Rating: $$$-$$$$
