Almost everyone working on The Gifted (the show Mike is currently producing) has asked us for “The List.” It’s our list of about 80 of the best Atlanta restaurants — places that we’ve either tried ourselves and recommend, or have been highly recommended to us (and we haven’t tried yet).
This list takes the guess work out of where to eat in Atlanta. Want a certain type of food? Driving through a certain neighborhood? Want to find the closest best Atlanta restaurant? Check out our handy-dandy map!
It’s so damn convenient that we decided to to share The List with everyone…
Choose Atlanta restaurants by location:
Now you can use that map to see where the closest amazing Atlanta restaurant is to you! Or you can consult the list of best Atlanta restaurants in its entirety:
Choose Atlanta restaurants by type:
- 8ARM — great hipster breakfast/brunch, try the biscuit. Amazing veggies for dinner.
- 9 Mile Station — Rooftop beer Garden in the Ponce City Marketplace
- Ah-Ma’s Taiwanese Kitchen — Share plates inspired by the street food of Taiwan.
- Atlanta Chinatown Mall — small food court with authentic Chinese food
- Apres Diem — Brunch and lunch. We liked everything we’ve gotten here.
- Babs — breakfast/brunch
- Bacchanalia — Seasonal New American plates in a white-tablecloth setting
- Bar Margot — the bar in the Four Seasons has great cocktails and amazing food. Megan loves the cheese plate.
- Barcelona Wine Bar Inman Park — fun cocktails and tapas
- bartaco — Mexican street tacos
- BeetleCat — Awesome seafood for dinner and fun Donut Brunch on the weekend!
- Better Half — Seasonal New American cuisine
- Bocado — Their burger is a bit overrated. Everything else is amazing.
- BoccaLupo — Good Italian. Try the yolk tagliatelle.
- Botiwalla — Indian street food in the Ponce City Marketplace.
- Bread & Butterfly — French food – great for brunch, try omelet and French dip
- Brush Sushi Izakaya — On the Eater 38 list
- Busy Bee Cafe — Always packed – Eater 38 list
- Buttermilk Kitchen — Contender for best brunch. There’s always a line.
- Canoe — American fare (with a great brunch!) along the Chatahoochi River.
- Chai Pani Decatur — Incredible Indian – on the Eater 38 list
- The Consulate — They change their menu to feature a new country’s food every 3 months They have a great burger. But their cocktails take forever!
- Cooks & Soldiers — Upscale restaurant serving Basque tapas
- El Super Pan Latino Sandwiches & Bar — Cuban sandwiches on the Eater 38 list
- Empire State South — Get the Farm Egg!
- endive Publik house — Great for groups, we ordered almost everything on the menu
- The Federal — Steakhouse that also serves breakfast – on the Eater 38 list.
- Folk Art — breakfast/brunch classics, get the chicken and waffle
- Fox Bros. Bar-B-Q — wings, ribs
- Gato — Our favorite breakfast/brunch in Atlanta. Get them to add duck fat potatoes to anything you order.
- The General Muir — Jewish deli, also open for brunch – on the Eater 38 list
- Gunshow — Entertaining. Food is served to you via carts. Really meat heavy, but always try the vegetable plate
- Gus’s World Famous Hot & Spicy Fried Chicken — just super great fried chicken and sides
- Highland Bakery — Breakfast/brunch – great pastries
- Holeman and Finch Public House — Gastropub, known for burgers
- Home Grown — chicken biscuit, fried chicken
- Iberian Pig — Spanish tapas
- Jai Ho — Indian food
- Joy Cafe — Sneaky fantastic place for brunch with our favorite avocado toast in Atlanta.
- JCT. Kitchen & Bar — Updated Southern
- Kimball House — On the Eater 38 list – get the oysters, Hawaiian Roll, pate, and tartar
- King + Duke — American fare with an awesome patio area
- Lady Bird Messhall — Cool scene, food’s just okay
- Le Fat — Vietnamese fusion that Mike liked more than Megan did.
- Leon’s Full Service — Great gastropub
- Marcel — French steakhouse
- Mary Mac’s Tea Room* — Southern food
- Masterpiece — Szechuan-style Chinese cuisine. Megan’s obsessed with their spinach dumplings. On the Eater 38 list
- MF Sushi — Best sushi in Atlanta
- Miller Union — Won the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southeast and on the Eater 38
- Momonoki — Casual Japanese comfort fare, including noodle bowls AND a cafe that serves pastries and soft serve ice cream.
- Murphy’s Restaurant — Breakfast/brunch
- Noni’s — Great Little Italy food.
- O-Ku — Fun sushi with a great rooftop bar, get the sake cocktail
- One Eared Stag — Hipster farm to table, great off-menu burger try Nashville Hot Chicken. They also do brunch.
- The Optimist — Fancy seafood/oyster bar – everything is amazing!
- Original J.R. Crickets in Midtown — Get the lemon paper wet wings, made famous by the TV show Atlanta.
- Parish: The Brasserie and Neighborhood Cafe — breakfast/brunch
- Petit Chou — Great for breakfast, brunch and lunch
- Ponce City Marketplace — A giant foodcourt in an outdoor shopping mall (some of our favorites are on this list).
- Poor Calvin’s — Great Southern Food with an asian flair. Also open for brunch.
- The Porter Beer Bar — One of our favorites for comfort food. Get the pull apart pretzels.
- Revival — Traditional Southern food, family style. On the Eater 38. We liked it, but didn’t love it.
- Ria’s Bluebird — One of the best breakfasts/brunch in Atlanta. Get there early and get the pancakes
- Sotto Sotto — Great Italian food!
- South City Kitchen — Great Southern food and great cocktails
- Spring Restaurant — On Bon Appetit’s list of America’s best new restaurants for 2017. It’s it’s AMAZING. Order the whole menu and be blown away.
- St. Cecilia — Italian seafood & pasta plus cocktails
- Staplehouse — Best meal in Atlanta – on the Eater 38 list. Tough to get a reservation, but they have a new bar to accommodate walk-ins.
- Star Provisions Market & Cafe — Place for meats and cheeses
- Superica — Solid Texmex
- Sweet Hut Bakery – Upscale bakery offering East Asian sweet buns
- Ticonderoga Club — Get all their veggie options + cocktails
- Umi — considered best sushi in town
- Venkman’s — Modern comfort food and craft cocktails
- Vitality Bowls — Megan likes their acai bowls.
- The Vortex — Huge burgers
- West Egg Cafe — Always a line for brunch, so go during the week if you can. The pancakes are great.
- Whiskey Bird — American/Asian-fusion. Great for brunch or dinner.
- The White Bull — Great farm-to-table menu that changes all the time.
- Wrecking Bar Brewpub — Get their pate and make sure to order fries.
Choose Atlanta restaurants by photos:
Go to our Facebook page and scroll through our food photography from our time in Atlanta. See anything that looks particularly delicious? Click on the pic and head to that restaurant!
If you want to know some of our favorite dishes to eat at specific restaurants, check out this post: The best things to eat in Atlanta!
Your turn: Anything we should add to our list?
… so you’re sayin’ I need to get back to ATL?
This list alone is a reason to go back!!!!
You gotta add the food court at Chinatown, its small and doesn’t look like much but it’s probably the closest to authentic Chinese food… and also sweet hut bakery!
Oh yeah! Sweet Hut Bakery! We stayed right by it and tragically never tried ANYTHING. I’ll add that. Good call. But we hadn’t even heard of that food court… tell me more!
whenever we go anywhere, we try to find the more international part of town, especially the Chinese/Asian part since we have two adopted Chinese children. We were clued in to the Chinatown food court in Atlanta the last time we went (http://www.atlantachinatown.com/) – it is actually a small food court, but its where the local Asians go. There are 4 (I think) different places in the food court – one is the biggest and has the more traditional Chinese food (soup dumplings come to me!!!), one place makes noodles right in front of you, there is a hotpot place (you can get it wet or dry) and also a hong kong bbq place that is famous for its duck. Right out front is also a little garden with koi fish and old men playing mah jong… and there is an Asian grocery just down from it. Like I said, it doesn’t look like much (no fancy dining here) but the food is pretty authentic and it feels like community. Definitely try the next time you are in Atlanta!
OMG! That sounds like heaven. I can’t believe no one mentioned that. We’re all for non-fancy deeply-authentic like-grandma-makes-it food experiences. Adding it to the list!