5 cutting-edge restaurants to visit now in Atlanta

by OpenTable team

Updated December 20, 2022

Chefs, bakers, and butchers are on a perpetual mission to keep things fresh in the multicultural melting pot that is Atlanta. The result stretches beyond the dishes they serve, shaping service philosophies, restaurant design, and even the way they do business.

In Buckhead, a beloved Venetian spot is led by a restaurateur who doubles as an eco-warrior. A 50-year-old Japanese mainstay in Midtown remains relevant by crafting exquisite sushi cakes.

In a city with a voracious appetite for the next new thing, here are some of the most pioneering restaurants. Book a table at one of these 5 spots, blazing inspiring trails through the City in the Forest.

The Consulate

4.7

4.7 (2031)

$31 to $50

Global, International

Midtown

About the restaurant

The Consulate, a mid-century modern lair with a serious art collection, places all the power in the customer’s hands: Every three months, a lucky diner spins the restaurant’s globe to pick the country that will inspire the Visa section of the global menu. Chef and owner Mei Lin then dives deep into that nation’s cuisine and fashions a cocktail menu to complement it. The Consulate, an OpenTable Diner’s Choice Award recipient, most recently showcased plates from Cambodia, including street-cart style corn cobs, slow-cooked Khmer barbecue ribs, and Mekong mussels, flavored with lemongrass and kaffir lime. To add to the wow factor, Lin tackles the globetrotting menu without any formal culinary training (though the native New Yorker was raised in a family of restaurant owners). Up next on The Consulate’s itinerary: Korea.

Top review

Christine

Dined 3 days ago

This was our first time dinning here! Ambiance was great and food was amazing! Service was top notch! Thank you Sarah for everything! Would definitely recommend this place!

Reverence

4.6

4.6 (101)

$30 and under

Global, International

Midtown

About the restaurant

Reverence, in the Epicurean Hotel, is part of a rare lodging brand centered around food. Executive chef Henry Tapia helms the open kitchen and delivers true sourcing transparency: a QR code on the menu brings to a list of the local farmers, fishers, and artisans whose work fuels dishes such as pan-seared Georgian trout and truffled mushroom pappardelle. The list of producers leads to the purveyors’ webpages, so diners can delve into the details of the ingredients (and sometimes, ethics) of their dishes. The result is a one-of-a-kind crash course, plus a great meal.

Top review

Brad

Dined on Nov 7, 2024

What a great experience we had with our server Elizabeth. The food was amazing, and should you try the Pork Belly (which I highly recommend), please make sure you let the Chef know it needs to be a standard item on the menu. We decided to select more of the smaller plates and share. The Cucumber salad was more than enough for the both of us. We also enjoyed the Pork Belly Special and the Roasted Piquillo Toast. For dessert, the Peach Cobbler Cream Sundae was not only delicious, it was fun as a build your own presentation. The selection of flavors allows you to enjoy multiple combinations. The fresh presentation of local products from the Atlanta region does not disappoint. We will certainly go back to expand our experience to other menu items...but will always ensure we get the Pork Bellies!

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Experience

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Experience

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Igloo Weekday Experience

Nakato 'Sushi Bar and Regular Dining' Japanese Restaurant

4.9

4.9 (597)

$31 to $50

Sushi

Morningside-Lenox Park

About the restaurant

It’s not often you can call a restaurant 50 years young, but this family-owned and operated mainstay, Atlanta’s oldest Japanese restaurant, is exactly that. Though the dining rooms here exude tradition with a blend of tatami (straw mat) rooms and teppanyaki dens, the menu evolves with the times. Only at Nakato can one order a sushi cake, a tiered tower made with fish that’s overnighted from Japan, then crafted by executive sushi chef Yoshi Kinjo. For $100, diners can feast on the chef’s choice of ten different fish, ringed with avocado and tuna rolls; the larger version, priced at $160, offers a premium selection wreathed by kaleidoscopic specialty rolls.

Top review

Tobias

Dined 4 days ago

Had the toro tuna flight, delicious. The salmon skin salad, crispy strips of the skin atop iceberg, very nice. The monkfish liver salad was tantalizing , medallions of monkfish liver on cucumber slices with a tangy ponzu sauce. The server was polite, professional, there when needed him.

Palo Santo

4.3

4.3 (366)

$31 to $50

Mexican

West Midtown

About the restaurant

With Mexico City as his muse—but Georgia still very much on his mind—chef Santiago Gomez’s Atlanta debut is a sexy, supper club-style restaurant. Gomez spent nearly 20 years cooking at South Florida fine-dining spots including Nobu. He now brings a passion for heirloom produce (a love he traces to a childhood spent harvesting avocados with his grandfather in Mexico) to this avant-garde spot, offering Mexican dishes crafted with bounty and ingredients from local Georgian farms. But one of the restaurant’s other distinguishing features is the roving agave cocktail cart, the only one of its kind in Atlanta, serving small pours of rare tequila, mezcal, and sotol with unexpected bites. Standouts include the chapulines (dried roasted grasshoppers), a common cantina snack in Mexico. Sip and crunch in the cavernous dining room; you’re in for an intriguing evening.

Top review

Joey

Dined on Oct 19, 2024

Wonderful experience at Palo Santo. Very friendly staff and service, food and drinks were great with an incredible and intimate ambiance for dinner with dimmed lights and music. Recommend for any special dinner occasion when visiting Atlanta.

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4.1

4.1 (135)

$30 and under

Mexican

Buckhead

About the restaurant

It’s not always easy being green, but this trendy, aperitivo-centric restaurant believes it’s worth the work. Pressure from his daughter moved co-owner Pietro Gianni to reduce waste in 2020. Since then, Storico Vino has steadily ascended the sustainability ladder in Atlanta. The restaurant traded out bottled water for its own purified water and started sourcing greens from a dedicated greenhouse on a local family farm. Storico’s sells its used frying oil to Southern Green Industries (a local company specializing in oil recycling services) for a second life as fuel. And not only are all its to-go containers plant-based and biodegradable, but as an eco-conscious standard-setter, the restaurant also requires vendors to deliver products in reusable containers.

Top review

LisaFvip

Dined on Jun 21, 2024

Food and drinks are fabulous!!!! My date and I had the best time sitting at the bar! The bartender was the BEST! I wish I could remember her name!

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