My friend Rosalie and I were so excited to take our husbands out to this new restaurant that Rosalie had heard so much about, The Atlantic Grill is located at 5 Pioneer rd, in Rye, NH. As you might suspect it serves mostly seafood, but also has some great choices for you land lovers! It also offers a variety of healthy and gluten free options!!
We arrived at about 5:30 pm and were seated outside in the patio area. It was a beautiful evening so we were already very happy. Just as soon as we were seated we had menus and a basket of warm rolls with butter at the table!
We were all hungry and ready for some appetizers. We had a tough time deciding, so we simply ordered three appetizers for all of us to share! Jim (Mr. MCYM) loves oysters so that was his selection. He ordered 1/2 dozen ($14.00) that came with two sauces and four different types of oysters! He was the only one that had the oysters and he loved them.
We also ordered lettuce wraps. These were not your average lettuce wraps. These were filled with seared rare tuna, with a sweet chili soy sauce, peanuts and wonton crisps on bibb lettuce. ($11.00). This was my favorite appetizer and one I would order again The tuna was seared beautifully, the sauce was sweet with a little spice and and had lots of crunch! Delicious!
Next appetizer was smoked salmon served with smoked creme fraiche, pickles and everything bagel chips. ($8.00). This was also very good. I enjoyed the creme fraiche, but I was not sure about the pickles! We all really liked the everything bagel chips too!
I have to tell you a quick story. While we were finishing up and licking the appetizer plates clean, we saw the table diagonally across from us getting their appetizer. It was a beautiful, large seafood tower filled with the most incredible looking fresh seafood. As the server was putting it on the table the entire tower dumped all over the people sitting at the table! We were all shocked and staring in disbelief for a moment. The wait staff began scurrying around apologizing and cleaning things up! Yikes! Come to find out it was this server’s very first night working!! We all felt so bad for the poor kid as he served us our appetizers and he did a great job. We are all still wondering if he is still working there. We all hope so! Okay on to the entree’s!
I had a Caesar salad ($9.00) but I also added grilled shrimp to it. The salad was very good and just what you would expect. The dressing was a lemon garlic Caesar dressing that was very good and complimented the grilled shrimp perfectly !
Rosalie had the Cobb salad ($13.00), I have to say it was picture perfect when it arrived to the table. This salad had grilled chicken, avacado, local blue cheese, baby spinach, chopped egg, and smoked bacon. Not only delicious… but beautiful.
Rosalie also ordered a side of crab cakes! I tasted the crab cakes. And did I mention we share really well? Yup, we do! The crab cakes were exactly what you want, lots of crab with minimal filler and this was just that!
Jim (Mr. MCYM) had the shrimp scampi. ($22.00). He really enjoyed this dish and felt the garlic shrimp were cooked perfectly. This is served with Terra Cotta pasta, our favorite local fresh pasta company so that too is a great bonus!
Last but not least was Randy’s dinner. Randy is not a seafood lover so he went for the Durol Pork ($17.00). We had a lot of food but Randy’s pork was just amazing. When it came to the table the smell was mouth watering. The pork shoulder is roasted for 24 hours and is served with a smoked sweet pepper glaze, with a side of Maine potatoes! I tried a small piece of the pork with the sauce and it was fall apart goodness!!
You don’t think we are done yet, do you ? No way! Two desserts to share were next! We ordered the Banana’s Foster ($9.00) that came with vanilla ice cream, Myers rum and a generous sprinkle of cinnamon! Oh and four spoons! We also had the bittersweet chocolate cake with vanilla bean sauce ($7.00). Both desserts were very good, the chocolate cake was just like a large piece of fudge! Dense, rich and amazing! At one point during dessert all four spoons were combining the desserts! A spoonful of the Banana’s Foster and ice cream with a scoop of cake! Don’t judge, it was the perfect way to end the evening! Then we rolled out of the restaurant ready to go back another day!
This was an excellent restaurant that we will go back to, over and over. Not one bad thing or one disappointment. Only a bit of sadness for the poor server that had a very rough night!
Enjoy!
