Amuse Bouche of Hawaiian Opah House Smoked Fish
Atlas Bistro is a small but upscale restaurant located in an older strip mall in Scottsdale AZ. This little ten table restaurant is also a B.Y.O.B. and is adjacent to a fine wine store next door. Different chefs have worked here over the years and all of them have gone on to open some of the greatest restaurants in the metro phoenix area. All the meals I had here were all exquisite, very detailed, masterfully prepared and exciting.
This happened to be Arizona Restaurant Week and we were getting a lovely three course meal for $44.00 each. They started us off with an amuse bouche of house smoked Hawaiian Fish with a caper and lemon aioli. It was just delicious and would be forking awesome on a bagel with cream cheese. I wished I could purchase some to go!
My first course was easy on the eyes and very easy to put away in my stomach.
Cucumber, sweet crisp watermelon, Israeli Feta, jicama, pickled honeydew, pistachios, and a watermelon/lime vinaigrette. This was delicious and was one of the plates my husband kept trying because it was so DARN likable. All the flavors and textures were exciting and so refreshing. The cucumber was so crisp and sweet, the pickled honeydew added light acid and the creamy very mild Israeli Feta just melted everything together. Anyone would love this dish as it was forking delicious. I never came across Israeli Feta before it wasn’t too salty or tangy like some feta cheeses are, and was much more creamy than the average feta.
My second course was also well orchestrated.
Golden beets that were so moist, soft and naturally sweet and obviously just picked, with creamy pungent blue cheese, fennel for brightness, onion brûlée, Swiss chard, crisp rye berries, a couple dabs of lightly smoked buttermilk and red beet vinaigrette. Another light and tasty earthy dish that’s full of lots of detail.
Then came dinner.
Exotic Wild Hawaiian Hebi Spearfish, beet cous cous, za’atar shitakes, asparagus, braised leeks, harissa, charred radicchio and saffron corn puree. This was all delicious and painstakingly detailed. But I had to fight my husband’s fork from taking too much of the amazing cous cous. The cous cous had the most exciting flavor of everything on the plate and outshined the perfectly prepared and seasoned fish. I never imagined cous cous could be so exciting. They were cooked with beets and that delicious mildly spicy, red peppery and the taste of caraway. It was just so delicious. The shiitakes were also very tasty the way they were seasoned. I would have traded some of the bitter radicchio for another mushroom.
Unfortunately I was too full to even forking think about dessert.
One of the benefits of a B.Y.O.B. is also a low down because your wine won’t pair with all the entrees but if you drink your wine between dishes it doesn’t matter. At the time of this review 9-21-15 the corkage fee is $15.00 at Atlas Bistro.
Worth a Fork! You’d Drive Across Town to Dine Here.
The Forking Truth
