Although Atrio is the wine bar/restaurant in the Conrad Hotel across the street from my office, I haven't really been there for dinner because I know from past happy hour experiences it's really expensive and caters more to the Goldman crowd vs. the AXP crowd. None the less, Cicily, Betsy and I met up for dinner and drinks there because it was so close to the office and didn't require much planning or walking.
I will say that the layout and decor of the space is super modern, spacious and high end. Betsy had been here numerous times before for lunch and as soon as we opened the menu she noticed that the lunch and dinner menu were slightly different. She asked the waiter if they would kindly make some items from the lunch menu for us even though it was dinner. Luckily they were extremely amenable and said it wouldn't be a problem. So for starters, the three of us split the warm summer asparagus salad ($16) and the Maplebrook Farm Burrata ($14). For entrees, Cicily got the orccchiette pasta ($24) and Betsy and I both got the lamb burger ($24) which was not of the dinner menu. The warm summer asparagus was served with a soft poached egg, manchego gratin, and truffle pancetta dressing. For a dish whose primary focus is the asparagus, I was a bit disappointed at the skinniness of the asparagus. They were very thin and just seemed a bit lackluster. I've gotten better asparagus on my own at Whole Foods. But the poached egg and manchego were a nice touch to the dish and made it seem like a very multi-dimensional dish beyond just a bunch of asparagus. Meanwhile the burrata dish was hands down the table's favorite dish of the night. The soft milky cheese was served with chopped cucumbers, delicious heirloom tomatoes, and a tangy balsamic dressing. We wished we had ordered 2 more and were literally sopping up the dressing with bits of left over cheese with the bread at the table. My one gripe about both dishes was that they were both pretty small in size and at $14 and $16 each I would have expected to get a pretty hearty salad. At this point, we had one round of really strong (and expensive cocktails) and were ready for our mains. Initially the lamb burger came out and it was just the burger with melted feta and spicy mayo. Betsy and I were disappointed that it didn't come with any toppings like tomato, lettuce, pickles etc. I kind of thought that since they don't really make this for dinner normally, maybe we were getting the abbreviated version. But alas, our waiter just couldn't carry everything at once and out came a plate of bibb lettuce, sliced heirloom yellow and red tomatoes, red onion and pickles. When you put them all together, it was one juicy killer burger. I had my medium rare and it was definitely the right amount of pink inside. This burger is very filling but yet I managed to finish the whole thing because I just really loved all the ingredients that made this burger. It was very very heavy on the salt but since I was kind of buzzed it wasn't something that I really realized until I got home and downed almost 4 pints of water. Although I really enjoyed the burger and think it is up there with the lamb burger at The Breslin, I did really regret eating the entire thing because it was just too much food for one person. The dish came with fries that I honestly didn't really care for. They were the very skinny kind and most of them were pretty dry and overcooked.
By the time the bill came, I was nice and full and drunk. Our waiter was incredibly sweet and nice to us and I think he made our 2nd round of drinks really strong for us because I normally don't get that tipsy off just 2 cocktails. While I enjoyed the burger and the burrata, what prevents me from really giving this place a stellar rating is the over inflated prices. It's really just too much money to justify coming here unless you are on a corporate account. But the service is top notch so I have to give them props for that. Total bill: $90/pp with tax and tip
Photo Credit: Yelp
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