Atlantic City Fine Dining

[Art]

OK, I'm going to be going to Atlantic City from Saturday-Monday so I checked eGullet for what not to miss while I am there. Interestingly, I could not find any really good info on fine dining in Atlantic City.

So, I throw it out there. If you had to choose one restaurant in Atlantic City, what would it be?

Thanks,

-Art

[wkl]

not fine dining, but Doc's Oyster House has a very good wine list, that is very reasonably priced. i've enjoyed the food there, but wouldn't put in teh fine dining catagory.

[Jim Charles]

Without knowing your tastes how is one to know? All of the major casinos have fine restaurants and the dinning can be superb, but who knows what you may be looking for since you give no hint as to what your looking for?

[Meredith380]

You can always go with The Palm, which is a pretty good steakhouse chain, they have a location in the Trop's new Quarter.

But I would go with more local places, while they might not be "fine dining", per se in the NYC aspect, they will offer quality food. I would probably hit up the Knife and Fork Inn-- www.knifeandforkinn.com

But for late night snacking, the Hilton's room service has some pretty decent buffalo wings!

[Taboni]

I haven't been to the latest reincarnation of the Knife and Fork but it is worth a shot. This weekend however you will find me at the Old Homestead in the Borgata after trying to find a Blackjack table for under $100.

Edited September 8, 2006 by Taboni (log)

[Art]

Without knowing your tastes how is one to know? All of the major casinos have fine restaurants and the dinning can be superb, but who knows what you may be looking for since you give no hint as to what your looking for?

←

Well, I'm always into a good dining experience. Typically, these tend to be higher end restaurants of the type that have tasting menus and similar. However, I grant that this is often because with the prices that you have to pay, they had better be good. On the other hand, there are always the holes in the wall that have superb food at a great price. Of course, these are harder to find but are out there.

I'm flying into Philadelphia on Saturday and my wife suggested Morimoto's restaurant which may be a good possibility.

In the end, this is my first trip to Atlantic City and for some reason, it seems hard to find what is particularly good in the area and what should not be missed be it a four fork restaurant or some hole in the wall with a line out the door.

Thanks,

-Art

[Taboni]

If this is your first visit, you would be remiss without going to the White House for a sub.

White House Subs

[Art]

If this is your first visit, you would be remiss without going to the White House for a sub.

White House Subs

←

Great suggestion. It looks like I would really miss out if I did not visit the White House. I really hate visiting a place then come home and find on eGullet or elsewhere that I was only two blocks from really fantastic food and an incredible food experience.

-Art

[wkl]

the subs at white house are the best! they make a mean meatball sub too.

[hitmanoo]

I'm going to AC Saturday for the first time in a long time, and I definitely hope to hit the White House at some point.

[chefdavidrusso]

I've heard very excellent things about Michael Mina's new place, Seablue. Several colleagues from work (with a high level of reliabilty when it comes to restaurant recomendations) had dinner there last week and said it was phenominal. And I've eaten at NobHill on several occasions at the MGM Grand, and if Seablue is anywhere near the same caliber you will not be dissappointed.

[Diann]

Bumping this thread up... a couple friends and I are celebrating a birthday in Atlantic City next weekend and I'm trying to figure out where to take them for dinner. Here are my limitations:

- Birthday girl is a vegetarian who will occasionally eat seafood, but I'd rather not take her to a place that ONLY does seafood. Therefore, no steakhouses, probably no Dock's.

- We're going to Osteria (a mid-priced, really excellent Italian restaurant in Philadelphia) the night before, so we might not want to do Italian (even "Italian-Italian" and then "red-gravy Italian") two nights in a row.

- We're staying at the Borgata. I'm not really excited about any of the dining options there, but I'm hoping I'm wrong -- are any of the restaurants good? It would be nice to walk from the hotel to dinner.

So if you take all of this into consideration, I'm completely stumped. I'm not expecting mind-blowing food, just pretty good eats. Price not a major consideration as long as the price-quality ratio is right. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

[brucedelta]

- We're going to Osteria (a mid-priced, really excellent Italian restaurant in Philadelphia) the night before, so we might not want to do Italian (even "Italian-Italian" and then "red-gravy Italian") two nights in a row.

- We're staying at the Borgata. I'm not really excited about any of the dining options there, but I'm hoping I'm wrong -- are any of the restaurants good? It would be nice to walk from the hotel to dinner.

←

I would try SeaBlue. It is my favorite place in town these days and I happen to love the Tuna & Foie Gras dish they do there. They tout the lobster pot pie as the house special, but I just don't get it. And they have a wonderful nan/pita type bread.

I would think Ombra is too much like Osteria to fit the need, and I would guess specchio & old homestead are out for a vegitarian.

Noodles of the World would work for the vegitarian point of view, but nothing special, and if you have not been to SeaBlue you should try.

Since i know you like pistachio Gelato, you should visit the gelato counter at the metropolitan. It is not like what was at M last night, and it is not quite capagiro but it is often prettty good.

Edited June 15, 2007 by brucedelta (log)

[Diann]

- We're going to Osteria (a mid-priced, really excellent Italian restaurant in Philadelphia) the night before, so we might not want to do Italian (even "Italian-Italian" and then "red-gravy Italian") two nights in a row.

- We're staying at the Borgata. I'm not really excited about any of the dining options there, but I'm hoping I'm wrong -- are any of the restaurants good? It would be nice to walk from the hotel to dinner.

←

I would try SeaBlue. It is my favorite place in town these days and I happen to love the Tuna & Foie Gras dish they do there. They tout the lobster pot pie as the house special, but I just don't get it. And they have a wonderful nan/pita type bread.

I would think Ombra is too much like Osteria to fit the need, and I would guess specchio & old homestead are out for a vegitarian.

Noodles of the World would work for the vegitarian point of view, but nothing special, and if you have not been to SeaBlue you should try.

Since i know you like pistachio Gelato, you should visit the gelato counter at the metropolitan. It is not like what was at M last night, and it is not quite capagiro but it is often prettty good.

←

Thanks Bruce! I've heard that Seablue is among the best AC has to offer, though I've also heard that it's not the best Michael Mina restaurant around... still, I'll check it out. We will definitely go for gelato -- I still prefer ok/middling gelato to bad ice cream.

[percyn]

Was in Atlantic City last week and wanted to try one of the new "fine dining" restaurants. While I have had decent but not spectacular meals at Ombra, Specchio and Susanna Foo (before it closed), at the Borgata I was a bit skeptical of finding true fine dining in a casino town like Atlantic City...but hey, if Vegas can do it...

Nice view of the ocean from our room

So arrive for our 7:30pm reservation at SeaBlue on a Sunday evening, Michael Mina's new restaurant at the Borgata. The bar and restaurant was completed packed. The table s for two seemed to be packed together with no more than 12 inches separating the tables and we could easily overhear the conversation from 2 tables down during the brief period when the hustle and bustle of the restaurant would subside for a few seconds. Oddly enough, it is hard to hear your dining partner sitting across from you. Perhaps this was because of the bright light shinning from the flat panel TVs projecting what looked like an odd hybrid of real video and cartoon images of Jellyfish and these cartoon blue fish.

We were informed that the kitchen was out of the diver scallops entrée, which is the one my wife was set on. How do you run out of food by 7:30pm? Since she is allergic to fish (not shellfish), the only other appealing item was the Filet.

I had my heart set on the 5 course tasting menu, but was informed that all members of the table need to order the tasting menu. I can understand this as the kitchen was busy, but most high end restaurants will accommodate this request.

So we decided to order the "trio" of Soups, raw trio and fried trio.

Soup Trio - Sweet corn, English Pea and Spicy Tomato Crab

The English pea was too bland and could have really benefited from a little salt to bring out the sweetness of the peas. The spicy tomato tasted as though the ingredients were thrown together at the last minute and lacked the depth of flavor or umami that a great soup simmered for a long time has. The sweet corn lobster was OK but to me tasted more of butter than corn. The bread they serve is like a naan, so not the best choice to go with the soup.

My wife's Fried Trio - came with (from left to right) Tempura Gulf Prawns, Deviled Dungeness crab cake, Lobster corndog.

The tempura batter was more like a fritter batter that masked the delicate prawn flavor. My wife did not like the crab cake, but I enjoyed it. The lobster in the corndog was more like a lobster mousse than chuncks of lobster I was expecting.

The Raw Trio - Wagyu Carpaccio with goat cheese, Hamachi (Yellowtail) Sashimi and Tuna Tartare

The vinaigrette and cream cheese on the carpaccio was a bit overpowering for the delicate wagyu. The Hamachi and Tuna Tartare was pretty good. Overall, this was the better of the 3 trios we ordered.

For Entrees we ordered the Filet Mignon (as previously mentioned) and I got the Ahi Tuna topped with Foie Gras.

The Filet - Sorry for the blury image. It was a good steak...what more can I say

The Ahi Tuna w/Foie Gras - Since I could not order the tasting menu and was unsure about the signature lobster pot pie, I remembered Bruce (I think it was Bruce) mentioning this dish, so I decided to try it. At first the Foie was lost on top of 2 sizable pieces of Tuna. I guess it was a good thing, otherwise the dish would be too rich. The size of the entrees are huge and would we have known that, would have probably skipped the Trios.

Service can get a bit slow when busy. Our overall experience was a bit disappointing. I wanted this to be our "seafood experience" of the trip, but unfortunately had to swing by Legal Seafood on the way home for that.

[tommy]

We were informed that the kitchen was out of the diver scallops entrée, which is the one my wife was set on. How do you run out of food by 7:30pm?

i'd be leary of a seafood restaurant that doesn't run out of something by 7.30 on a sunday night!

I had my heart set on the 5 course tasting menu, but was informed that all members of the table need to order the tasting menu. I can understand this as the kitchen was busy, but most high end restaurants will accommodate this request.

in my experience restaurants, regardless of their level, want the entire table to order a multi-course meal pretty much without exception. it doesn't have as much to do with how busy the kitchen is, but rather serving people at different times with different numbers of dishes throws off the flow of the service, bussing, as well as the kitchen.

i'm heading down to AC soon and was thinking of trying this place, so your report and pics are perfect timing. either that or Bobby Flay's place.

Edited July 29, 2007 by tommy (log)

[njduchess]

Last summer, we tried both SeaBlue and Flay Steak on consecutive nights. I should have done my homework and knew to skip the Lobster Pot Pie. It was hardly worth it. Then when we went to Flay Steak, I made a selection of a steak that had some spice to it. I figured Southwestern was a specialty of his and it should be good. It was very okay.

This past Spring, we tried Mia at Caesar's. It is in the space of the former Temple Bar, which was always a favorite of mine. One of the partners in this restaurant is Perrier of Le Bec Fin of Philadelphia. It was a very wondeful meal. I had a white fish (maybe seabass) with a citrus emulsion that was very enjoyable and my husband's pork dish was equally good. I started with a beet salad and I think he had a pasta dish that was very rich and very good. I can't remember dessert. We thought the meal here was far better than either SeaBlue or Flay Steak.

We're going to at the Borgata later in August and have a reservation for Ombra. We usually don't choose Italian restaurants as our first choice, but I've been wanting to try this one. We always had a nice lunch at the Wolfgang Puck tavern and want to try his fine dining restaurant. Should we switch it?

Marie