NYCReview
photo credit: Noah Devereaux
Atla
Included In
On the surface, Atla is an unapproachable restaurant. Hosts are quick to remind you if you’re late. Tables in the bare-walled Noho space are packed tightly together. Servers answer your questions while glancing around the room like they’re on a bad date. And one shrimp taco costs $15. But if you give this bright, all-day spot a chance, you’ll experience food you’d usually only find at the highest-end restaurants in New York City.
Walk by Atla at 3pm on a weekday, and you’ll see a couple from Copenhagen or Condesa casually drinking agua frescas and eating fluke aguachile made by some of the most famous chefs in the world. Who do these people think they are, and how is one of them pulling off an oversized plaid blazer, you might ask yourself. But while they gaze into each other’s bright green eyes, take a look around.
Notice the guy in gym clothes at the walk-in-only bar having a bowl of chicken soup, and the family sharing churros and chilaquiles by the floor-to-ceiling windows. Atla isn’t just for consultants who put their sunglasses on the table during a late lunch. Anyone can enjoy this place, because from 11am to 11pm, Atla is as casual or upscale as you want it to be. What won’t change is the food.
Even though Atla is from the same chefs behind Cosme in Flatiron and Pujol in Mexico City (two very expensive restaurants), eating at this Noho Mexican spot doesn’t require a ton of time or money. That may sound unlikely considering the $15 shrimp taco. But it has so many explosive textures and flavors - shrimp cooked in chili oil, bitter hoja santa, creamy guacamole, crunchy fried cheese - that it’ll make your brain buffer like it’s trying to download a movie on airplane wifi. It might be the single best taco in the city, but you also won’t need more than one. This sensation continues with dishes like chicken soup and fish milanese - so that after just a plate or two per person, you leave feeling both full and perfectly decent - a phenomenon as radical as political compromise.
Like the food, the drinks here are far more involved than the casual space would suggest. The salado verde cocktail, for example, is spicy, savory, and even crunchy thanks to finely chopped nopal. It’s as memorable as most things coming out of the kitchen, and even though it’s made with plenty of mezcal, it’s somehow refreshing enough to trick you into drinking three before speaking at a middle school career day. That’s probably not a great idea, but no matter the situation, getting drinks and a bite at Atla is an opportunity to experience world-class versions of both without even committing to a full meal.
The fact that Atla isn’t a fussy undertaking will make you see that couple sharing 3pm drinks and fluke aguachile differently. They may be the embodiment of the five-year plan you’ve had for the last 20 years, and you may fantasize about going on ski vacations with them even if you don’t know how to ski, but they’re here for the food just like everyone else.