Cafe Atlantico

Delicious, well presented food in an intimate setting. Service was excellent. Baby Octopus appetizer was tender and tasty in a red sauce, as were the mussels in white wine. Continuing with the seafood the scampi and mixed seafood were both a delight.

This is my second time eating at Café Atlantico and it was better.
Our table was ready and waiting for our 8pm reservation. Our food was cook perfectly and the waitress did not rush us. We had a lovely, quiet dinner with a good bottle of wine.
I was a little disappointed they ran out of romaine lettuce but all in all it was a pleasant experience.

Over the years I’ve been lucky enough to eat at some amazingly wonderful restaurants and also some pretty bad ones. Napa, NYC, LA, South Beach — you can get good and bad. The thing is, usually there is some kind of warning to let you know when a meal can go south. Bad location. Crap menu. Dubious ingredients, or silly pricing. None of that was the case when I took my father, step mother and wife for a dinner at this place. Without question, the single worst meal I’be ever had in my dining life (and that’s significant.) I mean, I wasn’t expecting the Ritz, but at $ 80 a plate with only 2 wine drinkers, this meal was striking in it’s abject disgustingness. And for what, I can not understand. I mean, the ingredients seemed fine, and the wait staff was beyond kind and earnest. But the food was so amazingly hideous it’s hard to put in to words. In fact, our party was joking that for some reason we must have been slipped in to an episode of «Candid Camera» — or the «Twilight Zone» (but sadly there was no hidden video.) The food was just that bad. To say that the sugar packets were decent might be a stretch. I felt so badly for the wait staff that I wanted to take them to McDonalds, and, in fact, if the owner will post me, I’ll treat him to a real dinner somewhere soon. Truly hard to put in to words, but at all risks, stay away (or begin looking oddly at anyone who would go to bat for this absolute sorry excuse for an eating establishment.) If it were in a town without beach traffic it would be out of business or entertaining Gordon Ramsey for an episode of Kitchen Nightmares.

Perfection at the beach! What a lovely spot, linens, great server and hostess, and the food was terrific! Wine selection was right on, something for us all. The Chilean sea bass wrapped in parchment was delicious. Loved the olive oil with just the right amount of spices served with the crunchy bread, reminded me of a vacation to Italy. The Chef came out and was quite gracious, this is a hidden gem and deserves a visit when you are in St. Augustine!

Meals were fine, but service was a disappointment. One waiter on a fairly busy Friday night detracted from what should have been a special birthday dinner with my wife.

We had a table of 8 varied family members and Friday night food critics. The calamari was lightly breaded and a good start to the meal. The sea bass was out of this world and is one of my top meals of recent restaurant visits. Eggplant parm was fresh and you could actually taste the legume. Everyone at our table was surprised and impressed. Service was personal and quick. Not sure what happened to other reviewers but I plan to return.

Very friendly service. They pay attention to you. Love the range of offerings. New Zealand lamb to Osso Bucco to salmon to mussels to beef tenderloin to rabbit. Very interesting preparations and everything comes out hot. Love it!

I had a very enjoyable experience here! Our waitress was amazingly nice and attentive. Not many tables, but they do take reservations. We went with calamari which was decent. I had the gnocchi special which was delicious. I have no complaints!

Sold on the theory of non-​marinara Italian in St Aug. Or anywhere for that matter. Two friends independently recommended it, thought we would give it a go. Oh boy…
Disclaimer — I lived with my wife in Milano for 4 years so we like to think we know a bit about Italian food.
Small, simple dining room, wonderfully charming hostess.
So why with only one other table occupied did it take 5+ minutes to even ask us for drinks? Anyway…
Bread was about 8 or 9 very small slightly stale slices of basic french bread, along with some oil that looked like it had an old oak leaf in it…
Appetizers: Caprese which I didn’t try but my wife said tasted of not a lot. Beef carpaccio seemed to be partially cooked… and not sliced anywhere thin enough. But tasty.
Entrees: lamb chops were very small, but OK I guess with an odd pasta/​goat cheese side. My wife and eldest had the pasta alla vodka and salmon which was Ok but overly creamy. My other son (13 year old) though ordered a pork chop of which about half was close to raw… enough said? Luckily we caught it before he ate more than a mouthful or two and so far seems to be OK and not in the ER.
Dessert was worse. Panna Cotta was nothing like I’ve had anywhere, hard to describe except like it had been partially dehydrated I guess? Tiramisu was basically a soggy sponge cake with a thin smear of mascarpone (we think). The chocolate salami was kind of a hard cake thing, never eaten anything like ti before and not great. The lava cake looked pretty good though. Pity there was only one — tried to order two but that was sold out as well.
Because of the pork incident (I suppose) we were comped 3 of the 5 desserts,
So, so wanted to love this place…:o (This would have been one star if not for the hostess (her personality not attentive service) and the fact we were on a family night out and having a blast. It would have been miserable if a romantic dinner for two.

We ate here tonight and were generally not satisfied. The previous reviews that were negative were pretty right on. The bread was brought out in the middle of our meal (long after we had gotten there) and it literally was like three large croûton size and not fresh. They forgot to bring us the dipping oil that other tables got. I mean, come on who jips on bread? Especially for what this place charges for their meals. Definitely not worth the price for the quality food. The salads were tiny but the dressing was good. The waitress was very nice. The place was cute, I guess but honestly not worth the trip. Unfortunately we would not recommend this place.

Your review helps others learn about great local businesses.
Please don’t review this business if you received a freebie for writing this review, or if you’re connected in any way to the owner or employees.

I hate to put a negative review. I want this place to thrive. I love the atmosphere and the cloth napkins and tablecloth. Love the candles and lighting… but the food has gone downhill. The osso bucco needed seasoning and about 4 more hours to cook. Had to saw the meat off the bone. The sea bass en pappiotte was ALMOST excellent. The sauce with capers, mussels, and paparadella was tasty but the fish was so overlooked it had become mush. Our sweet and lovely server offered us a free dessert (delicious limoncello cake!) but sadly the overall impression was lacking. I hope they get it together. It’s very close to being good.

Awful food, awful service. We should have realized what was to come when the waitress brought us a bread basket filled with crumbs. The rest of our experience was about the same. We had to ask for refills, silverware etc… The salad was so small, it looked like half eaten.
And then the kicker, my entrée scallops were raw. I cut them all in half because I thought maybe it was just the first scallop. No, it was all of them. I politely sent them back. They apologized and then brought my same plate with my half cut scallops that they just threw back in the sauté pan! Are you serious? And my truffle mash tasted more like day old weird mash.
My husbands eggplant parm looked and tasted like it had been sitting under a heat lamp all day.
Then the bill came and they had not discounted a thing. Since we had a gift card, we were much nicer than we normally would have been. We paid our bill with the gift card and got out of there as fast as possible.

Nice small little place. Over priced for the experience. Food was fair to average. Service was abysmal. After being seated the wait was 20 minutes before we were attended to. Our order was taken and it was another 25 minutes until the food arrived. They were out of several dishes including specials. We had to ask for tableware as our server litterally droped the food on the table and disappeared. We never had our water glasses refilled. Same for our wine. When we asked for the check, we sat so long we finally got up and carried the check and bill to the front. It might be understandable if they were busy but of about 9 tables, only 4 were filled. We will never go back. There are far too many other quality places to have to endure average food and horrendus and disinterested service. Our bill was $ 85 for two.

The food that my husband and I had was excellent from the PEI Muscles to the Lemoncello cake. Even the Shrimp Fra Diavolo hit the spot without needing a fire extinguisher.
There are two reasons why I couldn’t. award them the fifth star. The first being the lady’s room on the outside of the building. When I went in and turned on the light a bunch of creepy, crawley insects came out of the wall, making me feel somewhat uncomfortable. The second reason is the song «Capucina» by Larry Franco was the only song played, over and over again all through dinner. Hearing it once, okay. By the fifth time I shut off my hearing. Shame on whoever chose the musical element of tonight’s dinner. If you love a song that much have a heart and listen to it at home.

My wife and I had a wonderful Valentine/​anniversary dinner at Café Atlantico on Thursday. We had their special Valentine’s Day fixed-​price menu which was a five course dinner to die for. Entrée options were fillet mignon and Ahi tuna. The appetizer was two sea scallops on a bed of spinach. The soup was shrimp bisque and the salad was a mixed green salad with arugula. The dessert was a hot double chocolate brownie was a dollop of vanilla ice cream. It was an absolutely wonderful dinner that I topped off with a bottle of Brunello wine which made it a very romantic evening.

Considering the lackluster options for food in the area, I’d consider rating this 3 or even 4 stars if we grade on a curve. But, I just could not make myself do it. I’ve eaten all over the world and this, is 2 stars.
The ambiance is clean and pleasant, with white tablecloths. Our food was well prepared, under seasoned, and just did not «wow» us with flavor.
Finally, I really just don’t see this place as «romantic». I mean, the tiny bathrooms are outside.
I will say it is definitely a safe choice, with fresh well prepared food. If you need to eat out in this area, don’t hesitate. If you don’t, I’d wait until you have superior options.

I am surprised I haven’t reviewed this place yet. Anyway, it’s a nice romantic place on A1A beach. A breath of fresh air, compared to Panama Hattie’s and Mango Mango’s. They have french/​italian/​spanish fusion food. Very delicious. Appetizers are always on point. Deserts are a bit heavy but delicious! Prices are probably about $ 100/​couple with wine. Not bad. Go there if you want a quiet night out with your boo, and want to dress nice once in a while.

Mmmm… absolutely wonderful place to have a special meal.
We’ve lived here a year, passed this restaurant the other day on the way back from the beach and thought it was brand new. Turns out they’ve been here quite a while, but had just re-​landscaped the front.
What a great place. It definitely makes our favorite list and our favorite calamari list.
I’m soooo glad we have a nice Italian restaurant in St A!
Small, intimate dining room… white clothed tables… quiet ambiance… for that special meal.