People living in the southern suburbs of Atlanta have long coveted this gem of a restaurant in Peachtree City, often raving as much about the lovely hospitality received during meals here as they do about the food. Owned by Hadi Rabai and Fatima Hojaij, the Beirut has served classic Lebanese dishes with fine dining touches for nearly a decade in Peachtree City. Try the foul mudammas (fava and garbanzo bean salad), Kefraya (Lebanese wine)-marinated steak tips, or lamb and beef shish kaftas. Order a grand feast for dinner that includes three mezzes, three kebabs, and dessert or coffee.

The critically acclaimed restaurant, owned by chef Brian So and partner Daniel Crawford, features a tight, seasonally inspired menu of dishes paired with a curated list of natural and biodynamic wines. Start with foie gras terrine and sockeye salmon crudo before moving on to entrees like grilled wagyu flatiron steak and braised short rib or a whole fish course. Never skip the desserts at Spring, which change often and incorporate herbs, fruits, and other ingredients of the season. The small dining room lends itself nicely to both intimate dinners as well as larger groups catching up over bottles of wine and a meal. Reservations are highly encouraged.

The Gullah and Lowcountry dishes at Virgil’s, owned by Gee and Juan Smalls, are not to be missed. Order the she-crab soup or Gullah egg rolls stuffed with red rice, cabbage, and shrimp; the crab rice mixed with sauteed bacon, onions, and peppers; a side of greens; and the brownie-based Chucktown Chewie sundae for dessert. A second location is now open along the Marietta Street Artery near Georgia Tech.

Two-decade-old fine dining stalwart Bacchanalia and its epic tasting menu are better than ever. The menu still includes the popular crab fritter, Maine lobster with caviar and brioche, and a rotating array of in-season entrees and desserts. Located next to market and cafe Star Provisions on Ellsworth Industrial Boulevard, reservations are necessary for a table here. Don’t have reservations? Head to the bar for cocktails, a glass of wine, and the a la carte menu.

Twisted Soul Cookhouse & Pours in Westside is where the South’s most loved dishes meet the minds of chef Deborah VanTrece and chef de cuisine Robert Butts. VanTrece brings her extensive travel knowledge along with three decades of professional cooking to drive the menu and the service here, while Butts pushes the boundaries further with his dishes; together the pair strikes a balance between casual and fine dining with ease. Expect dishes like mole sous vide short ribs, a smoked salmon croquette sandwich, cornmeal-crusted catfish goujonnette, and crispy confit duck with chevre scallion Johnny cakes.

In business since the 1940s, this Vine City soul food institution on Atlanta’s Westside serves some of the city’s best fried chicken, alongside an assortment of other Southern meat-and-three staples. The fried chicken at this James Beard America’s Classics award winner is marinated for 12 hours, hand-breaded, and fried. If that isn’t enticing enough, get the smothered version, which is topped with pan gravy.

Occupy the Hood activist Malik Rhasaan and Detric Fox-Quinlan opened a permanent location of their popular food truck, Che Butter Jonez, as a restaurant in 2021. Located next door to a Chevron station on Cleveland Avenue, the halal restaurant continues to serve one of the food truck’s most popular menu items: the That Sh!T Slambing burger. The menu here changes daily to keep things fresh, but often features options like bodega-style breakfast dishes, tacos on Tuesday, lumpia and garlic noodles topped with steak, and a delicious soft-shell crab sandwich during the spring.

Built around an intimate and highly personalized dining experience between guests of the restaurant and the sushi chef, 2022 Eater award winner Mujo is a splurge-worthy destination for omakase. Reservations go fast when released each month, but for those who secure a seat at the sushi bar, patience (and the hefty price tag) pay off thanks to the attention to detail and personalized touches they experience throughout the meal. Led by chef J. Trent Harris, who trained under master sushi chefs at at Michelin-star establishments Sushi Ginza Onodera and Shuko in New York and Tokyo, this 15-seat omakase restaurant gives a nightly master class in hospitality and the nuanced art of Edomae-style sushi. A meal here begins with cocktails at the small bar reserved for guests of the restaurant. Then, during dinner, Harris and his team wow with exquisite course after exquisite course of nigiri, beautifully presented dishes like hakurei turnip tartlets, and nods to other Japanese culinary traditions, including tamagoyaki (Japanese shrimp and egg cake similar to an omelet) and konacha green tea served with dessert.

Former pop-up chef Jarrett Stieber opened Little Bear in Summerhill right before the start of the pandemic in 2020. Despite the challenges brought on by the health crisis, Stieber never wavered from what made his pop-up, and now his restaurant, so popular with regulars. The chef’s mischievous sense of humor and creativity continue to be on full display in dishes like the Everything Raw Beef with hatch chile bagel soubise and drinks like the Invasive Species mixed with singani and rum, bitter bianco, and creme de kudzu flower. It’s best to order the entire tight menu here. Tell the server, “Just F*ck Me Up, Fam.”

Summerhill Thai restaurant Talat Market opened in spring 2020 inside an old neighborhood market on Ormond Street. Each week, chefs Parnass Lim Savang and Rod Lassiter create around a dozen or so Thai and Thai-influenced dishes for the menu, featuring soups, salads, relishes, curries, stir-fries, and desserts, along with a couple of larger entrees, like yum khao thawt (crispy rice salad) and whole fish preparations. Head here for happy hour specials, fresh oysters, off-menu dishes, and crushable cocktails, including a Thai twist on the pina colada.

Owners Katie Barringer and Jordan Smelt merge their love for books, wine, food, and London at bookshop and wine bar Lucian. Located at Modera Buckhead, Lucian specializes in titles centered on art, design, food, and culture and carries nearly 400 wines by the bottle and 15 wines by the glass. Food here is approached with the same thoughtfulness and care that Barringer has with books and Smelt with wine. Nothing is an afterthought, right down to the sauces composed for each dish. Standouts on the menu are the raw hamachi with seasonal fruits, the gnudi, and duck. Be sure to order a glass of Champagne and a bowl of crispy fries, too, which comes with a chef’s choice aioli, like horseradish or chile-spiced. Reservations are highly encouraged.

In 2020, Kara Hidinger and chef Ryan Smith took over ownership of the restaurant they helped found with nonprofit Giving Kitchen, transforming it from a tasting menu restaurant to a neighborhood market with food served daily from the back counter near the kitchen. The food remains as seasonal, creative, and thoughtfully composed as ever it was. Head to the back counter and order dishes like grilled octopus, eggplant, and peppers tossed in fennel-salami vinaigrette, a crab cake sandwich, or a hearty grain bowl or burrata with fresh vegetables. If it’s on the menu, don’t skip the Italian grinder — a meaty and mighty sandwich easily shared between two people. Then, grab wine and beer by the glass or bottle or a cocktail and find a seat outside in the sunny garden patio or on the covered porch behind the building.

To be a member of this Krog Street Market New England-style tavern, one simply has to walk in, grab a seat, and order a drink or a meal. Try popular menu mainstays like the Ipswich clam roll, the seasonal vegan noodle bowl, or the Club’s iconic veal sweetbreads. Cocktails at Ticonderoga Club are always top-notch, as the restaurant is owned by three trailblazers of Atlanta’s cocktail movement: Greg Best, Paul Calvert, and Regan Smith. The drinks rotate regularly here, but T-Club’s mint julep riff, the Ticonderoga Cup, and an Irish coffee are always on the menu. Reservations are highly encouraged.

This small cafe from Julia Kesler Imerman features coffee, protein breakfast bowls, and shakshuka in the morning, followed by rotisserie chicken pitas and grain bowls in the afternoon, all leaning into Imerman’s Jewish and South African roots. Try the lemon ricotta hotcakes, the carrot and potato latke stack, or the smoked salmon pita stuffed with lemon labneh, greens, sumac-seasoned onions, capers, and dill.The restaurant also sells fresh breads and pastries daily, as well as whole rotisserie chicken or cauliflower family meals, plus prepared foods such as salads and vegan soba noodles.

La Semilla flexes the flavors of Cuban and Mexican dishes on a menu rooted in veganism and family recipes. And for owners Sophia Marchese and Reid Trapani, La Semilla (or the seed) is just the beginning of a new chapter in their restaurant careers. Forged from a pop-up launched just before the pandemic, La Semilla is a flavor-packed triumph of vegan dishes, like meatless versions of vegan chicken tamals steamed in banana leaves served with a punchy ancho sauce, croquetas de jamon stuffed with seitan ham Tranpani makes himself, and bistec de palomilla made with Lion’s Mane mushrooms. Start off with sikil pak (spicy pumpkin seed and tomato dip) served with fresh tortilla chips. And don’t skip the chochoyotes (masa dumplings filled with corn puree) served atop a thin layer of coconut-corn broth topped with a poblano-corn sofrito and matcha oil and fried tortillas for scooping. A zero food waste policy means unused ingredients are incorporated back into sauces and salsas for dishes at La Semilla or made into tinctures or syrups for riffs on classic cocktails. The couple doesn’t see La Semilla as a vegan restaurant, they see it as a restaurant that happens to serve vegan food that unless you were told, you might not suspect otherwise.

No matter the day of the week, locals love to meet up for steak and martinis at the Tap. Lovingly referred to as “steak basement” or “steak cellar”, as the Virginia-Highland restaurant institution is located below street level, Highland Tap serves heaping platters of old-school cuts of steak and starchy sides. Look around the dining room and you’ll likely see multiple tables filled with people sipping the generously poured martinis served here, which come with a sidecar to refresh the drink. There’s no need to dress up at Highland Tap. Just come as you are and enjoy the low-key atmosphere, comfort food, and amazing people-watching. Check out brunch on the weekends, too, at the Tap.

James Beard award-winning chef Steven Satterfield’s fresh Southern cooking is simple, elegant, and includes a lot of seasonal, locally grown vegetables. The farm egg baked in celery cream with grilled bread is a must-try Atlanta dish. The restaurant also has one of the best vegetable plates in town and offers a killer wine list, too. Getting a reservation at this west side Atlanta restaurant can be challenging on busy dining days, so opt to sit at the bar or head in on a Monday for a quieter meal. Maybe try lunch, which finally returned to Miller Union in 2023, three years after the restaurant discontinued the mid-day meal service at the start of the pandemic. And the popular ice cream sandwiches are also back on the lunch menu.

Chef Arnaldo Castillo opened his first restaurant in Poncey-Highland with Atlanta restaurateur Howard Hsu of neighboring Sweet Auburn BBQ back in 2022. Tio Lucho’s (“Uncle Luis”) is an ode to Castillo’s father, who was known for his ceviches when he worked at Peruvian restaurants around Atlanta years ago. At Tio Lucho’s, Castillo mixes traditional Peruvian recipes with Southern and local ingredients, resulting in dishes like papas fritas tossed in furikake seasoning, red snapper ceviche with cornmeal fried calamari, and a vegetarian ceviche using local mushrooms layered with grape tomatoes, red peas, and sweet potatoes. Make sure to try the lomo saltado, too, or any of the whole fish specials at Tio Lucho’s. Pair your meal with a pisco sour or tamarindo caipirinha.

Owned by chefs Ron Hsu and Aaron Phillips, Lazy Betty offers sophisticated fine dining wrapped in a warm and inviting neighborhood restaurant. That same ethos has been transplanted to Lazy Betty’s new location at 999 Peachtree. Here, people choose between two reservation-only tasting menus of six to eight courses with optional wine pairings and a vegetarian meal upon request. There’s also champagne and caviar service, which comes with steamed milk buns and scallion pancakes, too, and an a la carte food menu in the bar lounge. Reservations are required and a vegetarian menu is available upon request. BYO wine or beer, with no corkage fee (check Resy for details), until further notice.

This little French restaurant in the heart of downtown Decatur is one of the city’s most charming dining gems, offering a quiet escape from bustling East Ponce and beyond. As the name implies, Cafe Alsace serves both traditional French and Alsatian cuisine — the latter coming from a region in northeastern France bordering Germany and Switzerland along the Rhine River, blending the cultures, languages, and foods of the three countries together. (Think cassoulets, beef bourguignon, creamy egg noodle-laden spaetzle, tarte flambee, and coq au riesling.) The wine list here is a lovely mix of French and Alsatian vintages. Owner and Alsatian native Benedicte Ulsas Cooper, who often works the dining room of the tiny three-decade-old restaurant, is the greatest ambassador of Alsace and its cuisine. Reservations for dinner are encouraged on the weekends.

James Beard award-winning chef Terry Koval opened his Decatur restaurant in 2019 and it’s become not only a destination restaurant for Atlantans, but also an ample space for Koval to really shine as a chef. Expect skillfully composed dishes of in-season vegetables, beef and pork from nearby cattle and pig farms, and game meat entrees, like crispy rabbit legs fried in fermented buttermilk, duck sausage roulade, and plates of venison. The restaurant’s bar offers a handful of classic cocktails, beer, and cider, as well as a selection of mainly French and Italian wines. In the mornings, head next door to Koval’s B-Side Cafe for Montreal-style bagels and coffee. Reservations are encouraged and outdoor seating is available.

Housed in the former Decatur train depot, the menu at Kimball House is an ode to elegant dining and drinking all experienced in a dimly lit, laid-back dining room. Kick off the night with Southern and Gulf water oysters paired with cocktails or Champagne at happy hour. Stay for dinner and continue the evening by sharing local vegetable and fish dishes or a three-course steak dinner for two. Beyond its award-winning cocktails, the Decatur restaurant features a wine list that is equally impressive, including muscadet, chenin blanc, and big, bold reds as well as sherry, Madeira, and vermouth. Reservations are highly encouraged and outdoor seating available.

Owned by Mia Orino and Carlo Gan, Kamayan ATL brings Buford Highway a restaurant offering the vast range of dishes and cuisine styles found throughout the islands comprising the Philippines. This includes traditional Filipino dishes like bistek silog, lechon sisig, and hearty bowls of kaldereta (tomato-based broth beef stew with peppers, potatoes, and olives garnished with jalapenos, chilis, and fresh herbs), as well as elaborate kamayan feasts meant for sharing that cover the whole table. The restaurant tends to be busy any day its open, but especially on the weekends when families and friends gather together for one of its famed kamayan spreads. “We didn’t start Kamayan ATL to make money. It was originally just to share our food and our culture with the Atlanta community,” says Orino. “It became so much bigger than we imagined, and we are excited to represent the Filipino community.”

Located in Seoul Plaza on Buford Highway, Woo Nam Jeong or Stone Bowl House serves traditional Korean fare created by the restaurant’s longtime chef Young Hui Han, lovingly referred to as “grandma.” Regulars to this Korean restaurant know to order its signature dish, any of the dolsot bibimbap; it is served in a searing hot cast-iron bowl, allowing the rice to become nice and crispy before mixing. Make sure to indulge in the complimentary banchan here, which Han makes herself each day. Other dishes to try include the haemul pajeon (seafood scallion pancake) and gujeolpan, an elaborate Korean royal court dish consisting of nine types of food served with crepes in an octagonal wooden platter.

Owned by chef Soraya Khoury, those seeking a delicious variety of dishes during breakfast and brunch should head straight to Hen Mother Cookhouse in Johns Creek to indulge in dishes such as brisket hash loaded with seasonal vegetables, tomato gravy and grits bowls, or savory lobster quiche. There’s typically a daily omelet special on the menu, too, along with brioche French toast and fresh pastries. Make sure to order a cinnamon roll.

The small operation from Suwanee has now expanded to a second location in Midtown. It’s all in the name, because this restaurant packs a flavorful punch. Founded as a food truck in 2018 by chef Christopher Fletcher and Angelica Finley (both formerly Ritz-Carlton Atlanta), regulars and newcomers to Flavor Rich have been flocking to the restaurant since it opened in 2020. Expect everything from fried chicken sandwiches, burgers, and wings to fried shrimp, blackened salmon sandwiches, and a must-order Cajun shrimp po’boy. If it’s on the menu, order the poached lobster roll topped with lemon aioli on a soft hoagie roll. Try the bananas foster French toast or crab cake benny with sauteed spinach, poached eggs, and Cajun lump crab sauce on an English muffin during breakfast.

A family-owned and operated restaurant located in a small shopping complex on Old Peachtree, La Mixteca Tamale House serves up real deal Oaxacan cuisine on the menu, along with righteous tamales. Expect the pizza-like tlayudas to be topped with mole con huevo or carne asada and chapulines (dried grasshoppers), and enjoy other traditional Oaxacan fare, like picaditas topped with cheese crumbles and salsa, and triangular tetelas filled with black bean paste. Tamales come in both sweet and savory varieties and are served individually, as plates with rice and beans, or as bowls with potatoes, crumbled cheese, and pico with a fried egg on top. Order a cold bottle of Modelo, take a seat, and dig in.

Alex Brounstein and Johnny Farrow turned an Eastside Beltline anomaly (a strip of land too small to develop into condos) into one of 2023’s most memorable restaurant openings by adding a much-needed dose of the Gulf Coast. Maximillian Hines’ (Stolen Goods) formidable menu represents both sea and land — highlights include the peel n’ eat shrimp, the cabbage and crispy rice salad, a sloppy take on vinegar slaw, and anything fried, the charbroiled oysters with butter and a touch of Parmesan, and anything fried (seafood of course, but also the artichoke heart “calamari”). The frozen drinks, like the Mucho Nada (White Claw mango vodka, mango puree, chamoy, and a tajin rim) will take you right back to college, or at least your last visit to a beachside bar. Consider yourself warned. Expect a limited menu and all-out Gulf Coast mentality upstairs at Floridaman, opening in May.