What’s the vibe?
ATLA is the casual sibling to Cosme, the high end Mexican restaurant from Enrique Olvera. It’s a small dark room with just a few tables and bar seating, and as with Cosme it’s pretty found of the nightclub soundtrack. The tables are pretty squashed together too so get ready to hear your neighbours conversation – we were lucky enough to be right in the middle of a lover’s tiff, so you do get some free entertainment with your meal.
What to order?
It may not be the comfiest room in the city (but hey this is New York so deal with it) but the food is damn tasty, and every bit as fresh and modern as Cosme. We can definitely recommend the Arctic char and farmer’s cheese tostada, the cauliflower al pastor taco, and the pork belly which comes with an avocado taco. Best of all though is the fish ‘Milanese’ which is essentially the poshest fish finger you’ll ever find and stand out delicious.
If we had one gripe with ATLA (and Cosme) it would be the prices. Even by crazy New York standards these two restaurants really take it a little bit too far – it’s no wonder the ATLA prices aren’t shown on the menu on the website. To top it all off, we asked for some extra hot sauce which was then added as a $2 charge on the bill at the end for a tiny little pot. We’d still recommend it as the food is so good but be prepared!
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