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Michelin revealed its 2024 Atlanta dining guide on Oct. 28 and included a handful of OTP restaurants among the newcomers. All 2023 restaurants retained their status for 2024, with 12 new restaurants joining the guide, including four new one-star restaurants. That brings the total number of Atlanta restaurants with one star to nine! (Spring in Marietta is the lone restaurant boasting one star outside the perimeter.)
This year’s guide features 25 different types of cuisines from 57 restaurants spanning from Atlanta to Johns Creek.
Rough Draft readers offered up strong opinions about the restaurants they feel Michelin snubbed this year. Below are just a few comments I’ve received regarding the 2024 Michelin Guide to Atlanta and what it gets right and wrong about our dining scene.
Comments lightly edited for clarity and brevity and names abbreviated to initials out of respect for each reader’s privacy.
Omissions
“I agree with a lot of the list BUT I’M APPALLED that Lucian Books and Wine is not on the list. In my opinion, it is a gross injustice that Lucian is not on the list. The food itself is the most Michelin-like food of any restaurant in Atlanta except maybe Staplehouse.” – CN
Michelin awarded Staplehouse one star in the 2024 Atlanta guide.
“I am dumbfounded how Michelin has overlooked The Consulate for a second time in awarding its star designation! This awesome restaurant consistently ranks in the top 10 of metro Atlanta restaurants, and does so in spite of changing a major portion of its menu each quarter.” — KD
“That Lucian Books and Wine and Aria (I’m sure there are others) don’t even rate a recommendation from Michelin really calls into question the reliability of the whole process. Sadly, that obvious failure casts doubt on the judgment of the reviewers, which inevitably works to the detriment of even those that are recognized. Try harder, Michelin.” — RH
Recommended: A restaurant hasn’t achieved star or Bib Gourmand status and/or doesn’t fit star or Bib Gourmand category standards but is worth recommending.
“Would just like to put in an endorsement for Gigi’s Italian Kitchen in Candler Park, which I believe should have easily earned Bib Gourmand. I promise if you asked any of the winning chefs, they would agree.” — SS
Bib Gourmand: A restaurant serves high-quality food at a reasonable price for people seeking more affordable dining options during their travels.
Some readers who chimed in this week also found it disappointing that Michelin didn’t at least recommend restaurants like Gigi’s Italian Kitchen, Aria, Bread & Butterfly, Pollo Primo, M by Tasuku Murakami at Umi, and Southern National.
Missing the Mark
One person emailed to say, “I feel that the additions were excellent. (I like that they chose Hen Mother Cookhouse . . .) Still, I feel that in the last 20 years, Michelin, trying to be more diverse, has changed from overrating French cuisine to overrating sushi/omakase. Gigi’s needs love! Maybe next year. Also, if that street taco place in Mexico City can get a star, why can’t Little Bear?” — MO
Little Bear retained Bib Gourmand status in the 2024 Atlanta Michelin Guide.
One star: A restaurant includes high-quality cooking and is worthy of a stop during your travels. Any style of restaurant or cuisine type can qualify for a star.
“I am a big fan of Miller Union and am surprised that it did not receive greater recognition.” — JS
Miller Union retained recommended restaurant status in the 2024 Atlanta guide. Some readers and industry insiders I’ve spoken to feel Miller Union should have been awarded a Green Star for its sustainability practices and zero-waste kitchen. Other people I’ve spoken to believe the restaurant should have leveled up to one star.
Green star: A restaurant prioritizes sustainability and environmentally friendly practices and the use of local ingredients.
A few people mentioned their surprise that Michelin awarded Superica — a local Tex-Mex chain owned by Ford Fry — a Bib Gourmand, over restaurants like Oaxaca and La Semilla.
One comment left on Rough Draft’s Facebook post about the 2024 Atlanta Michelin Guide simply reads, “Georgia Boy was robbed.” The Poncey-Highland tasting menu restaurant retained its recommended status in 2024, but it appears this reader felt Michelin missed the mark on awarding Georgia Boy one star.
While I may agree with readers on the omitted restaurants or those they feel deserved a higher status, I will say this: The Michelin Guide isn’t created for locals and isn’t infallible. Yet the power of the Michelin Guide and its impact on a city’s restaurant scene is undeniable. It brings worldwide recognition to Atlanta, and travelers often rely on the guide when choosing where to eat. The 2024 guide gets a lot right.
But Michelin paints a broad stroke as a traveler’s dining guide to a city, and, if used correctly, serves as a jumping-off point for people driven by their food choices and restaurants when they travel. Smart travelers who want to dig deeper into a food scene know to use a combination of the Michelin Guide and local restaurant coverage as references. Recommendations from locals and dining coverage by journalists like myself, Atlanta magazine’s dining team, the AJC’s dining team, and other area food publications matter because we’re boots on the ground. We know our food scene because we live and eat here. National publications and ratings organizations like Michelin pay attention to our coverage as it helps inform their approaches to covering Atlanta-area restaurants.
What Michelin does do, however, is shine a global spotlight on Atlanta and Metro Atlanta’s thriving restaurant scene. And, as they say, a rising tide lifts all boats.
Keep supporting the restaurants you love and value in your communities because a restaurant can’t survive without its diners. Michelin-rated or not, all the accolades in the world mean nothing without a full dining room.
Got a hot take on the 2024 Michelin Guide to Atlanta? Did they get it right this year? Do you think Michelin adds value to the Atlanta dining scene? Email me at beth@roughdraftatlanta.com.
