ATLGuide
The Hit List: New Atlanta Restaurants To Try Right Now
photo credit: Courtesy of Damsel
When new restaurants open, we check them out. This means that we subject our stomachs and social lives to the good, the bad, and more often than not, the perfectly fine. And every once in a while, a new spot makes us feel like Usher at a roller rink. When that happens, we add it here, to The Hit List.
The Hit List is where you’ll find all of the best new restaurants in Atlanta. As long as it opened within the past several months and we’re still talking about it, it’s on this guide. The latest addition might be a buzzy new restaurant with a lemon pepper sommelier. Or it might be an under-the-radar lunch counter where a few dollars will get something that’ll rattle around in your brain like a loose penny in a dryer.
Keep tabs on the Hit List and you will always know just which new restaurants you should be eating at right now.
New to The Hit List (as of 04/19): Damsel, El Santo Gallo, J'ouvert, High Noon Bruchery, and Planta Queen
THE SPOTS
photo credit: Courtesy of Damsel
POWERED BY
Damsel, a new cabaret dinner theater in Chattahoochee Works, will liven up your date or pals-night-out. A dark, unmarked entrance leads to a showy chandelier-filled dining room, where wait staff in formal waistcoats pass around hors d'oeuvres and cocktails in classic or trendy, heart-shaped glassware. You’re mainly here for the night’s singing and dancing performances, but the $100 nine-course dinner, with small plates like lobster salad-stuffed pastry cones and tender beef wellington slices, is good enough to warrant an encore.
photo credit: Juli Horsford
This West Midtown taqueria sits across the street from its sister restaurant Palo Santo. You’ll smell meat cooking from the parking lot way before you clap eyes on the bright red folding chairs and white subway tile countertops in the small dining area. That tempting smell is from the roasted pork, rotating on a vertical spit as a whole pineapple leaks juices onto the slow-cooked meat. And whether you order tacos, costras, or mulitas, that's the protein you should get. But we usually stick with the tacos on handmade corn tortillas topped with fresh cilantro and onions because the pork is so flavorful and tender it doesn’t need much help.
photo credit: Bites & Bevs Media
J'ouvert is the first to open among a set of new restaurants planned in Lindberg, which developers are quietly rebranding “Uptown Atlanta." Despite our eye-rolls at the project at-large, this place is great for a meet-up with friends. From the same team behind Belle & Lily’s, the all-day Caribbean cafe near Lindbergh Station plays dancehall classics that'll make you sway in your chairs while TVs play music videos and island travel shows. Stake your claim to your share of the saucy jerk wings and sweet-savory coconut-crusted corn skewers. After a few cocktails, which use fresh pressed juices and housemade ginger beer, your friends should be vibing with your brunch pick.
photo credit: Nina Reeder
High Noon looks a little like Barbie’s brunchouse or maybe something that would exist in Miami. But the new all-day spot in Douglasville is more than pink patio umbrellas and flower-covered walls. The Southern breakfast options are among the best in the entire metro, especially the cream sauce-drenched lobster omelet and the well-seasoned, crispy fried chicken wings and pancake combo. Get a mimosa flight so you can try a mix of fun options like the dessert-sweet pina colada cream and the cotton-candy topped melon one.
photo credit: Courtesy of Planta Queen
Atlanta has always been a secret plant-based paradise, but over the last decade our vegan scene has grown, producing a burger empire and a 2023 best new restaurant. Planta Queen is the latest place to spruce up the meat-free movement. We like this Buckhead Village spot much better than the original Planta in Krog because it dials up the flavor—concentrating on dishes from across Asia—and the fun. You’ll drink out of cat-shaped glasses under neon lights, and eat vegan sushi rolls that are decent spins on the real things. Make sure you get the hearty dan dan noodles with spicy faux-pork.
If you’re looking for the Italian restaurant equivalent of easy-listening radio, Pendolino near Chastain Park is it. It serves up all the usual hits in a polished, chill setting where you’d want to spend your whole evening (think plush booths inside and resort-esque sun umbrellas on the patio). For those who hate choosing between a pasta and pizza course, Pendolino’s 4-inch wood-fired pizzettes make it an easy call to do both, but the pies are so good you could be tempted to order another. There’s also chicken parmigiano and other red-sauce restaurant favorites, but just make sure the tender, fired-roasted octopus with crispy pepperoni is on your table.
Virginia-Highland has a fabulous new option for a classy yet relaxed night out with friends. For those that remember this Va-Hi space as The Original El Taco, walking into the new dining room of Ela will feel like the big reveal at the end of an episode of Fixer Upper. What was once dim, divey, and more suited for a college campus crowd has been transformed. It’s now a trendy and sophisticated Mediterranean restaurant where groups of adults pass around very good shareable small plates. Get the crisp falafel with a moist center and the gourmet spinach and feta hot pocket with an impossibly flaky crust. Sauces move from sideshows to the main event with the “Get Sauced” tray, which includes five tasty dips like hot sauce, a green, herby oil, and a creamy yogurt-based spread that elevate everything on the menu.
Between the Georgia World Congress Center and Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the new Signia hotel looks like one of those giant Vegas properties where you have to walk a 5K just to get to your room. Thankfully, you only have to take a few steps and a trip up to the fourth floor to get to Capolinea. And that’s great news because the red sauce restaurant serves fantastic tableside martinis that you’ll want to come back for every opportunity you can. When combined with a chill scene and solid dishes like a spaghetti pomodoro and tender short rib, we’re tempted to inquire about hotel residency.
photo credit: Liz Attaway
With great food , good prices, and a fun ambiance, we're happy to flock to Birdcage in Grant Park for date nights and social outings. Floor to ceiling wallpaper shows colorful birds in mid-flight. Lighting fixtures are a mix of wooden bird cages and white chandeliers with plumes of bright pink feathers on top (which, considering the tacky track record of feather plumes, somehow manage to be tasteful). But their menu isn’t for the birds—their delicious, mostly Latin dishes are simple but bursting with flavor. If you love smoky, fire roasted foods, get their sofrito squash topped with queso fresco crumbles and pepitos. For mains, the picanha steak has a tasty char on each slice of perfectly medium rare beef.
Midtowners who are actively trying to live that pedestrian life welcome Rwby as a new place to grab a few drinks. For those without a Midtown address, the headache of finding parking at this Juniper Street restaurant is rage-inducing—enough to spark a newfound love for screamo music. But once inside, a small bar framed in a large floral arrangement gives way to a handful of wooden booths in a cozy orange-tinted dining area. Perfectly balanced cocktails like the fruity Paradiso Paloma atone for the parking woes. And food items like their cheesy, juicy burger and reasonable (for Midtown, anyway) prices make the now-unnecessary apology complete.
This moody Buckhead mezcal bar and restaurant sits just off the perpetually busy Peachtree Street on the ground floor of an apartment complex. Pata Negra feels like stepping into a deprivation chamber, where all outside sounds and bright lights cease. Embrace it though, because reading the menu by candlelight is romantic. And instead of being a hindrance, the sexy, dark decor keeps the focus on the food. The Mexican menu is stuffed with phenomenal dishes like poblanas de pollo, which has a spicy crema that should really be bottled and mass produced. But the best dish is the temporada de lluvias. Three scallops sit on a bed of perfectly creamy risotto cooked with peppers and corn. Wash it all down with the orange-sweetened Negras Intenciones and marvel at how good charcoal mixes with tequila.
photo credit: Emily Andrews
M by Tasuku Murakami inside Buckhead’s Umi is shaping up to be a worthy competitor to the city’s top omakase-only restaurants like Omakase Table, Hayakawa, and Mujo. A dark stairway inside the restaurant leads up to a small room so brightly lit, your eyes will need a moment to make out the eight seats around the L-shaped counter. The 21-course dinner kicks off with a few warm plates, like buttery lobster in a fantastic chimichurri that we’d love to have as a full entree. Then, 10 sushi courses are paraded out with subtle touches like spicy yuzu zest or pickled radish. The housemade yuzucello ending feels like an open invitation to come as regulars, but sadly we know we’d have to drop $295 per person again.
photo credit: Amy Sinclair
Fans of Yalda in Sandy Springs now have a new West Midtown location for their Iranian favorites like tender lamb kabobs and herbaceous cocktails that blend pomegranate, sumac, and other Middle Eastern flavors. Family-style platters and shareable mezze spreads make this the perfect outing for a small group (be sure to get the smoky mirza ghassemi for the table). And the beautiful, moody dining room filled with live plants, dramatic accent lighting, and Persian art make this a place to impress the group who thinks family-style can’t be posh.
