The Best Restaurants in Atlanta

A neighborhood restaurant in Decatur where the menu drifts happily between lamb shepherd's pie, shrimp and grits, and a roster of signature burgers without feeling like it's having an identity crisis. Small plates and big entrées coexist, much of it gluten-free or adaptable. Craft cocktails, solid beer and wine, and a patio that pulls people into the kind of long, unhurried evening nobody planned to have.

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. AAA Approved

1. The Infatuation Where To Eat When You’re Visiting Atlanta

1. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants Around Atlanta

The injera arrives as the plate, not a side, and the whole table leans in to tear pieces and scoop from communal piles of stew and spiced meat. This Briarcliff Road neighborhood restaurant has been an Atlanta Ethiopian staple for ages, run by two partners who grew up in Ethiopia and cook like it. The meat platter is sized for sharing among several people and covers serious ground. There's also a full vegan menu, Ethiopian tea, and Ethiopian beer.

1. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants Around Atlanta

Handmade dumplings folded in a bright counter-service spot inside the Westside Paper complex, a refurbished industrial sprawl on the west side of the city. The menu is compact on purpose: soup dumplings, potstickers, buns, a few noodle dishes. The New York Times put it on its list of Atlanta's 25 best restaurants. Order the lamb and cilantro dumplings if they have them, and they'll tell you if they don't.

1. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Atlanta Right Now

1. The Infatuation Where To Eat When You’re Visiting Atlanta

Locals call it "steak basement," which tells you nearly everything: it's a kinda-casual steakhouse tucked below street level in Virginia-Highland, the kind of room that hasn't tried to reinvent itself and doesn't need to. Old-school cuts arrive on heaping platters with starchy sides, and the martinis come with a sidecar so the drink stays cold. Weekend brunch pulls a crowd, but really any night works fine.

1. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants Around Atlanta

1. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants Around Atlanta

1. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants Around Atlanta

1. The Infatuation Where To Eat When You’re Visiting Atlanta

Atlanta takes its lemon pepper wings seriously, and Magic City, the city's most famous strip club, has been quietly central to that argument for decades. The wings are small, seasoned deep into the bone, and come with a blue cheese dressing good enough to make you mourn the missing celery. The crowd runs from music executives to athletes to travelers killing time before a flight. Wings are available to go, for the bashful or the principled.

1. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Atlanta Right Now

1. The Infatuation Where To Eat When You’re Visiting Atlanta

1. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants Around Atlanta

1. The Infatuation #21 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Atlanta

1. The Infatuation Where To Eat When You’re Visiting Atlanta
2. The Infatuation The 18 Best Bars In Atlanta

1. The Infatuation Where To Eat When You’re Visiting Atlanta

1. The Infatuation Where To Eat When You’re Visiting Atlanta

1. The Infatuation Where To Eat When You’re Visiting Atlanta

1. The Infatuation #16 · The 25 Best Restaurants In Atlanta

1. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants Around Atlanta

1. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants Around Atlanta

1. The Infatuation Where To Eat When You’re Visiting Atlanta

Tomato aspic on the menu, and they're not sorry about it. The Colonnade is an old-school Southern supper club on Cheshire Bridge where servers have your order memorized before you sit down and the regulars fill the room like furniture. Fried gizzards share a menu with Gulf shrimp, the yeast rolls demand a second order, and the coconut icebox pie is not optional. The New York Times named it one of Atlanta's 25 best restaurants.

1. The New York Times The 25 Best Restaurants in Atlanta Right Now

1. The Infatuation Where To Eat When You’re Visiting Atlanta
2. The Infatuation The 18 Best Bars In Atlanta

An all-you-can-eat dim sum spot in Duluth doing exactly what the name promises: as much har gow, pan-fried pork buns, and sesame balls as you can manage in 90 minutes. You order in rounds, three items per person at a time, which keeps things orderly and the kitchen honest. Congee and egg fried rice fill the gaps. Bubble tea costs extra, cash gets you a discount, and the race against the clock adds a certain competitive energy.

1. Eater 9 Splendid Spots for Dim Sum Around Atlanta

1. Eater 9 Splendid Spots for Dim Sum Around Atlanta

Photos of dim sum taped to the wall serve as both menu and ordering system at this no-frills Buford Highway dim sum spot, which suits regulars just fine since they already know what they want. Order off the menu rather than waiting on carts, and point confidently at shrimp rice noodle rolls or pan-fried turnip cakes with lap cheong. The BuHi mural wraps around the corner of the plaza if you need a reason to walk afterward.

1. Eater 9 Splendid Spots for Dim Sum Around Atlanta

A robot trundles your dumplings to the table, which makes sense once you realize this is a QR-code-order, counter-service dim sum spot in an Alpharetta strip mall. The menu leans traditional Cantonese, with har gow, siu mai, and char siu bao alongside soup dumplings and sheng jian bao for a cross-regional sweep. No rolling carts, but the robot more than compensates for the theater gap.

1. Eater 9 Splendid Spots for Dim Sum Around Atlanta

The carts roll from opening until mid-afternoon at this dim sum restaurant in Duluth, after which you can order off the menu all day. The room was clearly a steakhouse in a past life, which adds a certain unintentional charm to the weekend rush. Weekends fill fast, so expect a wait. The doufuhua, a tofu dessert in ginger syrup, makes a quietly persuasive case for ending a savory meal on something soft and barely sweet.

1. Eater 9 Splendid Spots for Dim Sum Around Atlanta

A vast Cantonese dim sum hall in Norcross where the carts actually keep rolling until three in the afternoon, with a dining room big enough that you're not elbowing anyone for the last har gow. The weekend crowds that pile into Duluth tend to skip this one, which is either the city's best-kept secret or just a matter of geography. Order congee alongside whatever the cart brings by and settle in.

1. Eater 9 Splendid Spots for Dim Sum Around Atlanta

A food stall inside Jusgo supermarket, Lao Wei Dao does Shanghai-style dim sum, which means no rolling carts and no Cantonese shortcuts. Order from a kiosk and wait, because the dumplings are folded to order. The xiao long baos and pan-fried pork dumplings are why people bother making the drive out to Duluth. Closed Wednesdays, counter service, and genuinely easy to miss if you've never thought to look inside a grocery store for dinner.

1. Eater 9 Splendid Spots for Dim Sum Around Atlanta

A cavernous dim sum hall where carts start rolling at 10 a.m. sharp on weekends, and a line forms before the doors open. The room is big enough that a cart loaded with shrimp rice noodle rolls or egg custard tarts might not loop back your way, so flag down whatever looks good while you can. The kitchen picks up the broader Chinese menu at 11, but most people come for the carts, which run until three in the afternoon.

1. Eater 9 Splendid Spots for Dim Sum Around Atlanta

1. James Beard Awards 2022 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Southeast · Jason Liang

1. The Infatuation #8 · Atlanta’s Best New Restaurants

1. The Infatuation #6 · Atlanta’s Best New Restaurants

1. The Infatuation #4 · Atlanta’s Best New Restaurants

1. The Infatuation #7 · Atlanta’s Best New Restaurants

Tartan-print details and jade-green paneling set the tone at Kevin Gillespie's prix-fixe restaurant, where Scottish heritage and Southern cooking share a table without either one apologizing. The menu moves between things like mussels with spicy 'nduja and peach-lacquered duck, then lands on peanut butter chess pie as if to remind you where you are. It's a Michelin Selected pick that reads as personal project first and concept second.

1. The New York Times 2024 · The Restaurant List

1. Bon Appétit America's Best New Restaurants

1. Bon Appétit America's Best New Restaurants

1. Eater The Best New Restaurants in America