The Atlas Room

Kareem was wonderfully attentive and gracious on a slow night for the restaurant. Great to see someone dedicated to your experience on nights that tips will be low. The food and drinks were fantastic – the boulevardier was done right (also by kareem) and the market fish was tasty.

I was so hungry so I asked for bread and was told there wasn’t any. The waiter brought me garlicky flavorful crostinis which was a nice and tasty surprise. My sustainable bass with fennel risotto, green beans and pickled red cabbage was a very satisfying smörgåsbord of food.

I came here with a group of about 15. Started off with a Dark & Stormy drink. Drink was excellent. Waiter, Kareem was provided the evening’s entertainment with his jokes and obvious pride in the food.
I had the salmon with sesame barley, bok chop, mushroom and bacon butter. It was excellent! The blending of the flavors was a perfect mixture.
The atmosphere of the restaurant is a little plain, and the restaurant is very small. I ordered the chocolate moose for dessert and it was very good. The only negative was that the service was a bit slow. We were there for over 2 ½ hours, but we were a large group.

Very good food here. They season their food very well and combine flavor professionally. This is not the place for bland. The cocktails are also a flavor adventure and should be tried.
This place is a gem to be found with someone special.

Having been here many more times since my original review, I’m happy to give it 5 stars. The food is really well made, elevated but not fussy or hipster. Cocktails are well made and the service is impeccable. The chef changes the menu regularly and it’s a wonderful experience eating here.

Delicious food and wonderful service!!! Went for my friend’s birthday dinner and had a lovely time. On the pricey side but I left full. Had the duck for appetizer and it wasn’t what I expected but not bad at all. I had the lamb for dinner. Delicious and nice portion. The waiter/​manager did an EXCELLENT job describing the menu from the apps to the drinks. So good we asked him twice! Even the bartender was attentive. I enjoyed myself and will definitely recommend for a intimate, unique eating experience.

We frequent all the top reviewed restaurants in DC and rarely do we stop at the same place twice, but we came back for this place. Everything is surprisingly simple yet still complex and delicious. Service is amazing and intimate; it was months between our visits and the bartender remembered us and asked for our names. Great place.

If you are looking for a hidden gem on H street this is your place. First off we have to give a personal thanks to the jack of all trades Kareem. He was extremely pleasant, personable and entertaining. Even as the dinning room filled he was still able to provide top notch service.
The drinks:
We highly recommend the Rhum punch. The drink took me to the islands where the best rum punch is served. Not too sweet with the right balance. The Atlas 75 was very good as well.
The food:
For starters we had the crab dish and the portobello ravioli. Both were excellent but be careful because the crab dish is a little spicy.
For the main dish our group had the lamb, beef and pork entrees. The lamb bolognese was spectacular. It was served with ricotta cheese and a basil purée. Every bite of this dish was flavorful and buttery.
The beef dish with flat iron steak and short ribs was delightful. The short ribs were fork tender and moist. The parsnip purée was a perfect compliment for this dish.
In all I would highly recommend The Atlas Room. Quant and classy with delightful fare.

Went to Atlas Room one night for dinner with a friend and I will definitely be back.
The restaurant is small and inimate and while the menu doesn’t offer dozens of options every one we had (we have three at our table) were delicious and impressive. The foie gras is delicious! The butternut squash were wonderful. The fish of the day, light and flaky. Excellent service, the server was knowledgable, gave me a great wine recommendation and checked in with us at our table just enough.
It might be a little pricey but the food and the service were both fantastic and I walked away happy and sated. To repeat what I said at the start — I will definitely be back.

Great place. It was a quiet night when we went which was nice, the server was extremely knowledgeable and sold everything. Great service
The pork belly was delicious. A little fattier than I’m used to with pork belly, but it was very good, rich, and balanced well with the kimchi mushrooms and whatever sauce it had.
The beef entrée was amazing. The flatiron I think was a touch past medium-​rare, but it was still juicy. However the short rib was just what I wanted, so tender and delicious, served on parsnip purée with a delicious sauce. Had no trouble finishing this I could’ve eaten another portion.
Which is why it’s not 5 stars for me. Portions are a little small (or prices are a little high) for what you get — I was definitely still hungry after. But the food was on point and I want to try everything else.

They have a limited menu but everything on the menu is thoughtfully prepared and delicious. The service is exceptional with servers who really know their dishes.

One of my fave places here in D.C. totally worth all the interesting rules, etc. nice atmosphere. great great service. actually kind of glad they don’t make all those best of lists because so many of those places are just hype while I think Atlas Room is undercover awesome. I have been here for groups and dates and both have good experience. just be sure to read the website and pay attention to the details. oh and the drinks are spectacular.

Every dish we (5 of us) ordered was plated and presented so beautifully. Every dish was delicious. I liked the cocktail «south side of H» my server recommended.
We ordered the following food.
Appetizers — Crab Cake, Beets Salad, Fois Gras Pâté and Arugula Salad
Main — Chicken Breast, Fish of the Day and Lamb Ragu Fettucine
Again, I like everything, but I (and my friends) was particularly impressed with the mini crab cakes, chicken breast and the fish on risotto.
The cocktails were very nice, and the server lady and the gentleman were both very nice. We were never rushed, and that was great.
I wish The Atlas Room were located somewhere in NW rather than in this not-​so-​developed part or block of H St NE so that I could visit more often.

4.25 Stars
Just goes to show you the that the right side of H Street can be just as good as the left side — and no I don’t mean in a «H Street Country Club way» either. Sure enough I spent my first three months living in the Atlas District least surreptitiously walking right by the Atlas Room thinking it was some kind of low-​end sleezeball nightclub, little did I know that deep with the aluminum sans serif font ‘Atlas Room’ room was one of DC’s most formidable institutions. Charming, small, cozy, and warm interiors, it is the kind of place that H Street need in its journey into the next generation of awesomeness.
Everyone who comes here swears up and down by the short rib ravioli — what can I say, they are right about it. The crab balls are decadent — crispy with a delicious filling of plenty of back-​fin crab meat. The poached egg is also a must try — velvety, with a nice smooth and subtle broth abound — it’s an extreme egg-​eating experience. But then there was the beef done two ways which set the Atlas Room above all others — there was the beef done on a flatiron which was nicely charred perfectly pink in the middle, and almost melted away with each bite — decadent. The short rib portion was equally nice — it was a different dimension than the short rib ravioli — this was more on the charred level and then with the expected delicate texture under the char — it worked.
Also some of the nicest people around the city — hands down. I can’t wait to come back to try the fish or the duck fois gras.

I have walked by the Atlas Room a hundred gazillion times and somehow never noticed this nondescript H St. establishment. Amidst the rowdiness of the rest of this stretch of H St., it kind of makes sense. And even upon entering, I can’t say that we were blown away by the classiness of the place. However, once the staff enter the picture, you’re in for one of the best experiences the Atlas district has to offer.
It was evident that our host took genuine pride in the quality of the ingredients, dishes, and business, which was a great opening act to our dinner experience. We ordered some amazing duck meatballs to start– a little sticky, a little spicy, a lot of flavor, I have never eaten duck prepared like this! We also ordered the highly-​recommended mushroom ravioli, crab cakes that were breaded and fried (?), roasted/​braised pork shoulder with eggplant, and a berry tart for dessert.
Everything was amazing and the flavor combinations were somewhat non-​standard and very international, but I don’t think I could apply a cuisine label to any individual dish. The space was casual but intimate, the service was amazingly attentive, and I look forward to our next visit.

Love their service and their food. Very casual and food is GREAT!!!
I love in fact that they have a very simple menu (a handful beginner and a handful entrée). They’re all so good. What a good find on H street corridor. Very humble and you can walk in with casual attire.
The only thing I noticed with their menu was that their wine mark ups are on the higher side. But overall very good.

The Atlas Room has a very nice atmosphere and attentive service. The host was polite when we asked to be moved to a different table. Even though there was only one waitress working on Valentine’s Day, she was really sweet and happy to answer our questions.
The only «mehh» part about this experience was their food. I ordered the Lamb bolognese with fettucini, basil, and ricotta but it wasn’t anything special. Most of the food just tasted very average. The only dish that stood out to me was the Foie Gras! I think eating the Foie Gras as an appetizer set my expectations really high for the main dish… which led to disappointment.

This place will make you worship foie gras. Too bad the other dishes aren’t quite as exciting.
The Atlas Room is a rather tiny restaurant off H Street that is map-​themed, at least to a certain degree. It has a rather Baltimore-​y flavor to it in that it’s quite crowded and obviously put into an older building, but that adds something to the charm. Expect somewhere a bit crammed and loud, but with a bit of simple class.
The food varied between boring and phenomenal.
The duck foie gras stole the absolute freakin’ show — the foie gras was perfectly mixed and accented perfectly with a cherry compote (?) and awesome multi-​grain crackers. Our accompanying cocktails, the Rhum Punch and Fancy Tequila Daisy, were basically the very same drink but were nice nonetheless.
The entrees left a bit to be desired. My lamb bolognese was just decent — it was definitely decently made, but there wasn’t really much going on of any note, and definitely nothing that set it apart from a bolognese made at any Italian restaurant in the area. The Indian Chickpea Fritters were significantly better in that they were a more unique taste, but still weren’t mind-​blowing.
I can’t help but shake the feeling that this place needs new dishes and a bit of excitement — with the exception of the amazing foie gras (which needs to be more prominent, no question), everything was just okay.

High table or low? Not the question I expected when walking in to a high-​end place lol but no worries. Basically no pretensions at the rather small Atlas Room just great drinks and food, really friendly staff too, jazz playing in the background, a cozy spot (read: the tables are close together).
If you like gin & spice the Southside of H cocktail is not to be missed, hints of peppercorn, ginger and red pepper with lemon juice & gin on top, yummy altho a tick pricey at $ 12. Also some great local craft beers like Duclaw and Port City @ $ 7 but bottles, no taps.
Clearly the menu changes often bcos I looked for the great stuff mentioned in the zillion reviews, like lamb meatballs to name one, but didn’t find too many. So just don’t plan on having what I had, that’s all I’m saying!
I started with an arugula salad for $ 9, expertly dressed with a bleu cheese sauce, slivers of onion and apples, excellent. But folks, arugula in January? Only a few leaves of that green to be found, the rest mostly greenhouse baby lettuce. I’m fine with greenhouse but maybe give that salad a different name in deepest winter, mm k? Just sayin.
Continued with the market fish, sea bass that night, served on fennel risotto WOW a flavor bomb with red cabbage & fresh basil leaves on top, green beans and fennel in the risotto, tarragon sauce over the top, fish cooked to perfection, and (kudos!) the big dish preheated edge to edge so it all stayed hot while I lingered. Ok, yes, I was Unilocaling. Hey. You think I can remember all this detail until I get home?! Not bloody likely.
Vegetarian rating: 3 stars. The menu is really short, 6 apps and 7 entrees; 2 apps and 1 entrée are veg. You won’t have a big selection but neither do your animal-​protein –loving friends :). Lots of gluten free too.
I visited on a glacially slow (and nearly as cold) Sunday eve, maybe the temp was why the place was so empty. Oh I have to mention that the high bench in back is really shallow and not so comfortable — don’t make your date sit there :)

I like this place. The food is quite delicious.
I ordered the duck appetizer and the pork entrée. I was very happy with both. Every morsel of the foie gras was so flavorful. The vegetables served with the dish were a bit out of place but perfectly cooked nonetheless.
The pork was a fatty delicious piece of meat that fell apart as soon as my fork sank into it. It was roasted with eggplant and squash (I think it was kabocha) and sat on a deliciously creamy apricot polenta. The eggplant was a bit tough and I think could have been cooked down a bit more. But the squash was cooked well. The dish also had a touch of spice which gave it a little something extra. What a wonderful fall dish!
I did think service was a touch slow. Not somewhere you want to take a first date. The long pauses between each course would be too awkward. But if you are enjoying a night out with friends you might not even notice. And the manager did notice the slowness of service and comped one of my drinks which was certainly a much appreciated gesture.
Dessert was okay. I think we may not have selected a great option. So in the future I would pass on the hazelnut flourless chocolate cake. But I’m definitely open to trying a different option next time as I will certainly be back!