Atomica Eat Drink

Atomica Eat Drink
3/173 Boundary St, West End



One of my best mates flew up from Canberra recently after exams. She is a BUSY girl but managed to squeeze me on for the obligatory catch up. We are all quite lax with dining locations so I took the easy option of going to West End and deciding from there. We met up with another friend and wandered down Boundary Street for a while. This happened to be a Monday and lots of restaurants/cafes in West End just don't open on a Monday. We were slightly limited but happened to pass Atomica.





Atomica is a smallish cafe that has an emphasis on organic, healthy eating. The interior of the cafe is a casual cross between clean and artsy. There are mirrors lining the walls with today's specials scrawled across the surfaces. I like!


I've read reviews about Atomica before that praised the breakfast offerings. We were there for lunch but I still had 'expectations'. The menu was quite short with a few salads, sandwiches, pasta (only in Today's special) etc. My girlfriend and I both opted for the pumpkin salad whilst our other friend chose the chicken panini.

Honey roasted pumpkin salad with shaved parmesan, pearl barley, toasted pine nuts and red wine vinaigrette

The pumpkin salad was surprisingly substantial and very moreish. Maybe it's just me and my obsession with pumpkin but I just couldn't get enough. I think this is an excellent example of why salads aren't necessarily boring/rabbit food. It was light, tasty and very, very fresh.

Garlic and rosemary marinated chicken with avocado, rocket, swiss cheese and aioli on a toasted panini

The chicken panini was quite a hefty serving. Being very unladylike, I tend to go at everything with my hands. Our friend was more cultured and opted for the knife and fork approach. Commendable. I didn't have a taste (too involved in my salad + the gossip that was being shared) but I didn't hear any complaints.

Service was quite fast and very friendly. It's one of those cafes that you would feel comfortable just sitting and chatting in (which is essentially what we did). Another plus is that it wasn't as crowded as some of the neighboring food joints.

I'm really eager to go back and try their breakfast now. Will report back when I do so.