The Best Places to Eat and Drink in 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. The Infatuation The 18 Best Bars In Atlanta

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1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops Around Town

1. Eater The Best Sports Bars in Atlanta for Watching the World Cup and More

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1. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants Around Atlanta

The roastery and training lab behind the counter make this Decatur coffee shop feel more like a working operation than a cafe that happens to have good espresso. Drip, nitro, and latte specials share the menu with fresh pastries, and the large back patio has both sun and shade for the laptop-and-novel crowd. Courses in latte art and roasting run out of the on-site lab, if you want to graduate beyond being a customer.

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

1. The Infatuation The 18 Best Bars In Atlanta

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

1. Eater The Best Sports Bars in Atlanta for Watching the World Cup and More

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

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

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops Around Town

1. The Infatuation The 12 Best Coffee Shops In Atlanta

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

The roastery is right there behind the counter, so the smell hits you before the menu does. Portrait Coffee is a specialty coffee shop and roaster in West End, founded by a collective that set out to bring more diverse representation to Atlanta's coffee scene. The beans are roasted on-site inside the historic Lottie Watkins Building, and the same coffee turns up at shops across the city for those who can't make the trip.

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Postern Coffee lives inside the Minhwa Spirits space in Doraville, which sounds like an odd arrangement until you're holding an espresso built with sweet rice syrup and perilla oil and suddenly it makes sense. The coffee shop leans into the Asian-American backgrounds of its three co-founders, so the menu runs from coconut ube lattes to carefully sourced matcha options. A young, curious crowd that knows the neighborhood fills the room.

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops Around Town

1. Eater The Best Sports Bars in Atlanta for Watching the World Cup and More

1. The Infatuation The 12 Best Coffee Shops In Atlanta

1. The Infatuation The 12 Best Coffee Shops In Atlanta

1. The Infatuation The 18 Best Bars In Atlanta

1. The Infatuation The 18 Best Bars In Atlanta

1. Eater The Best Coffee Shops Around Town

1. Eater The Best Sports Bars in Atlanta for Watching the World Cup and More

Saint Germain is a French bakery and cafe at the Interlock, with Parisian-style tables roomy enough that you can set up a laptop and stay until closing without a single glare. The display cases hold frilly cakes so decorated you hesitate before the first forkful, briefly. The macaron selection runs past twenty flavors, lavender to pistachio, which is a lot of decisions for someone who only came in for coffee.

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1. The Infatuation The 18 Best Bars In Atlanta

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Southern Sweets is a Decatur bakery where the display cases of tarts, pies, and cookies are basically a decoy for the giant layer cakes in the back, which come in 17 flavors. The old-fashioned chocolate has a slice-sized pound of melted chocolate in it, and the gluten-free and vegan crowd gets real options, including a plant-based strawberry cake that will have you eyeing the whole one on the way out.

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1. Eater The Best Sports Bars in Atlanta for Watching the World Cup and More

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Sweet Hut is a Pan-Asian bakery and cafe in Midtown, roomy enough that laptop campers and long-lunch friends coexist without elbowing each other. You'll pass rows of individually wrapped pastries before reaching the register, and the white baskets are a quiet admission that one pastry was never the plan. Matcha red bean, Hong Kong polo buns, and a bulgogi Bibimbap Burger for people who need a real lunch first.

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1. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants Around Atlanta

1. Eater 38 Essential Restaurants Around Atlanta

1. Eater The Best Sports Bars in Atlanta for Watching the World Cup and More

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 The 12 Best Coffee Shops In Atlanta

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This is a small neighborhood bakery and coffee shop on Georgia Ave in Summerhill, the quiet one of the three locations. Big windows pour light onto a sitting area of locals and GSU students typing away, and the room is calm enough to make you forget you live in Atlanta. The glass case is hard to resist, but the fruit tarts and savory quiches are the safe moves. Cash-light, low-stakes, and nobody's in a hurry.

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

1. The Infatuation The 12 Best Coffee Shops In Atlanta

1. The Infatuation The 12 Best Coffee Shops In Atlanta

A coffee shop with a rotating seasonal menu and a strong espresso program, Valor leans into drinks that split the difference, literally and figuratively. The Middle Child straddles espresso and drip coffee in a way that sounds like a therapy session but drinks better than it has any right to. Regulars track the seasonal drops the way others follow drops of a different kind, cycling back each fall and winter for whatever the team has conjured next.

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1. Eater The Best Sports Bars in Atlanta for Watching the World Cup and More

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.

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A wine bar with a list that runs close to 400 bottles, anchored in Spain and Italy but wandering convincingly into South America and France. It's a chain out of Connecticut, which the lively, group-heavy room makes easy to forget. Tapas keep things going between pours. Good for a party that wants to spend a long evening working through the menu without anyone having to make too many decisions alone.

1. Eater 15 Best Wine Bars and Tasting Rooms Around Atlanta

1. Eater 9 Splendid Spots for Dim Sum Around Atlanta

A preloaded card and a WineStation let you pour your own way through California vineyards at this wine bar and retail shop in Roswell. The self-service setup covers up to 24 samples, ranging from everyday bottles to collector-tier Napa, so the pace is entirely yours. Sommeliers and producers swing through for ticketed events, and the retail shelves go home with you after. Ideal for the crowd that finds a server hovering a little exhausting.

1. Eater 15 Best Wine Bars and Tasting Rooms 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

1. Eater 15 Best Wine Bars and Tasting Rooms 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

Biscuits and focaccia hold the fort until afternoon, when this Midtown spot near Piedmont Park quietly pivots into a wine bar. The patio overlooking 12th Street is the reason most people linger, especially with a bottle or a vermouth cocktail and something from the tinned fish and cheese spread. It's a shape-shifting kind of place, which means the crowd skews toward people who know exactly what they're doing.

1. Eater 15 Best Wine Bars and Tasting Rooms 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. Eater 15 Best Wine Bars and Tasting Rooms Around Atlanta

Fifty wines on self-service taps is the organizing idea here, a wine bar inside Chattahoochee Food Works where you load a card and pour your own 1.5-ounce samples until something clicks. A sommelier runs the place, so the selection is serious without being precious. Bottles on tap are available to take home, and a small food menu of charcuterie boards and paninis gives you enough to keep going without turning it into dinner.

1. Eater 15 Best Wine Bars and Tasting Rooms Around Atlanta

1. Eater 15 Best Wine Bars and Tasting Rooms Around Atlanta

1. Eater 15 Best Wine Bars and Tasting Rooms Around Atlanta

A wine shop and tasting room tucked into Edgewood, steps from the Candler Park-Edgewood MARTA station, which makes the flight of three half-pours feel almost responsible. The daily wine flights rotate, and you can also order by the glass or pick up a bottle to take home. A patio out front catches good weather, and the sandwich shop next door means nobody has to drink on an empty stomach.

1. Eater 15 Best Wine Bars and Tasting Rooms Around Atlanta

1. Eater 15 Best Wine Bars and Tasting Rooms Around Atlanta

1. James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Bakery

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

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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.

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1. Bon Appétit America's Best New Restaurants

1. Bon Appétit America's Best New Restaurants

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